We Are What We Eat

By Hope H. Anderson, RD, LDN
The official guide to Nutritional Assessment

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That saying, “You are what you eat”, provides keen insight into our health and wellbeing. Choosing whole plant based foods over refined processed foods has unequalled value as one of the components of a healthy lifestyle.

Are you concerned about your health and how you can live a vibrant healthy life? Follow me on the journey where I will share and give you strategies that are realistic and doable in order to give you the results you want.

Strategy I: Healthy Cooking at Home

Healthy cooking at home puts you in charge of what you eat, how much you eat, and helps you provide meals that nourish your body. Statistics show that 56% of Americans eat at least three dinners prepared away from home and 40% eat meals not made at home. These meals eaten away from home are bought pre-made, through home delivery, take-out, drive-thru, dining out, deli, and other methods. There is a wealth of information that shows that we need to eat a healthy diet to prevent at-risk diseases such as cardiovascular, diabetes, cancers, high blood pressure, and obesity to name a few. We need to cut down on trans-fat, saturated fats, cholesterol, and sodium (salt)! Preparing meals at home is the right option in meeting this goal.

Here are the advantages:
• Healthy cooking means healthy eating.
• What you eat affects your risk of obesity and other chronic diseases.
• Research shows that a diet having 5-10 servings of vegetables and fruit can cut cancer risk by 20% even before combined with whole grains and beans.

Strategy II: Exercise

Combining this healthy diet with exercise and weight control; the risk is further reduced by 30-40%.

Strategy III: Serving Sizes

The next step is controlling how much you eat. Serving size has gotten out of control in the United States as evidenced by the skyrocketing reaches of overweight and obesity. Gradually reducing serving sizes enables most people to stabilize or lose weight.

Strategy IV: Food Label Reading

Be an informed consumer when food shopping by reading the food labels. Commercial food companies have other motives that outweigh nutrition. For instance, your taste buds are tricked when sugar, corn sweeteners salt and fat are added to enhance taste. Lower prices, means more business. Using small amounts of expensive ingredients, such as real fruit, vegetables, and nuts can reduce costs. Adding an artificial color agent to refined flour can bring the cost down instead of using whole wheat or another grain flour in baked goods.

These tactics inflate the servings sold at a lower price per unit meaning greater sales, at the same time adding more calories than one person needs.

Strategy V: Overcoming Hurdles to Healthy Homemade Meal Prep

• Prepare meals on the weekends.
• Cook several batches on the weekends.
• Freeze meals in portion-sized servings for future use.
• Defrost these meals in the microwave or refrigerator in advance of use.
• Involve the whole family in helping to prepare the meals. This is a good way to bond with the family and share the responsibility.

It comes down to this; if you want to eat healthy meals and the right serving size, you have to take the preparation into your own hands.