There’s an old saying that “you are what you eat”, if that is true, you want to put the most healthful foods into your body to ensure that you stay in optimum health. Your diet plan should be diverse, with a wide variety of nutrients and healthful substances, and, of course, you want your meals and snacks to be tasty as well. That’s a tall order isn’t it? But, if you follow the Government guidelines and select your meals from each of the major food groups, your reward will be good health the rest of your life.
Preparing food nowadays is so much more complicated than ever before. If you want to eat healthy, it is advisable to check labels closely to fully understand the components of what you will be ingesting. If you simply run into the grocery store and toss a few items in your cart without a care in the world, instead of perusing the product carefully, the old adage of “what you see is what you get” may just apply to you.
If you are of a certain age, you remember eating white Wonder bread as a kid. Kids liked that soft squishy bread that Mom piled high with peanut butter and jelly. Back in the 60s, the catch phrase for white Wonder Bread was “Wonder helps build strong bodies 12 ways” because this bread was chock full of nutrients. Through the years, Wonder Bread has added to their product line, so, in addition to the classic white bread, you can now get the same texture of bread but in whole grain. Mom is doubly happy to serve it to the kids and it still has that same moist texture that kids loved.
It seems these days you must think about everything that you eat or drink. Back in the day, you ate most meals at home, and, when the family went out for dinner, the last thing you worried about was if you’d come down with botulism, E.coli or listeria symptoms before the evening was over. Now, you must consider everything you put into your mouth. And, then there are the recalls or bulletins about “undeclared allergens” that come to light, long after the product’s expiration date, or after you’ve already ingested them.
From the Memorial Day weekend until Labor Day weekend, sometimes it is all one big food fest, isn’t it? There are picnics and barbeques and family get-togethers galore. Most of these events involve potluck meals, with everyone toting along a different dish. Of course you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so you have to try everyone’s special dish, and before long, you feel overstuffed and want to undo your clothes.