Eating Healthy … and Staying on the Path

So many visual images of food trigger our desires to stray from a healthy diet.  How do we resist?  How do we adhere to our food plans to achieve our goals?  Temptation is always close by.  Following a few solid principles and behaviors will keep us on our path to good health.  It starts with knowing how and when to shop for food in a market … and when we don’t feel like cooking, knowing where to go to dine out to enjoy a delicious meal while remaining disciplined.

Whether you follow the South Beach, Mediterranean, Paleo, or Ketogenic (or other scientifically higher-quality) Diets, there are some consistent measures you can take to minimize exposure to excessive sugar, pesticides and other toxins, and lower your carbon footprint.

First, consider buying all organic animal products to reduce exposure to toxins, as animals bioconcentrate toxins in their fat, and dairy comes from animals’ fat stores.  While you are at it, consider markedly reducing your intake of animal products, as growing animals that represent the top of the food chain is very environmentally costly as animals require a lot of vegetable food to grow (80:1), require a lot of water and cleared land … and emit a lot of methane which is a powerful greenhouse gas.

When buying fish, choose non-predatory species, as they contain lower amounts of mercury.  Follow the Dirty Dozen, Clean Fifteen list from the environmental working group in order to minimize exposure to pesticides – buy the Clean Fifteen conventional to save money and buy the Dirty Dozen organic to curb exposure.  If you can’t pronounce all of the ingredients listed on a package, don’t buy the item.  Check out one of my older blog posts about the anti-inflammatory diet and follow it.

It’s clear that once can become fearful and rigid with making the best food choices, as there are more restrictive advisories that can take the fun out of eating!  So, for balance sake, simply try to “bring in the good” as much as possible … to “crowd out the bad.”  When shopping, make your list and shop when you are not hungry, so you make thoughtful rather than impulsive choices when you are in the store.

If you know you will be on vacation, plan ahead and investigate the healthiest cuisine and restaurants close to your hotel or activities.  There are so many restaurant review websites to facilitate this, it isn’t hard at all.  I typically scope out vegetarian and vegan restaurants and see where the search leads me.  Asian cuisine is often among the healthiest.  See if you can identify restaurants that advertise that they use all locally-sourced or organic ingredients.

I have made my “Top Ten” list of the best/healthiest restaurants in the Philadelphia area.  In decreasing order of cost/quality, I recommend the following 6 restaurants in Center City: Vedge, Zahav, V Street, Bar Bombon, Hip City Veg, and New Harmony.  My 4 favorites in the burbs are: True Food (King of Prussia), Harvest Seasonal Grill and Wine Bar (North Wales), Saffron (Wynnewood and Ambler), and Marokko (Ardmore). Bon Appetit!