When it comes to your diet, always choose qualita’

The jar of jam on the left was purchased on sale; the one on the right I admit was  a bit more pricey. The Italians in my family were never drawn to extravagance. They were always, however, drawn to quality. Preferiscono qualita’ alla quantita’ (they prefer quality over quantity), especially when it comes to food. We believe the most powerful way to prevent lifestyle disease is through what we put at the end of our forks. Most of the time that means home cooking, but when choosing store-bought items, like jam for your brioche, reading the label is your insurance against disease, and unhealthy weight gain.

The first ingredient listed on the large sale jar of jam is “high fructose corn syrup”. The first ingredient on the little imported jar is “figs”. Which would you want going into your body? Which would be more likely to support normal, healthy cells, organs, and bodily tissue?

It all comes down to REAL FOOD.  We can skimp on a lot of things and feel little to no effect. We can drive our old car another year, wear that overcoat another season, clean up the pc’s hard drive and forego buying a new one for now—but the one thing NOT to skimp on  is what we put into our bodies.

Quality food is expensive, there is no getting around it. But it is far cheaper to support the body’s health than it is to heal a body when it is sick. Qualita’ means you also eat LESS, so you are not buying reams of items, you are just making smaller,  nutrient- rich choices. In the end, it is not as expensive to eat well as it would seem.

So today, when you head to the supermarket, put down the cookies and lift up the kale; bypass the fruit punch and head toward the aqua minerale;  leave the fatty slabs of beef in the meat case and go for the powerful goodness of a simple bag of dry beans.

When you choose Qualita’ in food you are also saying YES to a better quality of life.

Buon appetito!