This is my first focus point, eating healthy. But what does it actually mean? Do I need to be on a special diet, do I need to stop eating meat, am I allowed to eat sugar, do I have to eat more or less carbs?
In this post you’re going to read about:
Are you a busy parent who has no time for cooking at home? Do you struggle with internal happiness and general tiredness? Do you blame yourself for not being “the perfect mom/dad”? I believe you 🙂
I’m starting this blog with the topic of mindset because the tips and practices in the kitchen that I’m about to share with you relate to healthy eating habits and healthy lifestyles practiced around the world. We really need to understand that all the junk food out there is tasty, but what we’re actually doing is paying to poison ourselves. And we’re not only poisoning our bodies but our minds as well. I strongly believe that you’re already a conscious person and that you wisely choose nourishing foods and reject harmful ones.
I’m a father of three and a chef with 20 years of experience. I know the struggles of parenting very well. Probably your love of cooking has been put on the back burner due to all those after-school activities, being a taxi for your kids, and making sure that everyone else is taken care of.
Exactly! Taken care of… I want my family and myself to be healthy so I must feed all of us with healthy food. So let’s cover few topic here.
Questionable items and their influence on our health:
Hyper processed foods
The first thing we need to agree on, is that highly processed food is bad for you. Period. I know it tastes good, and we will be concentrating on good taste in this course, but definitely HPF together with artificial ingredients added to it, it’s a cause of gaining weight and is the worst option you can choose. The companies are not charity institutions, they need to make profit so what the majority of them offer, and the balance between consumable and profitable is very, very questionable. So in my opinion HPFs is the number one item to avoid. Those are all fast foods, sugary drinks like sodas and sweetened juice products, frozen desserts, sweet pastries, candies, white breads, breakfast cereals etc. I know it sounds scary because it’s almost everything that we all love to eat so much. Unfortunately mounting scientific evidence shows that diets high in ultra-processed foods are highly responsible for most common chronic diseases and health conditions. I hope that all of us are aware of that.
Carbohydrates
First of all, what are carbohydrates? I don’t see anyone explaining it clearly. Carbs can be divided into 2 categories: starches and sugars. All vegetables and fruits can be divided to: high or low carb content. E.g. potatoes and rice are high in starch content. That equals to a lot of carbs. Broccoli on the other hand is not starchy, so it has less carbs. Same goes with cucumber, asparagus, radish, salads etc. These are high water, high fiber, but still fall into the carb, or more precisely, low carb category. Sweet fruits equal sugar, again; a lot of sugar means a lot of carbs.
Sugar
Another “carb” so widely common. Is it bad for us? It depends… Sugar as carbohydrate is an energy to our body and we need it. So in general it is not bad. Well, yes, there are healthier options but moderate consumption of sugar is ok. However, as human beings, as well as other animals we are biologically hardwired to eating sweet foods. This is very often used against us but it also means that we do need sugars to function properly. So do I use regular white sugar in my cooking? Of course I do. But I also control myself in consuming sodas and other high in sugar products. And whenever I can I try to use healthier sweeteners, cause it’s smart to do.
Salt
It’s proven that salt is as addictive as sugar and its consumption should be limited. Well, cooking without salt would be rather impossible, or eating what you’ve cooked would be nowhere pleasant. However, that pack of crisps every second evening doesn’t bring any benefits. We’ve all heard at some point in our life that too much salt is not beneficial at all.
When it comes to cooking, I choose to use good sea salt instead of table salt. Unfortunately I like salt and I tend to season food I cook more than some people would but crisps or other salty snacks very very rarely exist in my diet so I feel excused 😉
Gluten
Another super delicate topic. But let’s be realistic. If it doesn’t harm you, eat it … but choose good quality bread. Real, good bread has been fermented for at least 8 hours. Than the starches get pre-digested by the fermentation process. And definitely choose whole grain products. We hear these recommendations over and over again.
Dairy
We all came across different opinions on whether dairy products are good or bad. What I want to state here is that yes, all dairy products as we know them these days are questionable, but I stick to the opinion that good quality, natural yogurt, kefir, buttermilk, butter, and sometimes good quality cheese are ok. Especially when they come from a good source.
I agree that there is too much animal suffering linked to our today’s food production but I stand somewhere in between, and choose the middle path of not totally ignoring, but limiting, and not definitive elimination of certain foods.
Meat
Same as dairy or gluten… a very delicate topic. We hear more and more often that when we look at digestion times we should be eating mostly fish, then poultry, and then lean red meat. In this order. I personally promote versified diet and because of good fats I focus on eating more fish but all kinds of meat are included in my family’s diet. Red meat is important and here is enough content and studies on this topic.
Oils/fats
Good oils are super important and they make your cooking more delicious. Chefs tend to use much more oil while cooking, more than what people normally use at home. Does it make people fatter? Not necessarily, but this is a totally different topic. There is a lot of controversy about different fats and whether they’re good or bad for us, but if we would use good olive oil and a really good butter on a regular basis, then we are on the good path. All weird plant based and artificially solidified fats are a no-no in my opinion.
Various eating practices:
1. Which diet should I choose?
Being vegan/vegetarian. I’m not strictly vegetarian nor vegan, so I’m not trying to convince anyone to become one. Both, of course, are healthier choices if done right. For me health equals variety, so I would consider myself “aiming to be” a vegetarian with the presence of eggs, fish, and some small amount of dairy products in my diet. So basically a mix of pescatarian and ovo-vegetarian if we need to name it, are the diets which I personally go for.
When it comes to vegan products, I don’t want to offend anyone, but the majority of those pretending to be meat or dairy substitutes, are a big no no. Just look at the list of ingredients. Artificially hardened fats, the quality of which is very questionable. There are good products, of course, in existence. You can have a nice vegan burger based on black beans, or you can do it yourself. You can have a nice vegan cheese-like product made 100 % from cashew nuts. Just read the labels, please. Supporting the fight against animal abuse is one thing. Consuming super bad quality vegan products, just causes more harm to your body. So being on a vegan diet could be potential healthy choice if you choose the right foods.
There is a rule that is strongly recommended by conscious doctors. It’s not labelled as a diet but it’s “LOW IN SUGAR, HIGH IN FIBER” food choices. It can be boring, not always it can be super delicious but it is the healthiest option or guideline known and supported by research.
Other diets. The problem with diets, same as with being vegan or vegetarian, is that we always try to name something, label it, and we have to state that we’re on this or that side. This binary thinking is not good for us, it causes boundaries, limits, conflicts. Life is not about 0 or 1, good or bad, black or white. There are different shades of gray in between. I’ll say it again – choose variety.
There is another probably the most popular and the least healthy diet we know. It’s the “western diet“. Tons of highly processed foods, sugar, artificial additives and other stuff we shouldn’t be eating if we want to healthy long life. It’s delicious, it tastes good, it gives those cheap dopamine hits, but it is not good us.
A lot of people unfortunately are on “one meal per day diet“. They start in the morning and they eat, eat, and eat. Breakfast, a snack, second breakfast, a snack, lunch, a snack, dinner, a snack, supper, a snack…It’s one meal per day, everyday. Even when people are on a diet for a required period of time, they go back to wrong eating habits right after they finish their diet challenge. It’s very common, this is how we’ve been designed, this is our human condition, and it’s been proven.
There was a scientific study which showed that if we stress our body too rapidly and too much with a very strict diet basically limiting caloric foods, our mind will start playing games with us to make sure that we go back to eating these not-always-healthy-but-high-in-calories foods, in order to survive. The way we are built and programmed, makes us choose what is “best” for us, and that translates to: eat now because there may be a shortage of food in the near future and you need to store this energy in the form of fat.
One of the best healthy choices is eating locally. This one is another huge topic, and I assume that we all understand that there are plenty of benefits of eating locally. The only non beneficial aspect, is that it can be unfriendly to our pocket… But still, this shouldn’t stop us from eating locally. Find ways to sources that locally grow food; and you, your family, and the whole community will benefit from that in the long term.
2. Eating locally
Eating locally takes us to seasons. Don’t you agree that eating locally and what comes with it, seasonal foods, simply resonates with us, our bodies, and is highly beneficial? Collect fruits and vegetables, jar them, ferment them, store them for later. It will save you money, plus you will have the best possible quality local food for you and your family, for the whole year
In Norway where I live, I take advantage of the forest and the sea. Am I a busy parent? Yes. Do I have to make sure that I spend some time on different activities with my kids? Yes. So, I combine business with pleasure. My older son wants to go fishing, we go fishing, we catch a lot of fish most of the time, then I filet them and freeze them. The fish we usually catch is cod, pollock and mackerel. I could do the same with trout and salmon. Yes you do need one more, bigger freezer in your basement for that.
When it is blueberries-season, I take all of my kids and we go and pick a lot of blueberries with the appropriate tools. Then I make a jam or a compote these blueberries, and they last for the entire winter. Blueberries are one of those super-foods which are highly beneficial. Same goes for aronia. Aronia is super healthy, and we can find a lot of it here in Norway. The best time to pick it is right after the first frost, when it’s the sweetest. Kids love this activity, and even more, they love juicing the fruits afterwards at home, in a slow juicer. I make enough for the entire year so it lasts till the next season. In September/October, is time for one of Norway’s traditional dishes, fårikål, which is basic white cabbage slowly cooked with lamb. Lamb is usually on sale, and I love lamb, but I like the cabbage too. At this time of the year, cabbage is super cheap, so I buy a lot of it and turn it into sauerkraut, which is very popular in Poland, where I come from. Once a year I would make a dozen jars for the entire year. This doesn’t take a lot of time, and I can use it in many different dishes, or side dishes, all year round and it’s super healthy.
3. TCM & The 5 Elements
I’d like to inspire you with Traditional Chinese Medicine & The 5 Elements because there might be bits and pieces which could help you in implementing healthy eating habits even more. It does help me.
So why TCM? I guess it’s smart to come to a conclusion that such old, traditional knowledge may have some beneficial wisdom, because it’s been practiced for so long. And if it was practiced for so long, then it must work. Generations after generations have seen the benefits, have felt the benefits. It would be just ignorant to argue about that. The same applies to Ayurveda.
Briefly, TCM views the body as a microcosmos, which is filled with the life energy Chi, which gives strength and symbolizes all forms of existence, i.e. thoughts, feelings, body, blood, external and internal life. Proper circulation of vital energy is one of the fundamental conditions for maintaining health. In Chinese medicine, Chi (Qi), also means the balance between two forces: yin and yang.
Now, if we take these 2 sentences under consideration: “Treat your body like a temple” and “Let your food be your medicine” and maybe a third one “You are what you eat” then it’s obvious that we should be really careful with what we consume.
TCM treats food as a supportive or destructive aspect for our Chi. TCM talks about The 5 Elements which rule this world, which are present in our food and within us. The 5 Elements are wood, fire, earth, metal, water, and all foods can be divided into these 5 categories. I encourage you to find out more about The 5 Elements theory in cooking, but here I will shortly mention only the aspects which I try to follow.
TCM talks about adding ingredients while cooking in a proper order but this for me is too much and requires too much time and concentration. What I like about TCM, is that our 4 seasons represent the 5 elements. Four seasons and five elements obviously don’t match, but they divided summer into two parts: early and late summer. Everything, everywhere, starts with spring which is wood, then we have early summer (fire), late summer (earth), autumn (metal), and winter (water). In each of these seasons we should eat different foods. I don’t want to go into details here, but I strongly encourage you to examine this topic.
Traditional Chinese Medicine kind of forces you to eat diversified, seasonal food, and I’ll repeat again, variety is the key. Not dieting, but healthy eating habits, and eating a little bit of everything.
4. Religious practices from the holy books
Next thing worth mentioning is something I adopted from Jewish tradition. The rule says that you shouldn’t eat meat with dairy products. This is probably the biggest challenge in redesigning our western eating habits. Dishes that include meat and cheese, or meat and milk, are present absolutely everywhere: ham and cheese sandwich, hot-dog sausages (contain lactose), then most pizzas (cheese and meat), lasagne (meat and bechamel), cheese burger, any meal that includes meat and potato puree made with milk cream or milk and butter, meat tacos topped with sour cream. The list goes on and on… But why is this supposedly not beneficial for us?
The explanation for the Jewish belief did not speak to me, but when I found out that a similar practices are present in Ayurveda and in Traditional Chinese Medicine, then I reconsidered. Some may say that this is an old superstition, but if it originates from distant traditions in China, India, and the Middle East, then maybe it’s enough evidence that meat and milk is a wrong combination. It can trigger several issues like stomach ache, gas, bloating, acid reflux, nausea, to name a few. Not mixing these two improves digestion and absorption of nutrients.
Intermittent fasting. Yet another beneficial practice that helps us feel well throughout the day. There are different forms of that, but I chose the 13h break from eating. That means, I try to eat my last meal no later than 6pm, and my breakfast the next day would be around 7am, sometimes even 9am. I strongly recommend that you do your own research on this topic, because it has also been mentioned in the holy books several or more times.
Studies also show a wide range of benefits of fasting, I personally don’t practice it everyday, but I try three times during the week. On the weekends I break all the rules, but that doesn’t mean that I stuff myself like a madman, just because I’m out of the leash. I don’t even feel like doing so, but you know… a dinner out with kids, a burger here and there, a pack of Cheetos on the couch with my wife watching Netflix. I still make healthier choices, if I can, of course. To sum up: variety, no radical diets, privatisation of healthy practices, and you are on a good path. Hopefully, your whole family is on the same path as well. 🙂
My personal choice.
I’ve asked myself: What are my and my family’s eating habits at the moment? What do we really eat, how often and at what times? What is our weekly menu? Is our diet balanced, reach in vitamins and microelements? Etc. … And I made my choices. Here they are:
- Variety!
- Avoiding highly processed foods in any form (as much as possible)
- Focusing on rich in plants meals,
- Prioritising fish over meat,
- Eating locally and at the same time seasonally – that is focusing on good quality products (dairy, meat, eggs, vegetables)
- Not mixing it with animal protein.
- Following the TCM practices of eating certain foods in certain seasons
What I need to mention here is that, in the process of judging what should be implemented in your lifestyle in terms of foods, habits, and eating schedules, you should really pay attention to how you feel after eating something. There is no universal way of nourishing. We all live in different latitudes, our days and lives are not equally active, and we have access to different types of foods. So observe your body, and how you feel after eating certain foods. Based on this information, build your menu and your eating schedule.
Let’s go back to the healthy mindset. Having all of those facts on what is good for us and what can be harmful, we should now be ready to make this clear and motivating statement : “I want to eat healthily, I don’t want to buy pre-made frozen meals to make my life easier. I will put in some effort combined with skills, and start eating well and start feeding my family well.” OK? No mercy!
It’s crucial that we first work on ourselves, before we start introducing new habits to our family. I’ve changed my mindset first, I’ve implemented new eating habits and I feel more energised and more motivated in continuing what I had started.
If you have stopped cooking for your family, remind yourself that food brings people together, and good food together with great people gives quality time.
Apart from that, don’t forget to sleep enough. And here are some quotes that bring all of the above together:
“Everything affects everything else”
“For things to change, we must change”
“Get your inside right, and the outside will take care of itself”
The world goes so fast. All of us wish to have more time to be better parents. We need to concentrate on what matters. What do we teach our kids? What kind of example are we for them?
In order to practice more of the healthy habits, don’t be afraid to delegate some of your tasks to others. Engage your kids and spouse in helping you with whatever needs to be done. This is a part of improving your efficiency in the kitchen. Team work, right!? 😉 It will also be a great lesson for the kids. Good luck!