Fast Food to Organic Diet - What's the Happy Medium?

I know one of my biggest weaknesses is fast food. There are days when nothing sounds better than a burger dripping with sauce and a huge coke. I just have to be somewhat frazzled by five o'clock and I can easily talk myself and my three eager kids into it. But I do know on some level, after I've downed my fix, that fast food isn't exactly the wisest choice when it comes to my health and the health of my family. So what's the big deal? Well I assume we all would like to live longer and look younger especially since we're always in search of that pill that keeps us as spry as a twenty-one year old but have the wisdom of an old tribal master. And it may be more obtainable than we think -- starting with...

Reducing Our Intake of Toxic food. So perhaps not all fast food is toxic, we are being offered other choices -- presumably healthier choices than deep-fried options. But in general, fast food is clogged with fat, salt and sugar. It has no or low fiber -- and if we consult our food pyramid, we know the necessity of our daily fiber. And it is also very limited in the amount of important nutrients. Note I said to reduce our intake of fast food, not eliminate it. So be realistic about it.

Know Nutritional Facts about Food. It's important to educate ourselves so we know what kinds of food are good for our bodies, and what we should stay away from. If health and vigor are important to us, we must research the nutritional facts of the foods we eat. If we want to go beyond just eliminating the bad, and instead actually adding in the healthiest kinds of food -- we can go even one more step...

Eat Organically. So maybe you just let out an audible sigh -- but let's go over some of the key points of organic foods: They have no pesticides -- meaning you're not eating foods with small amounts of poison. We're only at the tip of the iceberg as far as the long-reaching effects of pesticides. Organic foods also contain more of the good stuff we need -- more antioxidants. And why are antioxidants supposed to be so good? Studies have shown that antioxidants likely decrease the risk of cancer and heart disease. Still, you may be ready to take even one more step...

Organic Gardening. There are a lot of people that do organic gardening and they don't even know it. By definition it's the growing of fruits and vegetables using only natural methods. In essence, it means there are no artificial chemicals used to fertilize, control weeds and control pests.

So we've gone from one extreme to the other -- fast food to organic gardening. Maybe you fall somewhere in between, but it's never too late to start incorporating even healthier habits into our lives.

Jaycee Fox is a writer. She lives in Arizona with her husband and three children. Visit her blog, www.jayceefox.blogspot.com, to see what she's written.

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