Start A Healthy Diet

You can reduce pesticide exposure by: 

• Buying vegetables and fruits from small operators farmers and buy locally grown produce.     
• Avoiding commercially - grown imported produce, because toxic chemicals are usually used to prevent rotting in the long journey.
• Buying unsprayed or organic food whenever possible. Avoid genetically modified products. Buy from reliable sources.
• Throwing the outer leaves of commercially grown leafy vegetables e.g. cabbage and lettuce and soak them.
• Soak vegetables with a teaspoon of sea salt or vinegar.
• Peeling or thoroughly scrub root vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrot and fruits like apples, tomatoes and peaches.

You can keep a sprout garden in your kitchen.

• Bean sprouts are nutritious and easy to do at home.
• Alfafa, sunflower, sesame seed, buckwheat, legumes like mung bean, adzuki and chickpeas can be easily sprouted in the kitchen.

You can increase your fiber intake by:

• Adding bran or wheatgerm to your cereal and pancake or bread making.
• Using whole wheat flour in baking.
• Eating whole-grain cereals.
• Using whole wheat pasta instead of white flour pasta.
• Buying only whole wheat or other whole-grain breads and crackers.
• Eating more fruit and vegetables.

You can cut down the usage of fat by:

• Avoiding fried foods.
• Eating less meat and dairy products.
• Sauteing onions, garlic and vegetables in small amount of oil, or even using water instead of oil. You can also just drizzle oil on cooked vegetables instead of stir-frying. Like extra-virgin olive oil and flaxseed oil.
• Using mustard, tomato sauces or vegetables spreads rather than fatty gravies, butter, mayonnaise.
• Using nut butters, nutritional yeast as it has a cheezy flavour or or all fruit jams on bread instead of butter and margarine .

You can avoid saturated fats :

• Avoiding tropical oil like coconut oil and palm kernel oil.
• Avoiding all meats and dairy fats (ice-cream, cheese, butter, whole and low-fat milk) and eggs.
• Using meat replacement like textured soy protein can be used instead for cooking and cold-pressed oil like extra virgin olive oil, grapeseed oil or sunflower oil can be used.

You can preserve vitamins and other nutrients by:

• Eating whole-grain rather than refined breads and cereals and brown rice instead of polished white rice.
• Using fresh fruit and vegetables in season, frozen as a second choice and the last choice canned food.
• Not overcooking your food or deep frying.
• Steaming or pressure cooking vegetables rather than boiling them.
• Saving up the cooking water from cooking vegetables. This is rich in nutrients and water soluble flavours. It can be used as a base for soups or broths.
• Avoiding prolonged soaking of fresh vegetables.
• Storing perishable items like bread, flour, produce, seeds, nuts, and oils in sealed containers in your fridge or freezer.