Healthy Food Choices
for a Lifetime of Good Health

Healthy food choices will become a part of your daily nutrition as you change from the SAD (standard American diet) to the Hallelujah Diet.

But for some of us, changing overnight from a lifetime of eating unhealthy food just doesn't work. Gradually shifting your food choices to healthier food choices may sometimes be more successful, especially if you are trying to convert your family!

How Do You Define Healthy Food Choices?

There is a lot of conflicting information 'out there' as to just what is healthy food. Organic, low-fat, low-carb, all raw, high protein, low salt- the list goes on and on. It is so hard to define just what are healthy foods.

Our frustration then leads to us saying and believing "All things in moderation". Thinking that seems to give us permission to eat anything- as long as we don't eat too much.

Right. As if that's working! Obesity rates just keep climbing. The rate at which we become sick with disease is increasing while the age at which we get sick is decreasing. We're getting sicker quicker.

Healthy food choices is not "All things in moderation".

Healthy food choices are not health food wrapped and delivered in unhealthy packages, like dark chocolate bars where dark chocolate is 'wrapped' in sugar, cocoa butter, milk fat and soy lecithin. You have to eat a lot of unhealthy to get the healthy!

Healthy food is food that promotes health and healing. Completely.

Food: From Then to Now

The Hallelujah Diet is based on God's original diet, the diet He gave to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, nuts and seeds.

The original purpose of food was to feed our bodies and minds, to keep us healthy. Food provides the material with which our body is constructed, repaired, maintained, and reproduced.

But the processed food of today, along with the eating habits we have developed, is mind-altering entertainment.

Entertainment? Yes, for many of us, food provides diversion from the worries and cares of our lives. Food also 'amuses' us during our leisure time.

Food is mind-altering?? Yes, mind-altering due to the excitotoxins added to processed foods. Processed food is the #1 source of excitotoxins today. Excitotoxins damage and kill our nerve cells.

Other chemicals have been added to processed food to lift our mood, makes us happy. Emotional eaters, like me, who seek food when stressed, or angry, or sad, know too well that eating certain foods make us feel better.

Foods called comfort foods, and used like a toddler's security blanket.

Comfort foods. There are even cookbooks today featuring (not-so-healthy) recipes for those not-so-healthy comfort foods.

www.homecooking.about.com surveyed readers for the top 25 comfort foods. Here they are:

Top 25 American Comfort Foods

• Apple Pie
• Baked Beans
• Banana Pudding
• Beef Stew
• Brisket Pot Roast
• Chicken & Dumplings
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Chicken Soup
• Chili
• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Corn on the Cob
• Fried Chicken
• Gelatin
• Green Bean Casserole
• Hot Dogs
• Ice Cream
• Macaroni & Cheese
• Mashed Potatoes
• Meatloaf
• Potato Salad
• Pumpkin Pie
• Shepherd's Pie
• Spaghetti
• Tomato Soup
• Tuna Casserole

***Side note: Can't stand the thought of giving up these comfort foods? Don't worry, there are healthy options for many of these foods!***

The food we choose determines, to a great extent, our overall physical and mental health. If you had a lifetime of bad food choices and are suffering the effects of a poor diet, take heart! God's food, the healthy food choices on the Hallelujah diet, is, by its very nature, health promoting.

By selecting healthy food choices and enhancing nutrition every opportunity you have, you will soon rediscover your health through food. Many discover dynamic and vibrant health, health they never knew they could have!

What Should We Eat?

The healthy food choices in the Hallelujah diet consist of nutritionally high-powered foods, full of those phytonutrients that equip our bodies to maintain health and prevent disease. Eat a wide variety of these foods and include all the colors of the rainbow in that variety.

Here are the healthy food choices you will begin to include as you transition from the unhealthy SAD to the Hallelujah Diet.

Raw Fruits and Vegetable

Raw fruits and vegetables are the foods eaten in the greatest quantity on the Hallelujah Diet. These are the health building foods. Increase your intake of these foods until they comprise at least 75 to 85% of your diet.

Generally, you should eat more raw vegetables than raw fruits. Fruit cleanses your body and vegetables heal. So, both are needed.

There are many different ways to increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet. Here are few ideas:

• Start each meal with a fresh fruit, fresh vegetables or salad.
• Snack on fresh fruits or vegetables between meals.
• End each meal with a fresh fruit.
• Make one meal a day a completely raw meal, such as a salad, fruit smoothie or a green smoothie.

BarleyMax and Carrot Juice

For many, the first move made toward the Hallelujah Diet is adding Barley Max and fresh vegetable juices to their daily diet.

This is a really good idea, because these two foods go straight to the cellular level to immediately repair and build health.

BarleyMax is a rich source of chlorophyll and is high in antioxidant activity. It contains many nutrients that strengthen and maintain the immune system.

BarleyMax

• has a cleansing effect on the cells
• promotes healthy metabolism
• neutralizes heavy metals like mercury
• aids in boosting the cells ability to prevent cancer-type diseases from taking hold
• may slow down and reverse many aspects of the aging process

Is it any wonder that the simple addition of BarleyMax to your diet can make you feel better fast? For many of us, feeling better leads to an increase in energy and a stronger desire to improve our diets even more!

Raw Nuts and Seeds

Raw nuts and seeds, healthy food choices on the Hallelujah Diet, provide healthy fat and protein. But do consume these sparingly.

How much is sparingly? I usually limit my intake to one-eighth cup for the smaller seeds to one-fourth cup a day for the larger seeds and the nuts. You can tell by how you feel. You can also tell by any weight gain. Too much will cause you to gain weight.

A word of caution- be sure to include the nuts and seeds you eat in the form of crackers and breads!

In order for us to more easily digest nuts and seeds, they do need to be soaked first in distilled or filtered water. Soaking removes the enzyme inhibitors in nuts and seeds.

Whole Grain Breads and Cooked Whole Grains

You may eat moderately of these on the Hallelujah Diet, including them as your 15% cooked portion. Do check the ingredients on the bread to be sure it doesn't have any unhealthy ingredients in it.

Also, be sure the grains are whole- not processed or refined.

Another word of caution- if you are not losing undesired weight on the Hallelujah Diet, or if you just aren't feeling better, considering reducing or even eliminating cooked bread and grains.

Oils and Fats

Healthy oil and fat choices are:

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Udo's Choice Oil Blend
• Freshly ground flax seed
• Avocado
• Grapeseed oil

Water and Other Liquids

Water should be distilled or filtered. Other sources of the liquid we need we get through the fresh juice and raw foods we eat. You can average those sources to your daily total.

One Final Thought

God has given us the free will to choose during our life here on earth. With every choice, there is a result or consequence.

Bad choices yield bad results. Good choices yield good results.

When it comes to your food, what choice will YOU make?

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