Although she’s not your mom, she sounds like it. Theresa Byrne shares compelling reasons for you to eat your broccoli.
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Living a life of power also means giving power to your body. Hence the topic of broccoli. No, it’s not my favorite vegetable either and I’m always looking for ways to dress it up because I know it’s good for me.
Sure it’s difficult to imagine given the choice between broccoli and French fries or ice cream you’d choose the broccoli. Knowing that broccoli could help you live longer, stay healthier, and french fries won’t, would you choose the broccoli? At least a few times a week? A day?
(Feel free to substitute kale, lettuce, peppers, or any whole healthy food for broccoli.)
When you choose a healthy food it’s not “INSTEAD OF” the less healthy choice, it’s “IN SPITE OF” it. In spite of the inherent deliciousness of things considered junk food, we can make healthier choices (sometimes or all the time, you get to choose.)
When you choose a healthy food it’s not “INSTEAD OF” the less healthy choice, it’s “IN SPITE OF IT.”
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Cake, candy, ice cream, milkshakes, potato chips, French fries, or (insert your favorite craving food here) will always taste good! These things are created to taste amazing. These foods were created to be craved. These foods were created to hook you.
I sat next to a woman on a plane who told me she was a food chemist. When I asked what that meant, she explained that she created molecules that were added to foods to make our brains like it or crave it, that had no nutritional value but raised the pleasure value of whatever foods these molecules were added. Suddenly some of my cravings made sense!
Heck I haven’t eaten those famous french fries for over ten years, but I can still remember (and salivate) over what my brain remembers they taste like! There are certain non-nutitional foods that taste really good, will always taste good but these junk foods are not always great for your body.
I was speaking with a woman at a health food supplement company (no joke) who had been telling me how she’d be really healthy if it wasn’t for the fact that she loved sweets. I told her that I love them too and although cake would always taste amazing; it wasn’t a great choice all the time. Cake wouldn’t help us get older and play with our kids, or walk them down the aisle or play with our grandkids. “I love what you’re saying! Why doesn’t anyone else that’s selling a healthy lifestyle say that? Cake will always taste good. There will rarely be a time where it doesn’t taste good. But it’s not about the taste, it’s about which choice will help me stay healthier longer!”
“Cake will always taste good. There will rarely be a time where it doesn’t taste good. But it’s not about the taste, it’s about which choice will help me stay healthier longer!”
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I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but I have been in the health and wellness field helping people since 1999, saying the same thing. It’s all about the choices.
I admit I love the taste of junk foods as much as the next person, and would never tell you what you should or shouldn’t eat: but I know how I feel after eating them. And it isn’t worth it to me to feel what I call it “numb and dumb.”
And until then I’ll be looking for ways to make kale and broccoli more interesting…
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Here are some hilarious commercials the guys from Good Mythical Morning created for broccoli. Yay broccoli!
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Photo credit: iStock