CookWell For Life

Getting Started with Whole Foods

7 vital steps

 

   Recently, a client asked me to outline the 5 most important things anyone can do to get started on a healthier diet & lifestyle. Many of us are overwhelmed with tons of healthy food information, and there are so many differing opinions available online these days, sometimes it's easiest not to make any changes at all! Most of us have lots of friends and family who don't know these basics of whole foods diet & lifestyle, so I composed this as a resource for anyone just beginning on the path.
   This wisdom below comes from the ancient philosophies of Macrobiotics & Ayurveda, as well as tips and guidelines from awesome whole food educators like Craig Lane and Dr. Joseph Mercola. I tried to keep this article brief, and just to 5 steps, but it was nearly impossible...why fight it?

1) Start drinking enough re-mineralized water daily
   Amount: Hydrate with ½ your ideal body weight in ounces per day.
   When: Drink about a quart at times other than when you eat, as to avoid diluting your stomach acids & enzymes which aid digestion of food. Up to 4 oz warm water or tea with meals is okay.
   Re-mineralize: For better hydration, re-mineralize your micro-filtered, purified, spring or distilled water with a pinch of whole sea salt, a squeeze of lemon, a teaspoon or so of raw apple cider vinegar, or an ounce of any 100% fruit juice - each contains trace minerals (aka: electrolytes) for much more efficient water assimilation.

2) Get your greens daily
   Whether it be a big pile of lightly steamed dino kale drizzled with lemon juice and olive oil, or a huge green salad with chopped dandelion greens, I feel so alive, so alert, and so much energy just from eating my greens daily. In fact, this is the very first whole foods step I took about 15 years ago when I had no energy and several health issues due to my Standard American Diet. My energy level shot up by at least 50% when I started eating a big spinach salad every day. “Greens, glorious Greens! Life-giving sustenance!”
   Seasonal regional vegetables of all kinds comprise about 70% of the meals of healthy indigenous people all over the world. You can start shopping farmer's markets for the bulk of your diet, wash & chop those colorful veggies on Sunday before you get busy, and cut way down on after work cooking time. You could even make a tasty stir-steam on Sunday to stuff into a few mason jars to take with you each day as the bulk of your lunch. I promise you'll feel more energy and vitality as soon as you start getting more veggies in. And then, there's less room in your stomach for the refined foods that may be the only foods available away from home for lunch like chips, cookies, bread/flour products, and commercially raised meats and cheeses. 

3) Choose whole, unrefined sweeteners as opposed to refined sugars
   A low-glycemic diet is now found to be preventative for not only diabetes, but for high cholesterol & heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, thyroid dysfunction, depression & anxiety. Wow, right?!?!
   Choose (or make your own!) sweets treats with moderate amounts of: rapidura sugar (aka: sucanat), barley malt syrup, carob, brown rice syrup, yacon powder, mesquite powder, coconut sugar, grade B maple syrup, organic molasses, pure glucose, and small amounts of raw honey.
   Stevia leaf extract is a natural, no-sugar, no-calorie sweetener for those on a no-sugar diet (the best stevia with no bitter aftertaste is Nu Naturals brand - their liquid vanilla flavored stevia is excellent!).  Also, Xylitol is a wonderful, non-chemical sugar alternative made from sugar alcohol that’s great used cup for cup vs. white sugar in recipes.
   Maltitol is another sugar substitute made from sugar alcohol, but it often can cause gastro-intestinal distress. Agave syrup I can no longer recommend, as it’s now found to have more detrimental long term effects than high-fructose corn syrup! True agave is thick and dark, like molasses, so the stuff you see in the natural food stores is fairly refined.

4) If you get vitality from eating grains, choose whole grains vs. white flour bread products
   Because of the genetic modification, the high glycemic aspect, rancidity of pre-ground flours, and general overuse of wheat & corn in processed foods, I believe that regular consumption of these grains, as well as other high-glycemic grains like white rice, are major factors in the most common degenerative diseases of modern people.
   Corn & wheat are both high glycemic. Commercially grown corn is also really bad for us because, like most other genetically modified crops such as soy and canola, it contains pesticide and has been linked to cancer and sterility in both men & women. Wheat now contains 40% more gluten than ever before, due to it’s hybridization over recent decades. Gluten exists not only in wheat, but in spelt, barley, rye, kamut, triticale, and others. It’s been recently proven to not only cause systemic inflammation (which has been known for years), but is now considered cardiotoxic and neurotoxic!    Each of us is sensitive to gluten in widely varying degrees, and with widely varying symptoms, the most common of which are stomach pain & intestinal/digestive disorders, asthma & skin rash, chronic pain & inflammation (arthritis), heart arrhythmia, infertility, thyroid deficiency, and brain chemistry imbalance which can lead to psychosis.
   There are many other wonderfully nutritious, low glycemic whole grains that are gluten-free. The late-life vitality of indigenous people is due in part because they eat only the lower glycemic, nutrient-dense whole grains like millet, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat and brown rice. And, you can make these grains even more nutritious with certain methods of preparation. When these grains are soaked (aka: sprouted) and simmered, OR freshly ground & cultured, they provide an easily digestible, long lasting energy source for many people (carb-nutritional-types). The modern processed food industry skips these important steps in preparing grains. These steps help break down the complex carbohydrates in the grain, making them much easier to digest, and also neutralizes the phytic acid in the bran of the grain, which makes it’s vitamins & minerals much more bio-available. Go figure!

5) Choose unrefined fats and oils for cooking, get more omega 3 fatty acids, and eat way less refined vegetable oils
   Hydrogenated vegetable oils (found in shortening, margarine, and in many processed foods) are the very worst kinds of fats for the body. The copious amounts of long chain trans fatty acids in hydrogenated oils accumulate in the arteries and form net-like structures. Trans fats are especially bad for people who also eat saturated fats (which is most modern people), because these good, saturated fats from butter, marbled meat, eggs, cheese, and coconut oil, come through the arteries and get caught in the net that’s been formed by the trans fats. Trans fats also occur when heat or pressure are used with refined vegetable oils, as in the processing of packaged foods like cookies, crackers and chips. So, we're talking about refined vegetable oils like canola, corn, soy, and “vegetable oil”....the oils we've been told are good for our heart! These molecularly unstable, refined vegetable oils are what most restaurants cook with, so you ay want to cut way down on oil-laden foods at restaurants. Also, avoid cooking with these refined vegetable oils at home.
   Smoking, not drinking enough water daily, spiking the blood sugar regularly with a more than medium glycemic diet, and lack of exercise all contribute to buildup of plaque in the arteries (atherosclerosis).
   Unrefined, or “extra virgin”, high-quality olive oil and sesame oil are wonderful oils for raw use on salads, or for very low heat cooking for short periods of time (eggs or a quick stir-steam), and should not be used in medium or high heat cooking. Whole, unrefined fats such as butter fat, palm oil, coconut oil, and lard are very stable molecularly with heat, and thusly do not form long-chain trans fatty acids which block the arteries. Use these oils for high heat cooking. Whole fats from animal sources are a very important source of bio-available vitamin A and are important for many bodily systems such as brain & nerve function, reducing inflammation, hormone balance, healthy skin and connective tissues, and of course, a natural & healthy blood lipid profile. These whole fats are what  indigenous people, and our own ancestors, eat and use for cooking, and they live very heart-healthy late into life. Note: these people don't have access to packaged foods (cookies, crackers & chips), and they eat a low glycemic diet, both of which are key for heart-health.
   It’s also very important, for all of these bodily functions I just mentioned above, to get enough omega 3 fatty acids from either good quality fish oil or krill oil. Plant sources of omega 3 fatty acids such a flax, pumpkin, or chia seed may be all you need if you’ve been on a whole foods diet for a long time, and thusly your body can easily convert the alpha-linoleic acid from these seeds into the important, hormone-like substances called prostaglandins that your body needs. Fish and krill oil are direct sources. 

Whole Food Fats & Oils Cooking Guidelines 

~To cook on high heat: ghee, coconut, animal fat, peanut, grapeseed, and palm or palm kernel.                  
~To cook on medium/low heat: olive, sesame, almond, apricot kernel, walnut, high-oleic sunflower or safflower, rice bran and avocado. Cooking w/ water helps keep oil temp lower. These oils are almost always sold in a highly refined state, so be sure the label says unrefined -  usually available at natural food stores.


6) Choose only high-quality, naturally raised, organic, or grass fed animal products
   Environmental toxins and other cancer-causing elements bio-accumulate in exponentially higher and higher concentrations, each step up in the food-chain. Bummer!

7) Good sleep, regular exercise, plenty of sunshine, and healthy relationships are huge for health - www.mercola.com - nuf said!