Food Can Be Simple

Start with what is actually in the food

An ingredient list makes those preferences practical. A sauce or dressing can contain ingredients its name doesn’t tell you about, so I look beyond the front of the bottle.

For example, imagine one dressing that lists olive oil and has 4 grams of added sugar per two tablespoons, and another that lists sunflower oil with no added sugar. These are hypothetical labels. Neither automatically meets both of my preferences.

First, compare the same serving amount. Then use the ingredient list to identify the oils and the Nutrition Facts panel to see total carbohydrate and added sugar. Added sugar is included within total sugar, not an extra amount to add to it. The FDA’s label guide explains those distinctions.

With the preferences I’ve described, olive oil and lemon would be a straightforward third option. If you need to choose between the bottles, the useful decision is which one fits the priorities and portion you actually intend to eat. A label helps you see a tradeoff; it doesn’t make one ingredient the verdict on your whole meal.

Convenience can still help. Frozen vegetables, washed salad greens, and fish canned in water have been processed in some way. They can also make a simple meal much easier to put together. Packaging alone doesn’t tell you whether a food fits the way you want to eat; the contents and the overall meal matter.

Keep the range of foods wide

Eggs are one of my staples, but they’re one part of a much bigger picture. The same few foods every day would leave out much of the variety I enjoy. You can change the vegetables, use different herbs, choose fish one day and chicken another, or bring fruit and nuts into the mix.

Keeping carbs lower doesn’t make every food I eat carbohydrate-free. Fruit and vegetables contain carbohydrates. I’m describing my overall direction, with choices about the food and the amount, rather than setting the same target for every reader.

My preference to avoid seed oils is part of that personal approach. I’m not treating it as proof that all seed oils are inherently harmful. The useful starting point here is understanding the choices I make and considering your own needs.

What I draw from Dr. Bobby Price

Dr. Bobby Price’s work centers on plant-based food and a life more closely connected with nature. That gives plant foods a central place in the discussion. I bring that emphasis to the vegetables, fruit, and nuts within my own approach.

For me, that means choosing vegetables with as much care as the food beside them. Would roasted zucchini or a cucumber salad make this plate more inviting? My diet also includes animal foods, so this is a selective influence from Price’s work, not an adoption of his plant-based approach.

What I draw from Dr. Berg

Dr. Eric Berg’s discussion of nutrient-dense foods adds another useful question: what does the food contribute? Nutrient density concerns the nutrients a food provides relative to its energy content. His examples include eggs, salmon, leafy greens, and berries.

That brings attention to what a meal includes as well as what I choose to limit. I can take an interest in the ingredients themselves and still enjoy their flavor. These teachers are sources I draw from; a specific claim about preventing or treating disease deserves its own evidence.

Make one meal easier

Think about a meal you already enjoy. A different dressing might fit your preferences better; frozen greens might make cooking it easier. A useful food philosophy should help with decisions that ordinary.

You don’t need to settle every nutrition debate before making that choice. For me, simplicity means having a direction I can use, enough variety to keep enjoying food, and a meal I’m happy to sit down to.