Getting Back to the Basics: Finding Your Structure

Why does the Structure House plan work for everyone? Despite having different tastes, attitudes toward food, background, and body types, people consistently make progress toward their goals while they are here participating in the program.

There are many aspects of nutrition that can help, but two of the biggest contributors are two of the simplest, and have been around since our program’s inception.

Principle 1: Whole Plant Foods at Every Meal

Regardless of which foods they promote or styles they follow, every healthy diet includes plenty of fruits and vegetables.

This gets mentioned a lot, but few people appreciate why these foods are so powerful for both health and weight loss. We all know that these foods have vitamins and minerals and not a lot of calories, but they still have calories.

So why do people who eat more fruits and vegetables lose more weight over time?

Evidence shows that instead of getting added to the diet, these foods naturally displace other foods people may eat. Their power seems to be that they both fill people up and reduce cravings for excessive amounts of other foods.

We’re still learning about why this is the case for people across cultures, ages, and backgrounds, but it may be their capability to change our probiotic microbiota. These healthy bacteria inside us seem to regulate our health and appetite in many ways.

Principle 2: Three Meals Each Day

One of the things I hear most often from Structure House participants is how great it feels to eat three meals every day at regular times. People frequently rave about their energy, their improved GI symptoms, their lack of hunger despite eating fewer calories, and other benefits.

The current American environment throws food at us almost nonstop, but our bodies seem to prefer getting balanced meals at regular intervals. Starving ourselves at some times and over indulging at other times is not an effective way to lose weight and stay healthy. Neither is snacking throughout the day.

It seems like it should work to eat the same amounts on these different schedules, but the evidence suggests that people do better when they maintain three meals a day.

These principles aren’t complicated, yet they’ve been the basis of the Structure House nutrition program for decades, and they have helped thousands of people. Taking steps to maintain just these two principles may be enough for many people to stay on track.

Fortunately, there are a lot of different foods to choose from when following a structured path, and finding just a few elements of structure to live by can help everyone to thrive.