80/20 Rule
This is a basic guide to healthier eating habits & small lifestyle changes. Everyone is different, but the basics when applied correctly can help you establish better lifestyle eating habits for overall better health.
Put down more of the 20% foods, and eat more of the 80% foods for a healthier you, and improve your gut health.
Many people seem to have a hard time balancing their food groups for a healthier gut and weight management. Plus building a healthier gut which builds a healthier immune system.
Why is this important? Everything you eat – affects your gut health, which affects everything else. Causing your gut bacteria to become unbalanced and over time this leads to the gut not absorbing nutrients correctly, which leads to nutritional deficiency, which leads to diseases, like SIBO, IBS, and much worse, IBD.
We need to change how we look at food. Food is designed to give the body fuel, nutrition, and fermented foods to replace good gut bacteria with a diverse variety. These foods help keep the body balanced; with the right nutrition and good bacteria, it needs to run correctly.
Over the centuries we have evolved into a society in which we eat to please our mouths and feel good. These foods in small amounts are okay. When they become the majority of our diet, over time the body can’t run correctly. This is when we need to get on the 80/20 Rule ASAP.
So what exactly are the 20% foods and the 80% foods?
Let’s start by understanding a few foods that hurt our Immune System and health.
Unfiltered Tap water, most of our water supply has issues.
Enemy #1 is sugar
A major contributor to diabetes feeds bad bacteria that have no benefit in our bodies. These bad bacteria can cause cravings for sugar and refined carbs which can cause sugar blood levels to spike and fall. The body does not recognize these chemicals and therefore stores them as fat causing weight gain.
Antibiotics
As much good as they have done and continue to do, they do have a downside. It can destroy parts of your gut bacteria. Antibiotics can’t tell the difference between good and bad bacteria.
Processed Foods
Foods prepared with chemical additives or processes that change the natural state of natural food or enhance flavor, increase natural shelf life, artificial colors, and protective agents against pathogens– are all damaging to your microbiome.
Preservatives & Emulsifiers
most research indicates these preservatives can greatly reduce the variety, and numbers of your gut flora. Studies have shown they could be reducing our gut flora.
They are very common in packaged foods which helps to extend the shelf life of foods and keep ingredients from separating, are common in many foods from mayonnaise, salad dressing, biscuits, and yes even peanut butter. Research studies have shown these ingredients negatively affect the makeup of our gut bacteria and damage the protective mucous layer that shields our intestinal tract, resulting in inflammation and can lead to bacterial infection. (Think of IBS and IBD.)
Artificial Food Coloring
Alcohol is very effective at killing bacteria which is why it is used in sanitary wipes, mouth wash and for cleaning cuts and minor injuries. Consuming to much alcohol found in beer and other drinkable spirits can again reduce your good gut bacteria.
A little wine can benefit your gut microbiome.
Cheap Meat & Dairy
Real milk is not cheap, reduce how much you consume, and make it count with quality small local farmed organic milk. You will feel the difference.
Organic meat & dairy are key to better health. Organic A two-gene milk can help you get the minerals and vitamins you need.
Having enough good bacteria and digestive enzymes is crucial for proper food digestion of these two needed food groups.
Processed meats
Ham, bacon, sausage, and salami all have chemical additives, and preservatives and are highly processed.
80% of foods are foods grown and raised in healthy soil. This applies to plants and animals. As everything that is in soil and plants ends up in you. These foods are organically certified, or from local farmers and dairies, beekeepers, and so on. Having a garden is the best as you can control everything in your food from composing to adding nutrition to the soil, which then goes to the plants you eat. Growing a garden has other benefits as well, like daily exercise, and getting out in the sunshine. If this just isn’t possible then learn about food labels some can be misleading, a good rule of thumb is if you don’t know the ingredient, then it properly isn’t good for you.
Foods in plastics, boxes, fast and easy meals, most have chemicals that the body can’t process and many get stored as fat. The best thing to do is to hit the produce section and learn about cooking foods slow and low. Don’t overcook foods as this depleted the nutrition in them, and so does the microwave, we all love the microwave fast and easy meals. We need to make it a habit to eat this 20% of the time and cook real food 80% of the time.
Adding a KePro smoothie for a quick breakfast is a great way to get good natural probiotics, fiber, electrolytes, healthy fats, and oils most of us don’t get to add fruits and vegetables and you have a great 80% fast and easy breakfast.
The 80/ 20 Rule is a good rule to help you remember to minimize bad foods that we all enjoy and still can. Just keeping them in check, learning to enjoy discovering more than 80% of foods and how to cook them.
