Today I’m introducing you to my personal food philosophy. I’ll be writing more and more about food and nutrition topics and I want you to understand my personal relationship with food. It can help you going forward as you read this blog.
My food philosophy is my own. It may not be yours. Everyone’s food philosophy and preferences are going to be different based on our bodies, our experiences, our beliefs, and our food traditions. While I am presenting my personal food philosophy here, I have to say upfront that I am not perfect. I may say that we all should avoid sugar, but I will also tell you now that I have a strong sweet tooth that I fight all the time.
No doubt, our early years, when growing up, are the first influences on our food philosophy and habits. When I was growing up, Mom rarely used cake mixes or other pre-packaged foods. Pre-packaged mixes were fairly new then. Whatever her reasoning, I’m grateful because I leaned to cook from scratch myself. It is extremely rare that I will buy a mix for anything. Except Ghirardelli Chocolate Brownies. They are to die for!
Today, I bake and cook from scratch out of necessity. Between a sensitivity to many food additives and some food allergies, I have to avoid most prepared packaged foods in the grocery. It’s easier than reading long labels in tiny print. Since we started shopping at the farmers market, there is very little that I buy from the grocery store, but that’s another story.
Whole Foods
I prefer to start with whole foods whenever possible. What does that mean? For one, it means I am not a big fan of juice, in any form. Most of the juice you find in the grocery is questionable, at best, and full of sugar and additives, at worst. Even juicing your own fruits and vegetables removes the fiber and concentrates the sugar and nutrients. Fiber plays a role in our digestion and our overall health. When you consume fruits or vegetables that contain sugars, the fiber slows down the sugar absorption. I also believe that we were meant to consume our food as whole food, not processed to remove or concentrate certain parts.
What’s your food philosophy? Click To TweetIf you need a classification, then I am an omnivore. I believe that the human species was meant to eat meats and vegetables and grains. I like to look at the way that traditional cultures ate prior to industrialization. They all ate meat in some form as well as vegetables and grains.
In my house, food shopping begins at our local farmers market. We’ve been shopping there since 2010. We know our farmers and how our food is grown or raised. We buy nearly all of our food there. We buy grass-fed beef, pasture-raised chicken and pork. Why? Each type of animal was created to eat a certain type of food. For example, cows in their natural state eat grass. When you change the food that cows eat, you change their body composition. Which is then passed on to us when we eat the cow.
Eat More Veggies
I love vegetables and am a firm believer that we all should eat more of them. I think many people today either grew up not eating vegetables at all or grew up with frozen or canned vegetables. At my house, all of our vegetables are bought fresh and most of them are grown locally. It wasn’t always that way. Most of my life I ate frozen vegetables for the most part. Once we started shopping farmers markets, I learned to cook fresh vegetables.
In summary: I eat mostly whole foods, little that is processed, meats and other animal products that are raised as nature intended. Fresh, locally grown vegetables, in season; for the most part. My main liquids to consume are water, coffee, and herbal teas. No sodas, I gave them up years ago. I (try to) avoid sugar, but I also know that total deprivation is a bad thing.
What’s your food philosophy? You likely have one, though you may need to think about it. Share it in the comments, if you dare!
By The Way: I’m currently working on a cookbook titled “Veggies 101” which is an introductory book for anyone wanting to learn to cook vegetables. I expect it to publish this Fall. Many people think I’m either vegetarian or vegan because I’m writing a cookbook about vegetables. Rest assured, I am neither. My recipes include cheese and eggs and milk and butter and bacon. If you want to get news on the progress of Veggies 101, sign up for the Veggies 101 mailing list. I’ll send you a sample PDF that is “All About Kale.”
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