Healthy Eating For You

Many times articles about diet are geared towards weight loss strategies. However, now and again it’s nice to just tell you how to maintain good health by eating a well balanced diet that is cost effective and convenient for you and your family, vegetarians and meat eaters alike.

We can achieve this by using a principle, the scientifically proven, multimix principle. There are four foundational food groups: staples, vegetables, legumes and food from animals.

You can combine food from at least two food groups up to four if you wish, and the two mix meal (usually the least expensive) is as nutritiously adequate as the four mix meal (usually more expensive.

The key point is that all must have a staple, and then you add anyone, two or three of the remainder foundational food groups to provide the essential nutrients the body needs especially the macro nutrients: Carbohydrate, Protein and Fat.

The two mix meal could be:

• Staple + legume (vegetarian)
• Staple + food from animals

The three mix meal could be:

• Staples + legumes + food from animals
• Staples + legumes + vegetables (vegetarians)

The four mix is:

• Staples + Legumes + FFA + vegetables

The cost effectiveness of these meals is that you can even provide some of the food from your home garden. You can grow vegetables and legumes and rear small animals like chickens. If you are short on space, don’t worry flower pots are perfect for vegetables like tomatoes, raddish, lettuce, broccoli to name a few.

So now that you know the basics, let’s start counting how many food groups are on your plate.

ACTIVITY: Make up your menu and let’s see what you all picked out for today, in comments.

Good luck until next time!