Get Well ‘n Stay Well

Nutrition

Fruits, nuts, grains and vegetables, prepared in as simple a manner as possible, free from grease

One only has to observe the shopping carts in supermarkets to see how people are eating large quantities of processed, refined, packaged foods and drinks. These have high amounts of sugar, flavourings and chemicals to preserve what would otherwise spoil quickly.

Even fresh fruits and vegetables grown commercially are sprayed with insecticides, fungicides, pesticides, hormones and preservative compounds before they reach consumers.

A number of foods are genetically modified. Are there potential effects for consumers?

We feel it is a good practice to learn how to read the labels on foods and find out what the sections and contents mean. Learning to leave a product on the shelf takes practice at first.

In developed countries, “flesh” foods have often become a norm. It is fair to say since the arrival of fast food chains, TV dinners and the like, people have become unhealthier over time. Obesity rates and trends are a leading problem even with our children.

Medical practitioners may offer good advice, however the remedy is often simple – put the right fuel into your “body machine”. Let’s think about how we may stop flooding our system with toxic chemicals or harming our bodies with other habits, including “social drugs”, that actually destroy the body you were given with disease and ultimately death.

We realise organic products costs more, but there may be choices we can make on the shopping list – such as organic milk rather than regular milk, or replacing dairy with almond milk on breakfast cereals. These are small but decisive steps in contrast to no steps at all. They add up over time.

Another conscious choice we can make is to use Australian olive oil rather than vegetable oils. We can stay away from all deep fried foods and try to have “greens” with our meals. This is not to say we can be perfect or adjust to all things at once, but it is the change to our pattern of behaviour.

There is a trend to purchase lowest priced produce, but the issue is nutrition and what price points we are willing to reasonably obtain for chosen segments or categories of food. It is too important to justify against lowest price. There is choice, and there is nothing odd about driving to more than one shop on our shopping day.

Then of course is the topic of how we prepare and eat our foods. If we are tuned into change, we will come across food preparations one by one. For example, instead of boiling our greens we can lightly pan fry with some garlic or real ginger. We can make great salads with more finely chopped raw ingredients and spread some avocado on rice biscuits.

What this does imply is some understanding of how we use our time. The time it takes to drive for a take-away could be used to prepare foods on the chopping board. Instead of working on the computer till six at night, we can stop at five, relax a little, and prepare a rewarding meal.

A good place to begin is by purchasing delicious fruits and vegetables for our required vitamins and minerals. Nuts of many kinds provide wonderful unprocessed oils and nutrients for the whole body.
As an example, when we first change from salted nuts and sweets to plant based foods and raw nuts, it does not take too long for our sense of taste to adjust. When we return to old habits such as soft drink, or use the same amount of salt, we may not want it anymore as it is too strong. This is good.

And it is quite easy to try out raw foods such as chopping mushrooms into a salad. Next time buy a stick of corn, try slicing off the corn into the salad bowl. Explore the taste of raw foods. Chomp into a crisp green bean.