Having a balanced and healthy diet can make a huge difference in your health and overall well-being. There are lots of different diets, like the keto diet, that you might have heard of. However, following a diet is not easy for everyone, so you should focus on eating real and healthy food.
The purpose of this article is to introduce the JERF diet. It stands for ‘just eat real food’ as it involves adopting a healthy and balanced diet full of real food. You can think of the JERF diet as more of a lifestyle. Keep reading to learn all about it.
What is the JERF Diet?
JERF diet basically means that you will be eating real food items and not the ones found in different packages. Nowadays, you can easily find packaged food with labels like “low sugar,” “healthy,” and “organic.” However, they still have significant additives and preservatives, so you should avoid adding these products to your diet.
Instead, the primary focus of the JERF diet is on fresh vegetables and fruits, eggs, pastured meat, and unrefined cooking oils. You can even take sugar in the JERF diet as long as it comes from natural sources like honey and coconut nectar.
Top 9 Steps to Adopt JERF Diet
Follow these steps to adopt the JERF diet and maximize its benefits:
-
Focus on Natural Food Items
Unlike many other types of diets, there are no significant complications involved in following the JEFT diet. You should start with traditional sources of quality protein, healthy fats, and whole-grain or starchy vegetables. Don’t make the mistake of eliminating fat and protein from your diet. These are essential to give you energy.
-
Don’t Ignore Fat
A common belief associated with any kind of diet is that fat is bad for your health, and you should avoid all types of fat. However, it is important for you to add healthy fats from animal and plant-based sources to your diet to ensure optimum physical and mental performance.
Healthy fats are important to obtain energy and keep the nervous system healthy. These are also responsible for transporting fat-soluble nutrients throughout the bloodstream to ensure optimal hormonal balance.
-
Eliminate Processed Food
The JERF diet is all about real and natural foods. Therefore, you must eliminate all processed and packaged foods from your diet. Even if you are buying a packaged food product, it should only contain whole food ingredients.
-
Check the Ingredients List
You should always read the ingredients list of any of the food products in your diet. There are many additives that are often harmless but also don’t add any significant value to your diet. Therefore, if a food product has ingredients that you don’t necessarily need, you should avoid them.
-
Avoid Sauce
Using different sauces and dressings can be highly tempting for anyone. However, most of the sauces have refined oils and sugar that are not good for your health. There are some good alternatives available in the market, but if you want to truly follow the JERF diet, you should consider making your own sauces.
-
Cook at Home
If you are not used to cooking, this step might be a little difficult for you in the initial stages. However, you can get used to it with time. Cooking at home will help you maximize the benefits of the JERF diet.
Moreover, if you have the urge to eat snacks, you should prefer fresh fruits over them. Explore the outer sections of a supermarket to get different fruits and vegetables and get the healthy products you find tasty.
-
Know the Origin
JERF diet also emphasizes the fact that you should know where the food is coming from. It is highly recommended that you eat the fruits and vegetables that are in season and locally produced. Building relationships with the local farmers, butchers, and fish sellers will help you get fresh fruits and vegetables on time.
-
Avoid Fad Diets
The trend of extreme fad diets and “cleansing juices” has become highly popular due to social media platforms. A lot of people nowadays use different juicing detoxes and supplements for detoxification.
The majority of the time, such juices are ineffective in providing the benefits they promise. Therefore, it is much better to stick to the JERF diet and eat healthy fruits and vegetables for natural and healthy detoxification.
-
Get Help
If you are struggling to follow the JERF diet, you should get help from the experts. If your friends or family are also following the same diet, you should consult them from time to time to ensure you are following the diet properly.
Read Also : Remarkable artist: colors in John Atkinson Grimshaw’s artworks
Conclusion
The bottom line is that the JERF diet is one of the most reliable and effective diets you can adopt as a lifestyle to enjoy various health benefits. It’s all about natural and healthy eating, so you will get the health benefits of natural ingredients without any side effects.
