Food, Farming and a Healthy Lifestyle

I will admit I am not the best example of a healthy lifestyle.  I am slender even though I do not regularly work out (my job takes care of organized exercise).  I eat a lot of refined sugar, probably way more than I should. My candy stash isn’t exactly good for my health. But, I like my vegetables and making good healthy homemade meals.

There are a lot of misconceptions about what exactly is healthy food and cooking.  Today I am feeling inspired by this idea, so I thought I would share my opinion.  Really, eating healthy is not organic versus non-organic or local versus shipped in.  Although I am a huge supported of the local food movement I do not think that is a key to eating healthy and cooking healthy for your family. You can find healthy food at any store and on any budget.

There is not a magic bullet to making this happen.  It is as simple as…. Get this…. Eating less processed foods.  Bam, there it is.  I said it. The key is taking raw ingredients and cooking them into a meal.  It is as simple as that. Even if you are not a cook you can do this!  A slow cooker is a God send for a person who does not cook or does not have a lot of time.

It does not matter if your white bread is organic or conventional.  It is made from bleached, finely processed wheat.  These highly processed things are what is unhealthy. Instead of eating that white bread start eating whole grain bread. Or in the case of my husband and I, I started making these whole wheat honey pitas.  They’re saving us money and they quite good.  And did you know, the whole wheat flour is right next to the normal flour in the grocery store?

I’m not going to lie and say I never make things with all-purpose bleached flour.  That would be a lie, I like my cookies far too much to do something that silly.  However, I will say that I try to make better food choices as much as I can.

Sodium is also a huge issue in diets today.  So many of the foods we eat contain a massive amount of unnecessary sodium.  I try to cut it out as much as possible.  By making homemade meals (no a frozen dinner from the store is not homemade) we are able to cut a lot of that out of our diets.  Another little thing I do to combat the sodium is I make my own seasonings.  Such as taco seasoning and powder ranch seasoning to name a few.  These are easy ways to cut sodium out because I can control how much is going into my mix.  Also, I save a lot of money by going that route too.

Try using frozen vegetables instead of veggies out of a can; they are cheaper and they taste like they are fresh out of the garden.  It’s not that hard to make these changes and still feel satisfied after family dinners.

Making healthier food choices is not difficult and it is not rocket science.  What you need to remember is that eating healthier isn’t an organic versus non-organic issue.  I am a true believer in everyone having a choice when it comes to their food and if you choose to eat organic that is fine.  But this issue is so much bigger than that.  It truly is a processed versus non-processed food issue because white bread is still white bread regardless of whether it is organic wheat or non-organic wheat used to make it.

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