Holistic Health and Me

You Must Change Your Mind to Change Your Habits

Holistic Nutrition is key component for optimal health. Chef Rachel Albert shares some Whole Cooking wisdom with SWIHA! Are you ready to explore some healthier possibilities?

Some people say they don’t like the taste of some of the foods I recommend––certain vegetables, fruits, or other things they are unaccustomed to eating. This can change. Your tastes aren’t engraved in stone. They are conditioned habits that can be changed with persistence.

Although your mind may prefer processed foods, your body certainly does not! Your body prefers Whole Foods with real flavors that come with a high nutrient density. The effects of advertising and familial habits have put your mind out of harmony with your body. Your mind must be trained to accept natural foods. If you practice eating wholesome unrefined foods, you will grow to like them so much that you may rarely, if ever, want anything else.

Unfamiliar foods are like strangers. You don’t know them and maybe suspicious of them, unless you are an extremely adventurous eater. When you try a new food (or present one to your husband or children), try at least three mouthful (and encourage them to do the same). Do this at least three days in a row and make sure to try at least three different recipes using that particular food. If that seems too difficult, then every time you try a new food, eat at least three mouthfuls; try the food at least three days in a row, then try the food again in at least two more recipes, eaten at least three times.

Yes, I just repeated myself! The only way to change your habits is through repetition. If you want better health, you have to make choices that meet your body’s nutritional needs. Some things will be unfamiliar at first, but your body will eventually thank you for making the change.

It helps to know more about how your sense of taste works and how malleable it really is. This will amaze you.

Your Sense of Taste

Have you ever eaten something that tasted bland to you, but seemed just right to someone else? Have you ever liked a dish that someone else thought was too spicy or too sweet?

You’re not alone. People think the taste is in the food. That’s only half right. How a food tastes to you depends on what you’re accustomed to eating. Taste is relative.

If you regularly drink soda or other sugared or artificially sweetened beverages, plain water might seem dull and uninteresting. If you eat white bread and white rice, you might find 100% whole wheat bread and brown rice to be heavy, dry, and bland. If you eat conventional sweets, you may find that fresh fruit or baked sweet potatoes don’t satisfy your sweet tooth.

Why? If you eat very salty or intensely sweet foods on a daily basis, your taste receptors will down-regulate. Your body shuts off some of your taste receptors because it no longer needs them. Then, if you eat more plain and simple foods, the flavors don’t register.  The tastes are there, but you can’t sense them because your taste receptors have a higher threshold.  You need more stimulation—more salt, more sugar, more spice—to notice the flavors.

Let me give you an analogy. If you regularly drink alcohol, you’ll have a higher tolerance for it than someone who rarely or never drinks. It takes more booze for you to get a buzz than it does for a nondrinker. We each experience the alcohol differently depending on whether or how much we normally drink. It’s the same with foods and flavors.

If you decide to reduce or eliminate sugar, it can take three0 to 90 days for your taste receptors to up-regulate so they have greater sensitivity. If you persist, you can reset your taste receptors. I’ve done it, and I’ve watched other people do it.

If you want to achieve better health, you have to make choices that meet your body’s nutritional needs first, and then have patience while your taste buds catch up. Your body will gradually begin to respond in noticeable ways. In the meantime, you have to use the power of positive intention to retrain your body and mind.

If you need help with this, consider enrolling in some of Rachel’s half day and 5-week cooking classes at SWHA. You’ll see, cook, sample, and make friends with new foods and recipes. If you are like most of my students, you will discover that you like many foods you previously though you didn’t care for and that you can be a good or even great cook armed with information and the experience of working with other enthusiastic learners.

Source: The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook by Rachel Albert & Don Matesz (Planetary Press, 2004) and Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces by Rachel Albert (Planetary Press, 2008).

Both books are available at Healing Pages located at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe and online here: www.thehealthycookingcoach.com/books.html

All book purchases help support Rachel so that she can do the work she does.

Guest Author:  Rachel Albert has been a natural foods chef, cooking instructor, and freelance food and health writer for 25+ years. She has led more than 1,000 cooking classes in 7 states and more than 300 of her articles published in national and regional publications, including Muscle & Fitness, Muscle & Fitness Hers, Oxygen Women’s Fitness, Men’s Exercise, Fit, Delicious Living, Living Without, Natural Health, Natural Home, Herbs for Health, Herb Companion, and Well Being Journal.

She’s the author of The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces and co-author of the award-winning book, The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook. Chef Rachel is on the faculty at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe where she teaches two, hands-on, five-week cooking courses throughout the year and many half day cooking classes. She also leads group and private classes, cooking parties, dinner parties, kitchen and phone coaching sessions, and healthy shopping tours, and speaks to groups throughout the Phoenix metro area, AZ, area.

Visit her blog for new recipes, tips, cooking video clips, cooking class info, and product, book, and gluten-free restaurant reviews: www.TheHealthyCookingCoach.com.

Learn how to help SWIHA support Chef Rachel here: www.holistichealthandme.com/holistic-health-care/charitydonations/loving-donations-wanted-for-swiha-instructor-rachel-albert

Tags: Holistic Nutrition, Whole Foods