changing the way you eat – step by step

Many of you mentioned your interest in a post on my recipe book and how J and I try to change our eating habits. Here it is!

How do you approach a change in your eating habits? It comes down to education, motivation and planning.

I educated myself by taking a day off work to do research on what certain foods do to the body to understand why they are harmful.
Motivation comes in lots of forms. For me it’s often an inspiring blog post, a ted talk or a movie. I recently watched the documentary “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead” and highly recommend it (it’s on Netflix but you can find it on Youtube too).

What I struggled with when I already knew what I should be doing and very much wanted to be doing it was how to actually approach it and incorporate a healthy eating routine into daily life. I needed a plan.

Here’s where the recipe book comes in. I had a Pinterest board chock full of recipes and several cook books I never opened – I needed something else.
So I sat down (once again) to a day of serious work and compiled a list of recipes that met the following criteria:

• Easy to prepare: no hours of slaving in the kitchen, ideally a recipe with very few steps in preparation
• Few ingredients: I wanted to make shopping easier and have recipes that didn’t call for exotic ingredients that needed to be specially bought only to get shoved to the back of a cupboard and forgotten afterwards
• Healthy: based on my research this means a meal from scratch including lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grain spelt flour instead of white flour, healthy grains like quinoa or millet and of course sugar free
• Seasonal: whenever possible I want to cook in keeping with the seasons using regional produce

I chose both recipes we already knew and liked and new recipes that fit the criteria and which I  wanted to try out.

Divided into categories (Veggies, salads, meat, fish, pasta, soup and so on) each section only has about five recipes in it to prevent us getting overwhelmed by choices. Each recipe got its own page (I did it in PowerPoint but you can make a word document as well, whatever you like working with) with the same format and  a picture (because I’m a perfectionist at heart). Our very own recipe book got printed onto cardboard paper and filed away neatly in a folder. We have a mix of german and english language recipes in there (not that much of a perfectionist after all).

Every week before grocery shopping we pull out the book, pick a recipe for each day we need to cook dinner (we usually eat at work during the week so we cook a maximum of three meals – Friday, Saturday, Sunday – each week) and make a shopping list. Having a plan and having all ingredients at hand motivates us to actually cook the recipes and that simple routine forces us to “go through with it”.

So far we’ve added several easy recipes to our repertoire and feel much more empowered and able to cook and eat well. Something we make almost weekly now is a simple dish of oven roasted veggies (usually zucchini, fennel and peppers). I also love this Mexican quinoa pan and this kale quinoa bowl – soo good.

Now, why are there pictures of green smoothies all over this post? For one, pictures of just the recipe book would bore you out of your mind (and since most of the photos in there aren’t mine I can’t show them on here anyway).

The much more important reason is that in the last three weeks I have drastically changed my eating habits yet again. It’s all the fault of Joe Cross and his documentary “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead”. I’ve wanted to try green smoothies for a long time and the documentary was the last, determined shove in the right direction.

I am now making a green smoothie every day before work and drink it for breakfast. It tastes suprisingly awesome! Contrary to what I expected I have actually come to crave it each morning – obviously my body’s way of saying ‘give it here, I need it’. I do harbor a small hope that it will help with my back pain too – we’ll see.

Note that I am not doing a reboot or trying to lose weight, I do it solely for health purposes and eat a normal lunch (usually a small plate of warm food and a large salad at work).

Recipe? Sure!

Makes about 1 litre (4 cups):

• 2 cups greens (kale, spinach, salad greens, lamb’s lettuce…)
• 2 cups water or milk (I use oat milk which is really yummy)
• 3 cups fruits and berries (I’ve tried apples, bananas, pears, oranges and blueberries so far)
• Optional: a small teaspoon of pure almond butter and a tablespoon of linseed oil (I add both)

Blend well and drink fresh within a day or two. I use the blender on my ancient food processor and it works just fine. You really don’t need fancy new equipment!

Fruits and greens I buy at an organic farm once a week and freeze portions of greens for the week. That way it only takes me a few minutes every morning to prepare the smoothie and it’s always fresh and slightly chilled. You could also prepare and freeze all ingredients beforehand! With spring upon us and gardening on my mind I am already looking forward to growing my own greens instead of buying them this summer!

It takes me quite a while to drink the smoothie so I usually take it to work in my beloved Equa bottle (nope, not getting paid to mention it, but hey Equa if you want to send free bottles my way feel free 😉 ). We also got a water filter recently so we’ll not ever buy bottled water again. Saving the world one bottle at a time and all that.

Have you tried green smoothies yourself? What are your experiences and recommendations? Have your own recipe books and want to recommend an easy, healthy recipe? Let me know!

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working on it

Between some travelling, some hiking and some early nights (hey, it’s still winter which means it’s a good day if I manage to stay up for an hour or two after getting home from work) I have still been eeking out a few minutes here and there for creative time.
As this is meant to be a creative blog I figured I better show you what I’ve been working on.

The Alpenglühen cardigan has been on my needles for a while. Getting the body done and doing cables for the first time went really well but then I got stuck a little and have been waiting for motivation to strike to pick it back up again. I love the deep rich red of the yarn and I’m sure whenever this gets done it will be worn a lot!


For mindless evening knitting while watching a series I’ve picked up a pair of socks again that has been lying in wait for months. I think I might actually finish them this year. I love knitting socks but it usually takes me months to complete a pair in between other projects.

Speaking of other projects, have you seen Liesl‘s new pattern, the Henny Hat? Liesl has been one of my favorite blog people for a long time and I’m thrilled that she is starting to sell her own yarn and patterns! I already started my Henny Hat, so that makes three projects on the needles now – I’ve officially become one of those knitters with an overflowing project basket and no idea what to turn to next. Sigh.

You might remember the healthy eating series I started a while back? Well, I’ve been working on eating better for a long time now and progress is being made, slowly but surely! The fact remains that neither J nor I have a knack for cooking so I needed to approach this systematically.
I took a day off to figure out what kind of food I wanted to be able to prepare (easy, healthy, quick, few and readily available ingredients) and picked out a few choice recipes for us. These were printed on heavy cardstock and I made up our very own recipe book which we consult every week before going shopping. So far this is working really well for us! Having a plan has resulted in more focussed food shopping and a sense of obligation to actually cook at the weekend.

Two new favorite recipes of ours are roasted veggies of any kind and this yummy kale quinoa bowl. I’ve compiled all my recipe research on Pinterest though not all of those recipes actually made it in ‘our’ book.

I have much more to say on this subject but for the sake of actually getting this post done before work I’ll stop here and write a more detailed post on request. Let me know if you’re interested!

Last but not least I have a new hobby (as if I needed another one, right?) – for years I’ve been thinking of picking up the Irish Tin Whistle again and learning to play it. Having lived in Ireland for a year as a teenager this has always been a dream of mine. I played the recorder as a kid (who didn’t?) and there were actually several tin whistles I bought in my teens lurking in my mom’s basement.

As soon as I picked it up again I remembered how much fun it is and this time I mean to go through with it. Getting started with a few online lessons and this Lord of the Rings tutorial I am now on my way through a few simple tunes. The hardest part is getting the fingers up to speed but maybe by next Christmas my brother (who teaches himself piano) and I will be able to provide some family entertainment.

Any of you play a musical instrument? Are you a natural cook or did you have to learn it the hard way like me?

I have more hiking and travelling posts lined up. If you want to be really up to date and see my mobile photography be sure to follow me on Instagram or Twitter for daily peeks 🙂

the best breakfast dish – scottish porridge

In my constant quest to healthier eating I recently discovered the most awesome breakfast dish ever – porridge.

I first had porridge on my Scotland holiday two years ago and loved it. As with so many holiday treats we enjoy and promptly forget again I never thought to try and make my own until a few weeks ago. It takes no more than a few minutes to prepare and once you get into the habit porridge is seriously addictive.

I wonder how I lived without a warm breakfast before. There’s something incredibly comforting and satisfying about starting the day with a warm bowl of oats with a burst of flavor and vitamins from fresh berries.

My recipe (serves 1):

Berry porridge

• 1/2 cup fine oat flakes (I believe they are called oatmeal in the US)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk (cow’s milk is the usual, but I use oat milk)
• a pinch of salt
• a bit of cinnamon (optional)
• 1 teaspoon of honey (or more to taste)
• fresh or frozen berries (I like blueberries best but you can use any kind)

Combine oat flakes, water, milk, salt and cinnamon in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring, until a thick consistency is reached (this happens very quickly, be careful to keep stirring to prevent burning the porridge). I like to add the cinnamon at the very end actually because it just makes it all smell divine.

Put the berries in a small bowl, pour porridge on top, add the honey and mix well. If you use frozen berries the porridge will thaw them and the whole mix will be cool enough to eat nearly right away.

Actually I would recommend thawing the berries first but I never seem to find the time for that in the morning.

There are nearly endless variations of this dish – you can vary the berries or try chopped apples instead, add nuts and seeds or a bit of linseed oil if you want to go super healthy. In Scotland it was often served with cream (yum).

Speaking of Scotland – wow, what a week! I freely admit to being only moderately interested in politics. I hardly even read the news. It feels like there are so many terrible things happening in the world, it would take more caring and thinking and feeling horrified about than I can muster in my life. Does that make one a bad person? To consciously decide not to become emotionally invested in all the suffering going on in the world?

Anyway, back to Scotland. Maybe it’s because my next Scotland holiday is already booked (yay!) or that I’ve fallen head over heels for the Outlander book series (there’s a TV adaptation, too!) but this week leading up to the referendum had me all excited. I’m a sucker for history and it felt magical watching history in the making. I’m a bit disappointed that they didn’t go through with it in the end, but it is reassuring in this violent world that decisions of such importance can still be reached peacefully, democratically.

Did you follow the scottish referendum? Is porridge the greatest breakfast dish ever invented?

healthy eating – snacks

Part 4 of my healthy eating resolution (read up on part 1 – research and part 2- breakfast and part 3 – lunch)

As a reminder, this was my resolution for changing the way I eat in 2014:

• drastically reduce sugar intake and sweets
• eat less empty carbohydrates (white flour products like bread rolls, pasta, etc.), switch to whole grain products where possible and find alternatives to wheat
• eat a more plant based diet, fruit and vegetables first, everything else second
• continue to buy local fresh produce
• grow my own salads and vegetables again on my balcony with a better plan on what I want to grow and actually need
• build up a collection of tried and trusted healthy recipes that we can return to again and again
• use less dairy products

SNACKS

What did I change?
I don’t know about you but I can’t survive an afternoon without a snack, preferably a sweet one. Before starting to eat better that used to be chocolate, cookies, cake or sweet pastries. Needless to say, non of these fit the bill anymore.

The natural thing would be to make do with fruit and I do make sure to eat a banana or some pineapple as well. Since I usually don’t eat much in the evening after work, it’s important for me to have a decent and filling snack.
However, fruit doesn’t really satisfy my craving for sweets so I decided to try and turn a sweet snack into a healthy one by finding recipes for sweet snacks with healthy ingredients.

I’ve also made a resolution to allow myself one piece of chocolate or sweet a day without feeling guilty. I firmly believe in not being too hard on yourself. With that one piece I give myself a bit of leeway and I don’t think I could abstain from sugar completely, especially because there is always chocolate lying around in the office so I am constantly faced with the temptation.

How did it work?
Okayish. I think this part of the day is hardest for me. I’m usually getting tired by then and I feel like my ‘defenses’ are down and I’m vulnerable to just take those sweets when offered.

Still, I made some headway! I found a great recipe for healthy oatcakes. I try to make these once a week so I can take two or three to the office each day.
I’m also planning on trying more healthy snack recipes. I’ve made a new Pinterest ‘Snack Recipe’ board to collect inspiration (I also have a general ‘Recipes’ Pinterest board) and will try out those recipes one at a time this year.

With every usual recipe I now substitute the white wheat flour with whole wheat spelt flour. It actually tastes much nicer! I also try to replace white sugar with honey or maple syrup wherever possible. I’ve seen raw cane sugar in the supermarket which I’ve been meaning to try for cakes.

What’s planned?
Good question. Trying out more recipes to find healthy alternatives is definitely in the works as is replacing ingredients with healthy ones in some tried and true recipes.
In addition I want to substitute milk wherever possible due to my lactose intolerance. This recipe for homemade almond milk looks delicious!
Other than that, sticking to one piece of chocolate a day continues to be a challenge and I’ve failed on several occasions. Not easy that one but I’ll keep trying.

growing food

My fingers are a bit raw from scrubbing to get the soil out from under my nails. I had forgotten how dirty gardening is. Or how good it feels to spend a few hours outside digging in the dirt. Time for an update on my balcony garden!

The tomato seedlings are coming along well and are in the hardening off stage already.

We (meaning person, animal and plant) have been soaking up every last bit of sunshine and warmth and the apple tree is gratefully pushing out blossoms. I take this as a very good sign that there will be more than one apple (last year’s harvest) this time.


The peas are poking their cute first leaves through the soil. Yes, I just called peas cute. Such a proud plant mama. I made them a trellis from some leftover pieces since I couldn’t find a suitable mesh but I’ll still need to hunt down some sticks in the woods to add to it.


A few early flowers are really brightening the space up while all the other plants and flowers are just getting started.


In addition to starting the tomatoes and peppers inside in my light box the more cold hardy crops have been doing well in a little foil greenhouse outside.
The salad boxes are overflowing and in dire need to be thinned out and the kale is ready to move into its own window box as well.
Hard to describe how satisfying it is to watch all these seedlings growing strong and big. A very primal feeling of content. We may be creatures of polished office work and smartphones by day but doing things by hand – be it growing food, or knitting, sewing, woodworking, building, you name it – is a need that runs deep.

the perfect bread recipe

In my quest for eating better it’s hard to abstain from certain favorite foods.
A staple in my diet has always been bread. I love german bread, the crunchy crusts and the rich taste (seriously, you have to try german bread!).
As a result of my changed diet however I’m trying to stay away from gluten, lactose (often added to bread) and empty carbs as much as possible.
I had already switched to grain/seed bread but I wanted to try and see if I could find a recipe for baking a nice grain bread at home. I love baking at home and it would give me full control over the ingredients. I looked up some recipes and found a winner quickly!

I deviated very little from the original recipe but since the source is in German, here’s my translation:

• 500ml lukewarm water
• 600g flour ( I used half whole spelt flour, half normal spelt flour)
• 200g seed of your choice (I use a mix of oats, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and flax seeds / linseed)
• 1 teaspoon sugar (can be substituted with honey or other sweeteners)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 packages dry yeast (in german packages that would be enough for 1000g flour)

Dissolve yeast in the warm water with the sugar. Add the flour, seeds and salt. Mix throroughly (the dough is quite wet) and let rise for 30 minutes. Form into a bread shape or fill a loaf pan with the dough and bake at 200°C (ca. 400°F) for 45-60 minutes, until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
Yes, it really is that easy!

Let the bread cool before cutting and enjoy a filling homemade bread!

So why is this better than storebought bread?
a. The taste of freshly baked bread is divine
b. I used spelt flour instead of wheat flour. Spelt flour is not gluten free but it is much easier to digest than wheat for most people. I also like the taste better.
c. No additives, no added lactose
d. You get to choose the seeds you like best in your bread

The recipe resulted in quite a large bread, so I froze half of it and ate the other half within 6 days. I don’t know how long it keeps but it was fine for the week.
Ultimately I want to try making my own sourdough starter but right now this recipe feels like a great start!

 

healthy eating – lunch

Here’s part 3 of the healthy eating series (read up on part 1 – research and part 2- breakfast).

As a reminder, this was my resolution:

• drastically reduce sugar intake and sweets
• eat less empty carbohydrates (white flour products like bread rolls, pasta, etc.), switch to whole grain products where possible and find alternatives to wheat
• eat a more plant based diet, fruit and vegetables first, everything else second
• continue to buy local fresh produce
• grow my own salads and vegetables again on my balcony with a better plan on what I want to grow and actually need
• build up a collection of tried and trusted healthy recipes that we can return to again and again
• use less dairy products

LUNCH

What did I change?
I am eating lunch at the office where there is a variety of hot lunches to be had as well as salads, desserts and rolls. I’ve never been much of a meat eater so I usually stuck to pasta, potatoes, anything baked with cheese or fries. I also almost always got a dessert, most often pudding.
Since doing my research I felt I could now make some informed choices and plans for lunch. I especially liked the 5 a day campaign by the WHO (in the US it’s called fruits & veggies – more matters). It basically tells you to eat 5 hand fulls of fruits and veggies a day, ideally 3 helpings of veggies and 2 of fruits. One fruit portion can be substituted by a hand full of nuts.
True to my resolution I am now trying to stay away from the carbs and especially the fries and the foods drowned in cheese (saturated fats). Instead I pick whatever veggies are offered and fill my plate with them. Since I have no say on the menu this is easier on some days than others. I still eat pasta or potatoes when they come with a veggie side or sauce. I try to stay away from fatty sauces and I eat fish whenever it’s on the menu. Often I have a little bowl of salad with my hot meal.
With the salad I choose organic olive oil and balsamic vinegar as a dressing instead of heavier premade dressings. Instead of dessert I get a glass of freshly pressed orange juice with my lunch, which serves as one portion of fruit for my 5 a day plan.
I realize these choices are highly dependent on the environment and may not be possible for everyone but I think we all need to work with what’s there and make the best food choices available to us.

I also always take a 20-30 minute walk after lunch. I need to get out to breathe a bit of fresh air and stretch my legs before sitting down at the desk again. It’s refreshing and especially in spring gives your body a chance to soak up some sunshine and much needed vitamin D.

How did it work?
Man, staying away from fries and cheesy gratins was hard! When you get there hungry those hot, fatty foods look mouthwatering. The veggies and salads look much less appealing and filling.
But I promise once the withdrawal period is over it gets so much easier! It took about two or three weeks for me not to crave fatty foods any more and I now easily and happily choose the veggies. It helps to tell yourself how much better you’ll feel when you make the right choice and how proud you will be of yourself!
Sure I still have days when I crave a certain thing on the menu and sometimes I get weak and give in (it’s ok, we need to love ourselves).
When you switch from fatty foods and lots of carbs to a veggie based diet at first you feel like those still leave you hungry, like they are not as filling. I found that too subsides after a few weeks as your body adjusts to it. Instead I now feel pleasantly full after a meal whereas when I eat fries or heavy foods now they make me feel tired and bloated.
I used to have an afternoon low after lunch when I would get very tired and sleepy and concentration was impossible. Changing my eating habits has made this afternoon slump disappear almost completely!
Overall I feel much better with this diet and that’s enough encouragement to stick to it.

What’s planned?
Honestly I think lunch is fine for me like it is now. I could say I planned to do more home cooking to take to work but I know myself and it ain’t happening any time soon 😉
I’ve found what works for me and the challenge will be sticking with it. It’s a choice to make every single day and while it gets easier and easier with time the temptations are still there. I’m looking at you, chocolate pudding dessert with cherry compote.

Stay tuned for the next part which will be afternoon snacks!

the best oat cakes recipe

What to snack on when you want to eat healthy? Quitting snacks (which used to be chocolate and pastries in my case) has been one of the hardest parts of eating better.
Until I discovered oat cakes! After a bit of experimenting I found the perfect recipe for me that is both healthy and super tasty.

Using this recipe as a base I first tried a batch with dark chocolate mixed in. It was ok, but rather bitter. For the next batch I just started adding things I thought would taste nice.

Here’s my recipe:

• 225g oats
• ca. 200g  chopped almonds
• ca. 150g raisins
• 60g whole grain spelt flour (can be substituted by wholewheat flour if you have no spelt flour on hand)
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 60g butter (melted)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp honey (can be substituted with agave nectar if you want no sugar at all)
• 60-80ml hot water
• between 1/2 and 1 tsp cinnamon
• a pinch of cardamom

Mix together all dry ingredients, then add the honey, melted butter and hot water. Mix with a spoon until it has formed a dough, then roll out on a floured surface (I roll it out between a piece of saran wrap so it doesn’t stick).

I used glasses to cut the cakes (some of these photos are from my chocolate batch, hence the dark color)

Bake at 190°C for about 20-30 minutes, until the cakes are starting to brown.


The cakes are very filling due to the oats and the whole grain flour. The spices and almonds add a nice taste and the raisins add sweetness. I think I’ll substitute the honey with agave nectar the next time and see how that turns out.
Happy baking!

PS: If you have some tried and true healthy snack recipes do share in the comments!

healthy eating – breakfast

Here’s part 2 of this series, ‘healthy eating’, View part 1 ‘the research’ here.

After doing all that research I and finding out how certain foods work within the body I was finally at a place where I knew enough to plan how I wanted to change my diet.

This was my resolution:

• drastically reduce sugar intake and sweets
• eat less empty carbohydrates (white flour products like bread rolls, pasta, etc.), switch to whole grain products where possible and find alternatives to wheat
• eat a more plant based diet, fruit and vegetables first, everything else second
• continue to buy local fresh produce
• grow my own salads and vegetables again on my balcony with a better plan on what I want to grow and actually need
• build up a collection of tried and trusted healthy recipes that we can return to again and again
• use less dairy products

All the changes are more easily explained by going through the day so I am going to split this series into morning, mid day, afternoon and evening eating.

MORNING

What did I change?
For breakfast I used to eat some form of cereal with milk or yogurt, then a bread roll with cheese at the office followed more often than not by some sort of pastry. In the last few years I had already gradually switched from sugary cereal to first chocolate muesli and then fruit muesli.

I started finetuning by switching to a muesli with no added sugar, but lots of seeds and nuts and some raisins for sweetness. This was a definite improvement but after a few weeks it was confirmed what I had long suspected – I am lactose intolerant, meaning I should cut out milk completely. I then tried a variety of milk substitutes – soy milk, almond milk, rice milk. None of them really appealed to me, so right now I’m skipping the muesli altogether.

Instead I buy a seed and grain bread at the market every weekend. I used to hate these multi-grain breads as a child but they are growing on me. Lots of fiber and they do keep you a lot fuller a lot longer. As a topping I switched from cow milk cheese to goat milk cheese (yum!).

I am notoriously the first person in the office to declare I’m hungry come mid day so until lunch instead of pastry I eat an apple every day. With apples we try to buy old varieties because the newer ones are all grown to contain lots of natural sugar. Old varieties are tarter but I find they taste a lot fresher and juicier.

I drink tea in the morning and have stopped putting sugar in it. It’s hard for a few days but once you get used to it it starts to taste completely normal without sugar. In fact, I once had a yogurt at work and it tasted overly and not at all pleasantly sweet to me after this sugar abstinence. When I do need to sweeten something I use agave nectar instead.

How did it work?

It’s going great! I like the grain bread, I love the goat cheese and I have come to crave my daily apple. It’s funny how the body adjusts to a changed diet, it gets used to getting certain foods. Just like I found when I started drinking lots of water every day that I started to be thirstier. It’s like the body saying ‘whoa, you get it! Now let’s start talking to each other again’.

I miss milk but I feel so much better without it, it makes a huge difference. I used to have some stomach trouble in the evenings and that is all gone. My big revelation was when I had not had milk for a week and then got a craving for a big mug of chocolate. A few hours later I got stomach cramps and spend the evening curled up on the couch with my hot water bottle. It really hit home then and I have decided to cut out milk completely.

What’s planned?

I want to get back into baking my own bread with spelt flour and some grains and seeds so we’ll see how that goes!

I also really want to try green smoothies. I’ve read so much about them and I think they would be a great addition to my breakfast.

Come summer I will incorporate fresh fruit and berries in my breakfast as well.

***

So much for breaktfast! Lunch, snack time and dinner will each have their separate posts coming up. Let me know what you have for breakfast in the comments!

***

*Am I shamelessly reusing old photos for these posts? Absolutely! When does the light come back again?

healthy eating – the research

We all strive to eat healthy, right? It’s good for us. The problem is that it is such a vague concept. You feel like you don’t really know where to start, what is healthy and what is not and why is healthy food good for us while pizza is not?
I’ve been planning to “eat better” for years without much success. So I decided to really tackle this as a project late last year and just get down to it and do my research.
I took a day off to cram as much research about food and eating in it as I possibly could and hopefully end up with a plan. The good news is, I did and it was not even that hard! I’m going to share with you what I found out and what I changed in my diet.
This is my personal experience. This isn’t going to be a book and I’m not an expert so I strongly encourage you to do your own research since I will try to keep this short and sweet 😉

The first thing I found out is that there literally is no general definition of healthy eating. What is good and healthy for a person is a very individual thing. There are government issued guidelines but they change and evolve over time.
There are so many different ideas and diets out there and they all tell us they are the one way to eat to be healthy. Vegan, paleo, Atkins…just to name a few and there are so many more. I got very confused.
Whenever I get confused I try to structure my information. I made a chart and jotted down which foods all (or almost all) sources agreed were healthy or not healthy and which foods seemed to be controversial. This is my list:
—————————————————————————-
GOOD:
Vegetables, fruit, water, herbs, roots, nuts, good fats and oils, fish, meat (if organic and consumed in moderation). Eating as much food raw as possible.

CONTROVERSIAL:
Grain, dairy products, legumes, eggs, coffein, alcohol. Cooking foods.

BAD:
Sugar in any form, additives, bad fats and oils
—————————————————————————-

That seems a lot more manageable, right?

I did want to know why some products were bad or highly controversial, such as grains and sugar and certain fats. Here’s where again I strongly encourage you to do your own research (share your sources in the comments!) since I did most of my research on german language sites and will be keeping this very short. If you would like my list of german language sources let me know.

SUGAR
Sugar is present naturally in lots of sources, especially as fructose (fruit sugar). When we eat an apple it contains sugar, but this sugar is attached to lots of fiber, vitamins and minerals. The body can really get to work breaking those down and using them, releasing the contained sugar slowly. Our blood sugar level rises slowly, inducing the gradual release of insulin to transport that sugar to our cells to be used as energy.
When we eat refined sugar (pure sugar which is not attached to anything valuable like fiber) we’re basically flooding our body with so much sugar that it can’t really deal with it all. Our blood sugar level soares way too quickly and lots of insulin is produced which results in a blood sugar level crash again. We are really throwing our body processes off balance continually.
Eating lots of refined sugar can thus lead to permanently confused insulin processes and in turn, diabetes. As I said, I’m keeping this veeerry simple.
What is more, tumor cells love sugar. Empirical research suggests that consuming sugar in the way we do in the western world dramatically incresases cancer rates. Animal research suggests that sugar is also responsible for a range of other negative effects.

GRAINS
Grains are controversial. Whole grain flours contain fiber, minerals, vitamins, micronutrients and unsaturated fats. White flour however has lost most of these nutrients, so what remains are empty carbohydrates which in turn are absorbed way too quickly by our bodies and make our blood sugar levels soar too quickly and unnaturally (see sugar). The starch and gluten get sticky and acidic when digested and can cause problems with the digestion for some people from bloating to serious bowel inflammation.
Some sources also mention that all the good stuff even in whole grain flours and products can be found in greater quantities in fruit and vegetables and advise to quit grains altogether.

FATS
I won’t go into this in great biological detail but fats and oils are not all bad. The right ones help us absorb vitamins, protect our organs and even help our blood flow better. Good for us are unsaturated fats and oils, such as walnut, rape seed, soy and linseed oil. Some are better used cold (like olive oil) because heat damages their good properties. Rape seed oil is recommended for cooking as it can stand the heat better.
Saturated fats are present in animal products like butter and cream. They are usually solid at room temperature and should only be consumed in moderation as they bump up our blood cholesterol levels. Industrial food products such as chips should be avoided completely because the hardened fats in them are much worse than other saturated fats like butter.

That doesn’t sound so hard at all does it? After my day of research the picture has grown a lot clearer and while I will probably never understand the biological intricacies in detail, the general direction is clear.
The boyfriend was impressed by this compilation as well and we have made an effort to incorporate these findings in our daily eating habits for the last few weeks. As this post is already very long, there’ll be another one one detailing what simple changes we have made and how it has affected us.
I hope to also share some recipes and tipps for healthy eating with you throughout the year. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section, I’d love to know what you think of this and if you struggle with eating better too!