#susainability

Clean Eating Simplified: A Chef’s Guide to Real Food and Family Health

🍃 Introduction

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the idea of clean eating, you’re not alone. Between confusing food labels, misinformation, and busy schedules, eating well can seem like a daunting task. 😩 But it doesn’t have to be! In this episode of Wake Up and Read the Labels, we chat with Chef Leah Delight, a culinary educator and advocate for clean, regenerative food.

🧑‍🌾 How Clean Food Impacts Your Health

Leah’s passion for clean food stems from a simple truth: Food is medicine. 🥕 She explains how processed foods loaded with chemicals, pesticides, and artificial additives wreak havoc on our gut health, leading to:

❌ Chronic inflammation. ❌ Low energy and brain fog. ❌ Mental health struggles.

🌾 The Problem with Modern Wheat

Ever feel bloated and sluggish after eating bread? Leah shares why wheat today isn’t what it used to be:

It’s genetically modified for faster growth.

It’s sprayed with pesticides like glyphosate.

It’s stripped of nutrients and loaded with synthetic additives.

🍞 Solution: Choose ancient grains, organic flours, or go grain-free like Leah’s famous donuts!

🍽️ Practical Tips for Clean Eating 1️⃣ Read the labels – Avoid foods with long ingredient lists. 2️⃣ Cook at home – Start small and prep meals for the week. 3️⃣ Support local farmers – Visit farmer’s markets for fresh produce. 4️⃣ Ask questions when dining out – Choose restaurants that prioritize quality ingredients.

Leah reminds us: Clean eating isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress. 🎯

🧡 The Art of Family Meals

In today’s rushed world, we’ve lost the tradition of gathering around the table. Leah emphasizes the importance of sharing meals: 🍽️ Kids who eat family meals have better self-esteem. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family dinners strengthen relationships and reduce stress.

✨ Takeaway: Find joy in cooking and eating together. Turn it into an experience you look forward to every day.

🌱 Final Thoughts

Eating clean doesn’t have to be complicated. Start with small changes, read the labels, and prioritize whole, real foods. Your body—and your family—will thank you. 💚

For more tips and inspiration, visit wakeuandreadthelabels.com and check out Leah’s incredible work at Eat Marketplace. 🌟

For those who want to keep Earth Day rolling all year round, Disney’s Go Green Series aims to help you do just that. The first book, Disney Go Green: A Family Guide to a Sustainable Lifestyle, was published for Earth Day last year (Edda USA). Two more books are set to be released with Disney Green Planet available for pre-order and Green Garden slated for March 2016. We were sent a copy of Go Green to review a few weeks ago. The book is a great addition to the family library. Not only does it offer tips and tricks to work sustainability into your family’s daily routine, Go Green is full of activities to make being Green fun for the whole family. Mickey and his friends move through the book discussing how and why we should all be closer to the earth and each other to make the world a better place . Chapter include “Be Active”, “Connect with Others”, “Giving” and “Making Good Choices” along with an explanation of how to reduce our footprint from recycling to sustainable farming. Fun activities include recipes for making natural watercolors, soil paint and playdough plus Easy Applesauce and Mickey’s Seed Crackers. Go Green is a fun way to bring sustainabilty to your children and your home. When you begin to teach your children early on how to be responsible for the world around them at an early age, they carry that knowledge through their lives and really do make the world a better place. 

Just been sent a link to this petition that opens up an interesting debate. Should Charlie and Meg be granted retrospective planning permission for their sustainable eco-home, or, does this set a precedent for building whatever you want on private land, and then arguing about it later?

The latter could be conceived as a dangerous precedent. However, the former represents low-impact living, something we should all be striving for, this is after all, a planet of finite resources.

I don't know the full situation, only what I've glimpsed, but I know that I can't blindly support retrospective planning permission as this sets a precedent that could be abused, but I do support low-impact living and building methods. I also wouldn't want someone to be turfed out of their home. 

Hmmmmm.