Our food fundamentals
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At Eat for You we are all women. We totally get it. Life just keeps on coming at you. Caring for self, young ones, ageing parents, careers, partners, the planet. It's a lot. Our gift to help you best do you, is practical advice, based on the things that we learned along the way. And, it is scientific, informed by up-to-date knowledge.
THIS IS OUR APPROACH TO HEALTH AND WELLBEING:
Trust your gut – you know what’s right for you and yours, so listen to yourself. If you are unsure, and something doesn’t feel right, ask questions, call your care provider, ask us!
Eat whole foods and avoid processed foods – whole foods are the most nutrient-packed ingredients available because they haven’t been stripped of the good stuff during processing. Eat lots of vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, some meat (raised outside eating the food nature intended they'd eat), dairy (as for meat) and wholegrains (organic, always).
Cut out processed/added sugar – think soft drinks, lollies, most cakes and biscuits (we love cake here at Eat for You, so we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves!) – these are foods that provide lots of calories but little other nutritional benefit. Use natural sugars such as honey and maple syrup sparingly.
Eat fat – choose full fat options. ‘Low fat’ foods (that were once full fat) are manipulated, usually with the addition of salt and/or sugar to get their flavour back. Fat derived from plants, nuts and seeds, and some animal fat, is essential for our body's hormone production and our cell walls. We need it, so eat it.
Drink water – to stay hydrated. You can add a little rock salt (so little that you can’t taste it) to boost the mineral content of your water.
Include pre- and probiotics in your diet daily – our first microbiome is seeded in utero, during labour and soon after birth. If you are growing a baby, populating your own microbiome with good bacteria will give baby the best chance of avoiding all-too-common modern day illnesses and enhance your health too. This means eating lots of fibre rich foods, fruit, vegetables, legumes and wholegrains.
Exercise and practice mindfulness daily – we need to move our bodies and rest our minds. Stick with what you love doing, or find activities that you enjoy doing. It should make you feel good and lift your heart rate. Take time to turn off to the outside world and focus inwards. Be kind to yourself. Think of yourself as your best friend. How would you talk to her if she were going through everything you are going through? You’d be encouraging, supportive and highlight the amazing things she is doing. Do that with yourself.
Take time out for yourself – self care is all about doing the things that keep ourselves feeling good. It is neither selfish, nor self-indulgent. It is essential for our health. Make time for you.
Get outside - Everyday, without fail, we must connect with the land. Breathe in the air outside, let your skin make contact with grass, sand, soil, bark, water. We belong in nature. It's time to reconnect.
Minimise toxin exposure – we are all exposed to a wide range of toxicants that can exceed our body's capacity to break them down and remove them. These can be found in our personal care products, on the foods we eat, in the air we breathe, on the furniture we use and so on. In our modern world, they are incredibly difficult to avoid. We can make choices that minimise our exposures, by choosing natural/organic personal care products without known nasties such as parabens/PCBs; wherever possible choosing organic or biodynamic food to minimise the pesticide exposure for you and those in your care; avoiding foods that come in plastic containers; avoiding alcohol, smoking and other recreational drugs. Eat for You was born from the knowledge that before pregnancy, these lifestyle choices affect sperm and egg health, during pregnancy, these toxicants cross the placenta, affect your baby and rob your body of essential nutrients, and during breastfeeding, they pass right on through the milk to your baby.
You don't have to be reproducing to avoid these - they are toxicants for us all.
We will dive deeper into each of these topics in our recipes and blogs, but if you do nothing else, following these principles for life will see you well on your way to optimising your health.