Lisa Johnson is a blogger for AOL and for LisaJohnsonFitness.com
I have evolved into a foodie over the years. I started off as the Queen of Frozen Dinners, gleefully nuking my food so I could get on with the business of living. Shockingly, I was sick all the time, constantly run down, and tired. As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned the value of eating well. It permeates the fabric of everything we do. “Choose well and live well” is my motto these days.
I do not advocate vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore, although personally I consider myself a flexitarian. I eat mostly vegetarian but I throw in a bit of meat protein every week. I think everyone should eat what they want, but I do advocate quality. Cut out the processed food, the trans fats, and heavy doses of sugar. Make sure the meat you eat is raised well, to your level of ethics and morals. Here are some ideas on how to do that,
Start with just one thing
Trying to overhaul your diet in one fell swoop is a recipe for disaster. You’ll stall out in frustration. Just pick one thing and try to improve that. Once you feel comfortable with your dietary adjustment, you can add another change. Most experts recommend starting with the “dirty dozen” of fruits and vegetables: twelve fruits and vegetables that absorb the highest percentage of insecticides and chemicals. Another good place to start is with organic meat and dairy products.
Be open-minded
You’ll come home from the grocery store with something awful! You’ll try cooking a new recipe and be appalled at what the final product is. Just laugh it off and try again. More than one evening meal has ended in pizza delivery because what I cooked either tasted horrible or I messed up the recipe somewhere. But there have been great successes, too—new recipes that have become staples in my house because everyone loves them. Be willing to experiment. I have committed to bringing one new thing home from the grocery store every week and that has given me a new appreciation for pears, blue potatoes, arctic chard, pickles, plantains, and a whole bunch more food items.
Educate Yourself
As I walked out of the theater from Super Size Me, I happened to be across the street from a McDonald’s. My stomach churned at the bright, happy golden arches. Since then I’ve seen Food, Inc., read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, and watched Michael Pollan of Omnivore’s Dilemma speak.
I am always reading about how our food is produced. The more I learn, the pickier I get. While I’ll never become vegan (it just isn’t for me), I only eat sustainable and humanely raised food and I try as much as possible to buy local and organic. The sources listed above have dramatically changed how I feed myself and my family.
Cook for yourself
You don’t stock your pantry with high fructose corn syrup and you don’t dump a ton of salt in your dishes to mask the poor quality food you’re eating. It probably wouldn’t occur to you to add sugar to your meat to sweeten it while cooking, right? But restaurants and manufacturers regularly do this to their food, plus all the dreaded trans fat—perhaps one of the worst things we can put in our bodies. By cooking for yourself, you have complete control over what goes in your body. The more you prepare your own foods, the better you’ll feel. If this is a whole new concept to you, start small—just one meal per week. Get a couple of basic recipes down and then add another meal in. Again, think in baby steps, not drastic changes.
Share with others
I’ve gone from living out of my microwave to being known for my dinner parties. I always make a point of using only the best ingredients I can find, and making sure they’re organic and sustainable. I never tell my guests until after the “oohs and aahs” of dessert. Then I let them know how healthily they were eating. I have inspired a few friends to choose better cuts of meat and I’ve gotten almost everyone onto the “dirty dozen” bandwagon. It feels pretty good to help those around me live a healthier life.
What do you do to eat well? Are there steps you’ve taken to live more healthfully? What’s your favorite healthy recipe? I’d love to hear from you.
Other resources
Food Rules, a fast and informative read from Michael Pollan. He developed the book as a handout for cardio doctors looking to help their patients eat better.
Eating Animals, a funny, touching book about an urban Dad (Safran Foer) exploring his food chain. At moments it’s harrowing, but this book is incredibly well-researched and vetted by lawyers. You can trust the information in this book and it’s very, very eye-opening.
Food, Inc., an incredible movie that succinctly shows you the factory farming system. There is a good chance that this movie will change how you eat for the rest of your life. I recommend not watching it on a full stomach.
Meatless Mondays, a movement started by a New York Times food writer to go vegetarian just one day a week. The statistics on this site are incredible. They show how just three simple meals per week can change the planet.
Jamie Oliver’s recipes. Sign his petition to improve school lunches if you’re American. You can roam around his site for quick, healthy recipes, which he designs for the busy family cook. No crazy ingredients or complicated cooking processes.
101 Things I Learned in Culinary School, written by Louis Eguaras with Matthew Frederick, is a great book about the cooking skills you need to cook easily. I finally learned how to hold a knife properly after flipping through this great short read.
About Lisa Johnson
Lisa,
Lots of good ideas here. I eat mostly vegan these days. When I eat meat it’s local and organic. And while I do like occasional junk food, I rarely eat anything processed anymore. And you know what? My reflux is gone.
Lee
Thanks for the good resources, Lisa. It seems like I”m always having an internal battle over food. I’m such an animal person, and don’t want to eat meat, and yet it’s such an ingrained part of my life living in a farm community my whole life. And you’re definitely right about how food affects you as you get older.
Thank you for writing this Lisa and for the added resources at the end. I’m on a similar path to try to find and eat better quality food and be more mindful of what I consume. It’s not just about the money you spend but about educating yourself and knowing what to eat and how/where to buy.
Some great advice here Lisa.
I couldn’t agree more with the benefits of cooking for yourself and being able to choose what goes into your body.
But I think the real key is to keep it simple. If you seek out recipes that don’t have an excess of fancy ingredients and focus on using the best quality you can afford, there will be less disasters that end in dialling a pizza.
Lisa, yummy stuff. I like more veggies myself. Our parents had us pinned to the dinner table until we ate our veggies. Out the kitchen window were all our friends playing. “Your not going out to play unless you finish your veggies” they’d say. They had us. I’ve loved them most in my adult years. I’d rather have broccoli than meat.
I’m with you on eating less meat. I consider myself a not so strict vegetarian. After reading The China Study I tried strict vegetarian for 3 months. I dropped my cholesterol 50 points.
One addition I’ve been using for about a year now is adding walnuts to my oatmeal and raisins for breakfast. Really helps curb the appetite to resist the junk folks eat at work.
Thank you for these tips and resources. Just in time for the big feast tomorrow.
Scott
Just FYI, the Twitter handle in your bio isn’t linked out properly. =)
Outside of that, thanks a lot for the article! I’m soon on a journey to a better diet and overall healthy lifestyle change, so I definitely found all of this information useful. Cooking has always been a real pain in the butt to me, but I need to change that… lol. Anyway, thanks again. =)
-Stephen
Hey Lisa, Great tips! Fresh, organic food does taste so much better than the prepared stuff, though I do admit we use prepared foods sometimes when the schedule doesn’t permit cooking.
Well its pretty easy really. don’t eat anything rfom a packet, jar or can.Rosemary Stanton is the guru of healthy food. I think raw food is the best
Thank you Lisa for inspiring me. I have a long ways to go but your words “inched” me a little further along in the journey. Timely help!
Wow, you guys are amazing. Just checking in Thanksgiving morning here (in the US) and it’s pretty cool to see your replies.
Lee, that’s amazing that your reflux is gone. I should mention that to my Mom! She has a similar issue.
Debbie, I’m descended from dairy farmers so I know what you mean. I don’t think giving up meat is the best choice for everyone. We *are* omnivores. We have incisors for a reason. That said, choosing your meat well, and respecting everyone’s right to choose how they’d like to live seems the best way to go. Maybe a gentle prod to people who don’t care that factory farming is so damaging.
Jo and Jules, thanks for your comments and talking about the quality of food. Home cooking is definitely the way to go and I have found the more simple I cook the happier everyone is. It’s been a while since we speed dialed takeout to cover for a kitchen catastrophe! (which means I’m due … lol)
Scott, I’m not familiar with the China Study, so I’ll have to go check it out. Thanks for giving me the heads up on it. I think it’s great that you dropped your cholesterol 50 points in 3 months! And you tried strict vegetarian and then realized you need a little more flexibility. Find your happy spot is more important than following a certain set of guidelines I think.
Stephen, good luck on your journey, food can be the most rewarding and frustrating path to take. As you learn more and more you get angry at what’s happening, but then there’s a lot of misinformation out there too (by both sides!) so it can be confusing. I do like Jonathan Safran Foer’s book because it’s so well researched … he helped a lot.
Susan, Brad and Margi, I’m glad this post inspired a little. Brad, you’re right the more packaging you can avoid, the healthier you’ll eat. But like Susan says, sometimes life conspires against you and you have to reach for a package. I have a little stash of organic frozen dinners to cover such occasions.
Thanks everyone for the great, great comments. Enjoy your next meal.
Lisa
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