As many of you know, I am doing a summer nutrition series, "Road to Health Naturally". I will be giving pro-tips, recipes, community tips and more on Instagram and Facebook. This is also the first year I am able to plant my own vegetable and herb garden and I am going to share my successes and defeats. Hopefully we will all learn together.
On top of that my Healthy Snapshots and Blog this summer will all focus on nutrition. I know most people don't have time to grow their own food and raise animals for meat so it's important to understand what others are trying to sell you.
Local Farmer's Markets and CSA boxes: This is a no brainer. If you can't grow high quality food then it's best to buy locally. If you are in a big city it is within your right to ask the Market Booth what their restrictions are for vendors so you don't end up buying strawberries from South America, etc. Also get to know your farmers and ask them questions. They will appreciate that you appreciate their hard work. You can usually get veggies, fruits, eggs, and free range meat at most markets.
Eggs: again buy locally when possible. In the supermarket you will see words like "Natural." If eggs aren't natural I would hate to know how they made them. So this word is pointless in ALL food marketing. Other words like Organic might make you want to buy them but they only need "organic feed" to qualify for this label. The conditions the animals are raised may be horrible. Omega-3 may be in the feed they are given but not a free range bird. My best bet is free-range, humanely raised eggs.
Beef: Most healthy people know that free-range beef is actually good for your heart because it has Omega-3 fatty acids, like salmon. It has less saturated fats than its counter part raised on corn fed lots. So it is better for heart health than 99% of the meat in the grocery store. The #1 thing to look for is 100% Grassfed, or Grassfed/grass finished meat. Americans desire the saturated fats so they will raise a cow on a grass field and then the last month of it's life they will bring it to a corn fed lot to fatten it up, get more money per pound and make it "fatty." This is not desirable for heart health.
Wheat: Sorry folks but if you don't want to eat huge doses of Roundup/glyphosate, then you have to buy organic wheat, European wheat or gluten free in ALL your wheat products. They have been using Roundup since the 80's to ripen and dry out the wheat for harvest.
Gluten Free: some gluten free products are ok and others are garbage. A lot of times it means a lot of sugar and fats to create a better mouth feel. Gluten free does not mean healthy!
