staying healthy in the fast laneVegetables
The only way you can mess up vegetables is by not eating them
at all. Even if you cook the life out of them, they will still be an im-
provement if they replace excess calories from meat, cheeses, add-
ed sweeteners, fats and oils, and refined grains. I have no problem
with frozen vegetables. Obviously it would be best if you could eat
organically grown foods from your backyard, picked fifteen min-
utes before you eat them, but first, just eat vegetables—and lots of
them! Eat them raw, steamed, lightly sautéed, stir fried, whatever.
Try cooking with organic vegetable broth (my new cooking essen-
tial) instead of oils or animal broth. It works great to make bland
things tasteful. Generally speaking, if the vegetable still has some
brightness in its color after you have lightly cooked it, then you
have done a good job. Low sodium organic vegetable broths are
available for those with blood pressure or sodium effected health
problems.
Half your daily food intake at least should be vegetables. Half of
that intake of vegetables, or one-quarter of your daily total, should
be the most nutrient-dense of all whole foods: green, leafy veg-
etables (kale, chard, spinach, mustard greens, arugula, collards,
romaine lettuce—any kind of green leafy that you can get down).
Greens per calorie have as much protein as a steak. When you think
about it, it is really obvious. Where do you think all the green leafy
vegetation and grass-consuming large animals (elephants, rhinos,
giraffes, hippos, gorillas, etc.) get their protein (and strong bones)?
They don’t eat each other. They don’t drink milk or eat cheese.
They don’t eat fish. It’s obvious. By consuming massive amounts of
green, usually leafy, plant foods!
Fruit
Like vegetables, calories from whole fruit replace those from
refined, processed, empty-calorie foods. Just be sure to eat the
whole fruit, fresh or frozen, as close to its coming off the tree, bush,
or vine as you can. Eat color and make sure you throw in some ber-