I thought I was eating healthy because I did not eat out much, I limited the amount of junk food I ate, and I consumed a fairly good amount of fruit and vegetables. However, after listening to an interview with Dr. Mark Hyman, a well-known health expert, I rethought my health.

In the interview, Dr. Hyman mentioned that sugar, not fat is destroying our health. Moreover, he said that it’s not the sugar we add ourselves that is so much of a concern, but it is the sugar that the food industry adds to everything we eat. When I heard this, I decided to check my food labels. Sure enough, added sugar was in almost everything I ate. I could hardly find a food that did not have added sugar.

Another lesson that I learned from Dr. Hyman is that we have been indulging in fake food. I checked our fridge at home and realized the truth of his statement. We had what looked like butter, but after reading the ingredients, I realized that our ‘butter’ did not contain even one ounce of milk. I thought to myself, “Isn’t butter made from milk?” When I told my mom about this, she said that we have been using this product for years and it has not affected us.

On the surface, my mom’s answer seemed true, but the fact is we don’t really know what is happening inside our bodies until symptoms of sickness manifest themselves. Therefore, we don’t in fact know how this fake butter has affected us nor do we see how countless other fake food we have eaten over time have affected our health. However, what bothers me the most is that in all these years, I had never thought to read the product’s label. Why? I thought it was butter because it looked like butter and tasted like butter.  How could what I am putting in my body be of so little consequence to me?

After the interview, I bought Dr. Hyman’s book, and I am glad that I did because I learned a few things. The greatest takeaways are that I should be eating real food. I think Dr. Hyman puts it this way, if God made an avocado, eat it. If He didn’t make a Twinkie, don’t eat it; I should eat less refined foods such as white flour and white rice because they become sugar once they are ingested and this can cause a spike in my blood sugar. I should try to avoid breads, bagels, cakes, cookies, and other sweets because they contain lots of added sugar.

Will I be able to follow everything Dr. Hyman recommends in his book, or do I even agree with everything he recommends? No. But his book has caused me to think about what I eat, and because of what I have learned, I will definitely transition to a low or no sugar diet; learn to make healthier meals with alternative ingredients; read food labels more diligently; and get rid of fake food. If I can’t pronounce or recognize the ingredients on a label, then I don’t think I should be eating that food.

Without realizing it, I had given the food industry power over my health. Therefore, it determines how much salt, sugar, additives, and preservatives I consume. In essence, I traded my health for convenience. When I was growing up, my parents bought coconut. We would break it open, remove the hard shell, grate its pulp, juice it, and finally add it to our meals. Today, my parents and I buy coconut milk in a can, and of course it is not pure coconut. There are about two or three more ingredients. Now, I question whether the trade-off has been worth it.

The food industry like so many others sold us convenience and we bought it, but as of now, I am returning convenience back to the food industry. I take back the power over my health. I will spend time in the kitchen and resist the urge to surrender to convenience. Sure, this means that my meal preparations will take more time and planning. It may even mean that I will relapse once in a while, but I will not give up. The reward of good health is too much to resist.