Eating To Live

I have a pal who keeps asking me to write a post about how I eat. I've written before about my foodie philosophy thoughts but never specifically about meal planning and nutrition and health and what I think about eating well. So, this post is for you, Jo....

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I'm the daughter of a hippie, raised on Adelle Davis and granola so in some sense health and deep interest in natural eating has been ingrained in me. (Thanks Mama! I'm eternally grateful!) I've done all kinds of reading and research about food and the upshot of my study is that I really, truly believe that whole foods, as found in nature are healthy and processed foods, particularly refined flour and sugar are poison. I know that sounds unnaturally strong and unpopular but its what I really have uncovered. I eat grains if they're whole, I try to minimize breads, pastries and pasta since flour doesn't do us a lot of nutritional favors. We have pasta once a week, for Sunday night dinner and it is always whole grain, sometimes I eat the sauce over steamed or sauteed veggies instead of noodles.

Here are some of the food tips I use to try to guide myself to eat well:

• Three colors of produce at each meal.
• Each dinner I make has a protein source (not necessarily animal), a cooked veggie, a raw veggie and a fruit, and sometimes a grain (usually rice or quinoa).
• Solid breakfast every day....no exceptions, ever.
• Drinks at our house are water, milk, tea and coffee (once a day on occasion), and lately sometimes fresh juice I make in my juicer.
• Chocolate is our sweet of choice, always dark an eaten in small squares. 
• Fat is not the enemy. We drink whole milk, we butter our veggies, we eat our steaks untrimmed, we saute in olive oil and we eat cheese regularly. (note however, that none of us are lactose intolerant)
• I cook and shop from a subscription menu planner that is delivered to my email account weekly. You can find it here, if you're curious.
• We buy fruit in quantity and keep it out in the open to encourage eating it for snacks.

I've done all kinds of things to stay healthy I've weaned myself down to skim milk, I've eaten diet products, I've lived on gas station cappuccinos, but I feel healthier sticking to my current eating regime than I ever have in my life. And the research heavily supports this kind of eating. There is a lot of evidence to prove the theory that something serious is wrong with modern, Western eating...people all over the world are leaving their native diets and adopting our fast food, convenience lifestyle and they are suddenly and dramatically inheriting our legacy of heart disease, obesity and diabetes. I truly believe that aging in a strong, fit way is possible and normal on the right diet. Although exercise is supportive and good, evidence tells us the most alarming factor is that we've left foods that make us strong and healthy for foods that are toxic, dangerous poison. I really believe that modern processed foods are the single source of most current health issues in America.

Lest you think I'm some sort of glowing, fork holding poster child, let me share that I am also a compulsive eater who has major weakness in the food department. I have a hard time coping with emotions, usually negative ones and I eat to calm down and feel good again. I wish a salad made me feel sane again but right now I'm pretty trapped in eating foods that I know are toxic and dangerous when the panic hits. I can eat well most of the time but as soon as the chips are down...I head for a gas station candy bar or a cookie stashed in the freezer from Christmas...or five or eight. I want to kick this habit. I need to learn other ways of calming myself and I need to just cut these dangerous foods out of my life so they aren't even there in the freezer if life does take a sudden bad turn.


I was just saying today that I am pretty committed to eating a real food, no processed goods diet but I need some form of support. So, at homeschool coop today, I told the other crunchy mommies about my plan...and then afterwards we ran to Whole Foods to pick up a couple things and serendipitously there was a woman there, signing people up for the Eat Right America Challenge, a 28 day real foods pledge with built in email and real life support. If you have a local store, you might want to think about joining me. 

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If you're curious about where I'm getting these wild nutrition ideas consider checking out a few of the following sources and beginning your own research campaign:

Books
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
Nourishing Traditions
Real Food, What to Eat and Why
The Omnivores Dilemma
Deep Nutrition
50 Secrets of the World's Longest Living People

Movies
Sick Fat and Nearly Dead
Food Inc.
Fast Food Nation
Forks Over Knives

Related articles

• you.are.what.you.eat ::: The Food Matters Project (keelymarie.com)
• Why your Grandma has better diet than you, balanced habits 7 (balancedprofessional.com)
• Processed Foods vs. Whole Foods (bleilerfitness.com)
• The "Asian Paradox": How Can Asians Eat So Much Rice and Not Gain Weight? (marksdailyapple.com)
• Clean Eats (givethanksandpraise.wordpress.com)

A List of Delicious, Good For Me Snacks

I need healthy snacks.
But, I have to say they need to be delicious and healthy. All too often I fall into the trap of shoving some convenient and less than terribly nutritious, maybe not even that enjoyable something-or-other in my mouth on the go. I do it when I'm stressed out (emo-eater extraordinaire here) and when I'm tired and when I have whiney kids to feed and when we're dashing in and then back out again and I don't have time to even think, let alone cook dinner. 

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I decided that its time to end all the empty, crappy snack insanity. I know better. I know how to eat well. I enjoy eating well. We buy good food. I live with a supportive food partner who believes in making good food choices...I'm just lazy. I'm not even talking physical laziness...its just the mental brain-fog-lazy that I need to kick. You know, this whole bit: "Uh....what could we eat???" *long and empty stare into the fridge*

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And that was how the idea of The Vibrant Snack List was born. 
I can do the thinking now, ahead of time, when my brain still works...and then later when I'm starving and my cerebellum freezes up on me, all I have to do is scan the list (which I am posting on the side of the fridge) and then have an automatic moment of gastronomic genius with whatever ingredients we are currently stocking. 

Image by intuitive cat via Flickr

This list is full of things that I consider to be healthful, happy, easy (or at least moderately so) and super enjoyable. You might not think everything on here sounds tasty to you, pick what you like and feel free to cut anything that sounds nasty to your palate and be sure to add your own brilliant stand-bys...(hint hint! Adding them in the comments below means we all get to enjoy your brilliance.) Also worth noting is the fact that my personal version of healthful isn't everyone's definition. I like all the food groups, generally eschew sugar am an omnivore and firmly believe that fats are good. You won't find any low-fat versions of things, or substitutionary style food copycats here either. I'm all for real food, all the time.


Vibrant Snacks

Image by Flavio@Flickr via Flickr
• avocado, squeeze of lime, sprinkle of sea salt (eat out of shell with a spoon!)
• string cheese
• a small pool of good olive oil, a dash of rosemary and a good hunk of fresh bread
• honey drizzled cottage cheese
• an apple (preferably a fresh, autumn apple) eaten out-of-hand with periodic smears of natural peanut butter
• a handful of good jerky 
• dried cherries
• a glass of fresh juice (take your pick!) just pressed out of my juicer
• a sandwich w/ soft goat cheese, basil, olive oil and thick slices of ripe tomato
• a fresh, garlicky hummus with raw carrots or red pepper slices
• a poached egg, cut open to dribble over a bed of sauteed mushrooms and fresh salad greens
• half of a melon and a spoon (leave the melon to ripen on the countertop for three or four days after purchase in the grocery store...it will get melty ripe and juicy)
• a ramekin of quality granola and fresh, raw milk
• ripe strawberries, or apricots sliced into cream...sprinkled with sugar or drizzled with honey
• fluffy scrambled egg with a tiny spoonful of caviar on top, some snippings of fresh dill and a bit of sour cream
• two halves of a fresh prickly pear fruit
• shrimp cocktail
  Image by ~dgies via Flickr
• jicama spears with a squeeze of lime
• a crisp dill pickle
• a handful of blueberries
• Vietnamese summer rolls with a small dish of nuoc mam for dipping
• 1/3 of a bar of dark chocolate
• thin slices of cold leftover chicken spread with a little honey mustard
• rosemary Triscuits, wedges of apple and paper thin slices of sharp, sharp cheddar
• a spoonful of glowing honeycomb
• a handful of Sungold tomatoes
• a small dish of salted edemame
• freshly popped corn w/ butter and salt 
• celery w/ a dollop of Alouette herb cheese on top
• dark chocolate covered strawberries
• raw spinach, raw walnuts, a hunk of crumbled goat cheese, chopped strawberries and a handful of blueberries topped with Brianna's delicious poppyseed dressing
• a shot of wheatgrass!
• goat cheese, ripe figs and proscuitto
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• half a grapefruit, drizzled with honey, eaten with a spoon
• fruit leather (you know, the kind made with real fruit)
• a head of garlic, dribbled with olive oil, salted and then roasted until the skin is gold...eaten with the fingers 

Okay...now I'm slobbering. Awesome. Gotta get this baby printed off and then...I think I need a snack!