Eating Healthy 101

The saying 'you are what you eat' couldn't be more true in today's world; however, knowing what is in your food is half the battle. I am a total nutrition nut - I can geek out and read nutrition books all day long, and yet when I share something I find to be SO COOL, typically it's all in the eye of the beholder. One of the best things I ever gained insight on was how to read a nutrition label and what everything means on it. With the way food is manufactured today, food is LOADED with preservatives that will only weigh you down and keep you far away from your fitness goals. It's best to eat a healthy clean diet free of preservatives. So what does that mean? When you go shopping at the store, read the ingredients listed on the package. If there are a million unpronounceable words listed - don't get it. Stay within a safe limit of ingredients like 10 tops. If there's something you don't know what the heck it is or how to say it - why would you want to put it in your body? The fresher the more natural the product the better it is for you. 

Did you know that packaged lunch meat is also loaded with vegetable oil? YUCK. So, now you may ask what is it with vegetable oil and why is it in most of the products in my pantry...? 

Vegetable oils (and margarine, made from these oils) are oils extracted from seeds like the rapeseed (canola oil) soybean (soybean oil), corn, sunflower, safflower, etc. They were practically non-existent in our diets until the early 1900s when new chemical processes allowed them to be extracted.Unlike butter or coconut oil, these vegetable oils can’t be extracted just by pressing or separating naturally. They must be chemically removed, deodorized and altered. These are some of the most chemically altered foods in our diets, yet they get promoted as healthy. Vegetable oils are manufactured in a factory, usually from genetically modified crops that have been heavily treated with pesticides. 

Thank goodness for healthy substitutes! Olive oil, flaxseed oil, walnut oil, and coconut oil are natural oils that are full of the healthy fats that keep our body full and satisfied.

I know that our bodies didn't come with an operation manual as to what to eat, how to exercise, or properly use our body to avoid injury and assist with proper posture. That's why it is so important to educate ourselves on how to keep our body in tip-top condition to live a healthy and happy life.