12 Practical Eating Principles
for making healthier family food choices
Lees hierdie bladsy in Afrikaans
I have 12 practical eating principles which guide my food choices as I walk down the aisles in the supermarket, or plan my meals for the week. It took time integrating these principles. With them planning is reduced to a minimum and I can go to my regular spots and buy what I need with the confidence that I am making healthy choices for my family.
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Choose the least refined product, as close to whole and raw as possible
You should choose less refined products because refining and processing removes much of the goodness mother nature put into the food. - Choose the product with the least amount of additives
Additives are harmful to the body preventing it from absorbing nutrients. The body is unable to flush out these toxins and stores it, impairing other bodily functions. - Buy food as close to the source as possible
The more interaction you can have with the person who produced the product, the better you can be informed about what is in it. - Choose the product which had seen the least amount of plastic packaging
Plastic emits chemical compounds that mask estrogen in the body. This contributes to early onset of puberty in girls and sterility in boys, breast cancer and other estrogen related cancers. - Bath your food - Wash all fresh produce with something that is safe, but removes oily residue.
All fresh produce must be protected against pests, so farmers use pesticides. Your body can do without these poisons, so wash as much of it off as you can. - Protein: Reduce meat, fish and eggs and replace with green protein, nuts and seeds especially sprouted ones
Animal protein especially red meat is acid forming and thus creates very favourable surroundings for many diseases especially cancer. - Grains: Vary the grains in your diet - no more than one wheat source daily (less if possible)
Health problems related to wheat and gluten have arisen from the alteration of the chromosome structure of wheat for the intensive cultivation methods of modern agriculture. - Dairy: Choose soft, white raw cheeses and yoghurt above hard yellow cooked cheese and fresh milk
Dairy is the cause of allergies, lethargy and digestive difficulty. - Fats: Choose cold raw oils rather than cooked, butter rather than margarine
Heat damages the essential fatty acids in oils and makes them harmful for the body. Margarine and other low fat options contain hydrogenated veg oil which contributes greatly to heart disease and other illnesses. - Avoid sucrose and caffeine - replace with healthier alternatives
Sugar and caffeine often go together in beverages, fizzy drinks and candy bars. They function as a drug and provide a false boost of energy. - Supplement
Our life styles make supplementation extremely important. Chemicals and other pollutants in our world ask more of our bodies than what our diets can provide. Most of us lack some part of the nutritional chain somewhere. - Indulge now and then
In the beginning it is a motivator to keep on choosing healthy food. You soon discover that you have not really been missing out much.
If you think it is too hard to implement all of these eating principles at once, you are absolutely correct. I won't expect anyone to attempt it. You need at least 30 days to learn one new habit, let alone 12. I took two years to master it myself, but you can begin right now. With each of the principles you can start where you are and begin moving in the right direction by making small adjustments to your choices.
If you subscribe to my newsletter, you will receive one of the eating principles every month. This will help you to start making small changes every month and get you closer to a healthy diet.
Or, pick 3 or 4 principles with one of the food suggestions for each and try them one at a time, step by step. You can also just pick one principle and try all the suggestions one by one. Of course, if you are an all-or-nothing type of person you can skip across the intermediate stages and go straight to dramatically improving your diet by choosing well and wisely.
Whatever you do, remember to match your plan to your level of motivation so you are sure to have success.
Petro Janse van Vuuren
