Tips for Nutritional Healing

These are just a few of the incredible discoveries I made through the ton of research I did for my 6-week cleanse earlier this year. 

Foods to enjoy daily:

• At the top of the list are cruciferous veggies.  Eat as much as you can, but at least one serving raw and one cooked every day.  The health benefits are amazing!
• Eat your greens - the darker the better!  Shoot for 8 servings a day.  This has been shown to decrease risk of cancer and a whole host of other ailments.
• Raw oats, sprouted nuts, and low-sugar fruits. Combined they truly are the breakfast of champions.
• Hot lemon water in the morning 
• Drink lots of water and green tea throughout the day

Healthy food substitutes:

• Instead of chips, try rice or raw crackers with supergreens mix or raw nut cheese
• Instead of a candy bar, try carob-almond milk or raw walnut-cacao dreamy bars
• Instead of a cookie, try an apple with raw almond butter, or bake some healthy cookies like these sesame-oat-cranberry cookies
• Instead of that afternoon mocha or latte, try a decaf, sugar-free chai
• Instead of ice cream, try easy kiwi sorbet

“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” - Thomas Edison

Some of the key tips I want to share are about how to reduce your dependence on the 3 worst enemies of the standard American diet - Salt, Sugar, and Fat.  This trinity isn't wholly bad, but the quantities many of us ingest definitely are detrimental to our health and longevity.  Read Michael Moss' book Salt, Sugar, Fat to learn more.

Salt:

• The key here is to take control of your eating.  Cut out, or way back, on the processed foods; and start cooking at home.
• When cooking at home, try adding salt only at the end.  If the food still tastes a bit bland, jazz it up with lemon, garlic, chilies, or other spices.  And don't leave the salt shaker on the table.
• At the grocery store, look for unsalted or low-salt varieties
• Always taste your food before you salt

Sugar:

• This one's critical - Eat less sugar!  Lightly sweeten with alternatives like dates, orange juice, honey, brown rice syrup, or sucanat. Here's a great list.
• Don't go "low fat", this usually means more sugar.
• Eat fruit as a dessert
• Cut out sweet drinks
• When cooking at home, reduce the amount of sugar in a recipe.  And try using other complex flavors instead of just going sweet - coconut, fruit, nuts, spices.
• Switch to sourdough bread, instead of standard loaves made with honey and sugar.
• At the grocery store, read labels.  There's much more sugar than you might expect in salad dressing, ketchup, and many other condiments.

Fat:

• Again, the key here is to take control of your eating.  Cut out, or way back, on the processed and fast foods; and start cooking at home.
• Avoid all trans fats
• Don't go "low fat".  This usually means more sugar, salt, processing, or all of the above.
• Fall in love with olive oil.  Olive oil is great for you, and delicious in sweet and savory dishes.  Here's a full list of good and bad fats.

Healthy changes to your way of thinking:

• Don't eat foods that are out of season.  Not sure, check out this handy guide.
• Eliminate all processed foods, GMO foods, artificial ingredients and preservatives
• Eat whole foods 
• Eat all the vegetables you want - the darker in color the better
• Lower your intake of carbs + potatoes
• Try going veg or flexitarian.  Here are a couple good cookbooks by chef Peter Berley to get you started - veg + flex)
• Cut back on the coffee + alcohol

“If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it”   - Common sense