It’s important to eat for our health. Today’s world can be fast-paced, high-stress, and crazy at times, so it’s imperative for many of us that we take the time to eat healthy to keep ourselves healthy.
How Our Bodies React
Food is processed quite a bit these days. Most foods we consume are prepackaged, over-cooked, or denatured in some way. This doesn’t necessarily mean these foods are bad for us, but we have to be on the lookout for healthy versus unhealthy foods, and often the prepackaged ones can be loaded with chemicals that at the least our bodies don’t need and at the worst can cause us harm.
Our bodies react to food chemically. This means that when we eat, the digestive process breaks down food into its molecular components. The cells in our bodies react to these molecular components in positive or negative ways. Sometimes, the ingredients in food can lead to sickness up to and including cancer or even death. We don’t want this to happen, which is why there will always be better choices.
On the go, you may find it difficult to consume quality snacks and instead opt for quick foods that can cause problems. Too often, people are reaching for bags of greasy chips, sugary snacks, or snacks with too much salt that is high in calories. Too often, these snacks are loaded with chemicals and other substances that just aren’t good for us.
Avoid Prepackaged Foods
Many people simply can’t tolerate the ingredients in certain prepackaged foods. For instance, some people are allergic to processed or chemical food colours. Typically, processed foods that contain food colours are also loaded with other unhealthy ingredients. When looking at the ingredients of snacks, opt for natural snacks that use natural food colours such as anthocyanins, carminic acid, carotenoids, and others. Snacks that use natural food colours benefit from added nutrition, as the colours in these natural snacks are derived from healthier and natural sources, many of them plant-based.
Choose Simple Snacks
When available, choose natural and organic snacks. When in doubt, choose simple. Try to find organic foods, foods that are not genetically processed, and fresh produce that is locally grown. This ensures that you’ll be eating higher quality foods that are better for your overall health. Produce that is grown locally will often have the benefit of arriving at the store fresh rather than being treated with chemicals or frozen to ensure ripeness or freshness upon delivery.
Some options you might want to consider include fresh, raw nuts such as almonds, pecans, or cashews. Nuts are high in fat, but they pack a lot of protein as well and are great for energy on the go. Plan ahead by putting snacks like nuts in baggies. This works great not only for nuts but also for fresh-cut vegetables like bell peppers with avocado dip, apples slices with peanut butter, celery sticks with cream cheese, certain organic vegetable chips like kale chips, cucumber slices or baby carrots with hummus, fresh-cut mixed fruit, cherry tomatoes with low-fat natural mozzarella, just to name a few options.
If you have to choose prepackaged, be sure to look at the ingredients. A lot of companies are aware of consumers who prefer healthy choices, and they accommodate their customers by providing high-quality snacks that are great choices for on the go. Just make sure you check the ingredients and always choose your health over convenience.
