How to stock your pantry to regain health
Most of the people fall into deep state of depression or become aggressive when I tell them to stop eating WHEAT. How am I supposed to stop eating wheat? It’s in my breakfast cereal, in my sandwich for lunch and in my pasta for dinner! It’s in the cookies that come with afternoon coffee, in pizza, birthday cakes, ice-cream (and make-up and shampoo) ! WHEAT IS IN EVERYTHING! Don’t take away my wheat!
It is understandable. Wheat has in fact narcotic properties just like cocaine. These opiate-like peptides are responsible for the popularity of bread, we crave it as comfort food and it has been staple in pantries. But today's wheat is not the wheat our ancestors ate. It’s been tampered with, modified, sprayed to get higher yields and highly processed. All we are left now with is an unpalatable white dust. But it’s cheap. And as most of the people prefer a new car or a new mobile phone to healthy food, it’s understandable that food companies are using wheat in such high amounts.
Unfortunately, most of us can’t tolerate wheat and complain of digestive issues such as bloating, heaviness in stomach or skin issues such as eczema or rash. And now you probably put away that piece of cake which you were munching on while reading.
Now, what I want you to do is to go to your pantry and throw away all wheat products (check labels). Flour acts as a perfect glue so you can use it in art projects such as creating a piñata for your daughter’s birthday party. If you are still not ready to ban wheat, at least buy organic wheat products or organic einkorn, spelt or emmer wheat products. Your body will thank you.
Even deeper state of depression arrives when people are told to stop eating SUGAR. What? Now you've probably lost your mind! How am I supposed to stop eating sugar! It’s in my breakfast cereal, in my sandwich for lunch and in my pasta for dinner! It’s in the cookies that come with afternoon coffee, in pizza, in birthday cakes, ice-cream (not in make-up and shampoo)! SUGAR IS IN EVERYTHING! Don’t take away my candy!
It is understandable. Since our childhood, we were getting loads of sugar. Even breast milk is slightly sweet. We got sweets when we behaved, we were told we are 'sweet', we were offered candies for birthday, lollipops on spring fairs. There is nothing wrong with loving sweet things. That’s how we evolved. Hunter-gatherers collected wild honey and it was their biggest reward. Only, we have come way too far. We don’t have to climb trees anymore to get the sweat treat. We just have to go and buy it. And it’s cheap! When you eat refined sugar, not only you get zero nutrition from it, moreover, as it is highly addictive, your body craves for more as it is never satisfied. As we now know, sugar also feeds cancer cells and plethora of other diseases (metabolic syndrome, arthritis, Alzheimer's, type 2 diabetes, obesity, etc.).
Now go to your pantry and throw away everything that has one of the ingredients listed: high fructose corn syrup (in France it's 'sirop de ble'), cane sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose, rice syrup.
Substitute with maple syrup, raw honey (not heated), coconut sugar, rapadura and muscovado sugar. Do not use agave nectar. It’s also highly processed. The daily maximum amount should be 6 teaspoons of sugar per day for an average woman and 9 for an average man. One can of coke has 9 teaspoons of sugar.
For many people DAIRY can be also problematic as around 65 percent of the human population has a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy. If you can support dairy, chose fermented products such as kefir.
I strongly advise you to avoid VEGETABLE OILS (canola, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed and safflower). These oils are highly processed and rancid. Substitute with olive oil, unrefined coconut oil, ghee and animal fats.
Also, throw away food that has artificial food colour, artificial flavours, emulsifiers, monosodium glutamate, nitrates etc.all those ingredients which you can't pronounce.
You are now probably left with an immense void in your pantry and your fridge. Don’t despair. In my next post I will share many healthy substitutes.