"f" is for fresh and fat

Fresh Food

Ah, the joys of purchasing fresh whole foods. Although I'm not much for farmers' markets (I don't like getting up early in the morning), I am enjoying discovering CSA's (who deliver), Farmer Brown (who drives a mobile farmers' market and stops at my local YMCA), and Summerfield Farms (which I just found, and it has a shop open all year round).

In addition, I have learned to shop the PERIMETER of the grocery store. Have you heard of doing this? Most of the processed foods are in the interior of the store and most of the whole food is on the outer edge. Try it for yourself! It helps me resist temptations!

Fat

Have you heard the good news that fat doesn't make you fat? Woohoo! It's been all over the news (here's a Fox News article from 2012). Apparently in the 1970's, when fat was derided as the enemy, we started making and eating everything "low fat." Unfortunately, that's not the only change. In order to make "low fat" things taste good, our manufacturers starting adding chemicals and sugars. As I've learned to read labels, it seems to me that "low fat" really means "high sugar." And "low sugar" really means "high fat." And "low calorie" really means "no nutrition."


Instead, let's eat fat! But, of course, not jut any fat. In general, plant fats are great: avocados, coconuts, seeds, nuts, olives. Animal fats can also be fine, if the animals have been raised without hormones (which reside in the fat) or antibiotics or other toxins. Grass fed beef, free-range chicken, wild fish, etc are all great sources of fats. Even grass-fed butter turns out to be healthy for us! Yay!