As I read through social media, newspaper and magazine articles and listen to news reports I hear an overwhelming amount of different diets out there. A big fad right now is low-carb to no-carb diets that boast a high amount of animal protein such as the Paleo diet. While each of us is different and are looking for different results my personal feelings, based on what I learned as a holistic nutritional coach, are that getting back to basics and everything in balance is foolproof and easy to adapt to and follow through as your new and improved lifestyle habits. Of course I would never push someone to doing something they don’t understand or believe in as everyone has a choice and I‘m not against what anyone thinks is best for them, but I will always be here to help those who are ready and want help in making positive changes in their life.

High animal proteins cause your liver to work harder and become congested or clogged due to animal proteins being harder to break down and digest.

Personally, I eat proteins of all types including small amounts of animal proteins, I’m not a vegetarian but my diet is highly vegetable based, which includes true whole grains; I don’t eat meat every day due to personal preference but I don’t demand that everyone eat exactly as I do either. The following is a quick, handy guide to foods and their protein amounts.

Protein

• 4 oz. chicken-36g
• 4 oz. turkey-31g
• Shellfish, 6 oz. shrimp-23g (plus a healthy amount of B-12), scallops-20g.
• Beans, 1-cup boiled soybeans-29g., white beans-19g., lentils-18g., black beans-15g., (plus fiber, folate, potassium and magnesium)

Get Healthy Fats from:

• Fish, good quality fish oils (read my article on fish oils here),
• nuts and nut oils,
• olive oil,
• avocados and avocado oil,
• sunflower oil,
• all-natural, no sugar added peanut butter.

Finding a good balance between proteins, carbs and healthy fats is the key to living a healthy life. Your balance is different from anyone else’s and that is perfect because that is what makes you fantastically unique.