Fruits And Vegetables Each Day

Almost four years ago the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee formally issued their recommendation that Americans need to consume five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables each day, in order to build and maintain health. This constitutes a bit of a jump as compared to the past recommendation of eating five to nine.

There’s good reason for the increase when we realize that our produce has a decreased amount of nutrition today due to having been grown in depleted soils, being harvested while it’s still green, etc., not to mention the amount of time that passes between harvesting and our actually eating it!

Add to that the growing amount of research that clearly indicates the link between diet and disease; a link that was not always as clear as it is today.

While there may be a certain amount of debate about some of the Dietary Guidelines for America, one thing that science has taught us and today’s experts strongly agree upon, is that a diet rich in a variety of fruits, vegetables and grains helps reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease to mention just two.

When I talk to clients about their diets I usually discover that they are sadly deficient in meeting the old guidelines, much less the new ones. I empathize with them as I know how difficult it can be to do that, with so many factors playing a role, i.e. cost, time, effort (most are too tired at the end of their day to prepare whole food, healthy meals for their families after having already put in a full days work). This is even more difficult when, after picking up their little ones from day care, they pass by a McDonalds and hear from the back seat, “Mommy, can we stop at Mackie Dees….PLEEEZE?” The media is training our children, conditioning them to want more and more overly refined foods…foods that are saturated in the bad fats, full of sugar, a myriad of chemicals, and are over processed as well.

This scenario is played out over and over again in the lives of American’s across the U.S. on an average of two to three times a week. But what about the days when we don’t just “pick up” something on our way home? Well, how about having a pizza delivered? Or we could do just do macaroni & cheese and cut up some good ole’ hotdogs in it….what’s wrong with that?
I wish I had understood what was wrong with it many years ago when I was raising my children!
I did it then and I’m fairly certain many of you are doing it today…with far greater reason than I had all those years ago.

I didn’t understand back then, as you may not understand today, that living bodies NEED living food in order to thrive, and there’s a world of difference between surviving and thriving! Stop and think about the kinds of foods you put into your own body and into your children’s….how much of it is comprised of fresh, raw produce? And conversely, how much of it comes out of a bag, box, or can, or from fast food or other “convenience” food places?

In order to safe-guard our health, we must become our own health advocates…no one else is going to do it for us, in most cases, not even our own doctors. Traditional health care professionals of today have become a group of disease management specialists…leaving the job of learning how to build health, and maintain it over the long haul, primarily up to us. When they went to medical school the two hour course on nutrition was an elective that many “elected” not to take!

Discover all you can about what it means to build health, and then put it into practice. Take one small step today and when that has become a habit, add one more piece, until you are practicing a lifestyle of “Dietary Excellence & Optimal Habits”. Future columns will go into just what that might look like, but for now continue reading your labels before you buy a food…before you eat it… rinse your produce, and eat more of it in a variety of colors!
Have a wonderful Holiday Season everyone and think about “gifting” yourself with the “gift of Health”!
I’ll be back next year!
Joi

Ways in which to improve your diet

If you are reading this Blog, you are more than likely interested in discovering ways in which to improve your diet, and lifestyle, which would help you to realize better health. That being said, we will talk about ways to help you, the consumer, do that through making better choices in the foods you eat, as well as ways to make what you eat even healthier for you to consume.

Let’s talk about produce first: We all know by now that buying organic is the best possible scenario, as by doing so, we avoid ingesting harmful chemicals that are on the foods themselves and/or have become systemic due to the thin skin of the produce, etc. However, even organic produce must be treated at times with some type of pesticide, so we encourage always washing produce no matter its origin.

The following chart will help you to clean your produce in a safe and economical way, leaving all the pesticides, herbicides, grit and otherwise distasteful residues behind in the water.

Atlantic Sea Salt is effective for thoroughly cleaning all produce. Dissolve 1 Tablespoon in a sink full of filtered water, (when possible), as the chlorine in tap water is absorbed through the skin of the fruits and vegetables, much the same way it is absorbed into the skin of humans, and soak foods according to the following schedule: Note: If using filtered water is not possible using tap water is better than nothing at all!

PRODUCE CLEANING CHART

Leafy vegetables Thin-skinned fruits
5 minutes 5 – 10 minutes
Root vegetables Thick-skinned fruits
10 – 15 minutes 10 – 15 minutes

Rinse the foods in filtered water, (when possible), and dry carefully.

Here’s a good rule of thumb to use to help you recognize which produce is conventionally grown, genetically modified, or organically grown.
The produce will have a sticker on it, if missing look at the sign above or behind the produce.

If the number has:
Four digits, it is conventionally grown (this generally means that they use non organic pesticides and herbicides, and are grown in depleted soil, using chemical fertilizers.
Five digits starting with the number 8, it’s genetically modified.Five digits starting with the number 9, it’s organically grown.