Food for thought

For once, I am doing a write up on something else, besides tattooing! As if I have any other interests besides tattooing. Well, I do and a lot of them. The creativity doesn't stop at the shop- it follows me home and I like to get down in the kitchen! So this one is going to be about food.
I am a bit of a health foodie. I always believe you are what you eat. I did not always have this outlook but as an on and off again vegetarian and zero tolerance for gluten body- I have learned quite a bit on food stuff and would love to share this small amount of information.
When it comes to diet I believe variety is best. It takes time to eat this way and you must prepare hopefully at least 80-90% of your own food at home. In no way am I a nutritionist but I have had IBS since 2005 and have had to research quite a bit and  talking with other people about all the stomach/gastrointestinal stuff people are getting these days, I wonder often why people just don't change their diets instead of dealing with the pain!
Two very important things to be a part of your diet, is eat organic!
The next one is buy non GMO food!
It is expensive to do this but if you have a healthy diet and you consume non organics and GMO food
it kinda cancels out the the healthiness. So, read and check your labels.
Some things to totally avoid are:

• Gluten- it causes all kinds of problems, it is hard to digest, reaking havoc on your body and a lot of people don't know this. 

• Soy- soy is also hard to digest. It is not dairy but soy is a huge GMO product and has lost most of it's value. (Thank you, Mansanto!)

• Dairy- as we get older this is hard to digest. 

• Sugar- check labels and go for lower sugar intake!

• Yeast extracts and Starch- Try to find products without yeast in them. Especially if you are a woman. Starches are also hard on your body, and if you eat gluten free (GF) like I do, a lot of GF products are made out of a lot of starchy flours!

I recommend drinking almond/coconut milk (they have a mix blend) because it has no sugar in it and has a thicker consistency other than rice milk, which has sugars in it... Blue diamond makes a great one.

BIG RED!

GO GREEN!

• Rice~ eat a good brand, like Lundberg and brown!  It's your new best friend. Rice is another product that has been so tampered with, make sure to get the good stuff. White rice is treated with chemicals. 
• Yogurt~ eat Greek yogurt, it is high in protein and low in sugar. Other yogurts are loaded with sugar. Try to get something under 9g of sugar. I like to stay in the 6g of sugar range and then I dress my yogurt up with fresh fruit.
• Meat~ I eat meat sparingly and when I do I spare no expense. And I usually take a couple years off from eating meat and then I will gradually add it to my diet for a year and then repeat the cycle. 

Juice~ Probably shouldn't even have any unless you make it yourself, so get yourself a juicer! I juice twice a week and it is the best. I would suggest investing in some really good teas and make iced tea yourself for the fridge. Teas are loaded with antioxidants, etc. and I go for herbal non caffeinated tea that you can dress up with lemon or fruit yourself.


Big Red recipe:                                                        Go Green recipe:
2 big beets                                                               Handful of spinach
1 cucumber                                                              Handful of parsley
1 big fuji apple or two smalls                                    3 celery stalks
Small piece of ginger                                                1 cucumber
                                                                               1.5 big fuji apple