Learning to Cook for Health

As long as I can remember, my mother was in the kitchen cooking and baking homemade foods.  She loved the kitchen and she was trying, with the current knowledge available, to keep her family healthy.  40 years later, as I enter the field of nutritional coaching, I honor my mom by cooking using my newly acquired knowledge from the Advanced Functional Nutrition training and a host of other programs this year. This journey began due to mom’s Alzheimer’s and my own autoimmune health issues.

It is a challenge eating for health when you are not making your own food.  Food can be medicine, however, if three important criteria are met.

1. The quality of the food is high (consider organic, nongmo, free range, grass fed, wild)
2. The source of the food is known (local is best)
3. The way in which it is prepared and by whom (the cook using healthy techniques)

Let’s look at each of these points in greater depth. 

1.Higher quality food costs more. Saving money by buying poor quality food is pennywise and pound foolish. Relying on accurate marketing by our factory food producers is just plain naive. If you want to nourish your body and avoid paying for medicines and surgery later on, then spend some extra money now on the highest quality ingredients you can find. I actually am saving money because I don’t go out to eat as much.

2.Where the food is grown and how it is grown is crucial to health.  For one thing, GMO or Genetically Modified products, which are ubiquitous in the US, are considered unsafe to eat by most other countries and an increasing number of health professionals here.  Eating out, you do not know if the products are non-GMO. In addition, most U.S. conventionally grown corn, soy, and grain products are sprayed with pesticide and herbicides that researchers have shown are both on and in those products.  Just in case you think those toxins are not poisonous because you don’t end up in an emergency room immediately, think again.  They build up in your system over time and interact with your genes.  These modern, chronic disease including adrenal fatigue, hormonal imbalance, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, inflammatory diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimers, Depression, anxiety and dozens of autoimmune conditions are all being traced to three main culprits– diet, stress, and environmental toxins. 

3. Last but not least, when you learn to cook, you are positively affecting the nutritional information that your body is receiving from the food.  Food is far more than nutrition, it is energy and information that is being communicated with all parts of your body, mind, and soul.   So while cooking, you can set an intention to make nourishing loving food for you and your loved ones. 

I want to share my love of cooking and health with you by exploring new recipes and healthy cooking techniques.  If you are interested in working with me on your journey to health, we can include some fun cooking time as part of your Health Coaching package. If you are interested in working with me on your journey to health, contact me.  Your first half hour of coaching is free.  To sign up, click here.  For more information about my services, click here.