Eat Like Your Great Grandparents and Improve Your Health

Eat like your great grandparents and improve your health; sounds crazy but its true! You might think that in the modern 21st century our food would be superior to what your great or great-great grandparents ate…but I would disagree. Now, I’m not a nutritionist, but it seems to me that our health could be improved by simply looking at the way our ancestors ate and making some adjustments.

 Eat Like Your Great Grandparents Tip #1 – Cooking from Scratch

Start cooking from scratch. One of the best things you can do is to start cooking from scratch. Stop opening bags and boxes of pre-made meals and thinking because it is marked “natural” that you’re doing good. Most, if not all, pre-made meals are so full of preservatives to keep it “shelf stable” that they can offer little in the way of nutrition (not to mention taste). I know we live in a busy world but I bet if you took one tv show off your nightly schedule you’d have time to cook a real meal.

A side note to the package cooking…

Do I really need to tell you that health and nutrition doesn’t come from whipping up a shake full of ingredients you can’t pronounce? I don’t want to step on any toes, but when did we decide that shakes were going to be the saving grace of our health? 

 Eat Like Your Great Grandparents Tip #2 – Sit at a Table

Don’t eat your meal in front of the tv. Whether your a single person or a large family, it is better to sit down at a table designated for meals; and leave the tv off. Sitting together allows for interesting and lively conversation, which will inherently slow eating down. Eating slower gives your stomach and brain time to connect and will let you know that you’re fuller before you overeat. Studies show that people who eat their meals slower are healthier.

Eat Like Your Great Grandparents Tip #3 – Say No to GMOs and Chemicals

GMOs or genetically modified foods have only been around since the early 1990s. This stuff is frankenfood and nothing more.  Not only should we not be eating this stuff, we shouldn’t be eating animals that have either. Get yourself educated on GMOs and their health risks.

I am not going to go into a huge discussion on eating organically.  I think we can all agree that eating pesticides is bad. If it is sprayed on your food to kill living creatures then what, dear friend, is it doing to you…a living creature?

Eat Like Your Great Grandparents Tip #4 – Eat Some Fat

If you still believe that a high fiber diet is going to keep you trim and healthy, it is time to read some new material. Our great grandparents ate FAT and obesity was a rare condition (they put fat ladies on display at circuses because it was considered so out of the norm). But choose your fat wisely! Stay away from vegetable oils, canola oils and the like; these oils are HIGHLY processed, often GMO created and hard on the body to digest. However some butter from a grass-fed cow is something your body and taste buds will thank you for eating (if you don’t have access to a dairy cow then Kerry Gold Butter is a great choice). And fat from animals that have been raised on pasture (NOT FACTORY FARMED) offer delicious and healthy fat options as well…eat the skin again!

Eat Like Your Great Grandparents Tip #5 – Sugars and Sweeteners

This could be an entire post….

We are killing ourselves with sugar! This sugar overload is linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and so many more ailments I can’t type them all here. We eat so much more sugar than our ancestors did and most of it is genetically modified. Sugar hides in a lot of those healthy products too. I would highly recommend watching the movie That Sugar Film, very eye opening.

And then there are those pesky low cal sweeteners! Those wonders in pink, blue and yellow packages touted to be our low calorie saviors. These sweeteners are over sweet and studies show they can actually increase your likelihood to gain weight, diabetes, heart disease and a whole list of medical conditions. They are chemical crap-storms in your body.

Eat Like Your Great Grandparents Tip #6 – Eat Locally and Seasonally

Before we had shipping from one side of the country to another (or from other countries) we ate what was available in our areas. We also ate foods that were in-season. I can’t remember the last time anyone had to give up their strawberries and wait until they were back in season. We have become accustomed to eating any and everything all year long. But we do lose some of the variety that seasonal and local eating offers. If you aren’t growing a garden or not enough to survive on, find yourself a organic gardener or farmer with goods to sell.

If you want to be healthier you want to eat like your great grandparents, because the #1 thing they did was eat REAL FOOD.