The Key to Healthy Food Choices: The more natural, the better

Being a part time vegetarian and making healthy food choices go hand in hand and eating healthy is really quite simple. There are only a few guidelines to follow and “the more natural the better” is the most important one.

Choose foods that are in their most fresh and natural state with little or no processing. For instance, choose fresh fish over frozen fish and choose frozen fish over frozen “fish sticks”. Always choose fresh over frozen and frozen over canned when it comes to fruits and vegetables. And, by all means, avoid frozen "meals" which are loaded with all kinds of chemicals and additives.

The more processed the food is, the less nutrients in it, and the more possible harmful chemicals you will be ingesting. “Fast food” in most any form should be avoided whether it is something from the supermarket that you microwave, or something from a fast food restaurant. However, there are some good choices in the “fast casual” restaurant category that serve non-processed or very minimally processed foods.

Food in its most natural state is always the healthiest for you and you can’t get any more natural than eating Organic.

• Organic foods, many times, have more flavor than their non-organic counterparts. Organic carrots are a great example of better flavor, once I tried them, I could not go back to non-organic.
  
• They can be more nutritious, richer in vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids than non-organic.

• Organic farming practices enrich the soil rather than deplete it and farm animals are treated more humanely.
• Organic and natural meats are becoming more common in the grocery stores. A good strategy for better health is to eat less meat and, when you do, make it organic. More organic products of all kinds are showing up in grocery stores every day. Try a few every week and soon you will be enjoying the healthy tasteful difference.

Eat less "bad" fat and cholesterol by cutting down on the amount of meat and fried foods you consume. Stay away from margarine and baked goods which contain trans-fats. If you eat meat at every meal and it is the centerpiece of your diet you should begin cutting down on your meat consumption immediately.

• Eat red meat only occasionally or not at all. Red meat is not only the highest meat in saturated fat and cholesterol but, it can be a toxic stew of pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Cows take longer to grow so they have more time to absorb toxins from the pesticide ridden grains they are fed. They are also treated with growth hormones so they grow faster and fed large doses of antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. If you eat fast food burgers, a lot of them are treated further with all kinds of preservatives, additives, and chemicals. Treat yourself to a homemade burger of organic beef from the supermarket.

• Cut down on the amount of meat you eat per meal. Six ounces of meat is plenty and less is recommended. Replace the extra meat with more vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts. You will find the added variety very enjoyable and you will get a wider variety of nutrients and phytochemicals.

• Eat Fish for its beneficial healthy fish oils. Fish do contain some hazardous toxins and some varieties should be avoided. Most all fish have PCB’s and mercury and the ones with higher concentrations and should be avoided by pregnant women and children. Eat about twelve ounces of fish a week (two meals) for optimal benefit without too much toxin. Shark, swordfish, and king mackerel should be avoided because they have high murcury levels. Some of the most popular fish that are low in mercury are salmon, shrimp, catfish, pollock and trout. Tuna is not the greatest and should be consumed sparingly. Albacore tuna is your best choice. Fish from local waters can be especially hazardous unless you know the waters are safe.

• Make one day a week a “meatless day”. You may think this is hard but with a little forethought and planning it can become an enjoyable challenge. An easy start is bean or vegetable burritos, grilled cheese sandwich, pasta with garden vegetable sauce, a portabella mushroom burger, bean soup or a vegetable wrap.

• Avoid saturated fat and trans-fat. These fats are solids at room temperature and include animal fats, butter, cheese and whole milk. Also avoid the trans-fat in margarine and most baked goods.

There are many other healthy food choices you can make once you integrate some of these broad eating habits into your day to day routine. One of the healthiest diets in the world is the Mediterranean Diet. It uses meats mostly as flavoring and filler for a wide variety of other ingredients. Mediterranean cuisine comes from many countries including Turkey, Italy, Lebanon, Syria and Morocco so it contains many interesting flavors and flavor combination's. Most of the food cooking methods and recipes are simple making it a good place to start learning healthy recipes. It is very popular and there are many good Mediterranean Cookbooks on the market.