How to eat healthy and change your diet sustainably. Your food choice matters
How to eat healthy and change your diet sustainably
Your food choice matters!
Food is an essential part of our everyday life. And hey, we just cannot live without it! So why aren’t we more conscious with what we put in our bodies? In this article I share how I changed my diet sustainably to a (mostly) healthy and (always) plant-based diet.
We start the day with breakfast; have a lunch break in between and we usually end our day with dinner. We meet friends in restaurants. We have snacks in meetings. We have tea breaks to relax. Advertisements promote food and the insta feed is full of it. Food is everywhere around us! It is culture, family and a social issue.
Author: Karla Franielczyk
Connecting with food and seeing where it comes from makes it taste even more better (and healthier).
“Great food isn’t created only in the kitchen. And it isn’t enjoyed only when it’s eaten. Great food comes from somewhere else – somewhere deeper.
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Food is so much more than just nutritious fuel for our bodies
A well-formed and energetic body seems to be a must-have nowadays. The steadily increasing focus on health and efficiency features a healthy and balanced diet. But you know what? Contrary to this trend, the number of obesity, food allergies and food-related diseases increase every year. People are spending less and less time in the kitchen and convenience food is getting more and more popular. The food we call convenient is normally highly processed, added with fat, sugar and salt and wrapped in plastic to make the taste consistent no matter where and when you are buying it.
When food is culture and has such an importance for us, why don’t we feed our bodies with food that is full of love, soul and character? Food is so much more than just nutritious fuel for our bodies!
So what is behind all this? How do we make our daily food choices? Do we even think about what is inside our food, where it actually comes from and who and how many people have been involved to make our sandwich or the bowl of pasta we have for lunch? And how do our food choices effect the environment?
The awesomeness of Mother Earth.
One of my favourites: vegan pad see ew with loads of salad and sprouted mung beans.
Reclaim your kitchen!
Oh yes, cook yourself and reclaim your food! Cooking empowers you to choose what goes inside your body and which ingredients will become your dish. There’s no need to create fancy dishes or spend hours in the kitchen- but go for it if that’s what you feel like! Cooking is like healthy eating: if you change slowly and don’t take it too seriously in the beginning; it can be simple and fun. Here are four main guidelines that helped me to enjoy cooking, learn to value my food and reclaim my kitchen:
Use what is available rather than following a recipe. Look around in your kitchen, your balcony, garden or even public parks. Be adventurous!
Use all possible parts of the product; reduce food waste by reusing leftovers and manage your stocking. Just check before cooking what you have in the fridge or pantry and create your next meal around.
Focus on simple and easy to make dishes; those are the most delicious ones anyway.
Food sourcing matters. Understand and know where your food comes from, who grows your food and how it is treated.
Tue Vien Organic Farm in the suburbs of Hanoi, Vietnam.
Conscious and mindful eating
I know what you think. How can I eat consciously if I just have 30 minutes for lunch and so much stuff on my to do list? Same shit: start step by step. You don’t have to close your eyes take every bite with gratitude. Just take 1 minute before you tuck in to reflect what actually is on your plate: Your spaghettis are out of grains, let’s say wheat. Do you know how wheat grows? How much sun they need before one can harvest? The sauce is based on tomatoes. Did you know that tomatoes take around 60 days until they’re ripe? And yes, face the fact that the meat you’re gonna eat once was alive and in most cases wasn’t able to happily play over green fields. Just analyze what you’re about to munch. Start a relationship with your food.
I try to invest some time for your meal. I try to slow down while eating, and let my body catch up to my brain. I avoid meals for take away and I stopped eating while watching a movie. You could make it a social event that you enjoy with family and friends! This helped me a lot to connect my body and mind and value my food.
Once you’ve found that connection you start to eat when you’re hungry instead of fulfilling emotional needs. You are able to stop when you’re sated, and explore that junk food doesn’t taste that good as you thought it would be. You may feel which kind of food makes you really happy and energizes your body in a healthy way. You’ll smoothly and slowly change your eating habits without help. Just listen to your body. You could even master that practice by eating with the intention of caring for yourself. But yeah, of course I still have (a lot of) days where I just open a package of Oreos and munch ‘em all in 10minutes. But hey, that’s okay.
Being truly happy while eating makes you munch true happiness.
Food blessing at Gaia Ashram to come to the present moment and express gratitude before every meal.
What the heck is this healthy food everyone is talking about?
Knowing what food to increase and what to reduce can be challenging and confusing, especially when you consider looking at all these diets out there. To make it more understandable without labelling it or announce restrictions let me break down to 3 main recommendations:
add as many plants as you can to your diet
try to make your food as clean as possible and
embrace that awesome living bacteria and yeasts you can create through fermentation
Your food choice matters! Make sure you know where the ingredients you wanna use come from and let that good food get into your body. This will recharge your body rather than harming it and Mother Earth. Sure, junk food gives a short kick and satisfaction for some urgent needs, but living in a healthy body is something that will pay off in that special moment and in the long run. The most powerful way to accomplish an energetic body and mind is right in front of you; on your plate.
If you have any questions or you wanna know more, I’m happy to hearing from you. I’d love to hear your food stories!
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