The nations first Food Day is October 24, 2011 sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The purpose of the Food Day is to bring people together from all walks of life to push for healthy, affordable food produced in sustainable, humane way.
“Real food tastes great. Meals are built around vegetables, fruits, and whole grains are delicious and satisfying. Too many Americans are eating diets composed of salty, overly processed packaged foods clad in cardboard and plastic: high calorie sugary drinks that pack on pounds and rot teeth, but have no nutritional benefit; and fast-food meals made of white bread, fatty grain-fed factory-farmed meat, French fries, 2atty pizzas and more soda still. What we should eat should be bolstering our health, but instead it’s actually contributing to several hundred thousand premature deaths from heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and cancer each year. What’s more, the way our food is produced is often harmful to farm workers, the environment, and farm animals.”
The movement isn’t new. Some might remember the natural food movement during those days of love and peace in the 1960s. Alarmed by the growing list of chemicals and pesticides in food, took up the charge in the 80s, Ralph Nader wrote Eating Clean: Overcoming Food Hazards in 1984.
The clean eating premise is simple-eat a whole (natural) and pure as possible. Others add additional parameters such as eat six small meals a day instead off three large ones, or include lean protein and carbohydrate at each meal.
• Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables as close to their natural state as possible. Think minimal processing – a baked potato versus French fries, corn-on-the-cob versus corn chips. Nature-made not man-made.
• Eat fruits and vegetables in season mainly, eat organic as much as possible and eat local whatever possible. Be sure to shop your local farmers markets.
• Include whole-grains-brown rice, wheat berries, quinoa, barley. Get the full benefit of nature’s bounty. Avoid refined products that have been stripped of their vital nutrients like white rice, white bread and white sugar.
• Eat legumes (beans)-a great source of lean protein and fiber.
• If you include meat in your diet, buy lean cuts, organic, and hormone free. At the very least, avoid pre-packaged cuts and packaged ground meat-you don’t really know what’s in it, or what’s been added like saline solution to “plump it up.” By lean cuts from the butcher and have it ground for you while you wait, if you don’t want to ground it yourself. Avoid all processed meats (hot dogs, lunchmeat, sausage, etc.) These contain nitrates which have been linked to colon cancer.
• If you include diary in your diet, be sure it’s organic, low fat and with no rBGH.
• Exercise 30 minutes a day or at least an 60 minutes most days of the week.
• Purchase products with few ingredients, remember, less is MORE!
• Read labels, and above all, don’t believe any claim on the front of the box. Be sure the ingredients and nutritional information support the claims.
• Celebrate Food Day with a real meal!
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