My last post regarded general changes with your food, and was hopefully helpful to some. Other people will like a list of specific changes to make, so I listed a few ideas here to get you thinking. This is a quick list of actions to take, without a lot of explanation.
- Replace white flour with whole grain flours, a variety of whole grains, and ultimately soaked or sprouted grains.
- Replace white sugar with raw honey, maple syrup, or evaporated cane juice crystals, and diminish their use.
- Replace cooking oils with butter, extra virgin olive oil, and coconut oil, and use them quite liberally.
- For any bakery items consumed, make your own so that you’ll be able to stick to the above ingredients.
- Reduce use of gluten-containing grains and cook with a variety of whole grains, beans, and legumes.
- Avoid soy where it is a replacement for wheat, meat, milk, or healthy cooking oils; it’s only good whole or fermented.
- Buy certified organic or local /fresh milk and all other dairy products. Organic dairy products are important.
- Buy local or grass-fed/pastured meat and poultry, and wild-caught fish. Strictly avoid conventional meats.
- Use whole fruits, not fruit juice or juice beverages, and buy organic when you can, as they are heavily sprayed.
- Use as many vegetables as possible, both raw and cooked, and choose produce of every color in the rainbow.
- Learn to like simple beverages such as water and herbal tea, and avoid any concoctions containing sugar, caffeine, or flavorings.
After that brief list for the pantry, here are a few further ideas for beyond the pantry:
- Use produce wash on all fruits and vegetables, and let soak for a few minutes especially if the produce is not organic.
- Choose clean meats as listed in the Bible, avoiding pork, shellfish, and other filtering or scavenging animals.
- Never use a microwave, which kills food and pollutes the air. Instead, use the stovetop or a toaster oven.
- Eating out, select foods or restaurants that serve corn or rice dishes, instead of wheat products. Avoid milk-based sauces.
- Carry your knowledge of pure food into other areas of the house: laundry detergent, children’s toys, toiletry items, and more.
- Try making inexpensive home care and personal care products yourself: cleaners, lotion, soap, room spray, etc.
- Simplify and pare down to the items that you really need, spending a little more on quality items if you can.
- Recycle any packaging that you can and be conscious of waste. Buy products that can have multiple purposes.
- Think about making your home and pantry non-toxic, aesthetically-pleasing, and promoting of a holistic lifestyle.
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Love this list. However, I’m concerned about the choice of corn dishes in a restaurant when 90% of north-american corn is genetically modified.
Hi, thanks for your comment! I recommended corn (envisioning tortillas) mainly as an alternative to refined wheat products in restaurants. I honestly do not know what the statistics are, but some say that 70% of US corn is GM, in which case there is likely some percentage in restaurant food. I think it is mostly used in processed foods, corn derivatives, corn syrup, and cattle feed, all of which are used in many restaurants (i.e. beef grown on GM corn). If one is used to the most healthful food at home, there will be *many* reasons that restaurants are not optimal–from use of unknown sources of grain, to conventional CAFO beef, to corn syrup, and much more. It's usually best to go to organic, whole food restaurants or bring your own meal.
Great, simple advice. Would anyone (Renee?) care to explain why a microwave should be avoided? While the waves are related to scary-sounding thimgs like gamma- and X-rays, they’re equally related to benign visible or infrared light. Microwaves just happen to be well tuned to heat water; and return time back to food preparers for more productive pursuits.
Jolly Scones,
To my understanding, most of field corn is GMO as it isn’t grown to be eaten as corn by humans (instead, for diesel, animal food, corn syrup, etc…), but practically all sweet corn (eaten by us) is non-GMO, although all sweet corn comes from a natural mutation.
-Peter Bringe
D. V.
While it’s true that sweet corn (eaten as corn on the cob) is non-GM, nearly ALL processed corn products come from GM corn, and it’s extremely difficult to avoid these processed corn ingredients in any kind of processed food, many of which do not have corn in their name. It’s another good reason to follow Renee’s advice to eat as much whole foods as possible and avoid processed food products.
FYI – Monsanto recently announced that they want to introduce GM sweet corn. If they do, it will undoubtedly contaminate other sweet corn varieties and bring dangerous, unknown and/or untested health results.
Very glad to hear that corn on the cob is non-gmo. I know that all processed food is gm corn and have been avoiding it. Very glad I don’t need to avoid corn on the cob for that reason.
Thanks for clarifying everyone.
I feed my cows some grains for we live in New England (go Pats) and grass is hard to come by. I have to say that as much as I hear that grass fed is better, my beef seems to have better fat content and all scripture says that it is a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Grass fed that I have had is grainier, tougher, and just plain not as tasty. Maybe there is a happy medium as long as you know your beef and where their grain came from.
Raw milk is the best and organic milk is usually ultra pasteurized which kills any good there was in it.
Just my 2 cents.
Still better to have your own chickens and cows. No better evangelism tool out there, put a cow in your backyard and watch them come to see.
While I agree the source of the cow’s food matters, grass fed is best because it’s what God designed pasture-based herbivores to eat. Your experience with grass fed beef is common, but is not due to the quality of the meat – it’s due to improper aging. Grass fed beef should be dry-aged for 20-45 days to properly prepare the meat, after which time you should experience the best beef you’ve ever tasted, and the with the best health properties as well (Omega 3s, CLAs, etc.)
Do you finish your cows with grain, or just supplement during winter months?
We suppliment year round with grain we feed mostly hay great quality from our public lands near by. We do not have great pastures at this time we are working on some silvopasturing for the future but for now we are raising them on a diet of 5-10% grain (not corn). They eat the grains off my winter rye very nicely. So to say they are only grass when the stalk does not get to produce you would be correct but if the grass is able to produce its fruit then they are eating grains naturally. Still just my 2cents.
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