Reasons to avoid certain foods.. ⛔️

It can be hard to accept that all foods can fit into a healthy diet, especially in this heavily influenced diet-culture world full of social media ‘experts’. Every week you’ll see very convincing social media / news posts cherry picking bits of research to suggest certain foods or types of food should be avoided. In fact if you listened to all of them you probably wouldn’t eat anything at all! Usually they’re linked to someone selling a product or book of some sort so there’s often an ulterior motive too. You really don’t need and shouldn’t be avoiding any foods. It is possible to find a balance between nourishing and fuelling our bodies and enjoying and celebrating all foods.

The only reasons to avoid certain foods are as follows:

• medical reasons – if a Dr (an actual medical Dr who has examined you, not someone who’s book you’re reading/instagram page you’re following has told you to e.g. reducing saturated fats for heart issues, or reducing added sugar for diabetes etc.
• Moral/ethical/religious reasons – if you’re vegetarian/ vegan or have ethical reasons for not eating certain foods ,or if you’re religion has food related rules you follow.
• Allergies – if you have a genuine medical allergy (not an ‘intolerance’ – as discussed recently).
• Dislike the taste – if you honestly don’t like the taste of a food.
• Following a supervised elimination diet – if you’re under the care of a registered dietician and following a strict elimination diet.

Otherwise, there is absolutely no need to deprive yourself of your favourite foods just because someone told you to avoid it. Stop fearing foods and placing bad labels on tasty foods that can fit into a healthy, balanced diet.

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