In his book Food Matters author Michael Pollan gave some pretty nifty advice about how we should eat. He said, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Unfortunately for us Americans, this advice is not heeded by many. Every day in the news we hear stories about how bad the American diet is. Diabetes is rampant, cancer seems to affect everyone, fish are being farmed and fruits and vegetables are being genetically modified. The acronym for our country's diet is S.A.D (Standard American Diet) and it fits. Everybody wants to be healthier and live disease free lives, but how do we do it? It seems like everyone is offering a different way to achieve a healthy lifestyle, but there is one simple way we can all improve our health and that is by eating more vegetables. Yes, I said it. Vegetables for all!
According to the FDA, Americans (and all people for that matter) should eat a minimum of 2-3 CUPS of vegetables per day. According to a 2013 survey of more than 373,000 American adults in all 50 states who answered questions about how much fruit and vegetables they eat, 91% of Americans aren't meeting the daily requirements for vegetable consumption. That is a sad number, no pun intended. When I talk about vegetables to people I hear all different things; "I don't like vegetables", "I don't have time to cook", "I have no idea how to eat that", "I eat potatoes- does that count?" Let me break it down for you in easyto understand terms- YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. Plain and simple.
So what does that mean for a human? Well, the human body regenerates itself through cell growth. You grow your cells from the nutrients you put in your body. All of your major organs, your skin and your bones are constantly growing new cells to replace the ones that are dying. So...if you eat bagels and corn chips that have almost zero nutritional value (ie. no vitamins, minerals, antioxidants etc.), you are growing cells that are sub-par and lacking in the strength they need to live long healthy lives. If your whole body is filled with these kinds of cells, you can't expect to live a long healthy life. Make sense? You may be thinking, well, I take vitamins every day, so that helps my cells, right? Wrong. In order for your body to process those vitamins and make them do their job, it needs real food. And by real food, I mean plant food. Natural food. Otherwise you just end up peeing them out.
Its simple. You need to eat more vegetables. I need to eat more vegetables. We all need to eat more vegetables, so let's eat more vegetables!