Staying healthy (to me) means eating more foods that are healthy than the unhealthy ones. Staying healthier means I can live a longer more fulfilling life and can stay independent, living off-grid for a longer period of time. I for one try to eat a larger balance of healthy foods vs unhealthy ones, I try to tip the scales toward the healthy ones and away from the unhealthy ones. We literally are what we eat, your body has to get everything it needs from what you consume, if you are consuming a great deal of incomplete nutrition, then your body will eventually begin to fail, you will notice more aches and pains, and you will not bounce back as quickly from colds and viruses.
I am not here to tell you specifically what you should and should not eat, that is something you will need to figure out for yourself, I will however tell you what I am doing to try to keep my body in as good of health as possible. I am no saint when it comes to food, I love eating junk food as much as anyone else does, I eat real fat, I eat meat, I eat sugar… I try to keep the ratio of good foods to 70% or higher, the biggest thing I do keep that up is to not buy the junk foods to begin with, if it’s not around (at home) then it’s a lot harder to consume. I am also working on replacing “bad” foods with good alternatives. For example, my latest conquest is trying to cut out as much GMO foods as possible, specifically corn products, I know that the majority of foods I consume have some percentage of potential GMO ingredients. Recently, I chose to stop buying corn chips that do or potentially contain GMO corn. I have replaced them with corn chips that say on the bag that they are 100% organic or say they are GMO free. By purchasing the ones that at least say 100% organic, I am ensuring that the corn in the corn chips is supposed to be from non-GMO sources.
I don’t eat corn chips on a daily basis, in fact perhaps a couple of times a month at the most, I pretty much only use them in recipes, I don’t eat chips just to be eating chips. Since I’m working on cutting out GMO ingredients as much as possible, I have stopped buying Pringles as well, something that is difficult as my favorite is Honey Mustard flavor and those, I will eat for the sake of eating chips, but to help keep my body as healthy as possible, I have stopped buying those, unfortunately I haven’t found a replacement for those, though I am looking.
I did talk to the manager in the local grocery store where I shop, I asked her if they could get in a specific brand and type of cheese puffs, these are very simple, few ingredients, organic and no GMO ingredients, she was happy to talk to me about it and wrote down what my request was, that particular store uses vendors to stock their shelves so she would have to talk to the vendor, I hope to see my request on the shelves next time I go shopping, sometimes it’s just a matter of doing a little research and then talking to your grocer about it. They want happy customers, they want customers to spend money in their stores, making specific requests, especially if it’s a brand they already carry is a simple thing to do.
I have also stopped buying commercial cereals, honestly I didn’t eat cereal very much to begin with, just when I had a hankering for a bowl every now and again. Cereals are one of the biggest offenders when it comes to GMO ingredients, as well as all the artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners they add. Don’t even get me started on artificial sweeteners, that is for another article. The cereal I purchased this time was Uncle Sam, I see that brand in nearly every grocery store I shop in, it’s common, and that one isn’t as expensive as some of the regular commercial brands out there, it turned out to be very tasty.
Here are some of the food companies who spent millions of dollars to defeat Prop 37, the labeling GMO foods and how much they spent:
PEPSICO, INC. $2,145,400
KRAFT FOODS GLOBAL, INC. $1,950,500
NESTLE USA, INC. $1,461,600
COCA-COLA NORTH AMERICA $1,455,500
GENERAL MILLS, INC. $1,230,300
CONAGRA FOODS $1,176,700
KELLOGG COMPANY $790,700
SMITHFIELD FOODS, INC. $683,900
DEL MONTE FOODS COMPANY $674,100
CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY $598,000
THE J.M. SMUCKER COMPANY $555,000
HERSHEY COMPANY $518,900
H.J. HEINZ COMPANY $500,000
MARS INCORPORATED $498,350
HORMEL FOODS CORPORATION $467,900
BIMBO BAKERIES USA $422,900
BUMBLE BEE FOODS, LLC $420,600
OCEAN SPRAY CRANBERRIES, INC. $409,100
SARA LEE CORPORATION $343,600
https://www.carighttoknow.org/_45_million_against_right_to_know
I’m sure you recognize more than a few of the names on this list, I did pick and choose from the list, there are many more names available, just click on the link to see all of them. Why do you suppose these big name companies fought so hard to keep the consumers from knowing if their foods contained GMO ingredients? If these are so safe, if they are in fact so good for us, you’d think these companies would be falling all over themselves to promote the fact that they are using GMO ingredients. I’ll try to not make this article about GMO foods, I’ll save that for a whole ‘nother article, which I feel will be coming up really soon, I want this to be about what I am doing to eat healthier.
I am aware of the fact that it is often more expensive to eat “organic” foods, the ones you will find in the boutique specialist section of the grocery store or in health food stores, and I agree it can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. You can eat healthier foods that don’t require mortgaging your life by simply eating simpler, bottom line here, I try my best to eat as close to the earth as possible, choosing the least processed foods, the ones with the fewest ingredients on the label, ones with ingredients I can pronounce, cooking from scratch as much as possible… as I said, I’m no saint, but I do think about what I am consuming, I do read labels and actively work on changing buying and eating habits one thing at a time.
One Response
MonSanto needs to go down. I have been preaching the evils of MonSanto, and their GMO crops for years. Their stuff is banned in most of Europe. Yet it’s encouraged here in the US. Several of Mon Santos top executives ironically have high ranking governmental positions as well, one of those being the top dog at the EPA.. Ironic? They have created an arms race with nature, and if history have proven anything to us it’s that nature will ALWAYS find a way. Only with MonSanto’s tinkering, it’s going to find a way at the expense of our food supply and lives.