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Ingredients for happy meals. |
The secret of improved health is all about what you put into yourself. If you were to visit an animal park there are notices telling you not to feed the animals. This is because what they are given to eat is carefully controlled for optimum health, well being and life expectancy. We forget this when we go shopping for ourselves! It has been proved many times over that we function better on fruits and vegetables, beans and nuts, grains and seeds. But we have a different idea. “It looks good, it tastes good - I want it now!”
Health and Hope is suggesting that health can only be restored if we get back to eating better, and more natural ingredients, with the minimum of processing. If your plate is colourful so much the better. |
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Here is a shop bought convenience dessert, look at the ingredients!
Creamy Apricot Dessert (sounds appealing, doesn’t it?)
Sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil, gelling agents (E331,E401), emulsifiers (E477,E322, adipic acid, lactose, caseinate, whey powder, flavourings, artificial sweetener (sodium saccharin), colours (E110,E122,E160a), antioxidant (E320).
This may be an extreme example, but such things are in many processed foods that actually taste very nice. There is, however, little of a nutritional or health-giving nature to build an abundant life. |
NOW—a fun exercise to try when you go shopping. Get the children to join in, too.
- Go straight to the ‘fresh goods’ aisles in the supermarket and begin to make some notes.
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How many vegetables are there?
What colours can you find? Look for the dark green ones and the orange/red ones.
How many fruits are on sale of different kinds?
Look for the yellow ones and the red ones, and blue ones and green ones.
How many herbs are being sold? |
- Then look in the ‘cooking goods’ section.
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How many fresh untreated kinds of nuts are there? Hazels, walnuts, pecans, cashews or more?
What about the dried fruits? Did you know there were so many?
Can you find any seeds - pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pine kernels, or sesame seeds?
Also notice the wholemeal flours. |
- Now go to the ‘bread counter’.
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Maybe there are wholemeal rolls, or breads with seeds in them. How many different shape loaves can you find to make your bread board look interesting. Look for rye breads, those without wheat.
As well as this there may be olives, or tins of fruit in natural fruit juice, many cartons of pure fruit juice, and add to your list different milks made from oats, rice, or soya, and a ‘yeast extract’ spread as this has many B vitamins including the most important B12. I counted nearly 100 ingredients once.
Maybe you have not tried some of these things before? Which one would you like to try this week to start your new experiment? There is a whole world of good things to experiment with. |
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The Health Food Shop—full of ingredients and ready made products.
If you want to go further, look in a whole food shop, or in the health food cabinet, and see the alternative plant-based cheeses and mayonnaises; spreads, and other entrees for dinner. There are so many things to choose.
They are not expensive as you only need small amounts for each portion, and the rest of the meal is made up with vegetables or fruits, maybe with a slice of whole grain bread spread thinly with a nut butter. |
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