1. Where possible, buy organic food. This will,
in one fell swoop, increase your range of nutrients
and reduce your pesticide load. Do remember that
it is your right, when buying organic food, to see
the certification. The product should be beautiful
(not half dead), reasonably priced (it will more
often than not be more expensive – this is
as it should be as it reflects the true cost of
producing food, but the issue here is it shouldn’t
be outrageously priced. Also, when in season, organic
food can often be the same price as non-organic)
and it should be ripe and taste delicious.
2. Where possible, shop from a farmers’
market. This is where you will find “real”
food.
3. Buy more food closer to its natural state…
more fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, wholemeal flours,
legumes etc, rather than that food made up by industry
– for example, breakfast cereals (whole grains
processed into shapes).
4. Use more whole rather than refined grains,
and organic ones if possible. Bought from a bulk
bin, you will be surprised how cheap they are. For
example – eat brown rice rather than white
for dinner. Quinoa is a fabulously easy grain (and
gluten free) and wonderful for dinner instead of
white rice, or in a salad for lunch.
5. Still on grains – Begin to ban packaged
cereals (puffed rice, corn flakes, puffed millet
etc) in your home. They are HIGHLY processed grains
– all those great vitamins and minerals that
are so desirable are no longer there – nor
are they in any format the body can use. Because
of the extreme processing, the protein becomes damaged
and can behave similar to MSG in the brain, as an
excito toxin. Instead of processed cereals for breakfast?
– eggs in all their forms; baked and Mexican
beans; whole grain flour waffles, pancakes and pikelets;
porridge and muesli.
6. Still on grains! – Bread. Endeavour to
find some good bread you can buy (I’m not
going to suggest right now you make it!). Good bread
is always sourdough – proper sourdough, not
the “wave the sourdough wand over the bread
dough and 2 hours later it’s sourdough”
kind of thing. Why sourdough? Because during the
process of rising with sourdough, phytates (organic
acids that inhibit absorption of minerals like calcium
and zinc in the digestive system) present in whole
grains and gluten are broken down. Many people that
are intolerant to wheat find they can eat bread
made from organic/biodynamic whole grain wheat flour
that has had a long, sourdough rising. Good bread
is made from a wholemeal flour or even a mix of
unbleached white flour and wholemeal, so it’s
not so heavy, with a good length of time given over
to the sourdough fermentation. Right now, the prevailing
wisdom is that spelt bread is “healthy”
bread. It IS NOT the particular grain that makes
bread healthy – it’s how the bread is
made and the quality of the flour. Preferably, the
flour should be organic. There are some fabulous
ones around – especially if you live on the
East coast. If you live in the West like I do, then
you have to hunt a bit more.
7. Still on grains! – Use a little more
organic wholemeal flour. I like to use wheat, spelt,
barley and oat – lovely in waffles, pancakes,
pikelets, cakes and muffins. It’s nice to
start with 50% ratio of wholemeal and 50% unbleached
white flours – you will end up with a lighter
end result.
8. If you are buying milk, please buy full cream,
non homogenised milk – preferably organic.
The same goes for milk products such as cheese and
yoghurt. Nature has put the fat there for a reason...
It enables the body to utilise the calcium, and
is rich in vitamin A and D (more so if the milk
is from a grass fed cow). If you want to have less
fat, have smaller portions of the full cream product.
9. Buy and use quality fats – butter, ghee,
and unrefined oils (even the drippings from a roast
are great). Do not use or buy anything made with
margarine or vegetable shortenings – even
if it sounds incredibly healthy like olive oil margarine.
Margarine is a manufactured, fake food and there
is nothing about it that’s good. Most of the
cheap, colourless oil you see in a supermarket is
a HIGHLY REFINED and damaged fat. This is a rich
source of free radicals, and very damaging to the
body. When this oil is made into margarine, it becomes
a source of trans fatty acids – again, profoundly
damaging to the body. The resulting oil from industrialised
refining is nothing like the original oil –
for example a lovely sesame oil, where the oil is
simply pressed from the seeds and is rich in nutrients.
10. If you can manage, grow some (any at all really)
vegetables… even if that’s just some
herbs – in a tub, or in the ground. This reduces
your food costs and connects you to the source of
food.
