Inverting the (Food) Pyramid

One of my hobbies is to read about nutrition and to study recipes and eating habits. This fulfills both the quest for improved health and cooking, which I really love, and I am now a confessed addict to food blogs, especially the ones with gorgeous pictures. Over the past few years, I’ve probably read over 50 different books on healthier eating and tried a number of the recommendations for a while: low-fat, low-carb, high omega-3, low glycemic index, high fiber, high protein, and on and on. Between the 50 books, they probably had 120 different (and often contradictory) recommendations.

One consistent thing across almost all of the recommendations, however, is to EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGGIES. Excuse the shouting, but really almost everyone, including most grandmothers would encourage you to eat more fruits and vegetables. Ironically, many of these same books did not show practical steps to eat more fruits and veggies. Indeed, many tips were of the nature of “add a lettuce leaf to your sandwich.” While a lettuce leaf is likely better than no lettuce leaf, for many people this is not really helpful information.

After much trial and error (some of which delicious, some not so much), I think I have evolved our diet to something that does what most recommendations (such as the USDA pyramid) fails to do: it places the emphasis of meals on vegetables and fruits (rather than meat and grains). My hubby likes to call my cooking “Lizzie vegan,” which is vegan plus meat (no offense to vegans intended) where the bulk of the meal is based on vegetables, with meat serving as a condiment or flavor enhancer.

Going forward I would like to share a number of recipes, tips and suggestions, because I think the best nutrition advice out there is still to EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGGIES.