Wednesday, April 4, 2012

"Healthy Eating"


Transitioning again - this will be the last blog entry for a while. Was asked by the postmistress the other day about "healthy eating". So I came up with a few of the principles that might be useful. They may be of interest to some of my friends in twitterland as well.
  • Healthy eating very soon tastes better than "less healthy" eating.  http://www.whfoods.com/ is the best site on the Internet to find good information and recipes.
  • Sugar + dairy (butter/cheese) should raise red flags. That doesn’t mean “never eat them”. Just means you understand that the human body is not made to process these substances without causing you undue stress. 
  • The body easily digests and thrives on legumes and brown rice. Lentils cook up quickly and can be stored in the fridge for a week to be used daily: mixed with herbs and scrambled with eggs for breakfast; or as the base of a tomato/onion/cucumber salad for lunch; or you can re-fry them in olive oil with your favorite herbs and seasonings combining them with brown rice. Lentils or black beans can also be used as a gluten-free alternative to wheat flour in a “brownie recipe” for dessert.
  • Olive oil can be substituted for Everything you would otherwise use butter for -- even in baking. It is a mono-saturated “good-for-you-fat” which the body utilizes fully for its health and repair. Butter simply CLOGS you up. Stop eating butter and any spider or varicose veins in your legs will disappear within 1 month! No doctor will tell you this. Unfortunately, cheese has the same “clogging” and congesting effect. It’s best to limit your intake of this food as much as you can. If you curtail your intake of yogurt and cheese, you can stop the build-up and actually dissolve any tartar on your teeth. No dentist will tell you this either.
  • All cruciferous vegetables are excellent sources of anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory nutrients: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts cooked up with olive oil and garlic are wonderfully flavorful. Lemon and olive oil drizzled on oven-roasted cauliflower florets, with a dusting of paprika, is heaven.
  • Funnily enough, the less expensive cuts of beef (in the form of steak) are better for you than the more marbled (actually fattier) ones. You can hardly beat London Broil on sale at $2.99/lb. It’s cheaper than hamburger (which, unless you buy organic, is without fail augmented by ammonia-treated fat content). Cook this lean meat in a hot cast iron pan for 4-5 minutes on each side. Allow it to rest for another 10 minutes. Slice it thin and serve with broccoli. Cook broccoli florets in a covered pot with very little water (2 TBS max) so they barely steam to perfection. Add minced garlic while cooking and then stir in some olive oil for extra flavor.
  • Eating healthy means learning to enjoy the tastes of simple foods. When a plum tomato is ripe, there is nothing like it in this world - especially when sliced thin with a sprinkling of sea salt in a cold steak sandwich!
  • Eating less meat does not mean eating no meat. You simply eat less at any one sitting and you eat it less frequently. Just remember to eat slowly, thoughtfully and enjoy the taste of your food.
Above all, enjoy the taste of Life!

Till I blog again,
Daphne