Chronic Illness and Holistic Wellness

     There is a lot of misinformation about fat. The first common misconception is that eating fat, makes you fat. This is incorrect. Eating more calories than you burn is what causes weight gain. So while a food may be considered “fat free”, it may have a ton of sugar which can cause an overconsumption of calories. Swedish Fish for example, are considered fat free. However, one serving of the normal version (about 30 g or 5 pieces), is 110 calories and has 23 g of added (refined) sugar. Compare this to avocados (a fatty food), where 30g is about 48 calories.  All fat as been generalize to be bad. This is also misinformation. Oils are essential to several functions of the human body. There’s also different kinds of oils/fats. There are polyunsaturated and monounsaturated oils, which have good fats, or good cholesterol. There are also saturated and trans fats that are bad oils or bad cholesterol. You’re body has a certain amount of total cholesterol, the ratio is what...

       When it comes to choosing food there are three main attributes people use to choose which are cost, taste, and convenience. These can be unconscious or conscious choices. So if we’re trying to change our diet, how can we combat our old habits? Let’s start by talking about the first attribute, cost.   Healthy food does not have to cost significantly more than junk or unhealthy food. According to Walmart, a 15 oz bag of Cheetos crunchy cheese flavored is $3.48 while 1 lb (about 16 oz) of fresh carrots is about $0.92. The Cheetos are about 23.2 cents per oz with carrots being about 92 cents per lb (92/16oz = 5.75 cents per oz), so by weight the carrots are cheaper. There are 160 calories per 28g of the Cheetos, while there are about 12 calories per 30g of carrots. The Cheetos have about 10 g of fat (1.5g being saturated fat), 250 mg of sodium, 15 g total carbohydrates (less than 1g being from fiber), 2 g protein, and .4 mg iron all per 28 g of Cheetos (...