Common Sense Eating

In today's stressful environment, with all the labor and time saving devices we have, there is less and less time for the things we used to spend our time on: eating, taking care of ourselves, enjoying our friends and family, recreation. Americans, on average work 11% more hours than the people of any country in Europe. Since there are only 24 hours in a day no matter how you slice it, those who would pressure us have been shaving time off of our meal times. We now eat "on the run", in the car, while waiting in line somewhere, while walking from here to there, cellphone in one fist, a hamburger in the other. All this accomplishes is to shut our digestion down and pave the way for chronic illness.

Eating is the most important thing you do in your life after breathing and drinking. Eating the common sense way dictates that you eat as if your life depended on your choices. Because it does. The food you put into your body today will determine how much energy you will have the next moment or tomorrow. Lifelong habits of haphazard eating result in malnourishment and ultimately, disease. Your food can keep you healthy into your old age or kill you prematurely. Watch the film "Supersize me" to see what one month of eating only fast food can do to your body.

Common sense eating has three parts to it: shopping, cooking and eating. Really, digesting is the fourth, and it has its own page.

Common Sense Shopping
Shop weekly, but not on an empty stomach. When you're hungry, everything looks good. Shop the perimeter of the store where the live foods are. Do not hurry when you shop. Savor the food with your eyes. Let your senses tell you what you need to eat that week. Personally, I need to shop every 3 days, that's all I'm able to intuit.

Fresh foods have more life. Avoid prepackaged, canned and frozen, colored, genetically modified foods and food additives. If you must use "quick foods", favor pre-packaged fresh or frozen over other methods of preservation. The closer to its original form the food item, the fewer the ingredients, the better. If you don't understand the ingredients, they weren't made by nature. Food manufacturing is an oxymoron. Only life can feed life.

Organic foods have more nutrients. When you consider that organic oranges have 30% more Vitamin C than commercially farmed oranges, it is actually cheaper to buy organic. Local produce is riper, has stored more sun energy, and its energy is more harmonious with yours because it's from the same place. It is also cheaper because it didn't have to be trucked or flown in. Seasonal foods are in sync with nature's cycles and give you the nutrients you need for good health that season, correlating your activity and energy expenditure with food intake.

Common Sense Cooking
Cook it simple with few ingredients per meal. Too many ingredients place a burden on your digestion. Also, too many ingredients dull the palate which is your guide to know what your body needs.

Sauté, steam, poach, stir fry, broil or bake. Do not deep fry. Use stainless steel or glass, never aluminum - it will leach into the food and can be a factor in Alzheimer's and other toxic syndromes. Stay away from Teflon which is toxic. Eventually it breaks down and pieces get into your food and from there into your body.

Cook with ghee (clarified butter) coconut oil or grapeseed oil at higher temperatures, butter and olive oil at lower temperatures. Use nut oils to put on food after it's cooked, or on salads. Keep oils refrigerated, rancid oils have free radicals that can damage the body. Oils are fragile and easily become unhealthy when heated or exposed to light and air. Avoid: partially hydrogenated oils (contain trans-fatty acids which are damaging to your cells), margarine and trick oils like Oleane was.

Common Sense Eating
Eat when you're hungry. If you eat without hunger, your digestive system isn't ready to deal with the food and it will ferment and give you indigestion or be put in storage for later use (fat). However, if you are not hungry at least 3 times a day, look into what the problem is.

Mindfulness prepares digestion. Focus on your food: color, texture, taste, smell. Avoid stress while eating-it shuts down your digestion. Chew slowly and thoroughly. Digestion begins in the mouth with the secretion of amylase in the saliva. Chewing signals the digestive organs to secrete enzymes. The old saying is: "Drink your food and eat your drink"-meaning chew your solids into a liquid consistency and drink your beverages slowly, without gulping. Observe yourself: what makes you feel good or bad, and of course, eat less of what makes you feel tired or unwell and eat more often of what gives you more energy and well being. Soon you will become the expert on your own body that you were intended to be.

Common sense living • Common sense eating • Common sense water Essential proteins • Protein content of foods • Essential fats
Carbs and sugars • Digestive sense

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