Food can be wonderful or plain awful. At its best, it nourishes
us, gives us energy and delights our taste buds. At its worst it
clogs up our arteries, fills our bodies with unwanted toxins
and makes us fat.
The secret of losing weight is to choose the delicious natural
healthy kind and to eat just enough of it so you feel great.
But with so much awful food on offer out there, it's easier said
than done.
No one is paying huge sums to advertise fresh fruit and
vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and organic lean meat.
Instead we have major food manufacturers with big budgets
pushing snacks we can do without and products loaded with
thickeners, sweeteners, salt, corn syrup, mechanically
recovered meat, preservatives and every other semi-edible
chemical known to man.
Sure, the food tastes Ok - after all it's full of sugars (or
artificial sweeteners) and salt for that very reason. Food
manufacturers aim to bring you palatable food otherwise you
wouldn't buy it. But it has to turn in a huge profit too so they
pile in preservatives to give it a long shelf life and use the
cheapest ingredients they can get away with, padding them
out with fillers. But is that really how you want to nourish your
body?
If you buy cakes and cookies, snacks and processed foods
without thinking about what you are really putting into your
body, you are doing your health a huge disservice and playing
right into the hands of the food manufacturers. You are paying
good money for food which has no value to your health and
questionable ingredients which you really don't want to feed
anyone you care about (including you!)
Now there are some good processed foods out there - but
you do have to seek them out - they are not the major profit
producers of the big advertisers. Most of the advertising
money goes into persuading us to purchase vast quantities of
worthless soft drinks, chocolate bars and salty snacks.
Read the label on any product you're considering buying to
check that the ingredients include only those items you would
use if you were making the product at home. If there's
anything that sounds like it belongs in a chemical laboratory
leave it on the shelf and choose something else.
And whatever you choose make sure that you accompany it
with ample fresh vegetables or salad - very few processed
foods will contain adequate amounts of these. After your
meal, if you need anything else, swap sugar and sweetener-
laden profit-making desserts and cakes for fresh fruit.
Even better than being highly selective in the processed food
you buy, get a good cook book full of healthy delicious recipes
and learn to make fantastic food for you and your family.
Enjoy the whole process of nourishing yourself and the ones
you love from fresh basic good quality ingredients. Taste the
difference and you'll never look back.
Our health is precious. Be super critical about what you put
into your body and don't let the food manufacturers profit
from feeding you and your family junk food.
Copyright 2006, Janice Elizabeth Small
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