Useful and healthy Tips
Following so many advices can sometimes be difficult. Here are simple tips that will help you getting into the right path.
Processed sugar is one of your worst enemies
Run away from it as fas as you can. You should only take 25g of sugar per day, preferably not processed. If you read your food’s labels, you will see many foods have added sugar and many of them are above 20g, even the ones you consider savory. This is because sugar improves flavors and is a cheap additive. Normally a natural food may contain up to 5% of sugar, but this is not harmful as it’s not processed and in fact your body needs it. Usually when a food has more sugar than that is because it’s added to it and it’s processed.
But what if I’m craving for something sweet? Pears, apples, bananas and any other fruit (do not mix them!) will satisfy your need. Avoid sweets, ice creams and candies as if they were the worst devils of your nightmares, because they are.
Fried foods: the other big enemy
Any type of oil, even extra virgin olive one, at high temperatures, denaturalizes and convert into toxic substances in your body. They contribute to high cholesterol, even when they don’t come from an animal source, because these toxins difficult liver’s functioning and therefore metabolization of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), which is cause for many heart and blood diseases.
Get rid of all animal-sourced product
Cow milk, cheese, meat, poultry, eggs, fish. Start dismissing the most toxic ones: meat, poultry and dairy. One day at a time. Then continue with the rest. It’s OK if to get to this goal you start reducing the frequency and quantity, for instance, instead of 3 times per week, only one, then one every fortnight, then once a month, until you don’t feel the need.
Loads of water
Everybody knows it, yet only a few care enough. You need 1,5 liter of plain water as a daily intake and this is on top of coffee (please take it without sugar!), tea (the same, please) or any other beverage you may have during the day.
A nice trick to eat less, in case you want to lose some weight, is to drink a good glass of room-temperature water (300ml). This will help your digestive tract to better assimilate nutrients and make you feel more satisfied.
What if I have emotional hunger?
Physiological hunger differs from the emotional one because the former will accept any type of food, comes in gradually and after a good glass of water will still be feeling. Emotional hunger is only in your head, is selective (usually wants to take you to sweets, chips, donuts and any sort of junk food possible as it has its signature all over it. The trick is simple, but requires willpower and a bit of practice. Don’t worry, you’ll get there. When emotional hunger attacks, you need your troupers with you, that is, the high-fibre and very healthy foods: chia seeds, nuts, oat milk, apples, peanuts, banana, raisins, carrots, teas & infusions (without sugar!), pumpkin, dark chocolate, olives, hummus, sauerkraut. And one big glass of water, yes.
How to turn a non-vegan meal into a vegan one?
Easy peasy. These are the main ingredients that make meals non vegan and their vegan counterparts:
Dairy milk: Oat, rice, soy or almond milk.
Butter: depending on the type of food, olive oil can replace it easily, or in the case of desserts, coconut oil or peanut butter
Eggs (as thickener): you can use the liquid of the bottled chickpeas
Meat: soy meat. There are chopped version and the steak-like version
Cheese: some people will tell tofu can be a replacement, but the best recipe is actually a vegan cheese made of potatoes, apple cider vinegar, nutritional yeast, water and other healthy ingredients. You can find it here.