Over the recent holidays, I was offered a tremendous amount of something I kind of forgot existed: low calorie butter spray contraptions (and a lot of “sugar-free” this-that and the-other-things).

I’m not a negative person, but Ima go ahead and say I gotta lotta beef with these kinds of products:

1. They trick people who are trying really hard to make healthy choices.
2. They are filled with disgusting ingredients that are, in many cases, worse that the “original” ingredients to begin with.
3. Coconut oil is King.

Let’s discuss:

1. About Tricking People:

If you stick the word “diet” on ballpoint pens, I’m sure their sales would go up. Which is really unfortunate for food, because so many people who are really committed to making healthy choices trust the terms that are used as marketing schemes to get people to purchase food, not because it is particularly healthy, but because it will profit the company selling them. Because no one who truly stands for health would put that kind of crap in front of someone and tell them to eat it in good conscience. At least, I would hope. Call me an idealist, #sorryimnotsorry.

2. About Aforementioned Disgusting Ingredients:

“Low Calorie” Butter Sprays and calorie-free sweeteners have delightful ingredients like lechitin, butane and other propellants, as well as artificial colors and God knows what other little surprises you’d need a chemistry degree to decipher. Now, real butter is filled with saturated fat and unnecessary calories, and sugar isn’t particularly great for our bodies either, but I don’t hear anyone suggesting that we should be eating crazy amounts of butter and sugar. So wouldn’t it be preferable to eat a tiny bit of a natural thing than a tiny bit of a completely manufactured weirdo chemical thing?

LADIES AM I RIGHT?

So let’s talk about real, healthful alternatives to traditional butter and breakdown why the body loves real food:

3. Why Coconut is King

Coconuts have gotten a bad rap for a loooong-ass time, and it’s high time for them to be making a comeback as a health superfood. Por que, you ask? Boom:

Medium-chain triglycerides are metabolized differently than other types of oils.

It raises your HDL cholesterol (that’s a good thing) and has antioxidant properties.

Saturated fat may not be Satan after all.

The key is, of course, to use oil sparingly. It very simply boils down to this. You can’t trick the body into thinking something is good for you just because it doesn’t have sugar or calories in it. Your body needs sugar and calories to survive….just not a lot of them.

So here’s to real food, real nutrition, and ingredients we can pronounce. (Or foods that are the ingredient. Woah).

{ sat nam + namaste }

xo

G