Shopping for High Energy Food - photo by D. Hennessey

It is only during the last 13 years that I have really began to understand how my body works. I have learned that my body like yours is a complex system designed to process food into it useful components as rapidly as possible so we can move and think effectively. I have learned items we consume that have little or no benefit in terms of nutrition waste the body’s digestive system and simply put an unnecessary strain or stress on the system. In fact, I have read that the digestive process when it is overused helps us all age quicker! So we all (me included) need to be smart about how we eat when we want to eat for high energy.

Over the years I have collected and adopted ideas that I have found in many books on healthy eating habits. Some of these books I noted in my article Two P’s for Healthy Eating. I have summarized some of the best tips below. When you have time read them over. You may find eating for energy can be broken down to some core guidelines:

Number One
Eat High Quality Foods in Balanced amounts

Make sure you eat the highest quality foods you can and learn to make the habit to push away from the table before you over eat. Two great ways to be conscious of how much you eat is to chew longer and eat in silence when possible.  You may find when you eat high quality foods in balanced proportions your body can work at its peak to create high energy.

Number Two
Choose the Freshest Foods you can

Fresh food is what our body wants naturally to produce energy. When it is possible go to the market and buy fresh fruits and vegetables. If you eat any kind of meats choose to go to a butcher or fish shop so you can find the freshest food possible. A good choice is to eat locally grown food whenever possible. If you have no time to go to the market check out home delivery companies that can bring fresh foods to your doorstep. Remember in the off season flash frozen fruits and vegetables are a better choice than canned due to the typical addition of salt in the canning process.

Number Three
Choose Organic when possible

To get food that is as free as possible of unneeded chemicals and additives that can affect your body negatively choose to buy organic food. If you wonder how valid the organic label is it is important to note that many countries now have national standards to decide if a food can be labeled certified organic or not. Take the time to learn the certification symbols that show a product has been third party certified as organic. If you want to learn more about what makes a product organic, the different organic labels and how to buy organic food inexpensively these ideas and more you can find out about in the e-book how to buy organic food inexpensively.

Number Four
Protein at Every Meal

High levels of mental and physical fitness benefit from stable blood sugar. If you check the recommendations of most public health organizations you will see they recommend you eat a small portion of slow burning protein at every meal. Why? because due to the complex chemical make up of proteins they are digested slowly and enter your blood stream slowly helping keep your blood sugar level stable. This is in contrast to the quick spike in blood sugar levels that occurs when you digest simple carbohydrates since they are digested rapidly.

Number Five
Eat a Variety of Foods

It is a simple truth that all the nutrients you need cannot come from all the same foods. I mention this since I have read many adults buy the same foods again and again when they go shopping. To get all the cancer and illness fighting substances we need to buy and eat a variety of all the types of foods. To help you create a real variety you can use a technique I developed back in 1999 and is still successful today. It is called “follow the colors of the rainbow” to choose your foods when you shop. If you would like a copy of the article where I explain how this rainbow technique works and the science behind it you can get a copy when you subscribe to my posting updates (the form is on the top right of this page). The article is one of the bonuses I offer new subscribers.

Number Six
Foods to Reduce or Simply Avoid

Highly processed foods like white wheat flour and white sugar offer very little nutritional value to your body. They essential become stomach filler and often fat when too much of them are consumed. Excess white salt as you most likely already know is also a substance you can reduce in your diet. Add to your avoid list man made fats like transfats from hydrogenated oils and you are well on your way to eating for increased energy.

Number Seven
A Powerful Exercise

Grab a note pad and pen and write down for each of the next seven days the quantity of all you eat and exactly what it is. This exercise is one of the most powerful ways to find out if the quality and quantity of food you are eating is helping you Eat for Energy or not.

Bonus:

For extra help I have developed one learning tool that can help you recognize you are eating a balanced meal in five seconds or less. It is included in a electronic work book I wrote inexpensively priced and titled Simplify Healthy Eating Habits. Read more about How to Simplify Healthy Eating Habits the book here. The tips and action steps in this book are useful whether you live alone or have a family. They also help you adopt into your life more easily dieting plans you are using.

Your friend on the journey,

David

Hello again, as promised since it is the official Nutrition Month in Canada and since I have a lot of Canadian readers I am continuing to post articles to support healthy eating habits. The first article was Food Buzzwords De-Mystified and today’s article goes to the heart of why delicious organic food costs more than conventional food. Read the following exert from the book How to Buy Organic Food Inexpensively and share this article with friends who wonder why organic food costs more.

One

Limits on pesticide usage

Organic farmers use natural pesticides. For example, a farmer can release ladybugs onto some plants to help ‘eat up’ the aphids who want to eat the plants but the use of ladybugs and other insects does not help the farmer deal with weeds that try to strangle their crop. Instead the organic farmer must hand weed instead of spraying their crop with man made chemicals. This choice is clearly a more time consuming and labor intensive method of farming which creates more cost for the farmer – a cost he or she needs to pass on to the consumer. The good news is that the organic farmer’s lack of use of chemical pesticides helps protect the quality of our water supply.

Two

Limits on land yield

Organic farmers use crop rotation to keep their soil healthy. Instead of planting the highest financial yield crop each year they rotate crops and plant ‘cover crops’ that are plowed into the ground to improve the soil’s nutrients for long term usage. This reduces the overall land yield for an organic farm and the lessened supply increases prices on the market but in the long term keeps the land’s ability to produce going. Organic farming is sustainable agriculture.

Three

Cost of feed

Organic feed for cattle and other animals is more expensive than conventional feed because the feed itself must be third party certified organic or the animal can not be certified as raised organically.

Three more Reasons: If you are a current subscriber to my newsletter you will receive in your inbox today the complete article including all six reasons why organic food is typically more expensive than conventionally grown food. Full versions of articles are one of the benefits of being a subscriber. Subscribe today by completing the form on the top right side of this page.

Can I buy organic food inexpensively?

If you want to buy organic food inexpensively please follow the link and if you read the write up you will find out how a family on social assistance could afford organic food.

Enjoy a wonderful week,
David

1. Organic Food

Organic food is food grown without pesticides and without artificial fertilizers. It is food grown the original way in soil that is alive with billions of micro-organisms that convert the remains of vegetable life into tremendous amounts of minerals, vitamins and other nutrients to feed plant roots (and ultimately, ourselves.) Organic food is NOT TREATED with preservatives, radiation, hormones, antibiotics or other synthetic additives or grown from genetically modified seed. Organic food is food typically certified as organic by a third party certifying organization. Countries like France, Canada and the U.S.A. have a national standard for organics which are involved with the certifying of the food but not all countries have a national standard.

2. Specialty Food

Specialty food is a new term typically used for animals raised for human consumption in a more natural manner than other conventional farming practices. For example, Specialty chickens and turkeys typically are free to run inside big barns and are not housed up in small cages all day. They may also receive a vegetable based diet and typically receive less medication than conventional birds. Specialty farming is typically self monitored by the farmer and is generally not certified by a third party.

Note: In some areas specialty food simply refers to meats that are not commonly for sale like wild boar, buffalo, ostrich and it may have nothing to do with how the animal has raised. So always ask questions before you buy.

3. Health Food

Health food is a term used for foods that, in some way, are healthier than the common kind of food widely sold in supermarkets. For example, some people are allergic to foods treated with sulfur like dried apricots so un-sulfured dried apricots can be labeled health food whether they are organically grown or not. However, the use of the term ‘Health Food’, in my awareness, is currently not regulated so snacks labeled ‘healthy’ may contain unhealthy substances like Trans Fats.

Buzzwords 4 to 6. If you are a current subscriber to my newsletter you will receive in your inbox today the complete article including all six buzzwords de-mystified. Full versions of articles are one of the benefits of being a subscriber. Subscribe today by completing the form on the top right side of this page.

Reference: This above article is an extract from the book How to Buy Organic Food Inexpensively. This popular and inexpensive e-book is available for purchase on line. For more details please follow this link How to Buy Organic Food Inexpensively

Enjoy a wonderful day,

David