Choosing What Food to Eat

• Look to Your Ancestors

Trying to figure out what foods are healthy? "Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food," wrote Michael Pollan in a January 2007 New York Times Magazine article.

I love this quote! It simplifies food choices. While not always practical in this day and age, it can be modified somewhat. But the first thing it does is eliminate processed food. I have learned to find time to cook. And I incorporate as many fresh raw foods as I can.

 

Healthy living means becoming a label reader. Take a trip to the grocery store and plan on spending 2 or 3 hours there. Read labels. Compare brands. Better yet, find a Farmer's Market and go fresh. Summer is the best time to visit a local market.

 

My fridge looks like a mini market this morning: blueberries (of course!), blackberries, watermelon, pineapple, cherries, carrots, broccoli (of course!), green peppers, scallions, celery,and  red sweet peppers.

The fruit bowl spills over with bananas, peaches, nectarines, and plums.

 

The grill gets a workout during the summer, also. Truthfully, it gets used a lot when it's snowing here in NE Ohio, too! I have cut way back on my meat intake, but my husband likes salmon and chicken on the grill, and I like veggie kabobs.

 

Eliminate as much white from the diet as possible. Whole grains, wheat, oats, nuts, and seeds would all be recognized by our ancestors. They are so much better for you and they add much needed fiber to the diet.

 

Water, water, water! I've read that often times we think we're hungry, when really our body is telling us that we need hydrated. Drink water all day. It cleanses and flushes toxins from our body

 

It's working. I feel better. I'm losing weight. My blood pressure is down. My cholesterol is down. My smile is up!