Nutrition is a wonderful science, but also a diverse one with many different sources of contradicting research. Because of the way the society functions in relation to media and health noise, sometimes we find ourselves eating things that are healthy on paper but don’t make us feel that great. On the other hand, we may find ourselves shunning certain foods based on things we’ve heard – but let’s not forget that the body needs variety and nature has a place for each unique ingredient it offers us. Thankfully some of the simplest foods we loved as kids can actually have a super-powered effect on our health at all ages:

Bananas

Bananas get a bad rep, largely based on their ‘sugar’ content. Well, good news is fruit sugar does not do to your body what the sugar in candy bars do! From an eastern medicine perspective, sugar from fruit is processed in the body in a totally different way and is more beneficial than nutritional labels lead us to believe. Bananas are a rich source of vitamins and can be very soothing to the digestive system when we run into problems – they’re are also extra anti-cancerous with more brown spots!

White Rice

Rice has carbohydrates – and what? It also has protein. And minerals. It’s also incredible balancing. And although brown rice may be richer in fiber as it is a whole grain, many people find it difficult if not impossible to effectively digest brown rice: it can be really hard on the stomach. If this sounds like you, don’t be scared of white rice – Traditional Chinese Medicine actually esteems white rice for it’s stomach and spleen nourishing qualities. It is also much easier on the stomach and less likely to be loaded with arsenic and fertilizers than brown rice since the husk is removed – always go organic to make this risk as low as possible for whatever grain!

Eggs

If you’re still revolving your diet around cholesterol and saturated fat, it’s time to get up to date with things. Modern science has proved that the fear of cholesterol and saturated fat is actually misconceived. Yes, eggs and butter and animal products have saturated fat. Yes, too much body fat can contribute to heart disease. But it’s the barcode foods and the highly processed sugars that get us in this disease ridden state – not the grass-fed, free-range, organic animal products which are actually so nourishing to us. Cholesterol is something our body makes naturally – hint hint, we need it to survive. And there’s a reason the yolk is there – eggs are meant to be eaten and appreciated as a whole food, that’s how they do their magic, when all the parts are working together to feed you. No need for bland egg white omelettes when we can have the yummier, healthier version!

As always, ‘healthy’ is a term we should constantly be redefining and personalizing so we don’t get stuck in dogma and deprive ourselves unnecessarily! Chances are, if we’re craving a real whole food, our body may actually benefit from it!