For most of my life I’ve been
trying to eat healthy, and I think I’ve done a good job of avoiding certain
pitfalls. In food pyramid order, I mostly stick to whole grains instead of
refined flour, I eat fresh fruits and vegetables daily, my portions of meat
tend to be small, I aim for low-fat dairy, and my family rarely consumes fast
food or sweets. But, there’s always room for improvement, especially when it
comes to minimizing processed foods. In eschewing traditional “diets” as a
recipe for deprivation, one of the experts in Hungry for
Change advises simply to begin adding
good foods to your diet, since doing so “eventually crowds the bad stuff out.”
For me, this has equated to using
up the “bad stuff” in my refrigerator and pantry, and figuring out what to
replace them with.
- No more
canned soups, with their high sodium content and long list of chemical
preservatives. I actually like making my own soup; the challenge will be
finding more recipes and time to make large batches.
- Goodbye,
condiments. Mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, and Asian-style marinating
sauce all contain various cocktails of hydrogenated oils, chemical
preservatives, HFCS, et al. Hummus is probably safe, but I’m wondering if
it’s okay to stick with store-bought or if I should try making my own.
- Replacing
meat on weekdays with beans and nuts. Hummus and nuts are just as
tasty on salad as chicken (please tell me hummus is safe).
- Replacing
mass-produced meat on weekends with cage-free, grass-fed, sustainable
choices. This honestly might be a matter of budget, and researching
which brands are truly an improvement when it comes to health and
sustainability.
- Snack
foods. It’s enough that I have to choose quinoa over processed pasta.
The idea of never having a cookie or cracker again feels excruciating.
Finding healthy alternatives for snack foods may simply consist of eating
even more fruits and vegetables as snacks.
- Caffeine,
my first love (sorry, Hubs). The struggle to eliminate caffeinated beverages
from my life is ongoing (and probably deserves its own article).
Of course, I need to reconcile my
own eating goals with my family’s. My lovely husband is lucky enough to have
the same metabolism he did when we first began dating – at age 17. This has
enabled him to keep eating ice cream sandwiches, chips, and soda as we enter
our thirties. He is also blessed with self-control, chiefly when it comes
to portioning less healthy foods. Whereas I still eat walnuts directly out of
the bag until I’m full (or bored), he places a handful of chips onto a plate
and puts the bag away. Years before my healthier-eating experiment began, he’d
banned gallon-tub ice cream in the home because he realized how easy it was to
eat too much at once. Buying individually wrapped ice cream sandwiches
(Klondike Oreos are his favorite) has done the trick as far as allowing him to
eat one per day. It also prevents me from eating any at all, since I can’t
fudge the nutritional info of exactly one serving anymore. (One cup of ice
cream? That’s like two scoops, right?) Hubs also abhors condiments, the use of
which has been shown to encourage overeating (i.e. we keep eating chips until
the dip runs out). This has made him amenable to some of the changes – namely
the switch from Asian marinades to a lemon or lime juice-based garlic rub for
chicken. The incorporation of quinoa into some meals has also gone over well
ever since I figured out the perfect combination of garlic, onion, and herbs to
sauté it in.
I do realize I’m lucky to have a
few advantages in this endeavor: 1) I’ve always enjoyed cooking my own meals,
and 2) right now, my schedule and budget allow me to go to the grocery store
and prepare said meals. After last week’s visit to our local produce market, I
realized I had bought enough fruits and vegetables for a week for the same
price as one restaurant meal. That alone is reason to celebrate taking a step
in the healthiest direction.
Once home from the store, I
happened upon this article. (The
lovely reporter went to college with my husband). The story features
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and her own quest for healthier
cooking and eating. The well-known Congress member and Democratic National
Committee (DNC) chairwoman describes how her breast cancer diagnosis and
treatment forced her to examine her subpar eating habits and to replace them
with a more conscientious “clean cooking” diet. She acknowledges that doing so
entailed a big commitment, calling it “a lifestyle” unto itself and admitting
that she’s stayed up into the wee hours of the night in order to prepare her
healthy meals.
In the accompanying video, Schultz
lauds the clean cooking community of Instagram for inspiring and supporting her
efforts. I find it amusing that someone who works alongside 534 other elected
representatives (not to mention support staff and other Congressional
personnel) had to cultivate like-minded foodie comrades online. Since then, she
has shared photos of her culinary creations with the world and attempted to spread the word on clean cooking among
her colleagues.
Unfortunately, her predicament as
a healthy food pioneer is a reflection of American society at large. Most adults
in this country give in to the ease of take-out meals and prepared foods while
juggling busy work and family schedules. Life can be a whirlwind of stress no
matter one’s circumstances, and a lot of folks feel it is impossible to go out
and buy groceries and then turn them into healthy meals. But the tradeoff of
time-saving foods often comes back to haunt us in the form of chronic disease
requiring medical intervention. I hope
that more people follow the Congresswoman’s lead, sacrificing at least a little
bit of their week to shop for groceries and cook at home. If she can manage it,
we can all at least give it a try, can't we?
