One quote that has stuck with me for months is:

“Many people are strangers to their own kitchen.”

In a world of go-go-go we live for quick and easy meals, usually at the sacrifice of our health. We rely on fast foods, processed foods, boxed foods, and meal kit deliveries. While these types of food all serve their purpose and there is for sure time and a place but when we rely on them 100% of the time we are hurting ourselves more than the convenience is worth.

Listen To The Podcast

Food, Products & Movies Mentioned: 

• SuperSize Me
• Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich Ingredients
• Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich Allergens
• Fiber Fueled

Full Transcript

0:12
Hello, hello, welcome to be your best self help weekly casual conversations about taking health into your own hands. I’m your host Kristin Longacre. One quote that has stuck with me for months on end is that many people are strangers to their own kitchen. Do you feel like that’s true for you? In a world of gogogo we live for quick and easy meals.

Usually, it’s at the sacrifice for our own health though. We rely on fast foods, processed foods, box foods, meal delivery kits, don’t get me wrong. All of those serve a purpose and they’re for sure is a time and a place to enjoy them. But when we rely on them 100% of the time, we’re actually hurting ourselves weigh more than the convenience that it’s worth.

For starters, let’s look at fast food. We know it’s not good for us, let’s be honest. But the convenience and taste outweigh the effects it has on our health. If you haven’t seen a documentary supersize me take a break and watch it sometime.

Yeah, it’s old, but it’s still holds up in a lot of ways. Many of these aspects of certain fast food chains have gotten better over the years but there’s still not considered the health healthiest options. And what happens in that documentary still happens today. Just not in supersized form. For starters, fast food chains include way too many ingredients for one item.

Looking at chick fil a Did you know that a chick fil a chicken sandwich just the standard one that you would order off the menu contains over 60 ingredients that it doesn’t include topics that’s just the button in the chicken.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it takes a few ingredients to make a button. But that’s way too many ingredients for a piece of chicken that’s fried on a bun 60 ingredients.

Chances are if you were to look at fast foods on the outside a chicken sandwich might actually sound like a healthier option than a burger and fries. Unfortunately, even though it tastes delicious, it’s not even remotely healthy.

Fast foods and processed foods contain 10 to 30% of our daily salt and sugar or sugar intake. In one serving.

Yeah, one serving which means one hamburger or one serving of fries, or one chicken sandwich. By the end of a meal. It’s easy to have consumed close to if not more than 50% of your daily salt or sugar intake in one meal. That doesn’t include your breakfast or dinner that you haven’t eaten.

That’s why it tastes so good, right? I’m not here to really hate on fast food it comes into our house we enjoy it from time to time. But sometimes it makes you think twice if you take time to look at the ingredients and break it down what damage it’s doing to your body. In order to break it down, it’s important to look at what foods are considered inflammatory foods.

Last week, we talked a lot about gut health here on the podcast and inflammatory foods play a huge role in keeping your gut and check. Taking sugar and salt out of this. There are five inflammatory foods that we look at when we’re starting to look at somebody’s gut health.

That is gluten, eggs, soy, corn, and dairy. All of these five ingredients can result in inflamed gut, everyone has different triggers.

So what might not agree with your gut might actually be okay for somebody else. Many of these, like I said are standard in fast foods and processed foods.

Going back to that 60 ingredient chick fil a sandwich. Four out of five of these are somehow in that chicken sandwich. Corn is the only exception but that’s just because I don’t know all of the ingredient breakdowns for corn. However, chick fil a does list on its menu for allergens that gluten, eggs, soy and dairy are all in that chicken sandwich.

And again, we’re not talking about the topics just the bun and the chicken. This isn’t limited to fast food though they can also go to processed foods and meal delivery kits. I love the convenience of all of these but if you’re trying to prioritize your health, it’s time to stop and take a look at the ingredients you’re actually eating.

4:34
Part of prioritizing your health means healing from any issues you might be having. As we talked about last week, 90% of Americans have gut issues and many of them don’t even know it.

It doesn’t hurt to spend some time removing some of these inflammatory foods from your diet. The number one way to start that healing process is to hit the kitchen with Whole Foods.

In other words, those foods that have one ingredient such as fruits, fed Use whole grains and organic meats.

None of those are considered inflammatory foods. I’m not saying you can’t ever touch a piece of processed food, fast food meal delivery kits, etc. Again, they absolutely have a time and a place. But when you’re working on your health, they might need to take a backseat. changing your diet can be really, really overwhelming, especially when it comes to removing any of those five foods.

I get it, I’ve been there. So how do you start? My best advice is to start by getting creative in your own kitchen. This goes back to the quote that we talked about at the beginning of the episode, try something new instead of the normal recipes you make or maybe don’t make on a daily basis. Think about it this way. If you tried one new recipe each week, even if you only liked half of the recipes, you could have 26 new meals to choose from over a year.

That’s actually a lot when you consider you only need to make dinner seven nights a week, maybe even five. My second tip might sound a little bit ridiculous, but the gut health MD sent me on to a fun game in his book fiber field.

It’s a great book about eating plant based and Whole Foods. And I highly recommend it. If you are somebody who thinks he might have gut issues, I will make sure to link it in the show notes. But let’s talk about this game. He made a game out of how many vegetables you could fit into one meal, you basically get one point for each vegetable. If you’re competitive like me, it’s a great way to compete yourself. compete with yourself, have a little fun with your food and keep the inflammatory foods down. In case you’re wondering, my record is 12 I know you needed to know that bit of information.

My last challenge for you is that the next time you’re at the grocery store, see how much of your cart you can fill up on the perimeter of the store. Generally speaking the way grocery stores are laid out the less processed foods around the perimeter of the store like the fruits, vegetables, dairy meat, and yes, I realized dairy can fall into processed foods.

But in general, it’s on the perimeter and the more processed foods, the boxes, the Pop Tarts, the macaroni and cheese all are in the center of the store. So by shopping the perimeter, you’re actually getting less inflammatory food.

Again, give or take some dairy and more healthier options that are going to ultimately help you heal your gut. It’ll help you prioritize your health and it’ll help put you on the path to success. And you’re gonna feel better.

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