Hans Guttmann, Guest
Waking Times

We are not a healthy country. Our food supply is industrialized. This will be the first generation not to live longer than their parents. Obesity is rampant, even among children. Diabetes is on the rise. We are sedentary. We drive to work, sit in an office, drive home, and sit on the couch. More and more time is spent in communion with iDevices. We don’t eat together. This impacts not only our health, but our quality of life. Stress is on the rise, and the pace of life is ever faster. My recent book, The All Food Diet, is a response to these facets of modern life.

So what are you going to do about your unhealthy life patterns? You’re busy. There are a thousand fad diets. They want to give you stimulants. They want to slice you open. That doesn’t sound healthy at all. Our foremothers were healthy. Well, at least they weighed less and were more active. They ate natural food, because that’s all there was. How can we return to that lifestyle?

I have simple advice on the topic: Buy foods with one ingredient. These are good foods, such as onions, oranges and beans. Bad foods have many ingredients. These include canned soup, frozen dinners, and junk food. Bad foods tend to contain calories, fat, salt and chemicals. Once you’ve bought single-ingredient foods, then you can combine them into many a healthy meal.

There are chemicals under the sink, chemicals in our food, chemicals in the feed we give animals that we then eat, chemicals in the air, chemicals in the ground, and chemicals in the water. Some of these are benign; some are harmful. The All-Food Diet recommends avoiding all chemicals. Recall that at one time DDT and Thalidomide were thought to be safe. Why not avoid first, and let scientists discover the toxicity later? Will they someday find that corn syrup and other artificial sweeteners are bad for you? Has this day already arrived?

There are other approaches to healthy eating. While dairy and meat can be considered pure foods, containing only one ingredient, we would not want to eat them to excess. My main focus is on picking the bean versus the can. For most people, just focusing on cooking and buying nutrient-rich foods is a big step. So there are various options to consider. You can look for organic food, food at the farmers market, non-GMO food, and vegetarian or vegan food. All of these will serve you well. But I prefer just to keep things simple. Buy foods with one ingredient.

Many diets fail because they are too strict. I suggest that you make incremental changes in your lifestyle. Buy better food. Cook a little more at home. The All Food Diet contains many tips on eating better, living better and being active. Which tips you choose to follow is up to you. Just go with the ones that suit you and you’ll be on your way to a healthier lifestyle.

In addition to buying real foods, you’ll need to work some of it off. The idea is to make activity a part of your every day routine. Get out of the car, and jump on a bike or walk to your errands. I especially like the idea of biking to the farmers market.

In the spirit of living like our ancestors, I rail against labor saving devices, such as elevators, power mowers, microwave ovens, dishwashers and cars. Surprisingly, you can cook a multitude of dishes on a fire or a burner and a cast iron pan.

Finally, I ask “What did Jesus eat?” It seems that he ate unprocessed foods with one ingredient. As a Mediterranean dweller, his diet would be similar to the Mediterranean diet now in fashion. He drank wine, but not to excess. He did not bike or drive, but he walked a lot.

About the Author

Hans Guttmann has been cooking and consuming food for a long time. He is happy to share his experiences. The All Food Diet is his first book. By trade Hans is a computer programmer. He is also an amateur musician.  He resides in Minneapolis, although often he can be found camping in his VW pop-top. Please visit Hans at allfooddiet.blogspot.com or www.facebook.com/AllFoodDiet.

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

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