Last week I decided to start this series about a subject that I believe to very important for a good quality of life and thus for contributing to our everyday happiness: healthy eating. In the first article we got to talk a bit about our shopping habits and showed you a video about the supermarket chains and how we ought to think a little bit further about how the products got on the shelf and the process that they go through until they reach our fridge/cupboard and ultimately our digestive system.
Going further, the first and most important change is in the products that we bring home and stock our fridge with. What we have in the fridge is what we eat so ideally less processed food and more vegetables and fruit – I’m not the first nor the last one to say it yet I still see people eating processed food because it’s easier and more convenient. If possible, go as close to the source as you can. Most of the vegetables and fruit can look perfectly good and appealing but because of the chemical process of growth and the poor quality of the soil they lack the nutrients. It is easier to buy local in countries like my home country, Romania where you don’t have to do much effort to buy naturally grown vegetables, even from grandma’s garden. It’s one of the things I miss about Romania and I remember my grandfather used to have a garden full of home grown tomatoes that he would grow from nursery and at the end of the summer they’d be ripe and have this delicious smell and taste! Absolutely yummy!
In big cities like London is quite difficult to find something truely natural because everything is so automatised but try to look for the word ‘organic’ on the packaging, read the provenience (again, buying local when possible because the products take less time to get on the shelf therefore are more fresh) or shop from places like Wholefoods that are indeed a bit more pricey but really, I think no price is too high for preserving our health. Of course not to go to the other extreme of paying ridiculous amounts of money for something just because it has ‘organic’ on it. Overall I believe it’s worth it to allocate a bigger part of your budget for buying better food that keeps you energic and healthy but a sort of balance needs to be kept in mind.
Right, so more veggies and fruit. Next thing you need to know is that bread is not doing your body any favours. I’m sorry to break this news to you, don’t shoot the messenger. Wheat is just addictive and stimulates appetite, plus the gluten which is another thing you might want to steer clear of. So when I say wheat, I mean pasta as well (I know, this hurt me too). If you must and absolutely cannot live without them, try to get whole wheat pasta which contain the nutrient rich bran and germ out of the grain, not just the just the endosperm like the regular pasta. Even so, read the labels carefully for brown pasta that is masquerading as whole wheat.
I bet right about now you’re starting to think ‘oh man, there’s so much stuff that I can’t have’. Because everything happens so fast nowadays we think we don’t have time to prepare proper food but you’ll see that once you start making conciously choices, there are plenty of healthy alternatives and even more delicious ones. You don’t really have to give up the ‘bad’ stuff, just read the labels carefully, make sure you know where the food comes from, how the animals have been raised and fed, how the vegetables have been grown. Even if you do have some pasta or bread now and then, try to take the healthier alternative and ‘minimize the damage’.
Our body is the only permanent home that we have and many people ruin their health in their younger years by having bad eating habits and try for years to recover it by paying huge amounts of money on treatment and medicine.
Like the Latins used to say ‘mens sana in corpore sano’ – a sound mind in a sound body. When we eat good, we feel good. When we feel good we can be at our highest standard – at work, in the relationship with the people that surround us, with family and friends, while practising our hobbies and well, all the time really.
Next post will be about my favourite ingredients to use in cooking – cause I’ve been doing quite a bit of what not to do and it’s time for some advice on what to do do (see what I did there?).
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