What’s in your refrigerator?

What’s in your refrigerator?

What is in your refrigerator is really important. Why? Because that is where you go when you are hungry or sometimes just feel like a snack. Most often we don’t think about our refrigerators as a critical factor in our health, but they really are. Think of the number of times during the day that we reach in for something. That something that we take out and consume can either fuel our bodies or contribute to a health problem down the line. There is a great deal of truth to that old saying you are what you eat. I used to think it was a 50/50 proposition and that you could eat poorly one day and exercise the next and all would be equalized. It may work a bit like that when we’re younger but as we age we know that our metabolism slows, and we have to behave differently to maintain the same level of fitness.

When I was in my 20s I can remember being able to drop 5 pounds in a weekend by making a few slight changes in my diet. As the years have rolled on what I found was that gaining weight was quick and easy gain but that same five pounds would now take weeks to lose as opposed to days.

Why is that refrigerator so important? What I learned is that I can’t put the same kinds of things I used to put in there anymore. For example, in my 20s 30s, and beyond, you would find bread, whole milk for cereal, ice cream, orange juice, nonfat yogurt, diet sodas and lots of frozen foods marketed as low calorie. So, the nonfat, low calorie and so called “healthy foods” I did have in my refrigerator were doing nothing but thwarting my efforts to lose weight and gain back the energy I had when I was younger.

Today my fridge looks much different. There is no fruit juice with high sugar content, no bread with the artificial additives we find in American bread today, no diet sodas (more artificial additives) and I could go on and on… So what is in my refrigerator? Real food and nothing processed, or sugar filled. You will find hard boiled eggs, apples, pears and berries of all kinds. Nuts and prepped ahead chicken, an egg frittata and lots of salad fixings.

To live and age well eat real food. Check out your refrigerator to determine if you are adding healthy years to your life or robbing your energy and vibrancy with sugar and additive filled temptations.