No Tuesday Epihany Today... so I will ramble about Nutrition a bit!

I do not really no where I am going with this yet, so read on perhaps you or I will learn a little something today! Speaking of nutrition if you are helping out with my nutrition study, thank you! I have already got both weeks of logs from several of you, Hurray and thank you! If you are still working on your logs.. thanks and please let me know if you need help! I will say that many of you eat a very healthy diet! I am so proud to know so many of you that make health a priority. It feels so good and keeps us away from the doctors. (sorry Denise, plenty of babies still need ya!) With that said, a whole foods diet is the way to go, what are whole foods? Foods that are just the way nature gave them to us! Picked off a tree, pulled out of the ground, and yes, meat and fish are also whole foods(this coming from the vegetarian). Don't forget, nuts, seeds, legumes, eggs, milk etc..The less processed these foods are the better they are for us. Organic's are best when you can find them, and for some afford them. Truth be known, a bag of brown rice will go much farther than rice-a-roni. Not just food wise but also nutrition wise. There is definately some truth to the statement "you are what you eat". The emergence of processed foods, refined flours, additives, sugar, and high frutose corn syrup(to name a few) have brought upon us new surge of diease in the past 50 or so years. We can not change our genetics, however what we can change is the expression of our genes, by how we treat our bodies. For example: if we have lung cancer in our family, and we smoke we are more likely to get lung cancer. The word diet comes from díaita, meaning way of life. So why does it seems that 'diet' is our way of life? Everything we do has to do with food, we are influenced by advertising, other people, it's on TV, bilboards, magazines, at the mall, the movies it's everywhere! Everytime we get together with family or friends it's all about food. We can not turn around without having food in our faces. So why is it that we are the most obese country in the nation? Let me just say this: golden arches, have it your, way, hurry hurry and get that box in the microwave... Is this really how we want to live? I personally don't want this. I choose my way of life to be very different. We cook dinner just about every night and we do our best to put nourishing foods on the table. I realize that for every family and every person, it is not something we can do EVERY day, sometimes things come up, sometimes we just can't. However, if we plan we can overcome even this. Sometimes a sandwich is all we can do. Should it be that frozen PB&J or should we know that if we have fresh ingredients and whole grain breads that a quick and healthy meal is on the way. How about a salad made with whatever fresh green we have, some veggies and maybe even some fruit, with nuts, or beans tossed on top. It doesn't always have to complicated. Sources: The Worlds Healthiest Foods by George Mateljan Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine by Ronald Schmid