Healthy Food in Your Diet

Remember when your love for food was healthy? You would eat a meal and feel good about yourself, your looks and energy. Nowadays, it can feel like you are trading in one craving for another. Everything is sugar-sweetened, minute-preparation, processed or high in preservatives, coloring, and artificial flavors. Diets of this nature have resulted in digestive issues, inflammation, acne, increased risk of chronic diseases, and cancer. But, all that can be changed with the right diet. In my practice and my personal life, I have repeatedly seen the healing power of healthy food and nutrient-dense diet.

“What do you put in your cart, Inga Tara?” clients often ask. Well, not many of the things that you find in the center isles of the typical grocery stores. Most of the things in my refrigerator are bought at Whole Foods or Sprouts, farmers markets and the organic produce sections of the grocery stores. And I am a vegetarian whose diet consists of almost 50% raw food since heating food above 108 F destroys most of the essentials enzymes and nutrients in it.

While being vegetarian may not be suitable for everybody, I believe that there are certain things that everyone can do regarding their diet to make it healthier. Putting the proper fuel into your body will help it feel better and give it a better ability to heal itself.

It’s not easy to drastically change your diet, so I recommend making gradual changes to your diet to start with.

Choose SOUL food: seasonal, organic, unprocessed and local.

I encourage my clients to do a 21-day healthy food challenge. I understand that to dice, chop, slice, blend, puree, and juice for every meal can be labor intensive and socially inconvenient. And acquiring a taste for real food take time. One of the biggest misconceptions is eating healthy = vegetable salad. While it’s generally true, there are many other options to get the nutrients in your body.

Vegetables are low in calories, so it is best to focus on having fruits for breakfast, and vegetables and healthy proteins and fats for lunch and dinner. I suggest starting with a green juice or a fruit/berries smoothie for breakfast. Starchy produce with greens for lunch, and a large salad with your choice of protein (wild caught and free range if you eat animal protein) for dinner.

Eat a label-less diet, highly concentrated in raw foods.

As a society, we are moving away labeling ourselves and others. So too should we move away from labelled foods in favor of whole foods. Read the labels! As a general rule, if the list of ingredients contains more than 10 items or you can’t pronounce these items – put it away.

And if you are seriously committed to your raw food diet, when traveling bring your own food and healthy snacks. Many food establishments are still stuck on the notion that vegetarian and vegan means salad only.

Connect with the origin of your food, if possible.

While not convenient or accessible to everyone, shopping at a farmers’ market or visiting a farm and handpicking the food for your table is one of the best ways to know the source of your food. Even better, would be to grow some of fruit and vegetables in your garden.

I live in Arizona and even though it’s 110 F outside in the summer, you would be surprised how many vegetables you can still grow here. It will require some effort, but the satisfaction of growing something yourself, knowing the source of the food on your table and connecting to the Earth at the same time is huge.

Track how your body feels after you eat in a food diary.

You’d be surprised how swapping cow’s milk for almond, organic soy, or coconut milk can reduce allergies, asthma, eczema, and many other health issues. So, try different foods and record how you feel, and how your body reacts afterward. This is the best way to know what is not good for your body than going by some generalized list.

Mix your dietary regimen and food choices.

Relax. I have been vegetarian for almost ten years and it took me awhile to learn what I liked and what worked for my body. And I am still learning. Too often, people think to become a vegan or vegetarian is to cut out all the flavor and variety in their life. Trust me, you can still enjoy satisfying, flavorful meals as long as you are willing to try new recipes and be creative when you prepare your meals.

Healthy diet is a way to regain power, energy and heal.

Eventually, you will notice the healing effect of your diet on your mind and body. For most of my clients, their skin cleared, skin texture improved, energy increased, rediscovered the taste of real food, lost weight, had friendlier bathroom experiences and reduced severity of chronic illness. After seeing the results, my clients were motivated to continue the dietary change. And they were especially happy that they could refuse unhealthy food without feeling torn about saying no!

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