“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” ~Hippocrates
We know the statistics. We spend more as a nation on healthcare (or disease care) than any country in the world yet we’re one of the unhealthiest nations in the world. We want desperately to be healthy but all those drug commercials on TV tell us it’s okay to be sick and there’s a pill for whatever ails you.
It all starts with what we put in our mouths. I love this quote from Ann Wigmore and it’s become my food philosophy:
“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”
As I get older, I’m determined to do whatever I can to avoid drugs and surgery. I believe vibrant health is possible but it takes work.
I heard Marilu Henner say this recently and it struck me deeply. She said,
“Being healthy is hard. Being sick is hard. Choose your hard!”
It’s true, if you’re going to pursue a healthy lifestyle, what you eat is going to be key and eating healthy in a world filled with fake foods, additives, genetically modified ingredients and chemicals is hard! It takes work. But it takes a lot more work to be sick. I’m choosing my hard and I hope you’ll join me!
Here are my standards:
- My recipes are Gluten Free, (most of the time). True Celiac disease affects only 1 in 133 people but as many as 1 in 5 are believed to be gluten-intolerant, including me! Symptoms include bloating, weight gain (wheat belly), joint pain, anxiety, fatigue, thyroid issues, and behavioral issues in children. The wheat we consume today has been hybridized and is nothing like it was 20 years ago. It’s lower in nutrients than ancient wheat and higher in gluten. Have you ever wondered why people have so many problems with wheat today yet who ever heard of anyone with a wheat sensitivity back in the 60’s or 70’s? I bake with Almond Flour, Cassava Flour and Coconut Flour. I also like to use Sprouted Spelt Flour or Einkorn Wheat flour. They aren’t gluten free but they are easy to tolerate.
- I believe in healthy fats. Eating fat doesn’t make you fat!!! In fact, eating good fats helps your body burn fat and lose weight! My recipes use real, organic butter (grass fed like Kerry Gold), extra-virgin organic coconut oil, organic grass-fed ghee (which is basically clarified butter and is a perfect replacement for harmful oils), and organic extra-virgin olive oil. I don’t cook with olive oil because it will oxidize and create harmful free radicals if heated over 250 degrees. I don’t use any other bottled oils to cook with and never margarine or Crisco.
- I choose to use healthy, non-refined sweeteners. I love and use coconut sugar for most of my baked goods because it tastes great and is low on the glycemic index. It substitutes perfectly for brown sugar!I like to use pure maple syrup, preferably Grade B and organic. Raw, local honey has lots of nutrients, is anti-microbial and won’t ferment in the digestive tract like other sweeteners. Stevia, (the liquid form not the little packets), is another safe sweetener as well. I completely avoid aspartame and Sucralose and all those pink, yellow or blue packets in restaurants! Another non-caloric sweetener I use sometimes is called Swerve. It measures just like sugar, has zero net carbs, in non-GMO, and doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste like most sugar substitutes. It’s Erythritol and you can even use it if you’re doing a keto diet. I wouldn’t recommend eating it all the time but when you want a healthy alternative, this is one I love.
- I completely avoid GMO’s. Genetically modified foods are foods that have had their genes altered with other life forms including pesticides, bacteria and viruses. GMO foods are able to both handle and produce their own pesticides. I don’t want to consume pesticides in ANY form so I avoid GMO foods completely. The most common GMO foods to avoid are: corn, soybeans, canola, zucchini, summer squash, alfalfa, papaya, and sugar beets.
- I recommend using organic ingredients as much as your budget will allow. Most of the groceries I buy are organic because I don’t want to consume pesticides, herbicides, chemicals, or fungicides. Also, I want to avoid hormones, antibiotics and vaccines and the only way to do that is to avoid conventionally produced meat and dairy. As much as your budget will allow I recommend you use grass-fed beef, wild-caught fish, pastured eggs and poultry, grass-fed dairy, and wild game. It’s an investment to eat this way but honestly, I would much rather pay the farm than the pharmacy!
Here’s the list for this year’s Dirty Dozen, the produce most contaminated by pesticides:
- Strawberries, Spinach, Nectarines, Apples, Grapes, Peaches, Cherries, Pears, Tomatoes, Celery, Potatoes, Sweet Bell Peppers
The Clean 15 is a list of produce that does not have to be organic in order to be safe, though you still want to wash all produce thoroughly. The list includes:
- Asparagus, Avocados, Cabbage, Cantaloupe, Sweet Corn, Eggplant, Kiwis, Mangoes, Onions, Papaya, Pineapple, Sweet Peas, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Honeydews,