Pop question: What happens when you eat a Twinkie?
Answer: Nothing. (At least probably not what you think).
Twinkies are one of the furthest things from “real food” on the planet.
Composed of 37+ ingredients, the nutrition label reads:
Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour [Flour, Reduced Iron, B Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Folic Acid)], Corn Syrup, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Water, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable and/or Animal Shortening (Soybean, Cottonseed and/or Canola Oil, Beef Fat), Whole Eggs, Dextrose. Contains 2% or Less of: Modified Corn Starch, Glucose, Leavenings (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Sweet Dairy Whey, Soy Protein Isolate, Calcium and Sodium Caseinate, Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Soy Lecithin, Soy Flour, Cornstarch, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Sorbic Acid (to Retain Freshness), Yellow 5, Red 40.
In other words: NOT real food.
As you’ve learned in your gut-healing journey, artificial ingredients, added chemicals, gluten, soy, conventional dairy, sugar and hydrogenated oils may not be the best (most nourishing) foods for your body.
That said, What really happens when you eat a Twinkie?
Sure. Yes. Leaky gut happens. Bacterial overgrowth happens. Maybe even a tummy ache or horrible bloating happens. BUT…get this:
When we are watering our “plant” with water, sunshine and healthy soil MOST of the time, then on those really hot or stormy or dry days when unforeseen events come that plant’s way, it IS able to withstand the storm and still thrive.
The same thing goes for your body.
When you are feeding your body with REAL foods the majority of the time AND supporting your gut health MOST of the time (supplements, food hygiene, fermented foods, broths, water, less stress), your body WILL work for you (not against you)—even if you eat a Twinkie.
This is exactly the point of 80/20—most of the time eating real foods, and 20% of the time, letting life happen.
Life is short to:
a.) Stress out over food and being perfect;
b.) Not experience some tastes in life (although I’d argue if a Twinkie is really the taste to go for…maybe some wine, or really good chocolate cake instead?), and
c.) Live in a bubble—fearful, overwhelmed or consumed with gut healing
Your body will heal (and so will your stress) as you chill out a bit more about food and aim to eat in abundance the real foods your body was meant to thrive upon. The other 20%? Twinkies won’t take you down…in fact, in some cases they make you stronger (or make you desire real whole foods that make your body feel really amazing instead).
Thrive Project:
Experiment with a food today that may be totally off the beaten path if you’re game for it—be it dark chocolate, a slice of pizza or dare I say…a Twinkie.
Or if “junk foods” aren’t even your thing any more…how about a food you’ve simply made food rules around? Be it starchy carbs like a sweet potato, grass-fed butter instead of coconut oil, or full-fat fermented yogurt instead of 0%.
Give real whole foods a chance.