Tips for Healthy Family Eating: Three Golden Guidelines

Golden Guideline #1: Eat Food in Its Most Natural State

When we eat food in its most natural state (i.e. organic, raw, fresh, free of added hormones and additives, not packaged or processed), we are most likely to gain the highest nutrient value AND avoid stressing our liver and our immune systems. Even when packaged foods have been “fortified” with “vitamins and minerals” (as we often see with dairy and cereal products), we must bear in mind that the sources for these so-called nutrients are most often synthetic (isolated components of a vitamin produced in a lab) and made with the cheapest possible materials. Therefore, these nutrients are not as likely to be bio-available to us. That is, our bodies generally cannot make use of these materials in the ways it needs to do so.

Golden Guideline #2: Rotate the Foods in Your Diet

Rotating foods in our diet has many rewards. A rotational system can be carried out by following this guideline: if you eat a food today, do not eat it again for another 3 days. Most of us eat almost exactly contrary to this practice: we eat a variety of only about 12 different foods day in and day out, often eating the exact same thing for a meal (usually breakfast) everyday. However, in rotating the foods we eat, we consume a much greater variety of foods. With variety of food comes a variety of nutrients that will fuel the many needs of the body. Also, by avoiding overexposure to the same few foods, we can avoid developing intolerances and hypersensitivities to them and the symptoms that accompany food intolerance/hypersensitivity. Finally, by rotating foods we can add interest to mealtime, avoid boredom in eating, and discover new favorites.

Golden Guideline #3: Eat Adequate Amounts of Fresh Protein & Vegetables

Our clinical experience has revealed that the two most neglected elements of most peoples’ diets are protein and vegetables. Protein (found in fish, shellfish, beef, poultry, lamb, pork, eggs, beans and nuts) and vegetables not only provide valuable nutrients, but they help us expend energy efficiently. We are not advocating high protein diets. Rather, we are noting that protein is often conspicuously missing from peoples’ diets. Normally, by devoting more time to meal preparation and to mealtime itself, it is easy to add these crucial elements to our diets.