Western society has recently turned to a new way of eating based on cost and convenience and, unfortunately, it’s not for the good. The food that is readily available for us to eat is more ‘food-like product’ than actual food. I’m not going to bang on about how heavily-processed, take-away options like Mc Donald’s, KFC, and Hungry Jack’s are no good for human consumption- everyone knows that. Let’s instead take a look at foods that are considered healthy, and why some of these foods may not be such a good choice for your next meal.

Walk in to any school yard or office building during lunchtime, and you will more than likely see a large percentage of people biting into a sandwich, a lunch option thought by most people to be a healthy choice. Their sandwiches may be filled with fresh chicken, avocado, and spinach, three excellent food items that could be considered a good carbohydrate/fat/protein balance. But the filling isn’t the issue- the bread is. Bread is a high-glycemic carbohydrate, the type of carbohydrate that raises blood sugar too rapidly, and the type of carbohydrate that is responsible for many nutritionally based health problems. Other common food sources that contain high-glycemic carbohydrates include pasta, rice, white potatoes, chocolate, soft drinks, and lollies. All of these foods, when consumed, create a sharp spike in insulin. Yes, insulin is an essential hormone for life, but when it spikes too rapidly, it can cause long-term effects that lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, and high levels of cholesterol.

Walk in to any decent CrossFit gym, however, and the coaches will be able to rattle off these words at the drop of the hat: “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.” Put simply, eat foods that haven’t been put through a process and have a short shelf life. These are real foods that our bodies were designed to consume and digest and that the human race has been eating for hundreds of years. Foods that have a long shelf life have generally been altered in some way to make them long lasting, and most likely aren’t the best for consumption by human beings.

If you’re considering a sandwich, why not throw that chicken, avocado, and spinach in with some other fresh vegetables and some cabbage, and make a salad? Your body is still getting the carbohydrates, protein, and fat that it requires, but the food will be much easily digested and won’t cause same the insulin spike as bread.

Most of you reading this article will have just recently started your CrossFit journey and will be sorting through a whole bunch of things that you’re trying to get right. We’ve barely scratched the surface on diet, but your nutrition is definitely something that you should be on top of from the start.

After all, in the words of CrossFit founder Greg Glassman, “the foundation is nutrition.”