What Matters Most

Food is not just a vessel for energy that we use to sustain our daily activities, it is nature's gift for a healthy life.  If you look at the spectrum of food that can be consumed you will see a dizzying selection to choose from.  There are countless combinations of ingredients to create dishes that not only please cellular respiration but provide medicine to heal the mind, body, and soul.  It is very important to understand what food does to our overall health and quality of life.  Discarding highly processed foods from your diet and returning to kitchen basics with raw ingredients can make an enormous difference in how you feel, and how your body heals.  The best example I can give you starts with my mother.  For many years she has been fighting obesity and emotional eating issues.  Her food choices have caused her high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, fatigue, and so on.  When I started showing her different dishes she would enjoy, made with quality ingredients, her health problems slowly began to fade.  It takes time for the body to heal itself but given the right sustenance it  can do amazing things.  In the last 6 months her cholesterol has dropped to a healthy level, her hypertension has decreased, her fatigue has reduced, and her weight slowly began to drop and continues to slowly dissipate.  Pick your food wisely.  Your wallet and your health will appreciative of your efforts.  You do not need books or recipes to show you what is best to eat and what is not.  Some general rules of thumb for finding the best ingredients are:

1.  Make sure your produce and animal proteins come from local, organic or traditional, sustainable sources.  Organic foods will cost more but are worth the extra expense.  The only thing I have to say about organic though is know where it is from.  Just because it says organic on the package does not mean it is truly a one hundred percent organic product.  

2.  Animals proteins should be free range, grass fed, and raised with sustainable farming.  Again watch out for free range labels as this does not necessarily mean free to roam around and eat.  

3.  Whole Foods does not mean the best foods!  You can find great produce from local vendors like A Simpler Place in Time at a fraction of the cost.  

4.  Do not be afraid to use ingredients you have never used.  Youtube is a wonderful tool for finding out how to use an ingredient and how to cook it properly.  

5.  Any packaged food items that have more than 20+ ingredients in it you should stay away from.  

6.  Foods with natural flavorings, MSG, nitrates, nitrites, and preservatives should be avoided.  If you do not know what ingredient may or may not be a preservative then look it up online.  These chemicals are added to foods to increase shelf life.  Home make it if it is easy and not too time consuming.

7.  Buy more raw vegetables and fruits and reduce your animal protein consumption.  Sometimes my wife and I will go a whole week without animal protein.  

8.  Instead of feeding your babies and kids canned or jarred foods invest in a good food processor.  You can make a plethora of things for your kids to eat using this tool.  Instead of feeding your little ones jarred baby food, throw in some cooked sweet potatoes, carrots, and peas into the processor and pulse away!

Some summer fun.  Dry rubbed, slow roasted, then a thin layer of sauce
caramelized on top!