FOOD for THOUGHT: Whole Foods for a Whole Life

(Dietary changes should be discussed with a health care provider.)

This week’s photo pictures my great aunt.  I traveled, this past weekend, to her 98^th birthday party.  I hope, when I am her age, that I too can walk, talk, see & hear, that my heart beats on its own and that I have my own joints and most of my own teeth!

In the areas of the world with the highest concentration of centenarians (centenarians who are still physically able), one thing that these 100+ year olds have in common is that they do not eat things that need ingredient lists – they eat ingredients – whole natural foods.  Diet is one of the four main things that affect health and quality of life in the long term.

CHALLENGE #9 of 50:

9A.  Every time you are standing around waiting in a checkout line make some comparisons.  How many items in your cart need ingredient lists.  How many have very few ingredients; how many have unexpected/unnecessary/unexplainable/unrecognizable ingredients?  How many things are from the produce (vegetables), spices and dry goods (whole grains, beans and rice – not minute rice) sections vs. the packaged, pre-made, overly processed foods?  Make an honest assessment and take note.  9B.  Try to make more than half your meals from scratch this week.  Before you cry, “I don’t have that kind of time!” leftover nights count, and partial leftovers are fair game.  Grains take the longest to cook; so, I always make a double batch and use the extra as a side later or as an ingredient in a future main dish (or both).  Rice becomes fried rice – pasta :: pasta salad.  Quinoa becomes a salad topping.  Millet goes in beet loaf, and barley gets thrown in soup.

PS The goal is not necessarily to live to be 100; the goal is to “LIVE” until the day you die -- to feel good enough to go out and do what you love, what is fun and what makes you happy rather than to be too tired, too achy or too limited.  Neither do you want to be on too many prescription drugs with side affects or worse be bed ridden with a perpetual discomfort or be in and out of the hospital.  Because we provide what our children eat, we are making this long-term decision for them as well – good or bad.

QUOTE of the WEEK:

You don’t need to get nutrition exactly right in order to feed your children well.  You don’t need to get nutrition exactly right to teach your children healthy eating habits either. You simply need to feed your children real food -- most of the time.  What's real food? As Michael Pollan says, it is food your great-grandmother would recognize.

Dina Rose PhD