Ref: The Food Class System

1. We eat the standard American diet (SAD) - including limited amounts of 1st class nutrient rich foods.
Basically 80-90% 2nd and 3rd class foods which are nutrient poor, overly concentrated, and overly stimulating, leave us over fed, yet chronically undernourished, driving us to over consume.

2. We then eat less of the SAD otherwise known as "dieting" and this means less of the nutrient poor foods that are not serving us to begin with, or promoting our health as a whole, and this makes you feel like you're starving, reinforces craving  and overeating. You are merely riding the fence, trying to eat better, yet predominantly nutrient poor at the same time. This is a weight gain diet, posing as a weight loss diet.

3. We get so frustrated and go back to one, because we want the freedom of "just eating" what's there and as much as we want. S0, we head back for pleasure. Problem is we're headed back to nutrient poor foods as the basis of our diet which undermines our health, happiness and personal performance.

4. You may go through this process (1-3) a few times. This makes sense given the strategy up until this point, doesn’t work and really can't work for anyone.

5.  Eventually, we start to "get" that we need to being eating predominantly first class, nutrient rich foods with small amounts of second class foods if you eat them, and very small amounts of third class foods if you eat them at all; but instead of eventually going 90% of the way, or more, you sit on the fence, doing the same you've always done eating long shelf life animal based products, and economical, highly refined over stimulating foods because you are used to them and know them better. While eating a little bit healthier it's not enough change to give the shift any momentum. This is the "wash your pastry down with some veggies", "take your vitamins", "eat healthy when I'm sick", and the "token vegetable on the side" strategy. It always fails because while eating a little bit better is good, eating healthy is what works!

6.  We may again go back to #1.

7.  Then we get smarter and realize that we have to a) go beyond eating "plain vegetables" at a time when our taste buds are geared for sugar cereals, bagels and butter, pretzels, steak, pasta, cake... and b) let our taste buds adjust as we focusing on how to shop, organize, prepare and eating out the nutrient rich way; discovering the full breadth and depth of eating a great tasting nutrient rich diet style, and c) get into a more successful lifestyle - no wonder we get the wrong impression when it comes to eating healthy. (BTW, when it comes to eating Nutrient Rich, "boring" is a word that just does not apply).

8.  The taste bud adjustment period is the only tough time you'll have, not because the foods you're now choosing to eat aren't great tasting, but because you'll experience some withdrawal symptoms from 2nd and particularly 3rd class foods which are low in nutrients or have all the nutrients stripped out and only the pleasure inducing chemicals left in. So, while perhaps less intensive, it's a little like getting off drugs! We have to be careful not to associate the pain of withdrawal from the lower class foods, to the emerging pleasure of health promoting, Nutrient Rich foods, which frankly taste better.

You decide to go to the next level in healthy eating!

9. Then you realize "hey there are more great tasting foods to eat, that are Simple, Quick & Easy to eat than there are days in the year! You feel good while you're eating and even better after, and you can avoid all the dieting "traps" behind. You can just live and be free and enjoy all the discovery of nutrient rich foods, from fast to gourmet made from predominantly, if not all, first class foods - vegetables, fruits, legumes/beans, raw nuts and seeds, whole unrefined grains and natural seasonings, sauces and gravies that make already great tasting foods taste even better!!

10. You may again go back to testing the old foods, but this is only normal! Just do it, get the experience and press on towards eating first class Nutrient Rich foods anyway.

11.  After a while your taste buds shift and you realize you are achieving weight loss in the process of getting incredibly healthy. And there is no reason to turn back to foods that make you overweight and sick, despite the fact that they are designed to stimulate your taste buds and they still will. But eventually you resolve to say that the secondary effects of these food stuffs, beyond the initial pleasure-inducing chemical "hits", can not be tolerated by your body, so you go after more of a good thing! More great tasting health promoting nutrient rich foods that give you optimal health and the foundation for high performance.

12.        You realize that weight loss is just one of the many benefits of something bigger and more important - health and high performance. During this phase you can lose a lot of weight as your body starts getting healthy food consistently for maybe the first time in your life. There are many dynamics going on during this phase but the biggest is that your body begins a major transition towards health and literally rebuilds itself using better quality foods.This is a very fun period!

13.        High performance is now possible because your body IS nutrient rich always satiated and full. Combined with the other aspects of a PerformanceLifestyle - you start getting a real handle on your lifestyle and   become very passionate.

14.       You start setting goals that are not food based, but life based and you begin to realize that the better you eat, the better you are able to function and perform. You leave the obsession with dieting in the past and continue to learn and make new distinctions about how you are eating, thinking and living.

15.        You start living your life at the next level, no longer mired in diet traps, and low level concepts that keep you stuck, you get it and get on with your life focused on bigger and better things.

Again, there are lots of little steps and dynamics that go on in this process, but these are the basic steps a person goes through when they are transitioning to a nutrient rich diet.

Read them again and again.

The post The General Process of Transitioning from nutrient poor to a Nutrient Rich Diet appeared first on Nutrient Rich.

Part 1:

Part 2:

The post The Nutrient Rich Kitchen appeared first on Nutrient Rich.

Get Switched On Video

Years ago in early 1990's when I was working with Tony Robbins (who really introduced me to Living Health) I worked with a great guy named Chip Eichelberger. I remember to this day, when Chip, my friend Bob Quintana and I went bungee jumping off an old crane in San Diego. It was when MC Hammer was huge and we came up with a phrase for Chip modeled after a famous song from the MC "Too Legit to Quit".... we use to say "Too Le Chip to Quit".

Categories: Easy (5 minutes), Quick & Easy, Recipes

The post Get Switched On Video Smoothie is Now in the Nutrient Rich Rich Food and Recipe Database appeared first on Nutrient Rich.

Creamy, high in potassium and fiber, easily digetible carbohydrate,  comes in it's own carrying case

Buy a bunch of ripened bananas. Look in your grocery for ripened bananas as they are usually on sale for a lot less per pound.

Peel them and freeze them in a freezer bag or container. You can pull them apart as needed.

Nutrient Rich snacking is that much simpler, quicker and easier with a banana. Here are a few simple things you can do.

• Eat them plain; they are easy to carry around as they come in thier own container.
• Eat them frozen for an icy, creamy treat.
• Roll them in Dr. Fuhrman cocoa powder and chopped nuts and freeze for a delectable dessert treat.
• Throw them in your shake instead of ice for a thick and creamy consistency.

The post Keep it Simple Tip #2 - BANANAS appeared first on Nutrient Rich.

Yummy. Nutrient Rich. Simple to make.

Take a piece of tinfoil and wrap up a beet.

Slow bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour until you can easily stick a fork in. Let cool and skin will peel right off easily . Then you can cut it up and throw it on top of your salad.

You can also get fancier and add some pepper, thyme (or seasoning of your choice),  squeeze fresh lemon and a splash of vegetable stock. Form a tent out of the tin foil and slow roast for about an hour until beets are tender.  Once cooked, let cool and peel off the skin and slice into 2 inch squares. Add to salads or just eat plain.

Beets are part of a nutrient rich diet. You can steam,  bake,  shred. Check out other recipes in our data base. (They are even part of your healthy chocolate cake recipe)

The post Keep It Simple - TIP #1 - Beets appeared first on Nutrient Rich.

I was in the nail salon the other day, and the food channel was on the TV screen. You simply can't get away from it even if you try. Two other women were watching intently while Jada whipped up her Italian magic. As I was eavesdropping on the conversation, (what else could I do in such a small space?),  one woman says to the other..."Oh my, what a simple idea, I never thought of doing that". I started to judge this comment, thinking to myself, how in the world could they not have known such a simple concept. Jada took some left over bread and put it in her blender and made bread crumbs. These 2 women where literally blown away by the idea of how great that would be when they were in the kitchen and out of the store bought stuff.

Not that I am bragging, but I have always made my own breadcrumbs, because the ingredients added in the store bought kind have no business in my body.

I simply take some Ezekiel (sprouted grain bread) bread, tear it up and put it in the blender and "instant nutrient rich" breadcrumbs emerge. I just assumed everyone did this. I guess I was wrong about that.

Sometimes when things are so obvious and simple to us, they simply get discarded as unimportant or don't register in our minds as something we could do.

For me, it seems like, the more ingredients in a recipe, the less I want to cook it. The more choices when shopping, the less I want to buy. The more choices on a buffet, the more confused I get, and the less I want to eat.

What if you could keep it simple and really nail this "Nutrient Rich Eating" way of eating?

I am going to help you out with this.

Everyday I am going to post a SIMPLE TIP. If you take these simple tips, you can put the basic concepts together and form a mountain of knowledge that will change the way you eat for the better forever.

Can I state it anymore simply that that?

Coming up in the next post...KEEP IT SIMPLE TIP #1 - Beets

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