5 health and nutrition strategies that are proven to boost health - Part 3
Optimal health and nutrition come from enjoying the bounty of Earth!
It’s important to eat a variety of whole foods and as close to its natural form as possible.
According to the Hypoglycemia Support Foundation, “real” food is food without a nutritional label on it. Prioritize real food as much as possible and they will help you reach your goals.
However, you have to allow your palate to change and adjust. Our taste buds are used to highly salted and sweet foods, unnatural ways of adding flavor to de-natured foods.
Super Size Me is a great movie, you can rent it our from your public library.Real food is the cornerstone of health and nutrition, the list of ingredients is short and pronounceable!
Fruit, vegetables, legumes, grains and nuts are rich in a blend of vitamins, fiber, protein, minerals and antioxidants. Lean meats have essential amino acids key to our health.
Vital nutrients like proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals are broken into smaller parts for your body to absorb and use for energy, growth and repair.
- Proteins break into amino acids
- Fats break into fatty acids and glycerol
- Carbohydrates break into simple sugars, like glucose, and flows into the bloodstream to be made available as energy for every cell
All these elements are broken down by chewing, squeezing, mixing and then by the digestive juices, stomach acid, bile and enzymes.
A true chemical factory right in our gut!
The digested food is absorbed into your small intestine by crossing the intestinal lining through to your bloodstream. Your blood then carries all the goodness (and junk) to your liver where it is processed, stored and delivered where needed.
However, non-food things, so common in our processed foods, also get mixed in and are absorbed like artificial colors, preservatives and additives.
According to Nutrition Hub, there are seven criteria for processed food:
- Mass produced
- Consistent batch by batch
- Consistent country to country
- Specialized ingredients
- Macro-nutrients are frozen (meaning fiber is removed)
- Stay emulsified
- Have long shelf-life or freezer life
How do you accomplish all the above?
By stripping the food from its fiber content, healthy fats and micronutrients and stuffing it with trans-fats, polyunsaturated fatty acids, additives, emulsifiers, salt and sugar!
Fast-food is also engineered and designed to be energy-dense, highly stimulating and easy to eat!
Avoiding fast-food as much as you can is a great start to improve your health and nutrition. It could even start by cooking once a week which is better than not cooking at all.
Eating whole foods does not have to imply organic greens and expensive grass-fed meat from trendy farmer’s markets, it just means getting more: rice, grains, beans, fresh vegetables, meat, fish, dairy products, bread and fruit.
Even if you can't afford organic, purchase from your supermarket's offerings in the whole produce section.I also believe that we are used to thinking that healthy food is inherently more expensive, but in some cases it’s not true
Unconsciously we tend to equate foods with health properties to have a premium price tag.
More whole foods is better than less but some is always better than none.
Of course, we would all love to grab organic vegetables, locally grown and fresh out of the farm but if you can afford standard produce from your local supermarket, in my opinion, that is far better than reaching for boxes of Mac n Cheese.
The next challenge is cooking, but we’ll get to that in a later part of this series
Make new friends at the farmer's market, they will teach you a lot about food!According to an article in the New York Times, there are 5 fast-food restaurants for every supermarket in the U.S.
So, it’s no wonder that eating right and taking care of your health and nutrition is a choice you have to make in spite of the food industry.
Also lean on meat and chicken to get your protein and add whole-grains and fiber rich foods to feel full.
Increase your health and nutrition by stacking on healthy foods like veggies and fruits
In the next story, we’ll dig deeper into the quality of our food and how it connects with our kitchens and homes.
“The kitchen is the heart of the home” is a traditional but wise quote that sums up the challenge to better our health and nutrition.
But that doesn’t imply cooking necessarily.
Get your health and nutrition back with no cooking.
Part 4 - Juicing for raw enzymes and phytochemicals
How Stuff Works, How food works, https://science.howstuffworks.com
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease, Your digestive system, www.niddk.nih.gov
Hypoglycemia Support Foundation / Nutrition Hub, Real food vs processed food, www.nutritionhub.org
New York Times, Is junk food really cheap? www.nytimes.com
Web MD, Food synergy, www.webmd.com
