Apples are Bad for you!

Everything you eat is bad for you!

The above statement isn’t quite true, it should read everything you eat CAN be bad for you. But, in the same way it can be bad for you, it can also be good for you. That’s right! EVERYTHING you eat can be good for you.

What’s good and what’s bad? 
To answer this you don’t look at the micronutrients the food provides, nor do you look at the macronutrients, you don’t even consider whether it is homemade or not. The key feature to making a food good or bad is looking at it within the context of the entire diet. 

Without context you cannot say something is healthy, unhealthy, good or bad. So if you ask me, ‘is this a good thing to eat?’ I will say, ‘it depends on the rest of your diet’. It seems annoying at first, can’t their just be good and bad foods. Those good foods cannot make us fat, they make us big, strong, lean, toned and all that great stuff we want. This simply isn’t the case.

Take an apple, apples are good right? They’re high in fibre, micro dense and contain few calories.

How an Apple can be bad for you
That’s right, I am going to tell you how an apple can be bad for you, yes an Apple! Right so to make this qualification you know what we need? Context.

Take Alex, he is looking to drop some fat before his holiday. Alex likes apples and he has been told they are good for him, so he grabs one whenever hungry.

In Alex’s eyes apples are always good, they can’t stop his progress. Well that is where Alex thought wrong. Sure maybe 1 or 2 apples were fine, but if Alex ate enough they would take him out of a calorie deficit and even take him into a surplus.

If Alex did this consistently apples could literally be stopping him losing weight, and could even make him gain fat, and in that case for Alex’s goals those apples were bad.

Apples can stop you losing fat and even make you gain it.

How Ice Cream can be good for you
No way, ice cream, processed, full of sugar and fat, ice cream can never be classified as good for you? Wrong. It can, given the right context. This is where what at first seemed annoying, is actually a blessing.

Take Michelle, she is also trying to drop weight. Michelle knows that she needs to be in a calorie deficit to do this. Michelle also knows that micronutrition is important, she makes sure to eat mainly wholesome, nutritious food. 80% of her diet consists of that typically ‘good’ stuff.

Michelle also knows that if she restricts herself from certain foods, she ends up breaking her diet and binging. Michelle has a sweet tooth and loves ice cream. Each day she consumes a small bowl of ice cream with berries, enough to satisfy her sweet tooth, but not so much to take her out of calorie deficit or deprive her of micronutrition. That ice cream is good!

Ice cream allows Michelle to be consistent, and is in the context of a calorie deficit and micronutrient dense diet. Ice cream can allow you to drop fat.

The Bigger Picture
Don’t miss the entire diet and lifestyle for the one off meal choices or foods. Or in other words, don’t miss the forest for the trees. That means look at the bigger picture and this means viewing these things in context. Given the right context any food can be described as good or bad, as shown above.

The Bottom Line
To make sure you are eating only foods that are good, you need to make sure they are taking you towards your goals. Everyone should be seeking to be healthy, that means you want to get in sufficient micronutrient dense foods. Once you have eaten enough of these, so long as you remain within your overall nutritional limits for your goals, you can eat anything you like.

To get a better idea about how much your body needs and what exactly each macronutrient does for you be sure to check out my articles Need to know nutritionPart 1 and Part 2.