Eat food!

If you are trying to be more conscious of what you eat and just want to make a few small changes to optimize your health, then my recommendation to you is to eat food. This may sound obvious but unfortunately it's not as obvious as it should be. Let's do a quick what is food lesson.

Food:

• should not have a label (in general) or come in a bag with ingredients that you cannot decipher
• may have a label that reads peanuts or lentils
• may have lived and breathed but now does not and has not had anything added to it such as fillers, preservatives, dyes, or other animal parts like bones, feathers, etc (I know....gross!)
• examples are apples, carrots, almonds, eggs, spinach

Are you with me so far? Good! How about some bullet points of things that are not food.

Not food:

• if it comes in a can that says cheez whiz or imitation this or that or cheese-like product
• if the ingredient list on the label is longer than a novel
• if it's been shaped into a fun animal shape but is not in fact an animal
• if the label has a fun cartoon character on it and your kids want it
• if it contains artificial sweeteners (that turn into formaldehyde in your body...yuck!)
• examples include....wait....there are way too many to name. Let's just say this: if it comes from one of the aisles in the middle of the grocery store, don't eat it!

Think about it this way, food contains things (and by things I mean vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc) that your body recognizes and can metabolize. Processed food however is the major cause of chronic disease and obesity in this nation. So if you wondering why your belly fat will not go away then look no further than your kitchen. Because chances are you will find more not food than food in those cabinets.

And here is a delicious whole foods muffin that I think you will enjoy! This was copied directly from elanaspantry.com

Gluten Free Carrot Banana Muffins
2 cups blanched almond flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup dates, pitted
3 ripe bananas
3 eggs
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
¼ cup coconut oil, melted
1 ½ cups carrots, shredded
¾ cup walnuts, finely chopped

1. In a small bowl, combine almond flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon
2. In a food processor, combine dates, bananas, eggs, vinegar and oil
3. Transfer mixture to a large bowl
4. Blend dry mixture into wet until thoroughly combined
5. Fold in carrots and walnuts
6. Spoon mixture into paper lined muffins tins
7. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes

Makes 18 muffins