Current Issue

​📰 August 2026 Newsletter

 Why Healthy Eating Is About More Than What We Eat

 

Dear Reader,

Over the past month, my articles have explored a question that sits at the heart of The Natural Diet:

If most of us already know that we should eat better, why is doing it consistently so difficult?

The answer goes far beyond knowing which foods are healthy. What we eat is influenced by our biology, our habits, our surroundings, and a food environment that constantly shapes our choices—often without us realizing it.

July's articles looked at these influences from several different perspectives, from calorie counting and individual differences to the powerful role of the environment in determining how we eat.

Below is this month's roundup.

 

Why Weight Management Is More Complicated Than Calories

 

Do You Need to Count Calories to Lose Weight?

Calories matter, but losing weight doesn’t necessarily require counting every calorie. Many successful eating patterns work because they naturally help people consume less without constant tracking.

Focusing on minimally processed foods, adequate protein, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, while reducing ultra-processed foods, can improve fullness and make appetite easier to manage.

Calorie counting can be useful, but it is difficult to sustain indefinitely. For many people, the better long-term strategy is to improve food quality and build an eating pattern that naturally supports a healthy weight without having to calculate every bite.

👉 Read on Medium: https://medium.com/p/17a949847862

 

Why Some People Stay Slim Without Dieting

Maintaining a healthy weight may have less to do with constantly dieting and more to do with habits that become part of everyday life. People who maintain their weight successfully often rely not on exceptional willpower, but on consistent routines—familiar healthy meals, regular physical activity, and an environment that makes good choices easier.

They still enjoy restaurants, celebrations, vacations, and occasional treats. What matters is the overall pattern, not perfection.

The lesson is simple: diets are temporary, but habits can last. Long-term success becomes easier when healthy eating and movement stop feeling like a diet and simply become the way you live.

👉 Read on Medium: https://medium.com/p/13478c6eb5fb

 

Looking Beyond the Individual

​

What Brazil Understood About Food Before Most Countries Did

In 2014, Brazil’s dietary guidelines helped change the nutrition conversation by looking beyond calories and nutrients to ask how food is processed. Influenced by the NOVA system, the guidelines emphasized minimally processed foods while encouraging people to limit ultra-processed products.

But Brazil’s approach went further. It recognized that healthy eating also involves home cooking, shared meals, food traditions, and the social environment surrounding food.

More than a decade later, research and public-health discussions around the world increasingly reflect the questions Brazil raised early: food quality is about more than its nutrient label—it also matters how the food was made and how we eat it.

👉 Read on Medium: https://medium.com/p/7a4becb76100

​

Why Most Diets Focus on Food — and Miss Everything Else

Most diets focus almost entirely on what to eat, but lasting health changes require more than better food choices. The Natural Diet brings together three essential elements: whole-food nutrition, regular physical activity, and sustainable weekly routines.

Rather than relying on calorie counting, extreme restrictions, or constant motivation, the program uses a gradual 24-week approach. Food quality improves, walking and resistance training become part of everyday life, and routines for shopping, meal preparation, and managing difficult situations make healthy choices easier to maintain.

The same principles are particularly important for people using GLP-1 medications: medication can help with weight loss but preserving muscle and building lasting habits still require good nutrition and regular physical activity.

The central message is simple: lasting change comes not from following a diet temporarily, but from building a way of living that can be repeated week after week.

👉 Read on Medium: https://medium.com/p/e0548b417a74

 

A Personal Update

After several years of writing, research, and preparation, The Natural Diet will be published on August 18.

The book presents a practical 24-week roadmap for making sustainable changes in food, physical activity, and everyday habits. Rather than prescribing another restrictive diet, it follows Brenda—a fictional character recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes—as she and her family gradually learn how to change the way they eat, move, shop, cook, and live.

My hope is that the book helps readers see healthy living not as a temporary program, but as something that can gradually become part of normal life.

The Natural Diet is available for pre-order now. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1592116663

Thank you to everyone who has followed my articles and supported the book along the way. With publication now only days away, your encouragement is particularly meaningful.

 

Warm regards,

Andres Digenio, MD, PhD

​

Explore more tools and articles:
www.andresdigenio.com/links

Because health is built week by week.