FOODS TO EAT

A wholefoods diet is void of artificial ingredients, preservatives, and additives. Think fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes (if tolerated), meat, poultry, seafood and eggs. Minimally processed foods. Real food closest to it’s natural state.

Eating organic or spray-free is best but is not always and option due to $$$$. The Environment working group conducts and independent study each year regarding which foods are being sprayed the most with harmful herbicides and pesticides. Try to stick to buying the dirty dozen fruit and veg organic or spray free and you can be a little more relaxed with the clean 15. See the links below.

 https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php

https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/clean-fifteen.php

Healthy Fats

Healthy fats help to boost the immune system, support creation of important hormones like cortisol and testosterone, maintain bone density and raise HDL (good) cholesterol in the blood and lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol.

For years saturated fats were seen as harmful for our health but recent studies have debunked those myths (although some Dr’s and Dietitians are a bit slow to catch on and continue to advise their patients to avoid them) and healthy fats are back on the menu and vital to a well functioning body!

Roughly half of our cells membranes structure is composed of saturated fat. We need these fats like grass-fed butter, fatty organ meats etc. as they contain large amounts of essential fat-soluble vitamins K, A & D. 

Some healthy fats include:

Avocado oil, coconut oil, extra-virgin olive oil, macadamia oil, MCT/Keto oil, cacao butter, coconut butter, grass-fed butter, duck fat, ghee, lard, tallow, coconut milk and cream, fatty animal cuts, oily fish, avocados, eggs, nuts, seeds, olives. 

tips for shopping

Try to set up a shopping routine. For example, I buy fresh produce once a week from my local co-operative, I shop once a week at the butcher for meat (I freeze some) & eggs, once every month I purchase dry goods like seeds and flours in bulk through my local co-op (we get together and buy in bulk and then split the bags between us. You could always do this with a friend or two to help cut costs. I usually only go to the supermarket twice per month for frozen berries and anything else that we need that we can’t get from the above mentioned.  

Have a rough plan in mind and write a list and stick to it without making a heap of impulse buys. I’m not a meal planner but I do know that each week we eat a variety of different meats and a healthy range of veggies. So i get a bit of everything from the butcher and our staple veggies and at the end of the week I whip up a soup with all the left-over veg so nothing goes to waste. 

Look in to buying your fresh produce at farmers markets. The produce is much fresher, usually local and in season and there’s generally a range of organic and spray-free produce that is much cheaper than the supermarket. 

If your primary resource for food shopping is a big supermarket chain, then don’t despair. Just consider shopping for most of your food from the outermost aisles. By that I mean get your fruit, vegetables, fish, meats, dairy produce, cleaning products and toiletries (all from around the perimeter of the supermarket), and briefly, duck down the isles to top up any pantry items (such as oils, condiments, nuts etc).

Also make note of the source of the fresh produce which should always be disclosed (often around the price tag) and stick to Australian produce which is fresher, less contaminated and much more nutritious than overseas produce. Also, choose ‘new season’ produce if possible which is also fresher. Meat should, at least, be free range, grass or pasture raised.