Does 2020 have you stress eating? Do your kids ask for snacks all day, every day? Well, the answer is yes and yes to those questions in my household. Even when I put my kids in front of the tv hoping to have some time for myself, I invariably hear ten minutes later, “mommy, what can I eat?”
I recently read that our bodies are 70% water. To maintain the best condition and optimum health for our body, we should eat a diet that is approximately 70% water content. Only two foods meet this high-water requirement, fruits and vegetables. In other words, to maintain optimal health, fruits and vegetables should predominate our diet. The other 30% can consist of concentrated foods such as grains and legumes.*
High-water content food provide the greatest nourishment to the body. The water in fruit and vegetables carries the nutrients to the intestines where all the nutrition can be absorbed.
The water also cleanses the body. We take showers, we wash our clothes, we wash our car. But what do we not wash? Our internal body. Rather, we eat in such a way to pollute, not cleanse our own bodies.
As we eat food that clog our bodies, we start to feel bad. We take measures to feel better, but we also continue to eat food clogging our system.
I have been trying to be more mindful about what I eat and my kids eat for snacks; whether this food is going to clog or cleanse our bodies.
Our old snacks often came packaged. Now, I try to prepare grazing boards, including a little of every fruit and vegetable we have in the house. It has worked so well. If my kids ask for a snack, I can just point them to the grazing board. They also enjoy helping to prepare the grazing board, washing and cutting the fruit and vegetables.
My daughter and I created this grazing board last week to showcase my sister-in-law’s vegan smoked salami (now available online). We included an assortment of fruit, vegetables, crackers, pretzels, and vegan cheese. It is a plant-based, kid-approved grazing board, that kept everyone fed and was predominated by fruits and vegetables. A win win! Do try this at home! 🙂
*Source: Fit for Life, by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, 1987.