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Food and Drink

Cleaning up your eating act
glendabyline

Oh the joy and unrelenting mercilessness of sweet spring, when light grows stronger and suddenly, revealed for all to behold, are cobwebs twining around track lights, enough dust to write graffiti in, and all the white, flagging flesh of winter hibernation gone bad.

So while you’re dragging out the (we hope, eco-friendly) cleaners and mops, for the traditional spring cleaning, how about some cleansing for the old bod as well?

That doesn’t necessarily mean a purge. But if months ago you kissed good-bye those well-intended New Year’s resolutions, spring is a great time to clean up your eating act. Too much crap and not enough care when it comes to food choices? Here are a few easy, doable concepts to add zing to your renewed spring-being:

1. Water, water and more water. If you want to keep your corporeal self on track, grab a glass of water. Hey, guys, that means you. Women are much more likely to do their eight to 10 glasses a day. I don’t know why, but guys seem to think beer or a giant latte count as water, and water doesn’t count at all. Bzzzzt. Wrong. Alcohol and beer are diuretics, meaning you’ll whiz out more liquid than they provide, ergo dehydration city and looking like an 80-year-old buzzard after a weekend bender.

So give the plain stuff a whirl. The more you drink the more you’ll want. Plus everything from kidney stone prevention to electrolyte balancing and really lovely skin can be laid at the feet of the mighty water god. One fitness guru figures that half the time you feel hungry, you’re really thirsty. A good glug of water would solve a lot of the obesity problems our over-nourished nation faces.

By the way, the stuff out of the tap is just fine, especially at Whistler. With worldwide consumption of bottled water exceeding 160 billion litres annually, think of all those plastic bottles ending up in landfills. Plus bottled water costs are about 10,000 times higher than tap water. And a whole bunch of hydro-carbon-spewing trucks delivered it to your store.

2. Free reading at the grocery store. If you want to really feel good with what you put in your body, get the label-reading habit. The mysteries of nutritional content will delight and surprise you. One example: more people are turning to soy beverages as A. as they realize they are lactose intolerant and B. they learn about the health benefits of soy products, but won’t go near tofu with a 10-foot pole. But check out the label on your soy "milk". The third ingredient is organic evaporated cane juice. Rice milk is also loaded with sweeteners, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Innocent-looking dried fruits can contain saturated fats and added sugars; even good-looking whole grain breads can be riddled with dietary no-nos. Look again, is it fruit juice or fruit drink? Labels can surprise you by revealing what’s inside, and what’s not. And don’t forget to look for organic and fair trade logos.

3. Just say no to processed food. For years, a friend has commented that he eats really well. But the other day he ’fessed up that he lives on processed foods. But it’s really good processed food, he whinged. Now there’s an oxymoron for you. No processed food is good food. Remember? That’s why you brought your reading glasses to the grocery store. So check out the labels. Even "home-made" organic whole-grain-crust vegetarian pizza is loaded with fats, salt and sugars in forms you never dreamt of. In terms of chemical additives, remember the old adage: if you can’t pronounce it you don’t want it in your body. As for fast food, forget it.

4. Go raw. This is a corollary to not eating processed foods. A really simple way to add goodness to your diet without making a big deal of it is to simply add one serving of raw food to each meal. An apple or banana. A bunch of carrot sticks. Some shredded cabbage. Even a handful of raw sunflower seeds is better for you than roasted/salted ones. Think of it as getting fresh…

5. Go colourful. Bright is beautiful. Dark is beautiful. If you want to get maximum nutritional value from your fruits and veggies, go for the intense colours: forest green kale, magenta beets, bright orange sweet potatoes. Find your goofy inner artist and have fun with the way your plate looks.

6. Get wholly. Eat whole grains instead of refined grains. Again, read the label – closely – to make sure the grain isn’t processed. You will feel fuller faster, in part because of the higher fiber content in whole grain food. A great way to get whole grain into your diet is good old-fashioned porridge. An oxymoron you say? Not if you get fresh whole grains like steel cut oats, not those processed instant ones, or even good old Canadian Sunny Boy (hey, it’s organic and they don’t even charge you premium for that). Substitute some of your favourite juice for the boiling water. Add raisins, dates, real cinnamon, a spoonful of those raw sunflower seeds we were talking about and, yes, porridge is good. It was good enough to keep my grandpa going for 93 years.

7. Get oily. Just say no to saturated fats. So no margarine, vegetable shortening, or food containing palm or coconut oil (like most of your store-bought cookies). Think oil, as in extra-virgin olive or canola oil.

8. Small is beautiful. Want to do some major spring cleaning fast? Then think portion control. Most of us eat way too much simply by loading too much onto our plates. Some experts estimate that we are putting as much as one third more of everything into our bodies simply by bigger portions: bigger soft drink containers, bigger chocolate bars, bigger pork chops. Remember the French three-bite rule: whatever it is, by the third bite you’ve gotten as much oral satisfaction as you’re going to get.

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer who just realized her computer monitor is so dusty she can write her initials on the glass.