Get in my belly!

The word Diet has been getting a bad reputation in last couple of decades. The word originally and should still be used as a way to describe one's eating habits and regular food lifestyle. However, now the word is used to describe a deprivation meal plan that one embarks on in order to loose weight, and can cause fear and hate in many. There are so many "Diet" plans out there that guarantee people to loose weight. Atkins, South Beach, Mediterranean, Zone, Jenny Craig, No sugar, 5-day Meal plan, Low-fat, Fat Free, and those are only the diets I can name off the top of my head!

The truth is the longer society engages in these diets, the more obese and unhealthy society becomes. The more processed food becomes to be low-fat or fat free, the more chemicals are put in to still make it flavorful. Recently, I learned a lot of hard facts about Splenda, first, it's an irritant to the human bladder (this one I learned the tough way and from my doctor), which is probably caused by its chemical ingredients which include Chlorine! Finding this out was a shock for me, since I was using it and consuming products with its logo slapped on the front on a daily basis. I can't imagine what the future repercussions would be if I was already facing side effects from consumption.

I think its time to realize that as natural beings we need to get back to eating and drinking natural foods. For hundreds of years food from the Earth was all our body knew how to digest and now in the last 60 years food companies are causing the change. After reading Michael Pollan's book "Food Rules" (his other more indepth books are in my reading list), I know there are easy ways to cut the crap out of my food. The rules are extremely basic, and were actually submitted by some of his readers. One rule I really try to follow is "Don't eat food products that contain more than 5 ingredients." Luckily for me, store-bought tortilla chips barely makes the cut!

I made my own rule that applies to even more food products:

Don't eat anything that has ingredients that you couldn't find in a household kitchen.

This rule makes it easy to go grocery shopping, because if I haven't heard of one of the ingredients on the package, chances are its not NATURAL!

The easiest way to make sure the food I am eating is natural is to cook and eat mostly from home. And a year ago I quit shopping at Supermarkets, because grocery shopping for just myself could take up to an hour, since I was reading all the labels of everything I was buying to make sure it didn't have unwanted ingredients. Now I do my staple shopping at Trader Joe's and local Farmer's Markets, and I hardly have to think about what I put in my basket. I am still a work in progress though, I know I can be getting my diet from better sources, but this fits my budget now.

I think with any diet, like my natural food diet, its easy to slip up, especially in a world of processed foods. Yet now that I have changed my habits, when I slip up I can actually feel how hard it is for my body to process the junk I eat and leaves me laying on my stomach for an hour.

I am not necessarily advocating that organic "USDA" produce and products are the only way to go either, but at least being conscious of the chemicals that are in products that you wouldn't expect will help to be healthy in general.

Nothing is more natural than produce that is dug from the earth or picked off trees or vines.

Natural eating = Healthy Living