I’ve had a possible breakthrough with regards to finding a more ideal way of eating for myself.
We all know that a diversity of foods is important. I was thinking that maybe what’s optimal for me is to get a better diversity of foods within every meal.
I don’t necessarily mean a “balanced” meal in terms of food groups, macro-/micronutrient ratios etc. Just about getting a lot of different types of foods into each meal.
I have always had a tendency to add things to my food: salsa, hot sauce, finishing salt, seaweed, sesame seeds. I have always preferred a “smorgasbord”-type grazing meal. It feels better when I’m eating, and feels better on my digestive system-often regardless of the actual ingredients.
I’m trying to get away from being nit-picky about particular ingredients (except for the ones that genuinely aggravate me, that is), so I’m thinking of focusing on this type of meal-to-meal diversity-prioritizing that over the specific components (positive or negative).
(By prioritizing one, I don’t intend to ignore the others, just to be clear.)
For example. I work from home now and often make myself a salad for lunch. I always put a lot of good things in there, veggies and cheese and seeds and olives. The other day I remembered to go out into the yard for additional things to put into my salad: chives that we’re growing, and also some wild plants, wood sorrel and lambsquarters.
Last night’s dinner: pollock, potatoes, and snap peas cooked with a pesto-like sauce (basil from our garden a few years back, food-processed and preserved frozen with parmesan). I also cooked white rice in coconut milk, and threw in some leftovers cattle beans that had been traditionally-prepared and cooked in a mix of homemade lamb and vegetable-scrap broths.
This morning’s breakfast: a slice of bacon, an egg fried in the bacon fat, last night’s rice, those beans, mushrooms and greens and a meatball from a few days ago, fermented sauerkraut.
In general, I’ve always found it easier to *not* do this-to just make a pot of food and eat it. But then, I have a lifelong pattern of digestive problems, and it has only just occurred to me that this may not be the best thing for it.
With some planning and a bit of mindfulness, I’m finding it possible to get more variety day-to-day, by having things in hand that I can just toss in with other foods.
And with the addition of the wild and cultivated foods in my yard that summer brings, this way of eating could prove to be simpler (rather than more complicated as it may seem), more natural, and, most importantly, better for my chronically wimpy gut! 🙂
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