​

​

​

Minimalist in Foods

by Janet Marie Huff

​

For a long time I’ve been working on a more minimalist style for what we eat. Basing it more on nutrition and fiber, not taste alone. Our society could be sooo much healthier

if we just refused the HUGE over abundance of refined foods. Taste is very important, but TASTES CAN BE CHANGED. Right now most of us eat for tastes that are making

us sick, not healthy. This is an ongoing process: choosing one item at a time, working

on it for months, giving taste a chance to change.  Such as changing to whole grains (wheat, oatmeal, brown rice, etc.) and giving up refined grains (white flour, etc.) Eating less meat and cheese; using more eggs and beans/lentils for protein needs. Cutting

out sugar (or at least cutting way down) and using honey, molasses, etc. Giving up pop and fast foods, etc. Adding more vegetables and fruits. So many people now eat very little of vegetables, instead relying on French fries as a vegetable and juice as a fruit (juice puts too much natural sugar into body all at once unless keeping the amount at about 4 oz. per serving)

So what does that leave to eat?
 

Choose it by asking:

How nutritionally dense is this food?

How much fiber does it have? (Fiber is a key to health as the insoluble fiber sweeps intestines like a broom, and soluble fiber wraps around toxins and pulls them out of body).

I feel much healthier when eating this way, and it saves me money not only on food but

on my Doctor bills. Striving to choose this way brought me to a ‘rule’ that I made up for making out menu: one meal a day based on whole grains, one meal a day based on dry beans/lentils, one meal a day based on vegetables. And use meat sparingly in only one meal each day.  It is easy to interpret this idea into DAILY action  (I'll list a few ideas to start you off, but look through my free recipes to find other choices in these categories): 
 

Grains:
oatmeal and fruit 
wheat pancakes topped with applesauce

​

Beans:
lentil tacos and green salad 
bean burritos and mexi potatoes

​

Vegetables:
beef stew and whole wheat rolls
chili and cornbread

​

As far as desserts go: making them with LESS sugar and a basis of fruit or vegetable or beans, and using all or part unrefined flour. This could be something like pumpkin bars, chocolate lentil cake, apple crisp using oatmeal in topping, black bean brownies (no flour at all). And having a lovely piece of fruit for dessert more often.

 

If choosing a refined food such as white rice or biscuits: pair it with a nutritionally dense food. Such as: black beans with sausage over white rice or homemade vegetable soup and biscuits.  If we have pasta, such as spaghetti (since pasta is refined), we don’t have bread with that meal, we have more veggies (spaghetti, salad, green beans); then save the yummy garlic bread for another meal such as Italian bean stew with garlic bread. If we want pancakes, we have whole wheat or my recipe for oatmeal pancakes.

 

​

The NO NO’S: 
aspartame or anything like it, high fructose corn syrup, meats/foods processed with chemicals, most fast foods, most commercial bakery goods, candy. 
And yes, we have an occasional donut, or make cinnamon rolls, or selected fast food,

or a soda pop, or a candy. But these are exceptions not daily rules.

​

​

​

The best YES:

Always ask God, as we thank Him for our food, that He will cleanse what we are eating.

​

​

​

​

​