Food for thought

At the start of the New Year a lot of folks review their diet and exercise habits and vow to make a few changes.  I love to cook, bake, and eat!  I have always been interested in nutrition, especially these last few years when faced with thyroid issues, followed by the need for a hysterectomy last spring.  During this time I gained about 20 pounds.  I'm barely 5'1, so it's hard to hide the extra weight on my small frame.  I figured it was time to look at my diet.  I started reading everything I could get my hands on.  What I found startled me.

We are a country obsessed with diet and nutrition, yet we are getting fatter.
There is sugar and bad oils in almost everything we eat.
We are more interested in quantity (Big Gulps, Big Macs) than quality
We fuel our bodies where we fuel our cars (burrito at the gas station store?)
Pay $7.99 for an Iphone app, but whine about the price for organic vegetables.
Wow.
My mom was admitted to the hospital on New Years Day with pneumonia.  She is probably coming home tomorrow, and is doing fine.  She is borderline diabetic and takes a pill to keep her blood sugar stable.  The doctor took her off this medication for a few days, because of her infection, and so they will treat any blood sugar problems with insulin while she is in the hospital.  I was in her room when the cafeteria staff brought her breakfast.  Because they put her on a "heart healthy/diabetic diet", she was restricted to certain foods.
This is what was on her breakfast tray:

Rice Krispies cereal (processed, high carbohydrate which turns to sugar)
Banana (again high in carbs and natural sugar)
English muffin (more processed grains, and carbs ,which you guessed it, turns into sugar)
margarine (bad processed fat)
jelly for the muffin (sugar again)
low fat milk (let's take out the fat and add bad stuff in to make it taste good. Contains carbs and sugar.)

Scrambled eggs. At least they looked like eggs.  It could have been those fake kind. 

As far as I was concerned there wasn't one thing on her tray fit to feed a healthy person, never mind a sick person (okay the banana was the only REAL piece of food)
And surprise, surprise, she needed insulin later.  They should have just brought her a piece of chocolate cake for breakfast.

Here is what I would have fed her:
Real eggs, scrambled in butter (good fat)
a side of ham or sausage
NO BREAD
whole fat plain yogurt with some berries
coffee with cream or tea

 I could go on forever about our school cafeteria food, hospital food, restaurant food, blah, blah blah. Some of my family members are sick of my rants.
I would just urge you that if you are looking to loose weight and get healthy in 2013, then clean out your pantry and start over.  This is some of what I have learned:

Shop on the outside aisles of the supermarket only (meat, dairy, fruit, veggies) and stay away from the processed junk in the center of the store.
Visit a farmers market
Eat real, whole foods
Vote with your fork.
Look back at how your great grandparents ate and use this a a model
Educate yourself on the latest scientific research regarding nutrition

I know, some of you are probably rolling your eyes at me right now.   I am just as guilty of cooking hurried processed foods for my kids, stopping at McDonalds on the way home from school games, and ordering pizza and Chinese take-out.  And let's face it, eating right takes some effort and planning.  We are often busy and too burnt out to make a nutritious meal.
But when someone pointed out to me that the ingredients in a box of Cheerios contains many of the same ingredients as a bag of dried dog food, I started to pay attention.
If you are interested, here are some of the books that have changed the way I shop and eat:

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Why we get fat by Gary Taubes
Good Calories, Bad Calories By Gary Taubes
The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf
Deep Nutrition by Catherine Shanahan M.D.
 The Schwarzbein Principle by  Diana Schwarzbein M.D.

By the way, I still love to cook, but my plate looks a whole lot different now.  Thanks for listening.