Having lived 29 of the 31 years of my life in the processed
food world, I feel I am qualified in making guidelines. Some of my “qualifications”
include:
- I got yelled at, at age 16, to “Bridle your eating passions!!” All because I couldn’t wait any longer and snuck some early dinner. I didn’t know my dad was watching. I hear his voice echo at me when I eat something I shouldn’t, haha :)
- Once in a mid-week Relief Society meeting, women were going around sharing what our weakness were. Out of the 30 or so women, there were a handfuls who said, “Buying shoes,” or “Clothes,” “Changing my hair,” or “Getting my nails done,” even “Buying my kids clothes!” Lots of heads nodded in understanding. When got to be my turn, I said quietly, “Food. I. Love…food.” I looked around to see the other women. Did they understand my passion for great tasting food? Afterwards I found a new buddy. The only other woman in the room, who confessed food was her weakness. We spent time afterwards discussing our commonality and reveling in which tastes delighted and where they were found at the best price…
- I am a slave to flavor. “If it don’t taste good, I ain’t gonna eat it!”
All that means is: I have NO credentials! No degrees
or diplomas, except the LOVE of food and personal results. Eating healthy, for
me, all started even before I realized it was important.
Something in my life would have to be a “live or die”
situation to get me to change my diet, and we’re just talking the regular Standard
American Diet (SAD). Taco Bell was my frequent crutch, and partially
hydrogenated frosting my friend. But that situation is for a different story.
The path I took to change was an answer I didn’t expect to receive, from years
of prayer about a subject that seemed totally unrelated. And the rewards of
individual days, turning into weeks, months and years of trying to eat
healthy-that of taking 2 steps forward and one step back over, and over, and
over, has made me believe in the power of food.
Consider this scripture: “Now ye suppose that this is
foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things
are great things brought to pass…” Alma 37:6, from The Book of Mormon.
Does scripture that apply to food and health? I believe it.
Part I-Small
and Simple Things
Healthy Eating:
What does it look like?
So what does healthy (non-processed) eating look like? I
guess that kind of depends which kitchen you enter. Quite fascinating to me, is
that how people go about this is
different from one another. The pace, progression, particular tastes and time
available are not the same for each family. There is no one cut and dry answer.
Experimenting is fun, and then you find what works, and then boom-you’ve got
it! (Then one becomes pregnant and tired from moving boxes to a new house, not
in the mood to cook, so we’ve got to re-adjust things to where no one starves
at dinner! Hehe)
The good news is that there are enough similar things
between healthy eating families there’s a framework to begin. To share this I
am going to use two stories.
I remember when we used to live in Ames, Iowa and I went to
the grocery store. Along with the other things on my list, I bought one bunch
of bananas. Multiple times this would happen when I would come home and set the
bananas in a prominent place as sort of a decoration
to health. They were a complement to my packed freezer of already prepared
meals, frozen extras and my varieties from the cow and chicken in the fridge.
My cupboards were neatly packed with fast sugary and salty grabby foods next to
stacks of canned meals ready for fast eating. I was awesome-I didn’t even take
them out and heat them up-I ate right out of the can :)
Then Mr. Husband would come home from his classes and not an
hour later, my healthy garnish of bananas was reduced to one, lonely, banana! I
scolded him! “Here I am trying to buy healthy food and you eat it all! That was
supposed to last for a while you know!!” I said with a tear starting to form.
“ONE banana a day!” He looked at me with slight confusion, said, “OK, I’ll
try.” I was quite irritated. What, did he think we had tons money to buy
healthy food? The nerve! We had to
make it last…
Oh, boy was I funny! I look back on that and just laugh at
myself. Contrast that with what happened 3 years later…
I was desperate to start eating
healthy. I was seeking for healing in my body, and it would be a bonus if I
lost weight too. I looked forward to this first grocery trip of the month with
such anticipation you would’ve thought I was going to another country to pick
out food! With what principles I was learning lately, it felt as if I was going
to see what was really around me for
the first time. Spending most of my time in parts of the store that I usually
breezed by. Stopping in isles to really look at labels. No not at calories, but
ingredients. Real things that would
go in my mouth that would have an A, B or C effect on me. At the same time, I
was trying my best to contain myself at the anticipation of cooking real things
that tasted good in my own kitchen. Me turn into a cook? Wow. Never would have
pegged myself. Yet preparing food now was a mission, not a badge. And with how
much I hated doing dishes by hand, Every. Single. Day. Cooking and baking healthily
held the promise of being worth its weight in gold.
I stopped in my last isle and
looked into my cart. The variety and colors were complex and stirring, the guidelines
simple enough, affording plenty of room for a diversity of meals and flavors.
And there was way more than just fruits and veggies in there. So many whole foods
to work with…a new world, right before me.
I walked through the door of our
home with my bags of wonder! Space was cleared on the counter and in the fridge
for my supplies. While putting everything away, I turned to my husband and
said, “Remember when I said not to eat a lot of bananas?” He looked at me
puzzled, and then remembering said, “Yeah.” “Well, think the opposite now. You
can have as many as you’d like. If you’re hungry, then eat. I won’t stop
you…you have lots of others to choose from too.” He looked at me and looked at
the bananas. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say, “Ok” and grabbed the pack
of natural sugar, carbohydrates and vitamins with his signature peel-it-like-a-monkey-in-Guatemala,
ate his share of the fruit. One of my daughters saw the abundance and asked if
she could eat. “Yes. Which ones do you want?” I breathed a sigh of relief. We
had given ourselves the permission to not be afraid of eating. Yeah, I could
get used to this!!
Those stories, factual and
extreme, contain wonderful principles. To go a little further, in addition to
the many options of ready to eat foods easily available/edible/incredible, there
are several things to keep in mind when you want to create meals from other whole
foods that you buy. They will quickly become food you’ll not only like, but
LOVE on a regular basis. If you can remember these simple tricks as you shop
and cook, half the expedition will be protected!
The List of Basic Principles:
·
Spice
it up! It is so interesting to me
that the secret to almost all delicious cooking starts with vegetables! Grown,
harvested, dried, then cut or ground, and you’ve got herbs and spices of all
sorts! Salty, sweet, savory, spicy, even the bitter has its place :) If you
want to get away from processed foods and make delicious food at home, I say, “Welcome to the world of spices!!”
They will be your deliciousness factor, so don’t’ be afraid to check out, buy
and try new ones! Included in here are the great oils, vinegars and other
additions (without the additives).
·
It’s out
there! The beauty of the American Dream and ingenuity is a part of food!
Yes, healthy versions of things you enjoy eating can be made at home or bought!
Don’t for one minute think you don’t get to make your cake and eat it too! I’m
still discovering new items. Still making new favorites. Like I tell my family,
“The world is your burrito!”
·
Stay
Whole! Processed foods are made by subtracting from whole ingredients,
leaving them wanting in nutrients and oftentimes replacing them with synthetic
flavor enhancers/preservers, sometimes with chemicals we wouldn’t feed a dog we
liked. Most commercially processed foods do not
nourish and strengthen us, but do the opposite by impairing divinely designed processes
meant to take place in our body with real
food! Hence, tiredness, crazy cravings, unnecessary weight gain, beginning
stages of diseases, diabetes and cancers that have a higher likelihood of
manifesting later in life. Take a look at the American diet, and take a look at
the American health statistics. A more whole diet is the ounce of prevention
that money can’t buy. On small lists below you’ll see Common Refined Foods
(CRF). On the right you’ll see non-, or minimally processed foods (Whole).
CRF
Whole
white sugar
honey, Sugar in the Raw, 100% pure maple syrup…
fruit snacks
banana, apple, mango, peach or dehydrated fruit…
white flour
whole wheat pastry flour (white wheat), whole wheat (red), corn flour,
bean flour…
prepackaged meals vegetables,
rice, potatoes, beans, spices, oils, whole pastas, fruits, seeds,
oils, whole grains, nuts, vinegars,
herbs, vegetables, legumes…
We know this stuff! So as a matter of progressive mechanics, this
is what I did.
·
Start
With Your Conscience. Decide one or two foods at a time to: Wean, Stop,
Swap, or Create!! Practically speaking, we can categorize our “line upon line”
choices moving in that better direction, away from the processed foods. Take what
you already know to begin in your own kitchen:
1.
Wean off,
at a pace you’re comfortable with:
o
“I’m only going to eat 5 Hershey’s kisses, instead
of 10 today.”
o
“We’re
going to mix half white rice (or pasta) with half brown rice (or whole wheat
pasta) to become familiar with the taste. We’ll eat it 100% brown when we’re
ready.”
2.
Stop
eating, Some examples may include:
o
“I won’t order the 4000 calorie burger ever again!”
o
“The additive, Monosodium Glutamate, does what to animals and people’s brains? I’m
reading labels from now on!”
3.
Swap it,
find what you enjoy, only, done better!!
o
“I found peanut butter that has NO hydrogenated
oils or preservatives. Sweetheart, we buy Krema brand from now on.”
o
“Let’s
try to grow this veggie ourselves.”
o
“We can easily buy honey locally, and it’s
cheaper in bulk!”
4. Create! Looking at it in a few ways, we
could say:
o
“Our family doesn’t eat a lot of greens. I know
we probably should be eating more. There must be some way we can in incorporate
it to where we enjoy it :) I’ll do a
search for some new recipes...”
o
“I didn’t know that fruit/vegetable existed?
Let’s buy it, eat it straight, or look up a recipe to try out!”
o
“I want to start making our own bread.”
Creation is where the fun lies! Another
little story:
When
at the grocery store this summer, purchasing a large bag of cherries, the clerk
ringing me up said, “Wow, cherries are expensive huh?” “Yeah,” I said, “but I
like to think about it like this: I could either spend the same amount of money
on some ice cream and feel guilty for eating it, or I can eat this bag of
cherries, and have no guilty feelings…plus
it’s good for my body!” She thought about it, nodded her head and smiled :)
Lesson? Create your own heaven :)
·
A Family
Affair: When I serve new things to my family, I call it “A Taste Adventure!”
Often times that includes sharing our opinion and describing if we like it or
not, followed by possible uses or spice additions if needed. My family has
always been open to adventure bites, because they know they are not required to
eat a whole plate of it if they don’t like it.
Simple tips for allowing it to become a lifestyle change:
·
Be patient
with yourself and your family. Since each members tastes, past experience and
“feelings” about food are different, listening to what they want to eat and how
they feel about food is important. Kids sometimes will continue to be picky.
That’s true with healthy or unhealthy food. People don’t change in a day
(especially husbands, haha), and if you’re lucky enough to have a family go
along for the journey, then a gentle approach is best. They’ll soon find their
favorites, just keep trying!!
·
Become informed!
This is the exciting part. It seems those who have really found success weaning
off processed foods are the people who have adopted a curiosity about food. Finding out where it comes from, what’s in
it, what an additive/preservative has done to lab animals/people in tests,
asking why people make food choices as they do, finding out what’s the secret
for making vegetables irresistible, and other exciting questions. It doesn’t
have to be a consume-your-life quest. More like, “I got a couple minutes to
spare on the internet/this books looks interesting, what can I learn about fill-in-the-blank?”
·
Read out of the best of books (and websites).
One doesn’t have to read all books
ever written about food and health to come to workable conclusions. It’s
careful selection of books that contain truth or a good portion of it. For a
good number of contentious members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, Doctrine and Covenants section 89 is not only cornerstone, but a
living, breathing scripture. Serious seekers read, contemplate, search and ask
many, many questions. The prophets have counseled on the “don’ts”. But the
search and execution of the “do’s” is left up to each individual. What a thrilling adventure in food! It makes me feel
empowered just thinking about it!! And asking people you trust about which
other books written by mankind are great places to find real learning. If you
believe that the health of our bodies is important to God and you want Divine
guidance, help is real!
·
Bookmark
your favorite recipes! It was incredibly delightful to me find many people who
have been eating less processed foods for a long time. They are usually more
than elated to offer recipes (practical tips, reading recommendations) and
encouragement! Tammie is the author of a
blog on the SimpleHealthyTasty website. The Chickpea
Salad Sandwich is one of my favorite recipes of hers (I’ve never added the
sunflower sour cream and I don’t prefer adding the extra pickle juice, it’s a
little too strong.) It makes a FABULOUS sandwich! To see how she handles picky
eaters and Encourages
Children click on #2 after it opens. When you find your favorite recipes,
make sure to keep it bookmarked to find it easy, whether it is on the web or in
a book!
Those are simple practical tips for steering your boat to
better health. I have one last story to share.
I looked in my fridge while I dialed the phone. “Honey, could
you pick up some more peaches at the store? We’re all out. I can’t believe we
ate all of them in just a few days!” “Ok, do we need anything else?” “Yeah,
maybe some more…” It was a satisfying conversation. One of those little tender
mercies that made a big difference. It was not so easy at the beginning. After
many months of shifting foods around and as I began to get a clearer picture
about where I wanted to be, conversations with him about the vision I had for
changing our diet were a wee bit tense. He was resistive. Angry at times. I
don’t blame him. I didn’t have all the answers. I didn’t even know if I was
totally right, but I had principles to go from, and I thought the whole process
of trial and error was fun!
Maybe that’s why I assumed he thought I was sadistic. I was
taking a black and white reasoning man and asked him to play in the grey of
unknown to find out if black was really black and white was really white in the
Standard American Diet. Although it was nothing major, it was enough to rock
his world. We still don’t see eye to eye on every food, and that’s ok. He’s
still searching to find answers for himself. That’s how it should be.
As for going with the flow, his love and commitment ultimately
won out. He eventually learned live with it, or rather me, and my conviction
that the food we eat becomes a part of us. With the power to build or destroy
our body. And darn it, I wasn’t going to
go back to the place I was. I prayed, broken, torn down, in earnest for years
for an answer. I would be throwing a chest of treasures back into the deep blue
sea if I turned my back on voyage to the promised land of health. It’s too
important. I’m too important. Our health when we’re 80 is too
important…And so we sail together. He’s encouraging to our family about eating
healthy and surprises me by doing better than I do some times. The fun part is
I still get my love of food and flavor and he gets a happy wife who makes good
food. “…Uh, I think that’s it.” I shut the fridge and he recited back to me the
things I wanted from the store….
“Guess what were having tonight girls?” Their squeals of
excitement drowned out the fear of the mound of dishes I might have. With crockpot
nights I had less, but I had something new to make, and this was going to be
fun! I grabbed my cutting boards and my pans were placed on the stove…within 20
minutes the smell that filled the air made one remember that it’s great to be
alive. “Maybe, one day,” I thought, “I might have a dishwasher…” I looked up as my husband walked through the
door with his bags of food. A smile spread on his face as I saw a twinkle in
his eye as he smelled dinner.
It was worth it.
By small and simple things, great things come to pass! It’s
been fun organizing and getting down on paper a portion of my thoughts. I hope
this helps. I would love to continue sharing my thoughts in Part II and beyond.
Health should be free to learn, food fun to make, and
delicious and satisfying to eat.
Have fun!!!
Shef Bold Flavor
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