Sometimes in the storm of often-contradictory nutritional advice that comes our way we forget how easy it really is to take care of our families. We get confused. Good potato? Bad potato? Help!
When you’re a chef at home you can relax in your kitchen and cook your best. It feels good to open the fridge and spontaneously cook, filling the table with healthy flavours. You’ll learn that cooking is an antidote to a processed food lifestyle. You realize how truly easy it is to create a healthy food lifestyle for your family. You’ll eat well and feel great!
Here are some simple guidelines. They’re not rules! They’re really just to remind you of a few simple things that life has probably already taught you…
Sharing a meal with your family is one of the most powerful things you can do for each other. A strong family starts with individuals but grows with time together. Sit down and eat. Laugh, cry, share. Together you’re stronger than you are apart. Let your love for each other guide you to be your best in the kitchen.
There’s no such thing as a diet; it’s a silly four-letter word. There’s only lifestyle. You gain weight by eating more calories than you burn. That’s why it’s so important to live an active life. It’s not your fault that you’re hard-wired to go great lengths to find food, eat every bit you can get your hands on then store the rest for the future. For most of history that worked just fine. But not today. Now diet-peddlers suggest that a narrowly defined regimen of processed food and bland flavour will sustain us. Baloney! There’s no magic solution but to avoid the pitfalls of the modern, sedentary lifestyle exercise your food sense. Put as much effort into your daily activity as you do cooking and eating.
You are what you eat. Easy. Fuel your machine with goodness and it’ll hum forever. Since almost all of the food decisions you make for your family are at the supermarket, be careful. Stay out of those aisles – you know the ones. Load your cart with healthy choices. Remember variety is not just the spice of life, it’s the key to life! If you routinely bring home a wide range of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, yogurt and other healthy goodies someday you’ll get the chance to teach your great-grand kids how to clean their plates!
We all know that fruits and vegetables are good for us but did you know that the more colourful they are the better they are? That’s right. Mother Nature packs vital nutrients into the pigments that give produce its signature palate. It’s no coincidence that those bright colours catch our eye. Don’t fight it! Give in to your colourful urges. Stick to your favourite fruits and vegetables but try new ones too. An ever-growing variety in your life will energize your family for the long run.
Carbohydrates are the fuel for the engine; they’re nature’s energy source and vital for life. Unfortunately we're surrounded by bad carbs that often overshadow good carbs. Slow carbs are the key. We’re at our best when food gives us sustained energy – not the peak-and-plummet energy of sugar laden processed junk. The best way to get essential long-burning carb energy is to eat whole grains every single day. As a bonus you’ll also get lots of antioxidants, fibre, B-complex vitamins, minerals, protein and no saturated fat. You’ll also help reduce your risk of heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and a laundry list of other preventable ailments. Whole grain power!
Protein is the fundamental building block of life. Plants make their own but animals can't. So we eat plants – or other animals. Hence our craving for steak. But the heavy artery clogging fats in red meat makes it a once-a-week treat not a daily staple. Historically that worked well but today we’re at the top of the biggest food chain in history. Fortunately there are still thousands of other ways to find protein in nature – like lean meats, poultry, cheese, yogurt or the fish my family eats every week. Fish is loaded with the goodness of the ocean. It’s fat-free, packed with healthy oils and tastes awesome. It’s an excellent protein choice and so are some vegetables. Combine a whole grain with a bean at any meal and you’ll be a protein-making machine!
Mother Nature has taken care of us for a long time so we’re at our best when our food is as close to her as possible. But sometimes we stray a bit. Great big factories full of phony flavours, artery clogging artificial fat and mounds of sugar and salt do us more harm than good. Stick to the basics. Pure ingredients. If you can, buy wholesome, nutritious organic ingredients. They respect the environment and your health!
Because we’re conditioned to eat as much as we can we’re easy prey for the cheapest food supply in human history. A super-sized world can drown you in a sea of calories! Slow down and savour your food, let your body catch up to your appetite. Who says you have to clean your plate? Don’t be an anonymous cog in the great consumer calorie machine!
There’s no magic bullet for guaranteed health. Feed your body the way its meant to be – with lots of whole grains, smart proteins, fruits and vegetables – and you’ll get all the vitamins and minerals you need to flourish. But even the best cooks sometimes have inadvertent nutritional holes to plug. That’s why most nutritionists recommend a multi-vitamin. Just in case. But not as a substitute.
If food is the fuel for the engine then water is the oil. It’s part of virtually every metabolic process in our bodies and vital for health yet most of us don’t drink enough. Stay hydrated and everything just works better. Six to eight glasses a day will keep you running in peak-condition!