Healthy lifestyle tips
"It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver."
Mahatma Gandhi
Not all food is created equal.
When it comes to eating well, it can be hard to know where to start.
Here are a few of our favourite food tips, to help you get going:
Avoid heavily pesticide-sprayed food.
Avoid genetically engineered food (this can be non-organic soy, corn, canola. If grown in New Zealand, it won’t be GE, as we have no commercial GE crops)
Avoid processed foods, as they can contain harmful preservatives, colours, flavours, emulsifiers, fillers, and sweeteners.
Rotate your food groups so they’re not eaten every day - particularly wheat, soy, and dairy.
Always thoroughly read ingredient labels, especially on processed and packaged foods and if the list is long its best avoided.
Cook at home using raw whole ingredients whenever possible, to give you more nutrients, and more control over what you’re eating.
Source organic food wherever possible, to help reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals.
Pay special attention to the labels of organic and gluten-free foods - as they aren’t always the healthiest option.
A few helpful resources.
From raw food to pescatarian, the number of health philosophies out there can be overwhelming.
Start small by taking some time to read about these alternative diets. Then you can give them a try, and see what works well with your body and way of life.
Here are a few of our top healthy and alternative-eating resources:
Websites with allergy friendly recipes and health tips
Links to healthy food sellers
www.ceres.co.nz
www.chantalorganics.co.nz
www.huckleberry.co.nz
www.commonsenseorganics.co.nz
www.begoodorganics.com
Elimination Diet
Another way to detect and treat food allergies or sensitivities is through an elimination diet.
This is a special diet where foods are eliminated for a period of time and are then reintroduced to see if they cause a reaction.
There are 4 phases to an elimination diet.
The planning phase – this involves recording what you eat frequently, crave or would have difficulty giving up, this is combined with recording any health challenges and when they appear. From this information, a likely list of foods is devised.
The avoidance phase – depending on compliance and nutritional needs one or more foods or food groups are removed from the diet for 10 days to 4 weeks. Common foods to start with are dairy, wheat, citrus or nightshades.
The challenge phase – if symptoms decrease during the avoidance phase it is likely that the food or foods that were eliminated were contributing to symptoms. If many foods have been avoided only introduce one food at a time for 1 day only. (If symptoms have reduced markedly many people do not want to reintroduce foods)
Creating a long-term diet plan – it is advised to keep the offending foods out of the diet for 3-6 months and then the food can be reintroduced if no symptoms are experienced that food maybe eaten in a rotation diet usually 1 day in 4.
Eliminations diets can be very healing but they do have limitations and compliance challenges.