First World Problems

I have paused my career in weight loss counseling and now mainly work in the hospital with pediatric oncology patients. This has allowed me to really reflect on the struggle the majority of Americans have with diet, exercise, and weight loss. This struggle people have, is known as first world problems.

Urban Dictionary defines first world problems as, “Problems from living in a wealthy, industrialized nation that third worlders would probably roll their eyes at.” It also says, “Compared to third world problems our problems don't mean shit.”

People obsess about food. What should I eat? How much should I eat? When should I eat? What time should I stop eating? How many meals a day should I eat? What is the best food I can eat? What supplement do I need? How many grams of sugar should I eat? Then you have the post meal reaction... Oh my goodness, I ate that, I shouldn’t have eaten that. I can’t believe I ate that. Why did I eat that? And the vicious cycle of their first world problem continues... daily...

I have spoken to many people who have experienced this, and my advice to them is...

Stop obsessing. Expending so much time and energy thinking about food only gravitates you towards food... and overeating. There are a million things going on in the world... weight loss and diet is not worth thinking about day in and day out.

Weight loss is not complicated. Eating healthy literally means, eat food, mostly plants, not too much. BAM. There you go. And then the excuses start rolling in.

“No matter what I do, I can’t lose weight.” It get’s old quick, because when it comes down to it, if you followed those simple instructions, you would achieve your goal.

So the obsession with food and it’s nonsensical and unnecessary complexities continues.

Notice the table below, I've talked about it before. The gist of this hierarchy of needs is that you must achieve one level, before fully moving onto the next “level of needs.”

As you can see, food is on the bottom as a physiological need. Next we have safety needs, the need for love and belonging, the need for self esteem and confidence, and finally the need of self actualization. So if your basic physiological needs (for example, food) are not being met, it is incredibly difficult to have the motivation (or time/awareness) to move further on to other needs, such as self esteem or problem solving.

I do not know if you are aware of this, but we are in the top 1% of the world. Our society should be at least on the level of love and belonging if not near the level of self-actualization and trying to solve the world’s problems; not stuck worrying about our basic needs.

Neanderthals were forced to worry about food because it was hard to come by. Today, food will always find you; your only job is to make an educated choice on what food you allow to enter your body. By worrying about such a basic need, you are stunting your growth as a human being and inhibiting your self-actualization, your creativity, and your motivation to succeed in helping yourself and others.

So yes, people struggle with weight loss daily, because they do not choose to eat healthy food or exercise... First world problem.

My friend loves quoting this Proverbs to me, “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.” Well, people love basking in their vomit, no matter what their proverbial vomit may be.

The PoPos

So my family kind of knows me as the oil police.

Example: When I was living with my aunt and uncle in Los Angeles, my aunt was making a salad and I saw olive oil on the counter; in a not very calm voice I asked, “DID YOU PUT OIL IN THERE?!?!?”

My aunt, being the oil sheriff, did not put oil in our salad.

Phew. Everything was okay.

**Background: There are 3 types of fat, saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. They get their names from the carbon bonds. All plant oils are going to be a combination of all 3 fats. You want to limit your saturated fat. Your heart healthy fats are you mono and polyunsaturated fats. Your “essential fatty acids” are omega-3s and omega 6’s, which are types of polyunsaturated fats. The typical American diet is high in omega-6s and low in omega-3s**

A lot of people are usually caught off guard when I tell them I don’t use oil.

“But olive oil is sooooo good for you.” Yes, yes it has antioxidants and is a monounsaturated fat. I totally understand that. Other “healthy” oils are avocado, sesame, canola, peanut, and some vegetable oils.

So why don’t I like oil? Well, here’s the deal: 1 tablespoon of oil has about 120 calories. One tablespoon adds up quickly. Maybe you’re using oil in your hummus, as a dip for your bread, to sauté your veggies, to marinade your meat, to fry your egg, to make a salad dressing, or whatever else you may use oil for. By the end of the day, that adds up to a lot of calories! Besides the oil you’re adding to your food, you’re also getting fat from other sources: meats, beans, breads, and yes, even fruits and vegetables. If you’re eating any food that comes in a package, you’re definitely getting fat from that too. Fat is everywhere. You don’t need to get it from oil.

When I eat fat, I chose it wisely. I love nuts; walnuts, pecan, almonds, peanuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts…I love them all. And I eat some kind of nut almost every day. I also get fat from avocados, olives, and flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, or sesame seeds every once in a while too.

Nuts, seeds, avocados, and olives are not necessarily low calorie foods either. One ounce of nuts is around 200 calories, 2 ounces of avocado is about 100 calories, 10 black olives are 35 calories, 1 oz of sunflower seeds has 165 calories. Something you should also consider

So in a salad, you can have 1 oz of avocado, 2 tablespoons of slivered almonds, with a variety of your veggies, with balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, or lemon juice, with some salt and pepper. You’re still getting your calories from fat, but you’re getting them in its whole form; and in my humble opinion, you are enjoying those calories a lot more than you would from oil. I would rather taste my calories in nuts, seeds, olives, or avocado.

But can you get your essential fatty acids without eating oil? Of course you can. It’s recommended that you get 1-2 grams of omega-3’s per day. Seven walnut halves have about 100 calories and 1 gram of omega 3 fatty acids. One tablespoon of ground flaxseeds has about 35 calories and 1.5 grams of omega-3s. Tofu, soy beans, kale, other green leafy veggies, and even berries have some omega-3s!

While oil comes from a natural source, it still goes through processing, removing all the fiber that was once in that whole food. Oil still has great nutrients and antioxidants in it, but not nearly as much as what’s in the whole food. And I must also mention the thermogenic effect of food; this means the energy your body uses to break down and digest food. The energy it takes for your body to break down and digest whole foods and nuts, is higher than the amount of energy it takes to digest oil.

People usually better understand my point when I explain it like this:

We tell people to eat fruit instead of drinking juice. Juice is a concentrated sugar with no fiber. Oil is the same. It’s a concentrated fat with no fiber. Juice and oil are the same in my mind. Neither of them are going to kill you, they both have lots of nutrients, but they certainly aren’t optimal.

If you need to lose weight (and there’s a 2 out of 3 chance you do), I think oil is an easy way to eliminate calories. If you need to gain weight, then adding some healthy oils is an easy way to add calories, but I’d still prefer that you eat the whole nut, seed, olive, or avocado.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to get anyone on a low fat diet. I love fat, but I prefer to get my fats from the whole food, naturally, with all its fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.