Healthy eating is a key component of preventing chronic nutritional diseases, maximizing life and helping you and look feel your best. To achieve and maintain a state of improved well-being, we must re-examine the food on our plates. Traditionally, the Standard Food Pyramid was used as the benchmark to determine what is healthy eating. The problem with this food pyramid is that it encourages too much saturated fat in the form of red meat, high fat dairy products, too much fast food, too many refined carbohydrates, added sugars, salt and high in calories. While the Standard Food Pyramid may meet nutritional needs from the four basic food groups, the choices and construct of the pyramid set the stage for chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and even cancer.
Most of you, if not all of you, know that if the physical body is not properly maintained, it will eventually break down. Just like a motor vehicle needs the right fuel and regular maintenance to keep functioning well, so too does our physical body. Without the finest fuel and maintenance, our health will eventually fail, leaving us feeling crappy, under-performing or having to set our affairs in order sooner than expected. Nutrition, which is the food we eat, can largely determine how we look; how we feel; how much energy we have; how healthy or unhealthy we are; how much we weigh; how much brain power we have; how strong our sex drive is and whether or not we will age with vitality or diminished capacity. In short, nutrition can determine our quality of life now and well into our senior years.
Over the years, the people who avoided “junk food’ were in the minority and labeled as “health fanatics”. Now more than before, people are shunning highly processed foods, red meats, refined grains an
d dairy to pursue healthier alternatives. In their quest to build healthier lives, I get many questions such as:
“I want to eat healthier, but where do I start and what do I eat? ”
“You expect me to eat grass all the time?”
“When I stop eating meat how will I get protein?”
These are all very important questions. My simple response is, “there are plenty of nourishing plant foods that will provide you with the best possible nutrients for a longer, more vibrant and healthier life.
Finally, a Plant-based food pyramid to assist us in choosing and constructing our plates to create healthy and well-balanced meals; a healthy plant-powered diet that brings health and not sickness.
Yet, it is an unfortunate misconception that plant-based nutrition is defined as boring, tasteless, void of protein- but nothing could be further from the truth. The good news is that beyond the fancy food products, marketing fads and mixed messages you may be getting from the media, eating an authentic plant-based diet (void of animal products, refined foods etc) is incredibly simple, affordable, delicious and health-promoting. My hope is that you would embrace the Plant-based Food Pyramid to take the guesswork out of nutrition and make it easier for you, your family and friends to make healthier decisions regarding your food choices.
My recently published guidebook, Plant-Based Cuisine: Complete Nutrition For Healthy Living advises the plant-based food pyramid as the preferred model and is testament of the appealing, delectable and variety of nutrient-rich plant foods available to fuel, nurture and heal your body. In Plant-Based Cuisine, the success stories are evidence to support my assertion of the positive relationship between health and plant-based nutrition. Simply put, the food on your plate should heal your body and not destroy it; bring health and not sickness.
Similar to the guidance provided in Plant-Based Cuisine: Complete Nutrition For Healthy Living, following are some simple changes you can put into practice, starting today:
Steam your vegetables lightly in as little water as possible and eat them while there are still crunchy. Rather than throwing away the excess water, use the vegetable water for soup stock so that you get the benefits of all the nutrients in your soup.
Trade sugary drinks for water or herbal teas with no added sugar. Every cell in your body needs water to work properly and is of great benefit to your digestive system. Start and end each day with a 8 oz glass of water and keep your water bottle with you during the day. Need more flavor? Drop a slice of lemon or lime into your water or add pieces of your favorite fruit to make the water more palatable.
When selecting your fruits, include those that are low glycemic but also high in fiber as they make you feel fuller longer and a great way to help you keep off extra pounds. Fruits such as carambola, local cherries, granny smith apples with the skin, raspberries and strawberries are high in fiber and low glycemic.
Eat an abundance of vegetables (try to consume at least 50% raw), fruits, seeds, beans, legumes and whole grains. Avoid or strictly limit refined sugar, salt, dairy products, red meats, white flour products, caffeine-containing drinks and eggs. Especially avoid processed foods and foods that contain or have been fried in hydrogenated oils (trans-fat which is very bad for your health). Also, use a mixture of colors to get a variety of nutrients.
Eat 3 smaller meals daily (breakfast, lunch and dinner) as eating too much at one time overloads the stomach and resulting pressure can force acid to back up in the esophagus, leading to heart burn, gas and bloating. Eating too much in general can eventually lead to obesity and all of the other health problems that come with it.
Healthy food can be powerful medicine to bring healing to your body and put you on a path to long-term wellness. By changing just a few dietary habits, you can make a big difference to your health. You do not have to make huge changes all at once, begin to choose healthier options as you can afford mentally and financially. The important thing is to begin to feed your body the nutrients it truly deserves.
Pamela P Cumberbatch (M.H, C.W.L.C)
Author of Plant-Based Cuisine
Freelance Writer- Better Health Magazine
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