Traci’s Ten Tenets of Eating:
- Michael Pollan says it best in Food Rules: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Eat food from a plant, not made in a plant (41).
- Read ALL labels. Know what you are eating. Eat food products with 5 ingredients or less (Food Rules 15). 1 or 2 ingredients is even better!
- Eat an apple or pear every day. Both are good sources of fiber. Adults need 25-30 grams of fiber per day.
- Drink water….lots of water. Make water your “go-to” drink.
- Know how much you are eating. Never ever eat out of a bag, box, package, or container of any kind. Get out the portion you need/want and put the container back. Make it a conscious effort to pull the container back out and eat more.
What not to buy/eat (if any of the first 5 items are listed in the ingredient list…do not buy/eat. Reading labels is a must!!):
- Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated.
- Nitrates/nitrites – in processed meat (bacon, sausage, deli meat, hot dogs, etc.)
- Don’t bite the whites:
- White Flour and processed grains. If it doesn’t say “whole”, it is processed. Ingredients to avoid: enriched flour, unbleached flour, wheat flour, white rice, etc.
- White and processed sugar. Secret names of sugar: corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, brown sugar, cane sugar, cane syrup, cane juice and evaporated cane juice, turbinado sugar, barley malt, beet sugar, brown rice syrup, corn sweetener, dextrin, fructo-oligosaccharides, fruit juice concentrate, invert sugar, and the words ending in “-ose” – dextrose, glucose, sucrose, maltose, and fructose, polydextrose, etc. Note #1: It is difficult to avoid all forms of sugar. At a minimum, do not purchase a product that has a sugar ingredient is in the top 3 ingredients. Remember tenet #2 ( read labels and eat food with 5 ingredients or less). Note #2: I also avoid artificial sweeteners.
- Soda (including diet) and sugar drinks. Don’t drink sugar. Eliminate soda (diet soda, too), sugar drinks (lemonade, Gatorade types, etc), juice, etc.
- Fried foods.
Bonus Tip: Know your favorites. Splurge on your delicious but may not so nutritious to eat once or twice a month (no more than once a week).
Start eating right today. Don’t wait until Monday. You don’t want to get in the habit of starting the week off eating right and then eating worse as the week goes on saying to yourself every week, “I’ll start on Monday.” It’s never too late to eat right. Start now.
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