Does your food taste good? Not just sweet or salty, but good?
Most people, especially in America, have rarely tasted the divine flavors of bitter, astringent, sour or tangy. If you have followed any Indian medicine, you'll recognize some of these.
In the US, our flavors are dominated by sugar and salt. That's it. I think it's one of the main reasons why our kids dislike their vegetables. Vegetables are rarely sweet or salty (unless we make them that way). They have wonderfully complex flavors in of themselves.
That leads into what herbs and spices do you used? And more importantly, where did you get them?
Most people have around 10 herbs and spices in their cabinet. That's a shame because there are hundreds out there. Most of what people have are the typical ones: pepper, basil, oregano, parsley, garlic and onion. Most of these don't dry well and are weak tasting.
Have you had a really fresh piece of basil or oregano? The flavor is totally different. There is more nutrition too. How about really fresh basil?
One of the things I recommend to my clients is to try 1 new thing every week. This includes herbs and spices. There are so many different ones that can be combined into new flavors.
Not only do you get better flavors, you can add a punch of nutrition as well. Most herbs are concentrated in minerals and vitamins. Did you know parsley has the highest concentrations of Vitamin C out there? How about the garlic is one of the most potent anti-biotics, better than penicillin in some cases? Tumeric can help to lower cholesterol and dandelion can help lower blood sugar.
These tastes are wonderful to add to any dish. But here's the catch, you need to try things. And that means cooking at home. Getting ideas from restaurants is a good, but they rarely let you taste something new.
Most restaurants want to sell food, not expand your palate. They rarely go after the more unusual spices and go heavy on the salts and sugars because that's what sells.
Boxed foods in the grocery stores are even worse. They nearly totally rely on salt and sugar for their flavors. They also use artificial flavors and chemicals because real flavors are too unpredictable. Would you rather eat fresh foods or chemicals?
I believe you should stick to making foods at home. This way, you control the salt, sugar and herbs. You can make it taste however you want. It also give you that opportunity to make those vegetables taste simple wonderful!
Christina Major is the Naturopathic Doctor and Holistic Nutritionist of Crystal Holistic Health Consulting. Crystal Holistic Health helps people, especially women, who have Type II Diabetes, High Cholesterol and High Blood Pressure lower their numbers, get off medication and increase their energy so they can save money, take back control of their lives and improve the health and happiness of their families. You can get a free report on health at http://www.crystalholistichealth.com/!
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