Our family ate and drank a healthy diet in 2013. This year will be better even though the quality of foods and drinks is going down and the costs are going up.

Eating healthier is not an easy task in today’s world of GMO foods, extremely poor conditions for producing animals, and corporate giants doing what they can to squeeze every penny of profits for their bottom line. In the mist of this equation is a FDA that is more a servant to the big drug companies and food companies than they are for the consumer. There are serious and significant changes occurring and will continue to occur in 2014 which are not good for the overall quality of foods and of drinks. Perhaps even the availability of certain foods may be impacted in some areas of the USA.

Somewhere the system lost the focus of what was best for the people. So when you and I go into the market place to buy food and drink for our family it is most important to become more careful where those dollars are spent.

I am very confident that the family will have a healthier diet this year. Below is a workable plan to accomplish this. It will work and we are working it:

1. I am rapidly changing to a healthier diet as the Heavenly Father leads. He knows more about me than anyone or body of persons elsewhere. This includes the doctors and certainly the so called “religious” leaders. So far this year I have changed 3 things in the diet per the guidance of the Heavenly Father. Also, I am spending a few minutes every day visualizing those changes as being closed or open doors with an angel guarding them.

Visualization if a very powerful tool for change. But without the guidance of the Heavenly Father it is most difficult to determine what one needs to change to make the most improvement in their health. God knows what will best help you. If you are humble enough to ask Him and willing to submit to Him, He will gladly show you what you need to change to best take care of your health.

So what does it mean if I eat a healthier diet as God leads. It means that I am buying healthier food for all those that eat at the family table. As I live a healthier life in His priority, what I do and do not put in the grocery cart improves for the rest of the family.

2. We are growing a garden this year. We already have a herb garden which provides very nice oregano and rosemary year round. The reason we grow these herbs is that we constantly use them for cooking and they are expensive if you can find them at all in the grocery stores. This year I plan to add another rosemary bush to the spread-out-herb garden. Plus one son is going to plant a small vegetable garden this year. I will help him. We also plan to find out who is growing what in the neighborhood so we can exchange herbs, fruits, and vegetables. Over the years fewer and fewer people in the area are growing gardens. But still some do grown gardens. I hope to find them this year and do a little food trading.

3. The family is eating less meats. And when we do buy meat we are buying more natural type of meats. I don’t think God ever intended for folks to eat 3 meals a day with meat. Only during modern times has man eaten this way. Healthy, Kosher Meat is good for you and intended for you health. But not 3 times a day, 365.25 days a year. That is over a 1000 meat servings a year. Eating meat this often is out of balance with the way God designed you for optimal health. For now I am buying mostly free range chicken eggs. There is no way an egg from a hen that is all cooped up into a tiny space is going to be as good for you as an egg from an hen that has a much larger area to roam. A few weeks ago I bought 4 large free range turkeys. My family can feel the difference eating more natural turkeys compared to eating turkeys that are clumped together in small places. I buy organic chicken from COSCO. I am not so sure that it is the best. But for now it is much better than the regular chickens sold at the local grocery.

Meats and meat products are some of the more expensive foods. Buying less meat provides more money to spend on fresh, non-GMO, fruits and vegetables. We just don’t need 1000 plus meat servings a year to eat healthy.

4. I am constantly improving on the quality of the foods and drinks I buy. This means I read a lot of labels. I am always buying new foods that I think may be better. The family usually tells me if I made the right or wrong decision on the new food or drink. I do ask the Heavenly Father to help me to buy the best foods and drinks for the family. I need to do this more often. I am sure if I did, I would get more help.

5. I will buy less sugar laden foods in 2014. Yes, I love the sugary foods. I have not yet said “NO” to sugary foods yet. But I will soon get there in February. After I stop eating foods with added sugar or sugar additives, then sugary foods will go down drastically for the rest of the family. I just will not be adding so many in the grocery cart. Currently, we do avoid eating foods that have added fructose corn syrup. There are many harmful sugar additives in food. But fructose corn syrup is the worse simply because of the high volume that many process food manufacturers add to their foods.

6. My family cooks a lot. This significantly improves the quality of the food we eat. The alternative to cooking is to buy prepackaged and often very processed foods. These types of foods are usually not best for you. Also, we are starting to sprout more and more seeds to eat the sprouts. Sprouting significantly helps to have very nutritious foods with very little effort.

We will continue to cook a lot in 2014. By cooking our own foods we can more readily determine what is good for us and not good for us within limits. I am saying within limits because this is way secondary to obeying what God has shown you eat or not to eat.

7. We drink pure water. We have had a good RO system for the last 2 years. This year we will change out the filters to continue to insure good pure water is delivered for our family’s drinking water. I am not saying RO is the best way to insure pure water. But it is one way that our family has found to be economical and efficient to take out most of the impurities found in tap water.

Even though it is going to get tougher to find healthy foods and drinks in the future. we are pursuing a healthier diet in 2014 by addressing the above. I have no doubt that 2014 will prove to be an even healthier food and drink year for the family.

Written by and submitted to Kettle Moraine Publications for posting on February 2, 2014 by the author, Clint Young. Mr Young is the author of the book, Understanding Cancer.