I’m generally considered a very happy, positive person focused on the best things in life. (That’s why I love coaching so much!) But sometimes I feel like a curmudgeon. Yes, a curmudgeon. A grumpy, bad-tempered person who doesn’t want to be nice. And here’s why …

There’s a lot, no, a plethora of absolute and total junk floating around out there in the media and the world at large about nutrition. More junk than help, in fact. And much of what’s out there either caters to the idea of moderation (which only very rarely is “moderate” at all in our culture where highly processed foods are seen as the norm and folks like me who eat actual nourishment for our meals are the weird ones) and often tells you it’s fine to eat stuff I wouldn’t feed my worst enemy, or, even worse, the articles are geared to make you feel less bad for eating unhealthy foods but touted as featuring “facts on healthy eating.”

For the record, I for one don’t believe anyone should EVER feel bad for eating bad food because beating yourself up for eating poorly is just kicking you when you’re already down. Bad food = feeling bad and a body that’s at its less than ideal health, for certain, but I also know that for many women — I used to fall into this category! — you tend to view yourself as a bad person when you eat something less than optimal, and that often leads to emotional eating to compensate for the emotional pain, which feeds the cycle. It is a bad thing for your body to eat the junk, and you’re not doing yourself any favors by eating unhealthfully, but I think you’re a swell gal even if you eat M&Ms 3 meals a day. (But if that describes you and you’re overweight or dealing with pretty much any health problem, we should talk!)

As a curmudgeonly reader of all things related to nutrition, I’ve come to expect not to agree with most of what I read — not out of a sense of superiority, but because I sincerely wish it was more popular to just tell the truth — eat mainly plant-based whole foods, skip the processed stuff, and your waistline and your health will benefit. But just today I was pleasantly surprised and had to pass on what I found. It’s an excellent blog post from a physician (who appears to be an, ahem, lean green mama!) who shared a number of really important facts on healthy eating, namely on why you shouldn’t eat added salt.

One of the quotes I have to share with you even if you don’t take the time to read the full article:

A new paper in the New England Journal of Medicine used computer models to predict the effect of relatively small reductions in salt intake on Americans’ health and found that if everyone consumed half a teaspoon less salt per day, there would be between 54,000 and 99,000 fewer heart attacks each year, between 32,000 and 66,000 fewer strokes and between 44,000 and 92,000 fewer deaths. This small change could save from $10 billion to $24 billion in health care costs annually!

That alone is so powerful, and it’s just one killer reason to skip the salt!

Finding this post did my soul some good. :) It’s so hard to find good sources on nutrition, and I’m not in 100% agreement on everything the blogger above writes in this and her other articles, but I am very happy to see that there are others out there sharing REAL facts on healthy eating that can save your health and change your life so immensely for the better. We moms feed the world, and the more we incorporate these healthy habits into our lives, the healthier our whole families are — and the better we feel.

Other important facts on healthy eating to keep in mind regarding salt intake:

1. Most of us in the Western world consume far too much salt, and our tastes are accustomed to having the salt. That’s why when you eat something unsalted after eating lots of high-sodium foods, it tastes bland. But go a week or more without added salt in your diet, and you’ll find that natural, unsalted whole foods taste much more delicious than you remembered. It’s amazing how this works, and all it takes is a little time to put it into practice!

2. One of the best ways to put water weight gain to an end is avoid added sodium in your diet. Prior to changing my lifestyle now several years back, I wasn’t aware at all of how potent salt was or how much water weight I dealt with.  However, when I eliminated added salt from my diet, suddenly my rings were too big all the time (I’m talking before I lost a significant amount of weight!), and I never dealt with bloating again except on the rare occasions when I ate salty foods. Reducing or eliminating added salt is one of the easiest ways to lose a couple pounds that I know of very quickly and easily for most of us. Certainly, it’s not the same as losing bodyfat, but it is a good way to get the scales moving in the right direction so that you follow through long enough to lose more weight, which motivates you even further!

I’m always on the lookout for good references for facts on healthy eating that help you feel better, look better and get really, incredibly healthy (even to the point of being perky like me!) — so email me if you come across other resources your fellow LeanGreenMama readers may benefit from. I promise I’ll try to read with a kind, non-curmudgeonly eye. :)