“Of all subjects, that of food is the most apt to be the riding ground of cranks.”
Washington Post 1910
Fast forward to toda
“No matter how far science advances, nutrition is still a field booby-trapped with hucksters, charlatans, and diet gurus hoping you’ll blow your paycheck on their life-extending line of goji berries and deer antler velvet.”
Denise Minger’s “Death By Food Pyramid” 2014
What to do and where to go?
Needless to say it’s rough out there; understatement of the year. As a health and wellness consultant by far the biggest question I’m confronted with daily is how to assist either individuals or companies towards a “healthier” diet. Let’s see if we can simplify the process.
If you don’t have time to read the rest of the blog this is it in a nutshell!
1. Eat real food
2. Cook real meals
3. End of story!
For those of you with more time let’s explore some ideas. We have for the last 30 years relinquished our thinking caps about diet to experts, such as the USDA guidelines, doctors, dieticians and academic professionals. But those groups then outsourced the work to various other big hitters such as the food, beverage and “food like” substance industries, all to the detriment of our health.
We (read US citizens) have acquired a mentality that there are others out there who “know better” what you and I should eat. Really? Since the beginning of mankind individuals have discovered how to survive, thrive and advance the species. At what point did we decide to not think any longer?
It’s time to reverse that trend and start utilizing all the common sense we can muster. So let’s get the top three excuses right out on the table.
- Too busy
- Don’t like to cook
- Fresh food costs more
Too busy
Yes we all work too many hours, have hectic lives and time is sparse. I don’t know about you but a love of good food drives me to make time to shop. I’m not willing to sacrifice tasty food for crappy stuff just because I can’t find time to get to the grocery store or farmer’s market.
Alternative solutions:
- Take your lunch hour for grocery shopping, gets you outside & moving
- Pay a local senior or teenager looking for extra money to shop for you
- Make it a weekend outing with your kids and help them learn about food
- Pair up with a friend and they shop one week, you the next
- Become a member of a CSA, Community Supported Agriculture, and have a box of fresh seasonal products delivered to you every week
- Encourage your office to host either a farmer’s market or CSA delivery
- Leave work early one day a week to do shopping, tell your boss it’s your personal wellness plan!
Don’t like or can’t cook
We live in an age where everything can be accessed on the Internet. You can find recipes from simple to the most elegantly complex holiday meal online. There is no shortage of cookbooks and television programs to provide assistance. That said I’m not a promoter of food shows but of reading and following recipes.
Alternative solutions:
- Buy cookbooks that apply easy to use ingredients and minimal preparation
- Change your thinking on a meal, have an omelet for dinner; quick, easy and light
- Send your kids or partner to cooking camp and let them cook
- Do not shop and cook on the same day, on those days make salads
- Buy a crockpot and throw all the ingredients in and let it do its magic
- Plan out the week’s menu to avoid a last minute panic
Fresh food costs more
There is an old saying you either pay at the front end or the back end. One thing is for sure our current nutritional patterns are not working. According to NPR’s Marketplace 70% of the American diet is from processed food.
Processed “food” is not real food; it’s mostly “food-like” substances. Products manufactured with multiple ingredients none of which are in the best interest of your health. Why put yourself in the hands of marketers and food industry charlatans who only want your money?
At some point one must make some decisions on priorities. I get it. Living in a household with two self-employed individuals as our family, we understand a budget. Here’s some ways we cut back on other items in order to be able to afford fresh, organic produce, dairy and meat.
Alternative solutions:
- Have 1 automobile for 2 working individuals
- Bring our lunch to work most days of the month
- Eating out is for special occasions or work related events
- Plan our meals so ingredients can be shared
- Utilize soups and broths frequently for their low cost nature
- Maximize meals, dinner is enough to supply lunch leftovers the next day
- Have a refrigerator at work to enable healthy snacks like cheese & veggies
I understand food is very personal, all the more reason to make your own choices. Stop relying on the “experts” for nutritional guidance. You can do it yourself; it just takes planning, preparation and hutzpah.
“We all eat & it would be a sad waste of opportunity to eat badly.”
Anna Thomas
