Ah, the 80/20 rule. It’s that sweet spot that gives you good health while also enjoying some of the not so healthy stuff. And yes, you can make it work for you but you have to get the right balance.

First, let me be clear what the 80/20 rule is for. It’s for maintenance. If you are experiencing poor health and you want to use food for healing, it’s likely that there will be a period of time when you will need to be quite strict with your diet - which will only be temporary. It can be the same with weight loss to varying degrees.

My family can attest to this. Lately we have had to be extra strict as we work on healing my 5 year old of what doctors say is restrictive airway disease – and yes, we do this as a family, but that story is for another time.

The 80/20 rule should also support a healthy lifestyle. For instance, the 80/20 rule shouldn’t be used to eat well 80% of the time only to get McDonalds and pig out on candy bars and KD the other 20% of the time. Nor should it be an excuse to allow food sensitivities or addictive substances to sneak back into your diet.

With that said, the most important part is getting the 80% right - and the 20% to a certain degree. With all the information out there, it’s hard to know what a healthy diet really is and how that balance might look.

Proof in the Pudding

The work of Weston A. Price - a dentist and researcher who studied extensively the connection between nutrition and oral health - reveals that our diets don’t have to be strict to experience good health. However, quality is key. He conducted an experiment in which he fed school children from a poor district (hard hit by the great depression) traditional foods - foods like raw whole milk, broths with meat and marrow, butter, and cod liver oil (Price, 1939) These children were affected by severe tooth decay. The results were astounding. Tooth decay was stopped and controlled and behavior improved in several students (Price, 1939). It’s important to note that these same children were eating the same poor quality highly refined foods at home during the experiment as they had prior to the change in their school lunch. We can take from this experiment and start to understand that the key is overall quality - and eating less than healthy foods on occasion will not throw you off. This is how we can make the 80/20 rule work.

Quality is key

Your diet should consist largely of wholesome God given foods prepared in a way that maximizes nutrition. This means animal products from animals that have been raised naturally; fruits , vegetables, grains, beans, and legumes that have not been sprayed with harmful pesticides, not genetically modified, and properly prepared; and healing fats from healthy animals and plants that have nourished generations of people before us.

It might also mean soaking, sprouting, or fermenting grains, legumes, beans, and even nuts to break down anti-nutrients like phytic acid (they “steal” nutrients that your body requires to stay healthy).

Is it a lot of work? Most definitely.

Is it worth it?

Yes, yes, and yes.

There is no shame in eating in a way that prevents disease and the many nutrient-related conditions that plague our society today. If you are a believer in Christ then you might also know that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit - a gift from God that we are called to honour.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

How do I Get There?

If you are unsure what a nourishing diet is, start educating yourself and start small. It could be as simple as switching from conventional meat to quality meat, making a habit of it, then moving to the next step. A next step might be switching from 1% milk to whole milk. It could even be working on quitting a bad habit like binge eating. And so on, and so on. Small steps lead to lasting change.

Work on changing your diet so that you are eating nourishing, life giving foods that support your body and give it nutrients it needs to work well. Our bodies are a very complex creation that needs nutrients and much more to run smoothly. This is how we were made.

Where do I look?

There is so much conflicting information out there that is very convincing. A raw vegan might make a very compelling argument as to why that is the healthiest route to go - it doesn’t make it so (please don’t go raw vegan!). Instead, pray on it. Look at how God created food. Find resources that come from a biblical perspective. Look at what our ancestors ate who used their God-given intuition and what was available to them in nature (and guess who gave us that).

Don’t look to the government, big food corporations, big agriculture, or big pharma. All have become so corrupted by greed and money. And understand that many of the “scientific” studies are backed by them so be weary of where your information is coming from. The results of many studies are often played with to create a desirable outcome. Ask questions and don’t take everything at face value.

And Finally, The 20%

Until you are comfortable with where your diet is at, don’t worry so much about the 20%. What I mean by that is when you look at your diet, you might see that you are eating nourishing foods only 40% of the time. The focus should then be on educating yourself and working on your diet so that you are eating balanced nourishing foods most of the time. Depending on where you are at, it is a process. Give yourself grace and time.

But What About The 20%?!?!

Once you are eating nourishing foods most of the time, don’t let it restrict you from partaking at a potluck or a get-together. Unless you need to be on a specific diet for health reasons or to heal your body, you should not feel guilt or shame. Nor should you feel guilty for respectfully declining. Only you know how food makes you feel.

I would also suggest trying to make some of that 20% nourishing too. That might mean making homemade cookies with natural, unrefined sugars and organic flours. You can easily do this a couple times a week with room to spare.

Side note - just because you are using healthier ingredients, doesn’t mean you should eat cookies everyday, either. I know. I’m bummed about it too.

Highly Refined and Poor Quality Food

Save some room for those foods that simply bring joy. Some of those foods might be nutritionally dead - so yeah, your KD, those cheap candy bars, and maybe even a mysterious hot dog that no one seems to know the exact ingredients of. No need to feel guilt over the little things. And yes, that likely includes all the yummy, but not so healthy, potluck foods.

References

Price, W. A. (1939). Nutrition and physical degeneration: A comparison of primitive and modern diet and their effects. s.n.

The 80/20 rule: make it work for you