Encore Episode: Non-Addictive Healthy Eating

Processed foods are manufactured in a plant and come in packages.

Compare that to unprocessed foods, which come in their own packaging.

Processed foods are convenient, tasty and socially accepted. They’re also addictive. Upon eating too many processed foods, your reward center becomes overstimulated and cravings begin.

Food allows for a spectrum of addiction. It doesn’t work the same as drug addiction, where you are either on or off drugs.

If you're currently living off the drive-thru, start by fixing one meal a day at home. You can create your favorite foods in a healthier manner. You have to be willing to put in the work, because you probably won’t find the healthiest version of your favorite recipes on the shelves of your local supermarket. Pressure cookers are great for cooking food quickly but healthfully. Making food at home also saves money.

Convenience at the supermarket isn't limited to processed foods. Produce is available pre-washed and cut into easy-to-eat pieces.

Another must: don’t keep unhealthy foods in your house. Avoid temptation.

Sugar Alternatives

  • Dates are a fantastic sweetener. You can dehydrate them to make sugar, boil them to make syrup, or puree them into a paste. Dates contain vitamins and minerals that are missing from white sugar.
  • Roasting fruit brings out the sweetness. You can mix dried fruits with fresh fruit to vary the taste.

An Ideal Day

  • Breakfast: green smoothie with 1 tbsp. cocoa powder or musli (rolled oats, fresh fruit & almond milk refrigerated overnight).
  • Lunch: leftovers from last night’s dinner, like soup over rice.
  • Dinner: chili, potatoes, lasagna.

Restaurant Meals

  • Find out where you’re going in advance. Research the menu. Call the restaurant during off-peak hours to see if they can accommodate your dietary needs.
  • If there’s nothing on the menu you can eat, then eat before you go.
  • Champion the foods you’d like to eat. Most restaurants keep meals on the menu that people will eat.

Listen in as Chef AJ joins Dr. Pam Peeke to share how you can begin to conquer your dependence on processed foods and eat healthier overall.

Sponsor:

Smarty Pants Vitamins
Encore Episode: Non-Addictive Healthy Eating
Featuring:
Chef AJ
Chef AJChef AJ has been devoted to a plant-based diet for almost 40 years. She is the host of the television series Healthy Living with CHEF AJ which airs on Foody TV.  


With her comedy background, she has made appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Show with David Letterman and more. A chef, culinary instructor and professional speaker, she is author of the popular book Unprocessed: How to Achieve Vibrant Health and Your Ideal Weight, which chronicles her journey from a junk-food vegan faced with a diagnosis of pre-cancerous polyps, to learning how to create foods that nourish and heal the body.

Based in Los Angeles, Chef AJ teaches a monthly sold-out seminar featuring cooking instruction, nutritional science and song parodies, all delivered with comedic panache. Never content to leave her audience with mere “just do it” advice, she teaches how to create meals to transform their health, how to deal with cravings and food addiction and addresses the emotional side of eating. She is the creator of the Ultimate Weight Loss Program, which has helped hundreds of people achieve the health and the body that they deserve.

Chef AJ was the Executive Pastry Chef at Santé Restaurant in Los Angeles where she was famous for her sugar, oil, salt and gluten free desserts which use the fruit, the whole fruit and nothing but the whole fruit.

Chef AJ is also creator of Healthy Taste of LA and the YouTube cooking show The Chef and the Dietitian, and is proud to say that her IQ is higher than her cholesterol. Chef AJ holds a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from eCornell University and is a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.