Health Supportive Cooking and Eating is a way to select, prepare and eat foods that contributes to your maximum level of health. Eating for a lifetime follows the Eight Principles for Health Supportive Food Selection: whole, fresh, natural, local, seasonal, in harmony with tradition, balanced and delicious. These principles will assist you in eating healthier.

Health Supportive Cooking and Eating is part of the broader concept of Health Supportive Living. The latter encompasses all aspects of a person's life: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. There is no standard formula to lead a health supportive life. It is unique to each individual and varies depending on the situations one is going through. The key:

 

Principles of Health Supportive Food Selection

1. WHOLE FOODS

Choose, prepare and eat all the edible part of the food, as provided by nature. For example you can eat the skin and flesh of an organic apple, whole grain breads instead of enriched flour breads, whole soy beans in tempeh or edamame instead of soy milk or tofu. This will ensure high nutritional value, reduce the glycemic index (how fast carbohydrates get into the blood stream) and reduce chance for food sensitivities.

2. FRESH

Give preference to fresh produce instead of frozen or canned, to get the most nutrients possible and to preserve food texture. If fresh is not available choose dehydrated, naturally fermented (pickled), or flash frozen.

3. NATURAL

Give preference to foods that are grown without pesticides, hormones and other chemicals. Also choose foods that are closer to its natural state. For example, favor potatoes to potato chips, honey or natural maple syrup instead of refined sugar or artificial sweeteners. Avoid sweeteners and foods that contain high fructose corn syrup. There is evidence this sweetener affects the hormone balance needed for your stomach to tell your brain to stop eating because you are full. High fructose corn syrup is linked to obesity and high levels of tryglicerides in the blood. NOTE: Natural foods undergo little or no industrialization, which means simpler list of ingredients that are common and easy to pronounce. Just for fun, check the contents list of your "natural" strawberry flavor.

4. LOCAL

Buy local foods. You help the neighbor farmer and increase the likelihood that your food is fresh and nutrient-rich, ripe, and does not have preservatives. Take advantage of your local farmers' market and ask your local farmers how they grow their foods. Do they use chemical fertilizer or pesticides? Do they use low-spray to minimize chemical exposure? Do they use organic growing practices?

5. SEASONAL

Our bodies are genetically programmed to follow seasons. And with seasons come different nutritional requirements. Pre-industrial age, people produced and ate foods that could only be grown in the current season. For summer months, cool off with greens salads and summer veggies like zucchini, tomatoes and eggplant. In the winter, warm up and heal with dark green leafy vegetables, root vegetables, apples and pears.

6. IN HARMONY WITH TRADITION

Our bodies are better suited to digesting and using the foods eaten for centuries by our ancestors. When you eat the beans and grains that were the traditional foods of your ancestors from the "old country," you are keeping the tradition alive and nourishing yourself more richly. Answer the basic question: What grains and beans did your ancestors eat? Native Americans would answer corn, peas, and pinto beans. Northern Europeans would answer rye, barley, buckwheat and white beans. South Americans would answer quinoa and black beans. Asian diets include soy and rice and so forth...

7. BALANCED

A simple rule of thumb for balancing your food is to include a variety of colors, textures and methods of preparation. Nutrient dense foods are deeper in color, i.e. sweet potato vs. white potato; romaine lettuce vs. iceberg lettuce. By serving fruit and nuts as dessert or snacks, you are providing more nutritious foods compared to those food items served in cakes, compotes and sweets. By selecting a variety of colors, textures and methods of preparation, you are indirectly selecting more nutrients and fiber and reducing your food cravings. NOTE: If you are vegetarian, it is important to combine legumes and grains to make sure you get all your essential amino acids. About one part legumes (beans or peas) to four parts grains (rice, whole grain pasta, quinoa) is an adequate combination.

8. DELICIOUS

Delicious healthy food turns out to be food you want to prepare and eat time and again. Increase the flavor and nutritional level of your foods by using a blend of salty, sour, sweet, pungent, astringent, and bitter tastes, along with the right amount of "good" fat. Fats carry flavor, and the healthier fats, such as cold-pressed olive oil, are important sources of fatty acids. In fact, you'll absorb more nutrients from your salad if you use a dressing with a healthy fat, as opposed to a fat free dressing.

SOURCE: Laura Pole's detailed recommendations, please see Mary Lynn Tucker's interview article "OM COOKING: Health-Supportive Vegetarian Cooking" - Integral Yoga Magazine, Winter 2006, pp 38-39.