If your garden did better than mine did this year, you may have more tomatoes right now than you know what to do with. I picked some up at the farmers market last weekend, and am now obsessed with my new way of eating them.
Best part about this "recipe" is that it takes all of a minute to be ready.
Other best part, it's super healthy. Enjoy.
1. Medium to large tomato (or a couple handfuls of cherry or grape tomatoes)
2. Olive oil
3. Cheese
4. Salt/Pepper
Just chunk the tomato and put the pieces in a bowl.
Drizzle a little olive oil over the tomato pieces.
Add salt and pepper if you want.
Top it all off with a sprinkle of your favorite cheese. My personal favorites are gorgonzola and crumbled blue cheese. Feta would be good too. If you like milder cheese, try some fresh mozzarella.
Showing posts with label Real Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Real Food. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Fall Harvest
For most of the country (except for the poor saps like me that live in Florida), the most delicious time of the year is about to arrive. As fall approaches, crops in fields across the country are ripening up and being harvested.
And that should be excellent news to anyone out there who enjoys healthy, fresh, and local foods.
Fresh, local produce is, in my opinion, the best option to improve the quality of food we are putting on our tables at home. It is also a great way to keep your money circulating in the local economy, though that's another topic for another time. Fresh and local has a huge benefit over grocery store fresh, since it hasn't traveled thousands of miles to get to your house. When produce is harvested to be shipped all over the world, it is often times picked well before it has had a chance to fully ripen. This causes the produce to be less flavorful, and may have an effect on the density of the nutrients. But produce grown locally is much more likely to have been harvested when it is actually ripe, and therefore be more tasty and better for you.
So this weekend, and for the rest of the fall, try to avoid the produce aisle at the grocery store and instead stop by the farmers market or produce stand. And when you do, you will no doubt find better food for you and you family.
To help find farmers markets, CSAs, and produce stands where you live, visit localharvest.org and enter your zip code. And to read more about the perks of shopping at farmers markets, check out this earlier blog post.
And that should be excellent news to anyone out there who enjoys healthy, fresh, and local foods.
Fresh, local produce is, in my opinion, the best option to improve the quality of food we are putting on our tables at home. It is also a great way to keep your money circulating in the local economy, though that's another topic for another time. Fresh and local has a huge benefit over grocery store fresh, since it hasn't traveled thousands of miles to get to your house. When produce is harvested to be shipped all over the world, it is often times picked well before it has had a chance to fully ripen. This causes the produce to be less flavorful, and may have an effect on the density of the nutrients. But produce grown locally is much more likely to have been harvested when it is actually ripe, and therefore be more tasty and better for you.
So this weekend, and for the rest of the fall, try to avoid the produce aisle at the grocery store and instead stop by the farmers market or produce stand. And when you do, you will no doubt find better food for you and you family.
To help find farmers markets, CSAs, and produce stands where you live, visit localharvest.org and enter your zip code. And to read more about the perks of shopping at farmers markets, check out this earlier blog post.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Quantity Over Quality
As if we needed further evidence of modern man's (really modern America's) complete and utter cluelessness when it comes to food and nutrition, consider the following:
Would you be more likely to purchase:
Why, then, are people who choose to buy organic food considered either hippie-ish or snobby/elite because they choose to not buy the cheaper, non-organic food? Why is quality so important in our stuff, but it is irrelevant when it comes to our food?
A lot of people I know genuinely do not understand why quality food is better for you. Many think that there is little if any difference between a peach in a can and an organic peach straight from the tree. Or they don't see the difference between a McDonald's burger made with feed lot beef and a homemade burger from a free range cow.
The ultimate problem is that somewhere people learned to shop for food on the basis of price alone, and have therefore paid literally no attention to the quality. And here is the funniest part of this whole unbalanced equation. When you buy the cheaper, less nutritious food, your body doesn't stay full as long when you are eating the same amount of food. So you actually end up eating more and spending as much or more money on food than if you would have just bought the more nutritious organic food. As an example, my typical breakfast includes two fried eggs and a piece of toast. About this time last year, I started buying my eggs from a local farmer who raises chickens and sells free range eggs. When I made the switch from store bought to free range and fresh, I noticed that I was able to go much longer before feeling hungry when still just eating the same two eggs and the same piece of toast. In many cases, the eggs from the farmer were even smaller than those from the store. However, the eggs from the farmer are literally packed with nutrients, whereas the store bought eggs have not near as much. So instead of being ravenously hungry after just a couple of hours at work, I have a snack 3-4 hours into my day.
The big food corporations have done a great job keeping the lid on the fact that the more processed a food is, the fewer nutrients it contains. And since there are fewer nutrients, you are going to be hungry again sooner, and therefore eat more. All of which means more profit for big food.
What big food can't stop, however, is people from stumbling upon the truth on their own, and then hopefully spreading the word.
So that's what I'm doing. People, we are smack in the middle of a health crises in this country, the likes of which we have never seen before. Yes, we do need to exercise more. We are more sedentary than we have ever been. But, even if you never increase your activity level, you CAN make a drastic change in your health simply by eating better.
So the next time you're at the grocery store or produce market, look for the organic seal. Yes, you'll pay more for the higher quality foods, but when is the last time paying more for better quality has stopped you?
Would you be more likely to purchase:
- a Mercedes or a Kia?
- Abercrombie & Fitch or Wal-Mart brand?
- iPhone or a flip-phone?
- Grey Goose or Popov?
- Organic or Non-Organic?
Why, then, are people who choose to buy organic food considered either hippie-ish or snobby/elite because they choose to not buy the cheaper, non-organic food? Why is quality so important in our stuff, but it is irrelevant when it comes to our food?
A lot of people I know genuinely do not understand why quality food is better for you. Many think that there is little if any difference between a peach in a can and an organic peach straight from the tree. Or they don't see the difference between a McDonald's burger made with feed lot beef and a homemade burger from a free range cow.
The ultimate problem is that somewhere people learned to shop for food on the basis of price alone, and have therefore paid literally no attention to the quality. And here is the funniest part of this whole unbalanced equation. When you buy the cheaper, less nutritious food, your body doesn't stay full as long when you are eating the same amount of food. So you actually end up eating more and spending as much or more money on food than if you would have just bought the more nutritious organic food. As an example, my typical breakfast includes two fried eggs and a piece of toast. About this time last year, I started buying my eggs from a local farmer who raises chickens and sells free range eggs. When I made the switch from store bought to free range and fresh, I noticed that I was able to go much longer before feeling hungry when still just eating the same two eggs and the same piece of toast. In many cases, the eggs from the farmer were even smaller than those from the store. However, the eggs from the farmer are literally packed with nutrients, whereas the store bought eggs have not near as much. So instead of being ravenously hungry after just a couple of hours at work, I have a snack 3-4 hours into my day.
The big food corporations have done a great job keeping the lid on the fact that the more processed a food is, the fewer nutrients it contains. And since there are fewer nutrients, you are going to be hungry again sooner, and therefore eat more. All of which means more profit for big food.
What big food can't stop, however, is people from stumbling upon the truth on their own, and then hopefully spreading the word.
So that's what I'm doing. People, we are smack in the middle of a health crises in this country, the likes of which we have never seen before. Yes, we do need to exercise more. We are more sedentary than we have ever been. But, even if you never increase your activity level, you CAN make a drastic change in your health simply by eating better.
So the next time you're at the grocery store or produce market, look for the organic seal. Yes, you'll pay more for the higher quality foods, but when is the last time paying more for better quality has stopped you?
Friday, August 19, 2011
Grow Your Own
Whether you live on the farm or a third floor walk-up, growing your own food is a fun way to improve your health and save money on your grocery bill.
If you've got plenty of land where you live, the process is pretty easy. Put some seeds in the ground, put some compost or mulch down, add water and let nature take over. But city dwellers are often at a loss when it comes to growing veggies. Many types of plants have varieties that can grow in pots, and by positioning them on a balcony they will grow and produce healthy, delicious vegetables to add to salads or just to snack on. If you live in a northern climate, put the plants near a south facing window or under a grow light and you'll have some fresh veggies throughout the winter.
Fresh herbs are another option to grow on your own, and many herbs do well growing on a counter, window sill, or shelf in most parts of the country. And let me just tell you, a fresh sprig of rosemary or basil adds a lot flavor and nutrition to just about any dish you create.
One word of pause, however, before you rush to the garden store and buy a bunch of seeds. Remember that not all crops are able to grow in all climates, and not all things are capable of producing indoors. Vegetables that need pollinators obviously don't work indoors, and some plants need more room to grow than most pots provide. But if you want to grow some nutritious and delicious crops, there are options available to you no matter where you live.
If you've got plenty of land where you live, the process is pretty easy. Put some seeds in the ground, put some compost or mulch down, add water and let nature take over. But city dwellers are often at a loss when it comes to growing veggies. Many types of plants have varieties that can grow in pots, and by positioning them on a balcony they will grow and produce healthy, delicious vegetables to add to salads or just to snack on. If you live in a northern climate, put the plants near a south facing window or under a grow light and you'll have some fresh veggies throughout the winter.
Fresh herbs are another option to grow on your own, and many herbs do well growing on a counter, window sill, or shelf in most parts of the country. And let me just tell you, a fresh sprig of rosemary or basil adds a lot flavor and nutrition to just about any dish you create.
One word of pause, however, before you rush to the garden store and buy a bunch of seeds. Remember that not all crops are able to grow in all climates, and not all things are capable of producing indoors. Vegetables that need pollinators obviously don't work indoors, and some plants need more room to grow than most pots provide. But if you want to grow some nutritious and delicious crops, there are options available to you no matter where you live.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Good Reads
In case the dog days of summer are getting to you, allow me to offer you a couple of great book ideas to help bide you some time while lounging by the pool or soaking up the A/C.
"Real Food"--Nina Planck: Great read that will really open your eyes to the fact that so much of our daily caloric intake in the modern diet is, in fact, not real food. Real food doesn't come from the drive-thru or the frozen entreé aisle, it comes from the ground and from the farmer. This book may have done more to shape my views on nutrition than any other source.
"In Defense of Food"--Michael Pollan: This book explores the relationship we have with food, and the fact that you need to have certain types of food in a healthy diet. It does a great job stressing the importance of knowing where your food comes from, and how you can still enjoy meat products in a way that is healthy to both the environment and our bodies. Another great book by Michael Pollan is "The Omnivore's Dilemma".
"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"--Barbara Kingsolver: I actually just started this book today, so I can't give you a great endorsement of the entire book. The friends that I have that have read it, love it. The book chronicles the life of a family that lives an entire year eating basically nothing but foods that are produced locally. Most of the food they eat they grow themselves, while the rest is purchased at local farmer's markets or direct from the farmers. So far, the book seems pretty good.
"What's Gotten Into Us?"--McKay Jenkins: If you want a book that may in fact scare the bejesus out of you, look no further. This book talks about all of the environmental and product toxins that we live with in our modern world, and looks at the shortfalls of our government agencies that try to protect us. About 1/4 of the way into this book, I felt like I was Neo after he swallows the pill. I almost wish I could unlearn what I read, but the knowledge will certainly make me more mindful about the products we use that literally are poison. For example, do you know we still use Agent Orange in the year 2011? I guarantee my neighborhood is teeming with it, and I bet yours is too.
I hope you have a chance to enjoy some of these books. If there are any books you've read recently that you think I'd enjoy, leave me a comment and I'll be sure to add it to my list.
"Real Food"--Nina Planck: Great read that will really open your eyes to the fact that so much of our daily caloric intake in the modern diet is, in fact, not real food. Real food doesn't come from the drive-thru or the frozen entreé aisle, it comes from the ground and from the farmer. This book may have done more to shape my views on nutrition than any other source.
"In Defense of Food"--Michael Pollan: This book explores the relationship we have with food, and the fact that you need to have certain types of food in a healthy diet. It does a great job stressing the importance of knowing where your food comes from, and how you can still enjoy meat products in a way that is healthy to both the environment and our bodies. Another great book by Michael Pollan is "The Omnivore's Dilemma".
"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"--Barbara Kingsolver: I actually just started this book today, so I can't give you a great endorsement of the entire book. The friends that I have that have read it, love it. The book chronicles the life of a family that lives an entire year eating basically nothing but foods that are produced locally. Most of the food they eat they grow themselves, while the rest is purchased at local farmer's markets or direct from the farmers. So far, the book seems pretty good.
"What's Gotten Into Us?"--McKay Jenkins: If you want a book that may in fact scare the bejesus out of you, look no further. This book talks about all of the environmental and product toxins that we live with in our modern world, and looks at the shortfalls of our government agencies that try to protect us. About 1/4 of the way into this book, I felt like I was Neo after he swallows the pill. I almost wish I could unlearn what I read, but the knowledge will certainly make me more mindful about the products we use that literally are poison. For example, do you know we still use Agent Orange in the year 2011? I guarantee my neighborhood is teeming with it, and I bet yours is too.
I hope you have a chance to enjoy some of these books. If there are any books you've read recently that you think I'd enjoy, leave me a comment and I'll be sure to add it to my list.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Farmer's Markets: Tis The Season
It's Saturday morning and while most people are still in bed, farmers across the country have already loaded up their trucks and headed into town. Many communities across the country have farmer's markets on select days of the week, and no time is more popular than Saturday morning. Find farmer's markets in your neighborhood here.
While farmer's markets are great, especially for the local farmer, there are a couple of things to be aware of before you rush off and fill your bags with produce.
1. Just because something is available at the local farmer's market, doesn't mean it was grown locally. To me, this came as a complete shock, and turned me off from farmer's markets for awhile. I went one week and saw some locally grown vegetables, but the grapes were from Chíle and the melons were from Honduras. If I wanted fruit imported from South and Central America, I'd just go to the grocery store. Make sure you're looking for labels as to where the food is grown. Most farmers will go out of their way to advertise that their food is local, so if you don't see a sign that says locally grown, that should be a bit of a red flag.
2. Just because something is available at the local farmer's market, doesn't mean it was grown organically. For a multitude of reasons, I feel that organic produce is the best thing going. The difference in taste between the organic and non-organic is astronomical. The environmental benefits of organic farming are well documented, as is the harm associated to the environment associated with excessive fertilizer and pesticide application at non-organic farms. The nutritional content in organic produce is also better in organic foods.
3. That said, just because it's not organic, doesn't mean it's terrible for you, especially if it's local. The process and paperwork required to obtain the Organic status from the USDA is very extensive and expensive. If the farm is small, the profit margin is likely razor thin. For the farmer to risk major losses by going through the certified organic process may not make sense. But by talking to the farmer, you may find that his or her produce is every bit as organic as those labeled organic, and it's probably cheaper, too.
And even if it's not completely organic, the argument can be made that local non-organic is as good or better than organic produce grown across the country, or in another country, that has to be shipped hundreds or thousands of miles to get to you.
4. You can shake the hand that grows your food. To me, the biggest pro about shopping at a farmer's market is that you can talk with the farmer and learn how difficult farming really is. I've never met a farmer that I got a bad vibe from. They are all just people trying to earn a modest living and provide for their families. By building that relationship with the farmers in your area, you provide valuable feedback and encouragement for them to keep doing what they are doing. Starting a farm is a scary adventure, but knowing that you have a loyal customer base helps to limit the anxiety. Also, you are likely to find that farmers, like any good business, aim to please. By building a positive relationship with your farmer, you may be able to request new crops for the farmer to grow that you enjoy. In any event, getting to know the farmers at the farmer's market is one of the best parts of shopping there.
5. Farmer's markets are good for everyone involved. Bottom line, if a farmer can't make enough money to live, he or she has to get out of the business. By selling goods at a farmer's market, farmers are often able to get a better cost than by selling them wholesale. And while the farmer is able to get a better price for his or her goods, the consumer also gets a better deal. By buying direct from the farmer, you are able to get a better price than you can find in the grocery store.
So on this Saturday morning, put your coffee in a to-go cup, slap on some SPF, and head down to farmer's market for some delicious, fresh, and healthy local produce!
While farmer's markets are great, especially for the local farmer, there are a couple of things to be aware of before you rush off and fill your bags with produce.
1. Just because something is available at the local farmer's market, doesn't mean it was grown locally. To me, this came as a complete shock, and turned me off from farmer's markets for awhile. I went one week and saw some locally grown vegetables, but the grapes were from Chíle and the melons were from Honduras. If I wanted fruit imported from South and Central America, I'd just go to the grocery store. Make sure you're looking for labels as to where the food is grown. Most farmers will go out of their way to advertise that their food is local, so if you don't see a sign that says locally grown, that should be a bit of a red flag.
2. Just because something is available at the local farmer's market, doesn't mean it was grown organically. For a multitude of reasons, I feel that organic produce is the best thing going. The difference in taste between the organic and non-organic is astronomical. The environmental benefits of organic farming are well documented, as is the harm associated to the environment associated with excessive fertilizer and pesticide application at non-organic farms. The nutritional content in organic produce is also better in organic foods.
3. That said, just because it's not organic, doesn't mean it's terrible for you, especially if it's local. The process and paperwork required to obtain the Organic status from the USDA is very extensive and expensive. If the farm is small, the profit margin is likely razor thin. For the farmer to risk major losses by going through the certified organic process may not make sense. But by talking to the farmer, you may find that his or her produce is every bit as organic as those labeled organic, and it's probably cheaper, too.
And even if it's not completely organic, the argument can be made that local non-organic is as good or better than organic produce grown across the country, or in another country, that has to be shipped hundreds or thousands of miles to get to you.
4. You can shake the hand that grows your food. To me, the biggest pro about shopping at a farmer's market is that you can talk with the farmer and learn how difficult farming really is. I've never met a farmer that I got a bad vibe from. They are all just people trying to earn a modest living and provide for their families. By building that relationship with the farmers in your area, you provide valuable feedback and encouragement for them to keep doing what they are doing. Starting a farm is a scary adventure, but knowing that you have a loyal customer base helps to limit the anxiety. Also, you are likely to find that farmers, like any good business, aim to please. By building a positive relationship with your farmer, you may be able to request new crops for the farmer to grow that you enjoy. In any event, getting to know the farmers at the farmer's market is one of the best parts of shopping there.
5. Farmer's markets are good for everyone involved. Bottom line, if a farmer can't make enough money to live, he or she has to get out of the business. By selling goods at a farmer's market, farmers are often able to get a better cost than by selling them wholesale. And while the farmer is able to get a better price for his or her goods, the consumer also gets a better deal. By buying direct from the farmer, you are able to get a better price than you can find in the grocery store.
So on this Saturday morning, put your coffee in a to-go cup, slap on some SPF, and head down to farmer's market for some delicious, fresh, and healthy local produce!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Stuffed Eggplant
Giving Meatless Monday another shot this week. I put this dish together in my head the other day, and it would be very easy to substitute ingredients to suit your taste. Feel free to use this recipe as a blueprint to build your own delicious Meatless Monday meal.
Hope you enjoy!
1 Eggplant, sliced in half lengthwise, some inside flesh removed to create small "bowl"
1 cup Quinoa
Salt
Olive Oil
1/4 Red Onion
3 Cloves Garlic
1/2 Bell Pepper
3 TBSP Sunflower Seeds
3 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar (optional)
Gorgonzola Cheese
1. Heat oven to 350. Coat flesh of eggplant with approx 1 Tsp of Olive Oil and a pinch of salt. Put on baking tray flesh side up and bake for 20-25 minutes. Eggplant flesh should be slightly browned when done. Remove from oven.
2. While eggplant is in oven, prepare Quinoa as directed. Add 3 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar in addition to the water needed to cook quinoa. When it is ready, remove from heat and set aside. 1 cup will have cooked up to about 2.5 cups.
3. Saute pepper, onion, sunflower seeds, and garlic in olive oil.
4. Combine sauteed veggies and approx 3/4 cup of quinoa in separate dish. Stir together and then 'stuff' the eggplant halves with the mixture. Sprinkle cheese on top, and put under the broiler for a few minutes to melt cheese.
Serve. Can use extra quinoa as a side, or serve by itself.
Hope you enjoy!
1 Eggplant, sliced in half lengthwise, some inside flesh removed to create small "bowl"
1 cup Quinoa
Salt
Olive Oil
1/4 Red Onion
3 Cloves Garlic
1/2 Bell Pepper
3 TBSP Sunflower Seeds
3 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar (optional)
Gorgonzola Cheese
1. Heat oven to 350. Coat flesh of eggplant with approx 1 Tsp of Olive Oil and a pinch of salt. Put on baking tray flesh side up and bake for 20-25 minutes. Eggplant flesh should be slightly browned when done. Remove from oven.
2. While eggplant is in oven, prepare Quinoa as directed. Add 3 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar in addition to the water needed to cook quinoa. When it is ready, remove from heat and set aside. 1 cup will have cooked up to about 2.5 cups.
3. Saute pepper, onion, sunflower seeds, and garlic in olive oil.
4. Combine sauteed veggies and approx 3/4 cup of quinoa in separate dish. Stir together and then 'stuff' the eggplant halves with the mixture. Sprinkle cheese on top, and put under the broiler for a few minutes to melt cheese.
Serve. Can use extra quinoa as a side, or serve by itself.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Diet Drama on the Bookshelf
Unless you've been living under a rock like the dudes in the Geico commercial, you've got to be aware of the expanding waistlines of the majority of the US population. Every health expert and nutritionist has his or her own explanation of the root cause of the additional pounds we are packing on. While all the angles have a certain amount of merit, I throw my lot in with the crowd that feels that our food choices play the biggest role in determining our body weight.
Apparently, I'm not the only one who feels that the saying 'you are what you eat' has a good bit of credibility. This was the scene at the local bookstore my wife and I visited the other day:
In case I need to make things a little clearer, there were 19.5 shelves that contained books telling you what you should eat to get healthy/lose weight. I counted the books on 3 of the shelves and there was an average of 42 books in that sample size. For arguments sake, let's say there were only 40 books per shelf, that would give you 780 books trying to sell you a way of eating that will make you healthier. The problem with all of these books is that there are so many conflicting titles. There are the no carb books. There are the no fat books. There are the no taste books. Well, maybe not no taste books, but after browsing a couple of them I think that no taste might be an accurate assessment. There is the cave-man diet book. The abs diet book. The skinny bitch diet book. (Ladies, for what it's worth I'd rather you be cool and a few pounds overweight than be a bitch and be skinny. Just sayin'.)
There are literally 100's of different titles in the diet and nutrition section trying to tell you what you should eat. If you ask me, they all miss the point. Well, all but one. Nina Planck wrote a book called Real Food; it completely changed the way that I think about food and it makes absolutely perfect sense. Our bodies need real food to function properly, and real food comes from the ground and from nature. Now, you can argue that organic is better than non-organic (and I wouldn't disagree with that point), but we as a country and we as a world need to realize that real food is better than processed food for our bodies. Our bodies don't know how to digest the processed food that we eat. I believe the reason for this is so logical that it is easy to miss, a kind of 'can't see the forest for the trees' scenario. Depending on your belief structure, (and I promise to not get into a creation vs evolution debate, at least not now) our bodies have been eating relatively the same types of food for the first 7,000-100,000 years that homo sapiens have been on the planet. It's only been in the last 60 or so years that we've screwed everything up. Whether it is trans-fats, partially hydrogenated oils, or genetically modified crops, our bodies can't process them. When we eat these foods too often, our bodies don't get the nutrients they need, and it sends a signal to the brain to eat more in an attempt at getting the nutrients required.
So, what I tell my clients (pay attention here) is that you need to do the best you can to eat real food. Real food is the kind of thing you have to cook. You have to take the time to peel and/or wash it. Eating real food is the only way to live a healthy and long life. The shit that we eat from fast food restaurants (excuse my language but I believe that you should call a Big Mac what it is, and it surely isn't food) is killing us. And by looking at the dramatic rise in obesity rates and chronic diseases in the last 60 years, you can't even say that processed foods are killing us slowly. Cause they're not.
The question isn't whether you can afford to buy real food; the real question is whether you can afford not to.
Remember, you really are what you eat.
Apparently, I'm not the only one who feels that the saying 'you are what you eat' has a good bit of credibility. This was the scene at the local bookstore my wife and I visited the other day:
In case I need to make things a little clearer, there were 19.5 shelves that contained books telling you what you should eat to get healthy/lose weight. I counted the books on 3 of the shelves and there was an average of 42 books in that sample size. For arguments sake, let's say there were only 40 books per shelf, that would give you 780 books trying to sell you a way of eating that will make you healthier. The problem with all of these books is that there are so many conflicting titles. There are the no carb books. There are the no fat books. There are the no taste books. Well, maybe not no taste books, but after browsing a couple of them I think that no taste might be an accurate assessment. There is the cave-man diet book. The abs diet book. The skinny bitch diet book. (Ladies, for what it's worth I'd rather you be cool and a few pounds overweight than be a bitch and be skinny. Just sayin'.)
There are literally 100's of different titles in the diet and nutrition section trying to tell you what you should eat. If you ask me, they all miss the point. Well, all but one. Nina Planck wrote a book called Real Food; it completely changed the way that I think about food and it makes absolutely perfect sense. Our bodies need real food to function properly, and real food comes from the ground and from nature. Now, you can argue that organic is better than non-organic (and I wouldn't disagree with that point), but we as a country and we as a world need to realize that real food is better than processed food for our bodies. Our bodies don't know how to digest the processed food that we eat. I believe the reason for this is so logical that it is easy to miss, a kind of 'can't see the forest for the trees' scenario. Depending on your belief structure, (and I promise to not get into a creation vs evolution debate, at least not now) our bodies have been eating relatively the same types of food for the first 7,000-100,000 years that homo sapiens have been on the planet. It's only been in the last 60 or so years that we've screwed everything up. Whether it is trans-fats, partially hydrogenated oils, or genetically modified crops, our bodies can't process them. When we eat these foods too often, our bodies don't get the nutrients they need, and it sends a signal to the brain to eat more in an attempt at getting the nutrients required.
So, what I tell my clients (pay attention here) is that you need to do the best you can to eat real food. Real food is the kind of thing you have to cook. You have to take the time to peel and/or wash it. Eating real food is the only way to live a healthy and long life. The shit that we eat from fast food restaurants (excuse my language but I believe that you should call a Big Mac what it is, and it surely isn't food) is killing us. And by looking at the dramatic rise in obesity rates and chronic diseases in the last 60 years, you can't even say that processed foods are killing us slowly. Cause they're not.
The question isn't whether you can afford to buy real food; the real question is whether you can afford not to.
Remember, you really are what you eat.
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