Crowding Out vs. Cutting Out: What’s Best for a Real Food Transition?

Usually when people think of beginning a new diet, they envision having to summon the strength to turn down all the tasty foods they love. Muster up the willpower to cut out the bad stuff, and only eat the good. But what if there was a way to switch to a better diet without being tempted by unhealthy foods? Some now say the solution is to not leave any room, literally, for craving cruddy food.

Crowding Out Unhealthy Foods

The term, “crowding out,” refers to simply incorporating more healthy foods to your diet, in addition to what you’re already typically consuming. The Institute of Integrative Nutrition (a nutritional training certification program) seems to have coined the phrase, but I have seen it used outside of their sphere of “health coaches.”

The theory is that, as long as you eat the healthier choices first, your body will be getting those important nutrients regardless of what follows onto your plate, and you will end up eating less of your favorite unhealthy choices, as you will likely feel more satiated from the nutrient-dense food. You’re advised to just add in the good stuff, without sacrificing the bad foods you crave. Eventually, you’ll want those foods less and less.

For example, if you usually eat donuts for breakfast, “crowding out” would have you instead eat maybe yogurt and fruit for starters. That doughnut might not be quite as appetizing afterward, though if you still wanted to, you could have it. Maybe you’d only feel like having a few bites at that point. The idea is to not force yourself to give up anything, which helps to ease into the transition.

 

Cutting Out Unhealthy Foods

Like I mentioned earlier, most people transitioning to any sort of a new diet (however unhealthy it may be in actuality — low-fat, vegan, etc.), tend to focus the most on restricting those foods which they are no longer “allowed.” The above scenario becomes, “I can’t have that doughnut — I’m on a diet.”

The idea of giving up foods that you’re used to eating turns many people off from making diet changes. Even with a traditional foods diet, it can be hard for people to adjust to cutting out all those convenient, processed foods.

With the conventional idea of a “healthy” diet, however, cutting out supposedly unhealthy foods means cutting out many of the foods that are the tastiest — butter, whole-fat dairy, fat-filled (as opposed to lean) meats, cholesterol-rich foods, etc. Of course, for those who eat traditional foods, we know that all that good stuff actually IS healthy, thankfully.

 

A real, traditional foods perspective

Crowding

A Real Foodie could crowd-out the non-traditional foods by focusing on adding in:

• Healthy fats
• Raw, whole, grass-fed dairy
• Real, grass-fed meats
• Organ meats
• Pastured eggs
• Properly prepared (soaked, sprouted, or soured) whole grains (unless choosing to avoid grains entirely)
• Properly prepared beans (soaked) and organic vegetables (some veggies are unhealthy to consume raw)
• Fermented foods and beverages (vegetable ferments, kefir, kombucha, yogurt, etc.)
• Healthier sweeteners in moderation (honey, rapadura, grade B maple syrup)

Cutting

A Real Food diet would have you restrict and avoid the following:

• Processed sugars
• Vegetable oils
• Improperly prepared or processed grains
• Factory-farmed meats
• Soy (unless properly, traditionally fermented)
• Any processed foods (especially anything made to be “low-fat”) and the additives and chemicals within them

What makes the most sense for eating real?

I think there is room for a compromise between the two strategies. The most important thing to do, in my opinion, is just to start learning how to replace fake food with real food. Crowd and cut, all at once.

I have a friend (Danielle, co-founder of Primal Unite) who eats a “paleo” or “primal” diet, but she is very accepting of other ways of eating with a similar focus — WAPF, whole foods, even raw vegan diets. She maintains that the most important thing, which all these have in common, is what we don’t eat — refined sugars, vegetable oils, processed foods — and that avoidance of this is what affects your health the most. While avoiding all animal-based foods (as with a raw vegan diet) is not the best way to properly nourish your body, it will still likely have a profound effect on your health in a positive way (at least for a while), given that you would no longer be consuming all the toxic, processed foods standard to the American diet. I think she has a very good point.

Although I wouldn’t condemn anyone for not immediately clearing out their cupboards of any and all processed foods, sugars, vegetable oils, or other real food no-no’s, I do think you should absolutely avoid purchasing those things once you have learned how destructive they are to your health. In that sense, I believe you should immediately begin “cutting” out those foods.

But while cutting out those toxic foods is certainly going to be very beneficial to your health, I would say it’s of equal importance to start swapping them with the most nutrient-dense foods you can as soon as possible. For example, you should definitely stop cooking with toxic vegetable oils. Therefore, you need to start cooking with real fats, such as lard, butter, or coconut oil.

It doesn’t have to be about restricting yourself of the foods you crave. Love your processed, store-bought Ben & Jerry’s? Make wholesome ice cream yourself, with fresh, raw (or even kefired!) cream, raw honey, and pastured eggs. Can’t do without your Dr. Pepper? Learn to make delicious water kefir soda. McDonald’s french fries look too tempting? Chop up some organic potatoes and fry them in tallow.

I think the biggest takeaway for me is that real food is GOOD food. It’s the stuff that everyone loves. Saturated fat, real, red meats, raw, whole dairy — everything that we’ve all been told to avoid like the plague from the Diet Dictocrats. What we now know are actually the healthiest choices for our diet and our health. It’s not hard to get used to eating all the delicious things allowed on a traditional foods diet!

But, it does take some work — avoiding the processed S.A.D. generally means learning to work your way around a kitchen a heck of a lot more than you may be used to — still, it’s so incredibly rewarding, and much easier than simply mustering up enough willpower to say “no” to your standard diet.

So, I say, cut out the worst food offenders straight away — toxic, processed foods, sugars, and oils — and learn to love real food again. Crowd in what you like best. Slather on that butter. Drink up that raw, whole milk. Eat every last bit of that juicy steak — marbled fat and all. And just see how good those icky chips, soda, and cookies from the inner corners of the grocery store sound to you then!

 

(Oh but that Krispy Kreme up there? No worries. It still looks amazing to me, too. I’m working on finding a Real Food replacement for it!)

 

What was your strategy in transitioning to a real, traditional foods diet? What do you think is the best way to convert to a healthy diet?

{This post is linked to Simple Lives Thursday!}