Primary Rules To Eating Well and Keeping You Thriving!
The following 15 tips are fundamentals to integrate in your healthy lifestyle. As you gain a deeper knowledge there are many more tips to learn but these are essential items and a great starting point.
1. Water
Always drink filtered water using a filter that can get rid of most heavy metals and pesticides. General rule is to consume 2L per day, add a little apple cider vinegar/lemon and pinch of salt to add minerals and enhance uptake.
2. Fruits and Vegetables
Always opt for local, seasonal, organic and regeneratively-grown. When unavoidable wash and soak in apple cider vinegar for between 30min to 2hrs. Look up the Clean Fifteen & Dirty Dozen. Always choose organic when purchasing fruits and vegetables listed in the dirty dozen or otherwise avoid entirely.
3. Sugars
Stick to the less refined options and organic varieties like rapadura sugar, local honey, pure maple syrup and palm or coconut sugar.
4. Salt
DO NOT eat refined iodised table salt. DO have Himalayan or Celtic Sea Salt, add dolce flakes for increased iodine.
5. Vinegar
Apple Cider Vinegar is amazing! Make sure it is fermented and cloudy in the bottle. Any varieties that are transparent are filtered and processed taking away all the fermented goodness. Have it in water before meals.
6. Milk
The least tampered with that is possible to get. Unhomoginsed organic cow milk is available in Woolworths these days. Nut milks usually have seed oils and sweeteners added. Making your own is easy, cheap and healthier. Use the left over pulp to make some healthy bliss balls.
7. Yoghurt
Organic pot set natural yogurt only, add your own fruits or honey. If buying coconut yogurt again read your labels.
8. Cheese
Look for a block of cheese with no added ingredients. Milk, salt, cultures and rennet are the only acceptable cheese ingredients. Grated cheese has anti caking agents so always grate your own. On all types of cheese read your labels if you don’t know what something is, google it or search it on the Chemical Maze.
9. Butter
Organic block butter with no seed oils. If adverse to dairy then opt for ghee. NEVER eat margarine. Vegan butters like Nuttelex often have seed oils and additives, instead use nut butter, fresh avocado or macadamia oil.
10. Oils
Cook with cold pressed organic olive oil, coconut oil, ghee or macadamia oil. AVOID seed oils so NO canola, sunflower, vegetable or peanut oils.
11. Flour
There are lots of flour options out there from buckwheat, cassava to quinoa. If wanting to use standard baking flour always choose organic, unbleached white or spelt flour. Never buy self raising flour just add 2 teaspoons of aluminium-free baking powder to every one cup of plain flour to create your own DIY self raising flour.
12. Dried Fruits and Tinned Fruits/Vegetables
Organic with no seed oils or preservatives. When buying tinned foods always read the label as organic whole tomatoes are less likely to have a stabiliser than organic chopped/diced varieties.
13. Nuts
Best practice is to buy nuts in the shell and crack yourself, however activated nuts are a great option. This helps remove the phytic acid and makes them more digestible. Why not activate them yourself with water and apple cider vinegar.
14. Meat
Organic grass-fed and finished is optimal. Choose organ meats for extra nutrients. If vegan or vegetarian avoid the highly processed fake meats and opt for mushrooms activated in sunlight.
15. Poultry and Eggs
Organic pasture raised. The darker meat on your chicken has a higher quality of nutrients than the white breast, so go for thigh pieces when cooking.
BONUS TIPS: Whole-foods
Whole-foods contain the essential building blocks for vitamin & mineral absorption and optimum nutrient uptake. If it was grown in the ground or part of nature, it is considered a whole-food. Foods that are man-made are produce with chemicals and additives. If you can’t understand the ingredients or numbers listed on the food label it should be avoided. Always read your labels even on “simple” products and recheck often as things change!
