So I started thinking, "If the world changed and EVERYONE was eating like I aim to eat, would I still struggle at times with my eating or would I finally be soaring without a hitch? If I went to a wedding reception and all the food choices were healthy ones, would I be in heaven or would I be missing what's usually there? If all my friends read Dr. Furhman's books and ate just like he recommends, would I think 'This is great!' or would I be wishing they had some homemade cookies on their counter just once in awhile? If I went to the store and they didn't sell Andes mints before Christmas, would I wish I could eat them one more time or would I be fine without them?"
I didn't really know the answers until I wrote this out. I didn't know if I was just making excuses for when it got tough eating out in the real world. Quite truthfully, now that I've thought it through, I think I'd really love a healthy eating world. I'd love to go to a dinner party and have the tables covered with vegetable dishes (no cheese added!) and trays of fruits galore. I'd love to know that every time I ordered rice or bread, it was brown rice or completely whole grain bread without milk or refined sugars. I'd love to trust that each bite I ate was actually creating health and not sickness.
Some interesting thoughts, Renee. How much our environment influences us, in ways beyond what we probably realize. I'll bet much of what we do is because that's the way we see everybody else do it, without thinking through it. I've started reading The UltraMind Solution by Mark Hyman, recommended by my doctor. Hyman says there are two toxic foods that everyone should eliminate from their diet: high fructose corn syrup, and trans or hydrogenated fats. He says by eliminating these two substances from your diet, you radically transform your health overnight.
ReplyDeleteHere are his seven keys to ultra-wellness...
Optimize nutrition
Balance your hormones
Cool off inflammation
Fix your digestion
Enhance detoxification
Boost energy metabolism
Calm your mind
He says nutrition is the most important factor in keeping your brain healthy.
With harmful foods being so easily accessible and cheaper, it's incredible how much society encourages poor health. Not just allows, but encourages. Government programs pay lip service to good health, but you get the idea their heart's not really in it and it's just to cover themselves. Sadly, money seems to run policy more than anything. So for now, it's really up to us to figure most of it out ourselves.
I like my doctor, because she's both holistic and allopathic. She recommends a certain amount of fruits and vegetables, lowering red meat, taking omega-3 and 6, and other supplements, and even meditation procedures.
There's a lot to discuss about food, isn't there!
That's great that your doctor believes in disease prevention instead of just symptom relief. I've been eliminating high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated fats from our home for quite a few years now.
ReplyDeleteAt first, my kids complained, but they grew to love the other foods I bought in their place. At first, it was really tough to find bread that didn't have HFCS in stores that weren't health stores. But not long after Dr. Oz talked about it on Oprah, the public probably reacted and the bread companies started changing their ingredients and even stated "No High Fructose Corn Syrup" on the front.
Hydrogenated fats are still all over the place -- especially in crackers, cookies, and tortillas (which are all processed foods, so not buying those in the first place would help). There are companies that make them though w/o the hydrogenated fats -- they're just pricier (unless you have a Trader Joe's).