The benefits of a healthy diet are many. Here are just a few benefits of a whole food diet.
1. Enjoying what you eat. I can't even believe how much I enjoy everything that I eat! Anyone who avoids processed food will say the same. Processed food dulls and warps your sense of taste (and has other unpleasant side effects.)
2. Feeling good after eating. Healthy meals provide sustenance and energy, as meals should. Unhealthy meals provoke post-meal problems: falling asleep, having to lie down, feeling sick, being nauseous, having diarrhea, being desperate for dessert or more food, becoming irritable or argumentative, etc.
3. Feeling good before eating. When meals and snacks aren't all about getting the next addictive fix (or what feels like energy), you have the ambition to actually prepare the food, or else to use your time before the meal wisely. You're not jittery, dizzy, whiny, exhausted, or sick; nor does waiting for the food to arrive somehow take your full attention.
4. Never needing sugar or caffeine to stay awake.
5. Having normal gut function. No more irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diarrhea.
6. Having the ability to relax. Always on? With a healthy diet, your body relearns to relax. You are no longer on the rush / crash cycle and the jitters / sluggishness cycle.
7. Feeling (and acting) calm and emotionally stable.
8. Becoming well nourished. The typical unhealthy American diet results in being overfed and undernourished. With proper nourishment, you can overcome health challenges, including obesity. If you are malnourished, your body won't let you lose weight.
9. Freedom from addiction. A whole food diet and a sugar free diet can free you from addictions to sugar, artificial sweeteners, food additives, even foods. Healthy eating frees you from the obsessions, tantrums, and collapses that go along with these addictions. A healthy diet and correction of malnutrition is also the basis for overcoming addictions to caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs.
10. Aging gracefully. One of the long-term benefits of a healthy diet: the expectation of a higher quality of life.