Healthy Choices

I'm attending a seminar tonight and tomorrow on healthy eating choices which will, of course, be centered on plant-based consumption. 

Eating a plant-based diet for life has always been a healthy option, but in these days of factory farming which hormones and antibiotics are fed to animals meant for human consumption and the methods are cruel (including the slaughter process), it's time for people to take time to think about what exactly they are consuming!  Also, as Frances Moore Lappe' told us in the 1960s in DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET, a meat-based food chain is highly inefficient.  Why raise food to feed to animals so we can eat the animals?  (And certainly, why raise food so we can feed fur-bearing animals so we can butcher them for their pelts?  Talk about selfish!) 

Western societies need to stop raising animals for consumption.  It's just that simple.  Factory farms are serious environmental hazards too.  And pigs, for instance, are highly intelligent.  When you eat pork products, you are essentially eating a third grade child.  Animals have thoughts and emotions, they even dream.  Chickens learn their names and other words.  If you have access to free range, cruelty free chickens who are allowed to live into old age, by all means, eat eggs.  But if you know anything about commercial egg production, you'd know that eating those eggs is not only cruel, it's a threat to one's general health. 

It is important to use good sense when making choices in a plant-based diet.  Don't load up on bread products made with "white enriched flour."  That stuff is pure garbage.  Go for whole grains.  Look up the protein and fiber contents on the grains you consume. Amaranth tastes better than quinoa, I think, and it has 12 to 14 % protein!  It has a rich, nutty flavor.  Pinterest has many amaranth recipes. 

A piece of whole grain bread with peanut butter is a far better choice than a doughnut.  Will eating that doughnut actually make you happy?  It might taste good for the moment, but think about how you feel with you pass up those doughnuts time and again, then you get on the scale and see the results of your effort.  THAT will make you happy!  How about running into a friend who tells you, "You look so healthy!"  THAT will make you happy!  How about going to the doctor and being told, "Your A1c is 5.5 once again, so I can take you off your diabetes medication."  THAT WILL MAKE YOU REALLY HAPPY!

If you use an app like My Fitness Pal, you can not only record everything you eat and check your nutrition by the day and by the week, you can check the nutrient content and calories on a food BEFORE you eat it.  That can be a huge help in making healthy choices.  This is a great help in kicking sugar addiction. 

Also, I find it a great help to keep apples, walnuts and protein shakes with me in my tote bag.  If I get very hungry when I am out and about, I have healthy choices with me.  This keeps me from being in the position of buying over-priced food that isn't even healthy!  I started carrying my snacks whenever I leave the house last summer, and it has really paid off -- 45 lbs later! 

Today is Friday, and it's going to be HOT today, tomorrow and Sunday.  Remember to stay hydrated.  Drink water the first thing in the morning to get your metabolism going, and keep drinking water all day long.  Toss some lemon and cucumber slices or smush up some berries in your water if you want some flavor.  The important thing is to STAY HYDRATED.  85 % of American are walking around in some state of dehydration.  This puts a dreadful strain on your kidneys and liver and it slows your metabolism and even your cognitive processes.  Older people showing signs of dementia are at times merely suffering from dehydration!  So keep drinking water all day long, especially a few minutes before each meal or snack. 

Have a great weekend, y'all!