Working for Your Food

An important aspect of human life that's seems to be lost in today's world is working for our food. As a society we have ventured too far from our hunter gatherer roots, while becoming all too lazy looking for that next quick meal. Obviously it is not practical to live life in today's world to that extreme, but the very principle of working for something is philosophy we all could benefit from and it all starts in the kitchen.

Instead of looking for the next quick meal idea, why not choose the healthier one. It’s no secret that a healthy diet consists of lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc., but there are a number of ways to go about obtaining these foods. So what does all of this have to do with working for your food, and how will this benefit you? Nature has provided us with a plethora of tasty nutrient rich foods, many of which are available at your local health food store, farm stand, and in the organic section of many grocery stores, but they're often available in two forms; one that caters to our quick "on the go" life styles, and the other that forces us to do a little more work for our meal.

A simple fact that can't be stated enough is the more processing our food goes through the less we benefit from all the nutrients it has to offer. If you buy your fruits and vegetables pre-cut, sliced, chopped, peeled, cored, mixed, packaged; your grains precooked, chopped, mashed, or rolled, then you are not getting all of the nutrients the food has to offer. Most of the nutrients fresh foods have to offer are locked in by (and in some cases contained in) the skin or out layer of the food itself. Once this seal has been broken the food begins to lose its nutritional value at a pretty alarming rate, so by the time it's gone from the field to the processing/packaging plant to the store, and finally to your kitchen it's only a fraction of the super food it once was.

So make the choice to live a healthier life and start working for your food, it will yield healthier better tasting and more rewarding meals. And who knows this philosophy may even rub off onto other aspects of your life. You may start taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or parking the car further from the store instead of circling the lot for a half hour in search of the closest spot, or even walking the dog further than down to the end of your street and back.