Food Made For Man or Man Made Food?

Welcome to your local supermarket...

A labrynth of food, drink, genius marketing and mis-leading information aimed all at one thing.....PROFIT!

I want to make the food shop simple for you. Let's look at the food we shop for in the most basic terms.

Let's use only 2 types of food and drink:

1. Food Made For Man

2. Man Made Food

Food Made For Man

Do you think Mother Nature is trying to kill us? As a species human beings have  survived and thrived for thousands of years, until now...

We are one of the most sick and ill species on the planet and the increase in obesity related illnesses, such has type 2 diabetes, has increased immensely over the last century, to the extent that the UK NHS forecasts that it will be unable to service this demand for healthcare.....so let's take us back to why we are here today, as human beings.

Food Made for Man is food that is provided to us from the planet not from a factory. It's just REAL FOOD.

This Food has been grown (fruit, vegetables, nuts & seeds), the food that has swum (fish & seafood)  and the food that comes from animals that walk (red meat, poultry, eggs, milk &  butter).

In its raw form this is the food we have spent thousands of years evolving and designing ourselves to eat....Do You Really Think This Food Is Making Us Sick and Fat?

As examples your shopping list should contain a selection from the following list of foods * this is not a complete list of foods just some ideas :

Meat - steak, chicken, liver, pork, lamb, free range eggs 

Fish - salmon, mackerel, white fish, crab

Dairy - milk, Greek yogurt, butter NOT margarine 

Fruit & Vegetables - green vegetables  are best and colour variety is great. 

Limit or avoid white potatoes and fruit juice.

Nuts & Seeds - almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds are good examples. 

Limit or avoid peanuts and dried fruit.

Man Made Food

So you have seen the list of foods made for man, "real food". You should consume these as part of a healthy lifestyle and you know what you are going to buy at the supermarket, am I right?

Unfortunately marketing teams are way ahead of us at the moment, so beware of the man made food marketing.

Firstly, anything packaged tends to be man made. Essentially produced in a factory. 

Tinned foods, ready meals, pizza, crisps, *chocolate, sweets, drinks other than water and milk are man made.

*as chocolate is such a craving for a lot of flight crew it can be enjoyed as part of a a balanced healthy lifestyle. I recommend you consume chocolate as near to 100% cocoa as possible to minimise the sugar content*

Labelling of products is so confusing, "low fat", "high in fibre", "added vitamins" are all seen as foods that are "healthy"....be CAREFUL and stick to the raw foods where most won't have labels, such as broccoli.

I set a challenge for you....

This week at the supermarket, shop around the outside aisles first, as this is where most of the REAL FOOD that is "Food Made For Man" is positioned. 

The inner aisles contain the packaged foods made by man...Limit or Avoid!

Conclusion

As flight crew we all aim to be that little bit healthier, fitter or slimmer most of te time. Knowing what types foods to eat is key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

REAL FOOD should be the majority of food you consume and although the MAN MADE FOOD is not off the menu it should be managed and consumed in limited quantit your goals for your lifestyle will depend in how disciplined you will need to be with these foods. For example if you want a fitness model body then man made food is totally off the menu. But if you strive for an improvement in your health or just an inch off your waist then just eating MORE real food may work for you!

Understanding which foods are good and why some foods are not so good for us is a complex picture when we are surrounded by so much mis-leading marketing and information aimed predominantly at profit. 

Throughout the blog I aim to break down this complex information, so as flight crew you can become the experts and make fantastic food choices. Whether you are at home, on a nightstop or even eating crew food!

Take it easy,

G