The Good Food, Good Mood Journey - Week 2 - What Exactly AM I Eating?!
What Exactly AM I Eating?
When it comes to food, it is easy to to go on autopilot. Eat the easiest option - the least amount of time and effort to get food on the table. Understandable. Sometimes there is so much going on in our lives that we just need things to be simple.
That’s why your Good Food, Good Mood Journey WILL NOT advocate BIG, DRASTIC CHANGE.
If we want healthy changes to be lasting, simple deliberate actions will be the way to go.
This will help to make the journey simple and less complicated.
Mindful Eating
It all starts with ingredients. Take the time to read the labels of the foods in your pantry and refrigerator.
The best food to fuel your body has no label (fresh fruits and veggies) or only one ingredient (frozen fruits and veggies, whole grains, nuts, milk, meat). If you're cooking from scratch at home, you get to decide what goes into the recipes you prepare. You chop the veggies, choose the meat (if any) and oils, add spices, salt, and/or sugar. You may have heard these words of grocery shopping wisdom "shop the perimeter of the store." The perimeter usually includes all of the categories I listed above (except at Choices, you'll find a few of these options in our bulk department which is not part of the perimeter of our store.) This helps keep processed foods out of your diet. Processed foods are often filled with preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, ingredients you cannot pronounce, and more salt, fat, and sugar than you would normally cook with yourself.
A general rule of thumb is that the longer the list of ingredients is, the more processed the food is. Are you pretty good about reading the nutrition label (the one with calories, sugar, fat, etc.)? Don't forget to start with the ingredient list! Remember that ingredients are listed with ingredients that make up the greatest amount listed first, then listed in descending order. If a product has 5 or less ingredients, all that you know and can pronounce, you can feel good about the product. The longer the list grows, the more unfamiliar, unpronounceable ingredients, the more highly processed the product is.
Going back to the nutrition label, one of the most important parts of that label is actually the serving size! Serving size is often overlooked, but can sometimes be deceiving when you're trying to determine the nutrition value of a given product. If serving size is 1/2 cup, and you eat 1 cup, then you need to double the nutrition information listed on the panel. Also, pay close attention to the grams of sugar listed. Sugar is not your friend, and has now been added to so many processed foods. The newer nutrition labels now include both total sugar and ADDED sugar. This change helps you understand exactly know how much sugar you are eating, and how much of that sugar was added by the manufacturer. You can click here to read more about nutrition labels.
Check out the video below to see reading labels in action.
Encouragement for Cooking at Home
Each week, look to our blog for recipe ideas to make your Good Food, Good Mood Journey delicious.
KALE.
Do you eat it?
Do you think that you should eat it,
but you're not sure what it might taste like, or how to prepare it?
This was one vegetable that was not in my wheelhouse before owning Choices. Greens are so good for us, but if we aren’t sure how they taste or how to prepare them, it’s easy to pass them by in the produce department.
Just because kale and other greens are healthy, does not mean that they have to taste weird (bad.) Lucky for me, it turns out that the very first recipe I tried, is the one that became a family favorite.
SPICY PARMESAN GREEN BEANS & KALE
I think this recipe is so successful is because the kale and mushrooms are mixed with a familiar veggie (green beans) At first, I used less kale and mushrooms than it called for. And over time, I increased both. You can include the spicy red pepper flakes, or leave them out. You can top with parmesan, or leave it out if you're vegan. This is such a winner that it has had a regular place in our side dish rotation ever since we first tried it! Click here for this Food Network recipe from Giada de Laurentiis.
