Born a foodie. Always a foodie, I guess. It seems unfair that I struggle with my pounds – through the decades unbeknownst to me early that eating every delicious thing put in front of me by my grandmother, my mom, and other adults would cause problems for me later, I suppose I would have asked more questions like, “is this good for me?” or “I know this tastes really good, but are the ingredients in it going to agree with me later in my life?” We don't know what we don't know and they didn't know what they didn't know, so who can I blame? Nobody.
What I can do is use my accumulated knowledge of causes and effects using data (my own stats) and track better what goes in, what gets burned off, and what converts into what I prefer to not be there. As we age, it becomes more difficult, although there are arguments about this, I think that it is true. I think that if we ever got big, that that is a data point inside us that we gravitate towards and it takes tremendous effort to move back down. I have the data. I can prove it.
So, how do we manage our “foodie” tendencies? My theory is that we eat the rainbow of foods as close to their grown state – less ground up without added stuff you can't pronounce – yup, I say, if you can't pronounce it, you shouldn't ingest it. That's my theory. But, it isn't that I haven't in my life… I just stopped when I learned about it. Butter is delicious. I can't eat a lot of it. A smidgen once in awhile is not fatal. But “live a little” and having a lot of it doesn't work for me. Neither do donuts. Refined flour + sugar + grease = instant indigestion! Tastes delicious, after awhile the pleasure dissolves into misery for me. So, I don't. Yeah, “no thanks, not today…” (thinking not ever in my unspoken response…).
But look at the luscious colors and variety… The textures are endless, it seems. There are a few things I love that I can't eat, but hey far more exist that I can! And wow! Beautiful!
So, I now try to go organic if I can. But if you are in Asia, you might not be able to discern if the fruits and veg are grown organically. So I try a little, but not a lot. Let a trusted local tell you if it is dangerous. Same south of the border. Yet, in Europe, it's mostly safe because they have very high standards and strict laws about introducing bad foods into the market. You can taste this. It's interesting.