Eat yourself healthy

Since I'm in the mood of being healthy and perhaps a bit sharp tonight, I can't help to share these rules I've read from todays NST. These are the old wives' rules which I found the term "old wives" to be a bit witty :)

And, I've heard most of these rules from our family nutritionist. He's been talking for ages about these which I agree most of it, but obeying 100% of it is unfeasible...sigh! (I wish my mom is around to cook those delicious & healthy Malay food). If these are perhaps a bit too late for us, at least it's for our kids. Insyallah.

Anyway, here goes the helpings for our reading & eating ourselves healthy:

1. The whiter the bread, the sooner you'll be dead. This blunt bit of grandmotherly advice is a reminder of the health risks of white flour. As far as the body is concerned, white flour is not much different from sugar. Recent research indicates that the grandmothers who lived by this rule were right: people who eats lots of whole grains tend to be healthier and to live longer.


2. Don't eat cereals that change the colour of milk. This should go without saying.
   
   
3. Avoid foods Grandma wouldn't recognise. These are now thousands of food products in the supermarket that our ancestors simple wouldn't recognise. They are processed in ways specifically designed to get us to buy and eat more by pushing our evolutionary buttons (such as our inborn preferences for sweetness, fat & salt).
   
   
4. If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.
   
   
5. Eat your colours. The idea that a healthy plate of food will feature several different colours is a good example of an old wives' tale about food that turns out to be good science, too. The colours of many vegetables reflect the different antioxidant phytochemicals (whatever this means) they contain.
   
   
6. Avoid long list of ingredients. The more ingredients in a packaged food, the more highly processed it probably is. (A long list of ingredients in a recipe is not the same thing; that's fine).
   
   
7. Avoid ingredients you don't recognise.
   
   
8. Shop at the edges of the supermarket. Most stores are laid out the same way: processed foods dominate the centre aisles, while fresh foods - meat, fish & dairy - line the walls.
   
   
9. Don't overlook oily fish. Mackerel, sardines & anchovies are particularly good choices. Dutch proverb: "A land with lots of herring can get along with few doctors."
   
   
10. Only eat foods that eventually rot. The more processed a food is, the longer the shelf life, and the less nutritious it typically is. Real food is alive - and therefore it should eventually die. (One of the few exceptions is honey, which has a shelf life measured in centuries).
    
    
11. Avoid foods that are labelled "low-fat". Removing fat from food doesn't necessarily make them non-fattening. Carbohydrates can also make you fat, and many low-fat and non-fat foods are more sugary to make for the loss of flavour.
    
    
12. Eat slowly. Eat slowly enough to savour your food: you'll need less of it to feel satisfied. One strategy, encoded in a table manner that's been all but forgotten: "Put down your fork between bites."
    
    
13. Only eat foods cooked by humans. In general, mass-produced food is cooked with too much salt, fat and sugar, as well as with preservatives, colourings and other biological novelties.
    
    
14. Buy smaller plates and glasses. The bigger the portion, the more we will eat. Supermarket supersize portions to get us to buy more.
    
    
15. Stop eating before you're full.
    
    
16. Don't refuel at the petrol station. Food sold at petrol stations - except perhaps for the milk and water - is all highly processed, imperishable snack foods and extravagantly sweetend drinks.
    
    
17. Try not to eat on your own. When we eat alone, we eat more. The shared meals elevates eating from a biological process of fuelling the body to a ritual of family and community.
    
    
18. It's not food if it has the same name in all languages. Think Big Mac or Pringles. (Now this rule is awesome. Couldn't agree more).
    
    
19. Treat treats as treats. There's nothing wrong with special occassion foods, as long as every day is not a special occassion. Chips, pastries and ice-cream offer some of the great pleasures of life, so we shouldn't deprive ourselves of them, but the sense of occassion needs to be restored.
    
    
20. Finally, break the rules once in a while. Obsessing over food rules is bad for your happiness, and probably for your health too. There will be special occassions when you will want to throw these rules out of the window. All will not be lost. What matters is not the special occassion, but the everyday practice - the default habits that govern your eating on a typical day.