Do You Know What You're Eating?
10th Mar 2023
Carbs, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, water and fibre are all essential for health, but they can't nourish us if we don't actually eat or drink them.
Meal-skipping is common, but if we don't eat, we can't obtain the nutrients we need. Many people don't eat breakfast, so they start the day with a total lack of nourishment.
Experts advise us to eat several portions of fruit and veg a day, but how many of us achieve this?
Many people live on processed foods and fast foods which are full of additives, preservatives, chemicals and trans-fats, all non-foods, nutrient-deficient, and harmful to the body. They interfere with essential body processes and influence weight gain, hunger, food cravings, mood slumps and ill health.
A big problem is promotional food. In these difficult financial times, it's tempting to buy food such as reduced price packet salads. They no longer look fresh, but people buy them anyway because they are cheaper. When food is stored for a long time, its nutrients begin to destroy.
How much real food is in the 'low-cost, good-value' tinned foods, amongst the chemicals, additives and preservatives they contain? Could their chemical properties change over time and become poisonous? Many have been withdrawn from the market because of this.
Read the labels on a tin or packet of food. The actual food content is often very little compared to the quantities of chemicals and non-food substances. Reading a food label is like the game we all used to play called 'hunt the thimble' only in this case it's 'hunt the real food'.
We are to blame for nutritionally-deficient food. We demand cheap food, fast food, quick ready meals, food that lasts longer, tastes better, looks good, fruits and veg that have a nice shape. So these are provided for us, and there's money to be made for companies who give us what we demand.
But in this mass production of nutrient-deficient food, where are we?
Spend a day re-visiting your diet, shopping trolley, pantry, fridge, freezer, kitchen cupboards. See how much real nutrition you have in them. Have a chuck-out and make space for real food. Especially go for fruit and veg in season. It's cheaper and more nutritious than globe-trotting food sprayed with preserving chemicals.
It's exciting and motivating, planning and preparing a new style of eating, when you can see positive results in the way you look and feel. Do try. It's worth it for your health and wellbeing.
Remember that saying - We are what we eat.
Copyright © 2023 Brenda Martin
