Complete information on Food Processors

Cooking your own food from the basic ingredients gives you the closest control over what you or your family eats. It allows you to keep the most closely to the food combining diet and it allows you to avoid all those additives which are needed to make processed foods palatable.

Fresh meat, vegetables and fruit do not need any elaborate processing. Neither do starchy meals based on rice, potatoes and vegetables. Wheat whole-meal bread from the supermarket is of high quality and can form the basis for up to half your starch meals.

The food combining diet does not include pastry or cakes and biscuits and so removes the need for a lot of elaborate processing equipment. A food mixer or processor is valuable if you plan to bake your own bread, and a grain mill is very useful for non-wheat flours for special diets.

Budget Meals

If you are providing meals on a low budget, remember the cost of wasted food as well as the cost of cooking. Buy food with as .little waste as possible and trim it as little as necessary. Broad beans in their pods are mostly waste, but a solid cabbage is almost all good food. If you don’t eat the fat, avoid the cheapest cuts of meat like belly pork, where you get little meat for your money, and examine the ends of a joint to select one without any thick fat layers. Always take the trouble to store food in the optimum conditions and use the most perishable food first. Don’t buy more than you need, but shopping every day could take up a lot of time, so keep a balance.

Small amounts of ready-made meals and packaged foods can cost substantially more than fresh fruit and vegetables, and the cost of meat can far outweigh its value in the diet. If you have the time, then you don’t need these ready-meals, and in many cases they take as long to prepare as fresh food.

There is no nutritional need to have a protein meal every day, and a lot of evidence that suggests that one protein meal every two or three days would be more healthy!

Low cost meals need not be monotonous with a wide range of dried herbs and spices available in the supermarkets. You use so little of these that you can afford to include them in the lowest budget meals.

If times are really hard then eat potatoes cooked in their skins, brown rice, sprouted beans and seeds, and a little olive oil together with herbs from your windowsill and spices. The cheapest vegetables, like carrots and cabbage are also the healthiest and require the minimum of cooking. Fresh wholemeal bread also remains excellent value for money.

Ready Meals

No ‘modern’ take-aways or cook/chill can match the ease of preparation, or the nutritional value of bread, salads and an olive oil dressing.

It is often cheaper to call in at the nearest supermarket for fresh fruit and vegetables for salad, than to buy them ready prepared.

A pressure cooker will often cook a protein meal, prepared from fresh ingredients, faster than it takes to thaw a frozen meal.

Food combining is the true modern lifestyle, based on a real knowledge of what is healthy and valuable in our lives.

Where you do need the ready prepared meals, it is often easier to select a starch based meal. But beware of excessive fat in sauces and fillings.

Vegetarian options often permit you to keep most closely to the food combining diet, but always remember that this is not a strait-jacket. It is the balance of the diet over weeks; months and years that determines your overall health.

On the occasion where you require a ready prepared meal simply select a low fat and low sugar meal.

Restaurants

There is nothing wrong in asking for what you want! We decide in advance whether a meal out is to be a protein meal or a starch meal – if you want to keep the price down, or make your choice easier, go for the starch meal!

You can ask for fresh fruit or vegetable dishes without any thickened sauces with either protein or starch meals.

If you select a protein meal, avoid battered fish, pies and pizzas. Plain fish is often the easiest as it is usually served with an unthickened sauce. Roasted and grilled meats can be requested without the potatoes or rice that usually accompanies them and I always ask for extra vegetables instead. Fruit and cheese can round off a restaurant protein meal.

Starch meals can again start with fruit, or with garlic bread. If there are selections of vegetables, I order these without a main course, together with potatoes or rice. I find the tastiest end to the meal is again, often fresh fruit.