Video of a 4 Year-old McDonalds Hamburger

**Fast food picture-credit to SteFou!

 

I was peeling an organic kiwi when I realized the absurdity of the phrase that I frequently hear: “Eating healthy takes too much time.”  The kiwi was from New Zealand.  (This fact made me think about the SlowFood movement and the debate about buying local vs. organic…a debate that I remain undecided about.  Do you know that one acre of strawberries uses 500 pounds of pesticide?)  I thought about how much jet fuel it took to get it to me at Trader Joe’s in Athens, Georgia.  Also, I thought how many places had the kiwi been transported?  How many people had touched it?

More importantly, how long did the kiwi take to grow into a beautiful ripe fruit to eat?  Did the vines that produced the kiwi think, “it’s taking too long for me to produce this fruit, forget it!”

It’s a good thing the earth can’t say, “Producing food for these humans takes too much time.”

Okay, I’m being a little silly here, but my point is that because we are humans, living on a planet that has its own rhythms, taking time for food prep is as natural as a growing kiwi.

When someone utters that they don’t have enough time to eat healthy, what they are really saying is either:

1. I’m too lazy to take the time to prepare food, I’d rather put a box in a microwave.

2. I need education.  I don’t know how to make food because my family only ever ate at fast food restaurants.  (Considering how 1 in 4 Americans visits a fast food restaurant everyday, this statement might be more true than you think.

See a four year old McDonald’s hamburger here!)

(I will admit here when I was caretaking my husband under hospice that I ate organic tv dinners often, maybe almost every other day for a year.  So, no one is perfect, nor do they need to be…I think we all do the best we can given our circumstance.  Nevertheless, most Americans need more motivation and food prep education for their diets.)

Here are three, basic guidelines about eating healthy:

1. It’s more important what you don’t eat, than what you do eat.  Virtually any fruit or vegetable is going to be okay!  You can’t get obese from broccoli alone, I don’t believe it.  Products that have white flour, white sugar, and high fructose corn syrup are depleting us of our health and longevity potential.

2. When buying things in a box, aim for five ingredients or less. Common product examples include original Triscuits, (the rosemary and olive oil ones have msg which is a neurotoxin,) and Grape-Nuts.  Lesser-known products include Haagen-Dazs “FIVE” ice cream and ak-mok crackers.

3. When buying anything in a box, check the sugar content, 4 grams equals 1 teaspoon of sugar. In general, your body can only process about one teaspoon of sugar at a time.  A 12 ounce can of soda has 39 grams or almost 10 teaspoons of sugar. Listen to my Sugar Blues talk for way more information on this subject!

 

Contact me by clicking here if you want help changing your eating habits and improving your life.