There is one reason why I serve my family the healthiest food I can. My parents are/were not healthy people. This became very clear to me a number of years ago when my husband and I were filling out forms for our insurance company. I ticked just about every box when mentioning my family´s poor health history. I remember my husband looking at me and I am sure he was wondering if he had possibly made a mistake in marrying me.

You can just accept that as my parents being unlucky. But that is not the case. Every illness, bar my father´s cancer, was likely caused by the fact that they are/were overweight. I recognized that fact at the time, but I wasn´t motivated to do much of anything to change my behaviors as I figured that I was fit enough. About a year later my brother had a minor stroke, I had serious case of Bell´s Palsy and my father had open heart surgery. All in the same month. That was overwhelming. But still I didn´t change anything. It wasn´t until I was in New Zealand and I read the China Study that I thought I should change how I eat. I am not vegan. I have leather shoes and if offered homemade chouriço I will eat it. I also love eggs. But our diet is probably 90% vegan.

There were two points in the above mentioned book that shocked me the most. One was the possible link of the consumption of soy based formula before you are 1 year old to having allergies. (My daughter ONLY consumed breast milk, her stubbornness, not my choice. No allergies. Whereas my son gladly consumed formula and he has a serious nut allergy. Something no one on my family had ever had. Note: our niece in NZ does however suffer from allergies too).

The other thing that was probably the greatest factor to moving me away from meat consumption was the following chart.

There is this one too.

These charts are supported in this Harvard Health link article. It does specify that it is red meat they are talking about, not chicken and fish actually helps decrease the risk.  I am a firm believer that there are tremendous differences in the quality of meat (and other food). Animals raised naturally, with out being fed hormones and served closer to the kill will render a better meat. Simple. What shocked me the most about the above chart was that New Zealand, a country that does not allow GMOs, where animals all graze on green grass and are fed nothing else, has some of the highest numbers of intestinal cancer. Right then I knew something had to give. For no other reason that I wanted to be alive and healthy for my children.

I eat what I eat because I do not want to die or have a stroke. Does this guarantee me good health? Nope. My friend Cathy is the healthiest eater I know and she had beast cancer. But I have to know I tried my best.

I am not writing this to be preachy. Actually I am writing because it is devastating to hear that people I love are getting sick. I do not want that. I want you all (there are three of you reading this:) to live much longer than me. So I am going to start sharing my favorite healthy recipes here. I´ll do the grunt work and sus out which ones are great. And I love you. Period.