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Defining "Healthy" Foods and the Supplement Discussion

I tend to get long winded when I make these blog posts šŸ˜œ

I want to get straight to the point with this one.

First, let's define healthy:Ā 

From Oxford:Ā indicative of,Ā conduciveĀ to, or promoting good health.

Ā Ā  Ā When applying this to food, drinks, or supplements, it means the item consumed should lead to or support good health.

Ā Ā  Ā Now let's get this out of the way: a "healthy" food is unique to the individual. For example, while nuts may be a healthy food option for me, if you are allergic, it is not a healthy food option for you.

Hopefully we are all on the same page now.

When I refer to a food or food product as healthy, it falls into the following categories:


  • Must be organic, non GMO, or grown without pesticides

  • Is a whole food or is made up of whole food ingredients

  • Has NO added sugar or artificial sweetener

  • Low in sodium (<10%)

  • No refined oil

  • No artificial additives or preservatives

Ā Ā  Ā The foods/drinks/supplements that meet these requirements are conducive to improved health and maintaining good health. Good health is defined (here at AltWellHealth) as having blood work in optimal levels, being free of disease, having normal muscle strength and having full range of motion of all joints.Ā 

Ā Ā  Ā Some foods may not fall neatly into these categories but are better (for you) than other foods. These foods are healthIER. The biggest example would be non organic fresh produce. While consuming organic/non treated fresh produce is best, a VERY close second is consuming ANY fresh produce you can get your hands on. If you cannot find or cannot afford organic lettuce, get the non organic lettuce. Eating any lettuce is better than eating none at all, and that goes for any raw fruit or vegetable. I personally do not buy exclusively organic produce although it is my goal to decrease my family's exposure to pesticides. I try and follow this guide for choosing which fruits and vegetables to buy organic.

Ā Ā  Ā I recently attended a zoom meeting with Food Scientist Dr. Amir Saberi. I will update this post as soon as I have a website or social media info for him. Prior to this call, I was an avid user of supplements. I tend to get recommendations from people I trust and use what I see them use if I feel it will help me in my quest for improved overall health. I was aware that some of the ingredients widely used were synthetic, but I thought they were still providing the nutrients I needed. I thought I knew how to read the labels. Dr. Saberi gave us a new perspective on reading the labels as illustrated by his slide here:

which breaks down the percentage of actual whole food ingredients vs synthetic ingredients, then he put it into perspective using this slide here:

This made me realize 1) I need to look a little closer at all of the supplements I use and 2) perhaps I'm better off just eating my way to a healthier me. (OMG it was a great presentation!!)

Ā Ā  Ā I plan on doing an entire series going through all of the supplements I take, looking at the labels again, and then determining if I will continue to take it and looking for a whole food alternative. Be on the lookout for it!

To summarize my thoughts:

  • while healthy foods are unique to the individual, it is easy to define which foods are healthy and which are not (notice I never said to NOT eat unhealthy foods, we all have to live a little!).

  • When buying food, remember if you can't get the healthY choice, go for the healthIER choice.

  • I need to reevaluate my supplement intake and use this new information to eliminate or greatly decrease my synthetic nutrient intake. Why take synthetics when I can eat the real thing? (B12 is the exception because I can't get it from diet alone).

Let's talk about supplements and diet! Book a FREE intro call to get started.


PS. Dr. Saberi gave us permission to share the information he provided in his presentation. The pictures above are his slides, I want to give him full credit. He is passionate about teaching people to not rely on the NOT AT ALL REGULATED supplement industry and to eat your vitamins and minerals instead in the form of whole foods. I agree with him to a point, I do think supplements can have an important role, it's just hard finding reputable and safe companies who are putting out third party tested products that are actually what they say on the label. There will be more posts about this in the future.


UPDATE: I have his info!

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