Drug Medical Information

THE WORLD'S OLDEST AND HEALTHIEST DIET: K.I.S.S. HEALTH PROBLEMS GOOD-BYE - THOU SHALT CHOOSE FRESH FOOD OVER DEAD FOOD

Confine food shopping as much as possible to the produce department. Whenever you can, go with Mother Nature. Peas in the pod beat peas packaged or canned. When it comes to frozen against fresh, no contest.
In keeping with the times, many supermarkets now boast 'health food sections'. Think on that. What does it say about the foods stocked in other aisles? Avoid 'prepared' foods that have had their natural goodness destroyed - the overprocessed, over-concentrated, over-salted, over-sweetened, overcooked, scraped and devitalized. A good rule of thumb to follow is this: the prettier the package, the less edible its contents.
Even so-called 'fresh' foods can be suspect By the time a vegetable lands on your plate, it's been picked, packed, shipped and stored. The longer the time span between garden and gullet, the more food value lost. Then the cook contributes to the damage with the ordinary kitchen knife and a pot of boiling water.
To master the art of fresh cooking:
• When boiling, use just enough water to keep the pot from scorching. Better yet, use a steamer. Less contact with cooking water means less leaching of water-soluble vitamins;
• Bring the water to a boil before dropping in vegetables. Do not overcook. The longer you cook, and the more mushy the vegetables get, the more nutrients lost. Quick hot, and dry - as when stir-fried in a Chinese wok - works best.
• Cook vegetables whole or in big chunks. Cut them up after cooking, wherever possible. Slicing and dicing exposes vegetables to oxidation - allowing nutrients to vanish more rapidly.
• Cook vegetables unpeeled. The natural covering protects potatoes, squash and cucumbers against leaching and oxidation and preserves nutrient content.
• When buying frozen food, check the temperature in your supermarket's freezer. If it reads higher than 5°F., it's not cold enough to prevent vitamin loss. If there's no thermometer, pick up a frozen food package and squeeze - if there's any give, give up and shop elsewhere.
• Push your shopping cart quickly past all the food displays that greet your entry into the supermarket Head directly - as fast as you can - to the produce aisle. Limit your shopping, as much as possible, to the unboxed items found there. • Collect quick and easy 'cook-from-scratch' recipes. Build a personal library of fast and fabulous concoctions that you can put together in minutes from items already in your cupboard. One of our favorite 'quickie' meal-in-a-minute dishes is salmon croquets. A one pound can of salmon, 1 egg, chopped dried onions, horseradish and seasoned bread crumbs, mixed together is all you need to form and brown patties in a non-stick pan (no oil, no fat.) Serve with a salad and vegetable side dish and take your bows. For many more easy-fix dishes, consult the wonderful Four Ingredient Cookbook created by Shirley Atwater and Marilyn Meich two busy ladies who are creative cooks.
*333\297\8*