Twinkies Are Toast!

That's it! Twinkies are toast!

After a run of grocery stores, no doubt the shelves where the junk food introduced when Boomer's were kids will soon have some other brand of sugar fix to offer.

But it won't be from the folks who brought us Wonder Bread and Hostess cupcakes.They've shut their doors and given all their workers pink slips.

Somewhere between 1948 and 1950 I sank my baby teeth into my first chocolate, cream- filled Hostess cupcake. A bakery truck used to drive to our door out on our Ohio farm, and the driver would gleefully write out a bill on those occasions when my brother and I would let him in the door and unload the goods. 

I would wash mine down with a glass of chocolate-flavored Ovaltine, while my grandmother would lecture me about not chewing my food enough to let the digestive enzymes from my saliva do their work.(She also used to tell me a penny would turn green if I dropped it into a glass of Coke. I laughed then because I thought she was behind the times. Now I think she was brilliant.)

Absent back then,  Hostess products would have left a significant void in all of the sugary snacks available to Americans.

Not so now.

That's because high-fructose corn syrup laces most of the food products in those middle grocery aisles. If it's in a box or a can, it's probably got sugar, fat or salt; often, all three.

Back in the day when Twinkies premiered, most Americans were fairly fit. But as a society, we became more prosperous, we accumulated more stuff, and we began to eat a lot more food.

Food was no longer fuel for our bodies three times a day; smewhere along the way we became hooked, and food became a drug of choice.

Few people will go through withdrawal in the absence of Twinkies. There's still plenty of sugar out there.

Signficant Change Starts With Just a Shift

I attended an obesity conference here in town last week.

We all know the situation is grim. Just take a look around.

The room was filled with worried professionals who work to serve health care and wellness. They know it's a situation that not only destroys a person's health, but collectively it is on track to bankrupt the country.

Understandably, not a few people doubt their ability to make themselves healthier because they've failed before; and they assume that, should they try, they'll fail again.

Someone who is 25 or more pounds overweight (much of the population), living with the stress of an uncertain economy (most of the population) can't find the first rung on the ladder towards gaining some sense of control.

There seems to be little sense of "space" amidst the complexities of the world in which we live where we can collect ourselves and consciously decide our course, and then carry it out. We're blown all over the place by the winds of change.

We live in a culture of people who frame reality around the way it's gonna be someday rather than the way it is. Our minds reside in the realm of expectations, putting any decisions that might carry us forward on hold. Maybe that's what's been modeled for them in their families, or what's projected through media advertising. What we want is always somehow out of reach, but we wish and hope for that to change.

Those are extremely strong beliefs ~ enough to solidly stop any forward momentum.

Those are the beliefs of the disempowered, but it's really a short distance to empowerment.

That's becuase the most significant changes are only the slightest shifts; when you choose to go without fries when you order that cheeseburger, or drink from your water bottle instead of a soda cup.

It can be when you steam some diced broccoli and carrots to mix with the kids' mac and cheese; and then take them for a 10 minute walk around the neighborhood instead of heading right to the TV.

Or maybe you give your husband or wife a hug and just say "I love you" for no reason, and feel how that feeds your heart so much more than does food.

Those represent those "first rungs" we're looking for on the road to better health!

Is It Really Time for Dinner?

This evening I was frustrated because my husband and I arrived home from a weekend trip, and I had nothing planned for supper.

I immediately reached for one of my cookbooks for using fresh produce, but I was coming up with nothing that appealed to me. Why was that? I'm telling everyone to eat whole foods as much as possible, and I was flaking out on them!

Then I realized something. I wasn't that hungry.

That was a pivotal moment. I remembered that I had a large breakfast (eggs benedict with spinach) as we traveled back from Colorado Springs to Grand Junction; and then we each had an avocado, tomato and cheese sandwich, along with with apple slices and almonds, mid-afternoon. No wonder I had no appetite for a full dinner meal.

So I drove to the store and picked up some prepared chicken noodle soup from the deli area, and a few small squares of jalapeno corn bread. I heated the soup, cut a couple of slices of  the cornbread for the side, and we were set.

The soup portions weren't large; about a cup and a half for each of us, but it was plenty.

Here's the take-away.

We are so conditioned to eating full meals in the evening that it may feel strange not to do it.

True enough, the soup wasn't prepared in my kitchen, and neither was the corn bread. Had I prepared a meal of fresh, whole foods, I probably would have served up larger portions, along with some pasta.

But quite often, "less is more," and ideally we're better off putting less food into our stomachs in the evening; and eating more earlier in the day.

Think about it. We probably spend more on stocking up for dinner in the evening than for any other meal.

Less food at night could mean a lot more savings on your grocery bill!

A World View of Food

I've noticed over the past few years that there have been a number of international viewers of this blog.

As you've seen, I am passionate about sharing how good food can empower our lives in so many ways; by making us healthier, more focused, and less wasteful of our time, our energy and our money. It's the one area of our lives we can exercise some control.

Whole foods and clean water is the currency of the future; it's where our true wealth lies. If you've read my blogs, you see that my main message is that healthy eating is affordable health care.

I invite comments from my readers, particularly those beyond our borders, to share with me how they view food and how people relate to it within their own cultures.

I truly believe we can simplify and enrich our lives by simplifying our eating habits.

How do you see it? I'd like to know ~

Eating Is a "Mind" Thing

For those who are "single minded," I'm convinced that life "flows" and that food has its proper place.

Whole foods get by-passed as conduits to good health when our attention is divided. In those situations, it is all too easy to mindlessly go about our day, yanked from one distraction to another, and not a clue of what foods we've eaten, or how much.

It's easy to feel bad about the whole thing when we can't seem to keep the promises we make to ourselves.

But when we're on different "channels" or energy frequencies, our choices are simply going to be different. The higher the frequency, the better the choices. The lower the frequency; well, we're talking a McDonald's whopper with fries.

To put it differently, a higher frequency would be a positive frame of mind. Negative thoughts put you on a lower frequency. Positive thoughts lead to better choices. Negative thoughts do you no favors.

Unfortunately, when negative thoughts kick in, it's very difficult to control the emotions. And the more stressed we are, the stronger and more frequent the negative thoughts and emotions. As a result we feel out of control, and emotional eating directs our food choices.

What to do?

The solution is "mindfulness." Paying attention. Focusing.

So much easier said than done when we feel so responsible for how things turn out. That misguided belief puts us in a mode of constantly responding to what's outside of us, rather than being directed from the inside.

The only way to change that is to pay attention to what we're feeling and what we're doing in this very moment.

Contemplate that while you enjoy an apple!

A Garden Can Be Your Financial Life Boat

I heard a news commentator today say that more than 37 million Americans can't find full time work.

They're struggling, and it doesn't appear that there's any solution in site at the national level. We owe too much money. On paper, we're fiscally bankrupt.

If people haven't read about it, they feel it. We are living in a time of inevitable transition, and in our guts we know we're in for a rocky ride.

But if we step outside and look around, we know that our true equity isn't on paper. It's us, and our ability to be resourceful.

If we think of what we really need, it's good food, and that can be as close as our own backyards. You can grow food in an area about the size of the bed of a pick-up truck.

For instance, I think of Swiss chard, those elephant-ear sized greens from the spinach family, but surprising pack much more nutrients. It's easy to grow, and you can cook it up in soups or pasta sauces, or saute' it in a pan along with some onions and garlic. Once it gets to your stomach, it can begin processing all that "medicine" to deliver a dose of health to your cells.(It can even survive into the winter if you cover it!)

I use this space to write about the abundance of nutrients available in fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains because I've seen the difference good food can make in a variety of health conditions. In these days of concerns over the future of health care in this country, it should be of some comfort to know that we can access a veritable pharmacy in a garden.

An Encore for Fiber

Barring any medical conditions that are aggravated by eating lots of fiber, most people would probably find that it's a silver bullet for reducing sugar cravings, becoming healthier, and, yes, losing weight.

Food journals are useful for tracking your eating patterns, just like you would track your spending. But at the end of the day, the result is the same surprise at how much you are eating ~ or spending.

But if you're focusing on fiber, all you need is to add. Basically you're just counting up the fiber grams, veritable deposits in your physical health account.

You can Google the fiber grams for various fruits, vegetables and nuts, but to simplify it for you, a 1/2 cup serving for most of them contains about 3 - 4 grams.

But if you set a goal to eat 35 to 40 grams of fiber every day, you really have to eat plenty of good stuff to reach that amount. You can't eat junk because there's little fiber in processed foods. Not only that, you WON"T eat junk if you're lasered in on getting enough fiber because you won't have enough room in your tummy!

What's not to like about that approach?