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| First birthday - the addiction began... |
Those who comprehend Creation can easily understand that God gave us an enormous selection of good nutrition at a very low cost. The contrast is startling.
Leafy greens are so inexpensive that a box of fresh baby spinach at WM is good for 5-7 large helpings, lasting much longer (in eating and spending) than a quarter-pounder with cheese. Processed food is always far more expensive and much more invested in fat, salt, and white bread.
The protein argument in favor of meat, milk, and cheese is not strong because greens and vegetables are packed with protein, which the body re-arranges during digestion - when needed for complete protein. I was asking myself, Who though this up in advance?
I have not become a vegetarian, but I did switch the budget from fast-foods, bread, PBJ, desserts, etc to beans, greens, fruits, and nuts.
In the nutrition and food-as-medicine categories, vegetation is far superior to meat, milk, and cheese.
That is another irony - we are asked to buy nutrition dried up in little expensive bottles (fiber? YUK!) instead of enjoying it fresh in beans, greens, fruits, and nuts.
Fiber pills, fiber powder, and fiber drinks can be replaced with fresh fruit, vegetables, and leafy greens. Fiber is really important in soluble and insoluble form, especially as we age. Natural fiber calms the craving we get from enjoying desserts too often. We knew at Melo Cream that donuts were great for 15 minutes, then needed for replenishment, sometimes in cookies, fudge, peanut brittle candy (mostly corn syrup), and danish.
Fiber slows down the dessert, fries, and chips habit. We have an ongoing joke about how many eggs are used in a batch of bread donuts. Christina asked my father and he expressed surprise that anyone would wonder. Eggs definitely improve bread and bread donuts, but the per donut argument failed, much to her delight. I was arguing for the nutritional value of bread donuts and never heard the end of it, even after 55 years.
Nuts show up at parties and often grow stale, then they are tossed to the squirrels and birds. Almonds and walnuts are very good at taking out the bad cholesterol from our bodies. Even when I was eating ice cream twice a day, the walnut regimen (topping) gave me perfect cholesterol results. Daily use of walnuts and almonds? - yes.
Once I replaced desserts, fast food, and bread with vegetables and lots of fruit, my weight dropped - so did my blood pressure and A1C (blood sugar). Both went to just above normal.
Now I am adding more exercise because that is essential to increase the benefits of nutrition.
Nutritional Benefits Of...
I do that Google search often, to see what is so special about chickpeas, various beans, fruits, nuts, greens, and seeds. To increase greens, I get fresh frozen and chopped kale, collards, mustard, and turnip greens. Chopped kale is almost free! So are the others.
Nutritional benefits of chickpeas aka garbanzos
Nutritional benefits of green peppers - whoa! C!
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| This worked well until the warrantee on my pancreas expired. |
