Healthy Living
When you serve a dish or cook dinner, what types of things do you look for in the ingredients to make sure it's a health meal? What makes food healthy?
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It has to make a significant nutrient contribution to our diet. It cannot be detrimental to our health or cause us to lose nutrients just by eating it. If the food has anything added as a preservative, I don't buy it. If it has added vitamins, then it's not a nutritious food to start with, and I don't buy. I look at sugar content and any -ose product (a sugar in hidden form.) I avoid "hydrogenated" anything and artificial sweeteners/flavors.
We eat mostly whole foods, and many of them don't even have a label for me to check ingredients. I don't worry about cholesterol or fat from these sources since it's in a natural form and my body knows what to do with it.
Personally, I also pay attention to carbs. I refuse to buy into the conventional thinking that we HAVE to have 160+ grams of carbs a day. I would have to take a vial of insulin 3x daily if I ate like that! I've changed our diet to low-carb (40 to 60 carbs a day) and my whole family does beautifully!
When cooking, I use a lot of fresh/dried herbs and spices to add flavor. I don't use many canned products, usually just organic tomatoes/sauce or organic coconut milk. Frozen foods rarely have to have preservatives or flavorings unless they're processed food products, and fresh just speaks for itself.
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I don't really but look for the food groups
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Veggies, lean protein, healthy oils, low in salt. The healthiest food to me is the closest to it's original form in nature. I don't like to eat what I can't pronounce.
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Raw ingredients. I avoid processed foods. -
If it's a real food, as close to the way it came from nature, then we call it healthy. Even bacon!
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I try to keep food as close to it's natural state as possible but I do use processed foods on occasion. I have so much stuff in my stockpile that even if I gave some away I would still have a bunch.
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- It has to be well rounded with all food groups present.
- I try to find lower sodium or healthy request-type ingredients if I have to use processed stuff.
- I keep meats lean by buying either lean cuts, or trimming fat before cooking.
- I make sure there's plenty of vegetables with each meal.
Nothing is really taboo in my house food-wise, but I do try to make most things at home. They are generally lower calorie than anything I could buy from the grocery aisle or frozen section. I use mostly frozen veggies in my cooking, and very rarely use canned. Fresh is best, but I buy for 2 weeks at a time, so frozen stays better.
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I try to buy as much unprocessed food as possible. I buy very few boxed items. I don't buy any canned items.
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We try this usually :)
Quoting aidensmomma508:
I don't really but look for the food groups
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I try to eat as lil processed foods as possible now days and learning to cook better from scratch.