91: How to Know If Food Is Good for You!

Michael Kummer: How can you tell if a certain food is good for you or bad for you? And if you've been following for a while, you probably have me heard, talk a lot about scientific evidence and, you know, and evolution and, and all of those things. But ultimately it boils down to how do you feel about a certain food? You know, can you eat sourdough and feel fine thus.

Maybe a certain plant make you feel less than good in your stomach, you know? So in today's episode, we're gonna dive into all of those little nuances that you can use to judge whether or not a food is good for you. Regardless of what the science might say, regardless of what I might say or regardless of what might someone else might say.

Welcome to the Primer Chief Podcast. So maybe let's talk about, you know, the, the obvious things first. Um, you can obviously, you know, look at your biomarkers, your blood work, et cetera, to kind of find out. You can do body scans to, you know, measure your bone density, your, your fat tissue, your fat body percentage, and all of those things to kind of figure out, okay.

Is what you are doing working for you in the long run. The problem is that with most of those markers, they take some time to change. So it might take a little while, um, for, you know, if you adopt a new dietary lifestyle or you include a new food in your diet, for that to reflect in your blood work and in your body scan might take years in some cases, you know, so it's.

Not very easy to charge initially, but obviously, you know, I keep close tabs on my blood markers, on my body scans, et cetera, on my bone density. All of those things to figure out if my lifestyle overall is conducive to optimal health or if there's maybe something that I need to change. But from a more short term perspective, you know, when you eat something, when you drink something, how can you tell if that food is good for you or not?

And one of the easiest ways to assess that is to...

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Pay close attention to how you feel. And of course for that, you need to be somewhat in tune with your body, listening to the cue your body is trying to give you.

Take some practice and I can now tell many things that I couldn't maybe 10, 15 years ago. So don't necessarily be discouraged if you don't feel anything or if you can't tell, but as you keep listening, as you keep experiment, keep experimenting. You'll figure out if something works or doesn't work for you.

And number one that I can is very easy to tell. If you suffer from heartburn, that is usually an indication that whatever you ate. Is not working for you. And it's not because you have too much acid in your stomach and you need to take anti-acid. In fact, the opposite is usually the case where you don't have enough acid and your heartburn is actually caused from your body overproducing.

Um. Or comp trying to compensate from the low acid levels in your stomach, and that's what causes heartburn. But you can tell either by, you know, you get like a RA throat or you feel the actual burn. Sometimes it's, you know, associated with pain. Sometimes you don't feel pain, but you can still tell if you have heartburn and if that's the case, there is a chance that whatever you're eating might not be sitting well with you.

Energy levels are another great example. If you consume something. And I mean in somewhat normal amount because you can overeat on anything and feel like your energy level drop and you feel like you need to take a nap. But if you have a, a normal sized meal and your energy levels drop after that, or you feel.

With wonky energy levels throughout the day, that is often an indication that whatever you're eating is not doing well for you. That could be because you ate something that caused a massive spike in blood sugar and then it came crashing down, and during that down slump you feel. Lethargic and not very energetic.

Ideally, you want to avoid those huge spikes and avoid the foods that are causing them. You know, very often processed flowers, breads, et cetera. Those are the ones that cause grains in general, that cause those massive spikes and then those drops that don't make you feel good. You can also tell based on your skin, it is your skin breaking out and you don't necessarily have to.

Suffer from acne or eczema or some of those more severe inflammatory skin conditions that are almost always caused by the food you're eating. It could be something like, you know, bumps. It could be, you know, dry skin, it could be dandruff, you know, if you're talking about scalp. Uh, so there are many indications of if your skin doesn't look clear and good and feel.

You know, not extremely dry. That's an indication that something you're eating might not be good for you. Mood swings is another great example. Obviously those kind have hormonal, you know, factors as well, especially if you're a, you know, menstruating woman, but also in man, you know, there are changes in hormone levels, um, and many other factors that can affect mood.

But if you have constant mood swings, not something that's, you know, isolated to maybe a certain time of the month, then there is a chance that something is off. With the food that you're eating. Joint pain is another great example. I mean, obviously if you injury your joints like I just did, uh, doing CrossFit, you know, that's an acute inflammation.

An acute injury. That can be painful. But if you have chronic joint issues where you feel achy and stiff and all of those things all the time, or for most of the time, that's usually an indication that you're eating something that causes that low grade inflammation, um, that you know you can fix and avoid by just identifying the food and.

Avoiding it. Digestive issues are obviously, you know, the most obvious one. If you eat something and then your stomach doesn't feel right, you feel bloated, you feel like you have to pass gas all the time, you get diarrhea, you get loose stools or constipation or anything in between. That's a sign that whatever you're eating is not go, is not sitting well with you.

It could also be parasites and you know, some other issues, but generally speaking, unless there is a, a diagnosed, uh, condition, it's. Typically things that you eat and should not be eating bad breath is another great example. And I'm gonna use this because you know, here, here's the thing, you know again, I said, you know, just because someone said food is good for you doesn't mean it's good for for you as well.

Um, or if someone says food is generally health food, that doesn't necessarily mean it's also good for you. And I'm gonna give you one example and that is raw milk. You know, my wife raw cow's milk, even A two, A two, you know, grass fat. All the nine, you know, local farm, all of those things, she gets bad breath by consuming that milk.

I know that my body odor changes and we're gonna talk about, so o odor in generally be it, you know, body odor, be it, you know, bad breath, be it smelly farts, whatever the case might be, those are indications that the food might not be ideal. Now with body order, I wanna say that, you know, if you smell. In a way that might be, some might consider, oh, it's a manly smell or whatever.

Or it's, you know, you, you smell like you've, you know, there might be certain odors that are maybe normal that are, maybe you're supposed to be smelling like this. And it's just, in our society, we've gotten to a point where we don't wanna smell anything about anyone, you know? So I'm not saying that all body odor is necessarily bad in an indication of.

Poor food choices. But if you smell incredibly terrible where you know people like running away from you or like, Ooh, what is this? Chances are you're eating something that might not be good for you. You know? And it doesn't really matter where the odor originates from, mouth your butt, or you know, your armpits.

And those are things to keep into account. So if you, if you notice any of that, then think about, okay, what have you eaten and how. Is that related to some of those issues? I can tell if I consume, uh, certain carbohydrates. Like for example, if I consume too much rice, I get heartburn. If I consume too much dairy and it doesn't really.

Cow dairy, that is, then my body odor changes. It becomes more like, you know, musky. And you know, one could say, well, you know, you smell like a man, but not everyone likes that smell. And it's definitely a smell that I don't have if I don't consume dairy, you know, um, I. I can tell also with, uh, with certain foods that my skin breaks out and not, not breaking out in a terrible way because I, I can feel like, you know, mild bumps here.

My, my wife notices like redness, you know, my daughter, she gets dandruff if she consumes steroids. So there are, there are certain indicators, my wife, as I mentioned, you know, bad breath, uh, we don't get it with sheep milk, interestingly enough. So you might have to ex within the realm of saying, okay, no dairy isn't good for you.

Well, maybe. Cow dairy isn't, but cheap dairy or goat dairy is, or camel dairy is, so you can kind of experiment and figure out, but those are some of the factors you want to keep into account when deciding whether or not a food is good for you. Ideally, when you consume something, you should be, you should feel great after.

If I consume, if I have a steak and maybe some, you know, grilled zucchini or whatever, I do not feel anything in my stomach. I did not feel my energy levels drop. I don't feel any mood swings. I don't feel any. I feel nothing. I feel great. I feel how I'm supposed to feel if I deviate from that. I have. A response in varying degrees, depending on what I eat and how much I eat of it.

So keep that in mind. Regardless of what someone tells you, whether or not you know, raw dairy is, is, is great for you or not figure it out. Assess honestly, assess how does it make you feel? Do you feel bloated? Maybe something you should have avoided. Do you feel with bad breath, maybe something you should have avoided?

You know? So it's very easy to find out and I encourage you, listen to your body and. Fine tune your diet or your dietary framework based on how you feel, regardless of what science, evolution, or your favorite YouTuber might say. And with that, we're gonna wrap it up. I hope you like this episode. If you did, share it with someone who might benefit from it.

Leave a comment if you watching or listening to this on a platform that supports comments, and I hope I'll see you in the next episode. Ever feel like living healthy is way too expensive? In our next episode, we break down a few ways to upgrade your health without emptying your wallet. From cold plunges to cooking fats and even building your home spoiler, it doesn't involve living in a mud hut.