Healthy – eating

If you are trying to move to healthy eating patterns, one of the most important places to start is in the kitchen. You must have all your ingredients to be able to throw things together, you also need to allocate a little time each week, to being on top of, staying stocked up! These days its really easy if you shop at supermarkets, that, take very seriously healthy and organic produce (one of my favourites is foodland frewville) and visit markets for local fresh food, such as the farmers market and the organic market. Its never been easier to shop and eat out for beautiful healthy foods.

 

SHOPPING LIST TO GET YOU STARTED

Herbs & Spices 

Essential in making great stocks, sauces, soups and generally adding flavour to foods. Herbs and spices are potent sources of minerals, often underused.

• Herbamare – organic dried herb mix (a good all rounder to add flavour to meals, particularly if you don’t want to use salt)
• Tamari organic (a fermented soy, this replaces commercial soy sauces, its naturally gluten free)
• Salt (Himalayan salt, celtic or sea salt)
• kelp (granuels that are great to add to foods as you would salt, highest food source of iodine – critically low mineral in Australia)
• black pepper
• miso (asian soup stock – look for an organic soy or brown rice variety)
• Sea vegetables – kelp, arame, kombu, wakame, nori (add to crackers and stocks, excellent source of minerals)
• Cinnamon powder/sticks (add to fruit, nut mixes, raw deserts, cereals, use the sticks in teas – excellent for blood sugar control – ps not the cinnamon sugar!)
• nutmeg (great for fruit, nut mixes, raw deserts and cereals)
• cloves (deserts, great anti microbial)
• cacao (excellent in raw deserts and fantastic source of magnesium)
• Parsley
• Coriander
• Basil
• Oregano
• Rosemary
• Onion
• Garlic fresh (add to meals but also dips, great antimicrobial, hypertention, cholesterol)
• Cumin powder/seeds (great for indian soups and dishes)
• ginger fresh/ground
• Chilli
• Tumeric ground/fresh root (excellent anti inflammatory)

Spreads

• Butter pure
• Ghee (clarified butter, great in Indian dishes and if you are looking for a richer flavour)
• Avocado (crush and add lemon and celtic salt)
• Dips (additive free – homemade is best, see recipes)
• Quark, goats cheese or sheeps cheese (soft cheeses make great spreads, can add flaxseed oil & herbs)
• Nut spreads – almond, macadamia, brazil, cashew nut spreads
• Pesto (additive free)

Milks & …..

• Almond milk
• brazil nut milk
• quinoa milk
• oat milk
• cows milk unhomogenised organic
• kefir (fermented food great for the gut, add to foods as you would yoghurt)
• yoghurt (organic without added sugar, plenty biodynamic varieties – yoghurt is supposed to be sour!)

* sugar and additive free

Salad Dressings

• Extra virgin olive oil or
• Flaxseed oil

Plus

• Lemon juice or
• Apple cider vinegar (with mother) or
• balsamic vinegar (sugarless)

Plus

• Himalayan/Celtic/Sea salt

Optional add ins

• Garlic
• Pine nuts (raw)
• Walnuts (raw)
• Feta
• avocado

Other dressings

• Mayonnaise (made from real ingredients eg eggs etc – no additives)
• Mustard (no additives)

Nuts & Seeds

• Raw & fresh (activating nuts, refers to soaking them in water which releases their enzymes inhibitors making them more digestable)

Oils & fats

• Butter pure or ghee
• Coconut oil (unrefined & organic – great for cooking and in raw deserts)
• Extra virgin olive oil (cooking only on a low heat, best added fresh to food – some recipes are suitable if you use water and add oils after)
• Coconut cream organic

*best oils and fats to cook with are saturated fats such as butter, ghee and coconut oil

Fish

• Wild fish (not farmed – ensure it is fresh, the eyes should shine)
• Tinned tuna (buy spring water – add own oils after, limit due to the high mercury found in tuna)
• Tinned salmon (Alaskan)

Meat 

Of all foods animal products are most important to be organic.

• game meat (is more likely to be organic)
• chicken, turkey
• lamb, beef, veal, kangaroo
• offal (must be organic)
• sausages (can have lots of additives and do have gluten added, so you must ask if they are free of these)

* bacon & deli meats (usually contain nitrates and chemicals there are very few easy to access organic nitrate free sources – good alternatives use mince instead of bacon, use left over roast/grilled meats for lunches instead of deli meats) 

Other Proteins

• eggs (organic)
• tempeh (fermented soy, better option than tofu)

Inbetween Foods & More……

Inbetween foods make great snacks and are great alternatives to sweet snacks and very satisfying.

• sauerkraut (unpasteurised is best)
• fermented vegetables
• artichokes
• asparagus
• olives
• dips (as above)
• goats and sheep cheeses
• fermented drinks
• nuts (as above)
• quinoa cruskets (use with dips)
• fennel, snow peas, celery sticks, carrot sticks, kolrabi (sliced add lemon and salt – use with dips)

Fruit & Vegetables

• buy in season and local, with their seeds (see seasonal chart)

 

TIPs

*buy products whose ingredients you can identify and do not contain numbers.

*look for fresh, quality produce

*A great rule of thumb, if you are buying anything in a packet, go straight to the ingredient list and take a look at what you are about to buy, if there are ingredients there that you do not even recognize as food or numbers, then give it a miss.

*Organic makes sense and is always better, its how food always was, our liver prefers us to pass on the chemicals and additives

 

Vote with your dollar, buy real food, if enough people stop buying junk food, supermarkets will follow and food chains will listen! (every little shift you make in the direction of whole, organic foods will help make a change toward better health).

As Ian Gawler once said “I take very seriously what I am about to eat as it is going to become me”.

 

Enjoy

Maria x

Ps Have I forgotten any ingredients, please let me know 🙂