Imagine if you could hire someone to do all your shopping and healthy food preparation for you! What a luxury! What a thrill.
This is the reason we often find ourselves going out for a meal, whether in a restaurant or fast food, because we want someone else to do the work for us.
So, if you could get a real live person to take over this part of your life, what instructions would you give them?
“Just make me healthy food.”
This instruction might not be enough. We all have different definitions of health. Many distinctively unhealthy fast food outlets promote the health of their products!
Most of us at some point have assumed that the food products available in the grocery store are safe – we do have an organization called the Food and Drug Association, which is there (paid by our tax dollars) to make sure the options are safe and healthy – right?
Every family has their own interpretation of ‘healthy food.’ Every mother teaches her children food preferences.
So, how do we navigate the maze and figure out what healthy food means in 2013? If someone was shopping and preparing food for me, this is what I would instruct them to buy and prepare:
My short list of ‘NO’:
- GMO products (corn, sugar beets, soy components, unless specified non-GMO);
- HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) containing products (HFCS is GMO, so it would be excluded anyway);
- Partially hydrogenated fats;
- Pork;
- Most processed foods (or >5 ingredients).
YES:
- Lots of healthy fats: coconut oil, olive oil (EVOO), avocado, wild fish, clean meat, raw clean nuts and seeds;
- Organic vegetables (celery, sweet potatoes, carrots, kale, leafy greens, cucumbers, broccoli, green beans, peas, summer squash, zucchini, etc.);
- Organic fruit (apples, bananas, limes, anything seasonal);
- Ginger, garlic, turmeric, cilantro, Himalayan salt, other herbs;
- Superfoods: cacao powder, maca powder, spirulina, cacao nibs, goji berries, aloe, bee products, hemp seeds, chia seeds, etc.;
- Limited grains: oats, rice, quinoa, wheat or wheat flour (all organic if possible);
- For a treat: organic corn chips, organic salsa, fresh vegetable juices
Once you get all the good ingredients home, then the fun part of figuring out how you are going to prepare it begins!
Some people say, eating healthy is so expensive, but I remind them that cancer is being expensive; being sick and disabled is VERY expensive.
What principles help you with your grocery shopping? I’d love to hear from anyone who has transitioned even further on the road to health and is growing some of their own organic foods!
Is the “no pork” thing due to Leviticus? I have so much studying to do!! So many translations and interpretations say Jesus declared all foods clean in Mark 7:19, but I’m guessing that’s their opinion. Then I think I saw someone say that the KJV doesn’t say that and Jesus still declares certain foods unclean. I thought someone told me as well (and I can’t find it at moment), that Paul said if we pray, it will be clean. That’s what the hubby thinks too. There’s also the “science” out there that says pork can carry disease if not cooked properly, so I just wanted to clarify where you were coming from. And how we politely turn down food offered to us when we know its bad for us? Just a curiosity thing!!
Shalimar
You ask so many good questions. I believe God will guide us to truth. Many Christians like to enjoy all foods. I aim to eat kosher most of the time because I believe the food laws in the Torah were for the good of the Israelites and are probably still a good idea for health. I’m not rigid, but prefer to choose kosher meats when I have a choice. If I am served something containing pork or non-kosher sea foods, and I don’t have a choice, I may take a very small portion. I don’t want to offend a host by rigidly adhering to food rules.
Some non Christians who emphasis nutrition recommend avoiding pork. In fact one nutritional educator (I can’t remember his name now) stated the top food not to eat was pork! He wasn’t worried about following the Bible, just health principles.
I just try to get my body to like what is good for it. I try not to impose my own personal decisions on others, although my family generally aligns with most of my principles!