“It tastes good, but is it food?” I found myself asking that question recently as I did my grocery shopping, surrounded by a superabundance of “food” choices. I’m sure you know what I mean. For those of us trying for a healthy lifestyle, what we are confronted with in the store is simply bewildering. Is that foodstuff good for us, or not?

 

As a society, we are clearly getting it wrong. Increasing numbers of people have issues with their weight – obesity is the new health epidemic. It all stems from poor food choices. Food advertising urges us to eat things loaded with sugars, fats, or nutritional substitutes that may be equally damaging to our bodies. We are told we “should” eat this and “shouldn’t” eat that until our heads are spinning in information overload.

 

I have settled on a formula that simplifies these decisions. It cuts right to the chase. I now ask myself “Would my grandmother have served this?” If my grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, then I don’t buy it.

 

Think about it. The older generation, people still fit and well into their eighties and nineties, got it right. They belong to the generation where life expectancy was increasing, not decreasing. Their food choices have a lot to do with their longevity. They ate seasonal foods which they took the time to prepare from fresh ingredients at home. They didn’t eat “treats” every day as a matter of course. And they always ate “an apple a day.”

 

Now when I go to the store, everything that goes into my cart has to pass the Grandmother Test. If I can visualize her shaking her head in disapproval or bewilderment over my choices, then they go back on the shelf. It’s making life a lot simpler, and our health is better for it.

 

My grandmother died of stomach cancer at the ripe old age of 92. She had all her marbles to the very last. She rode her bicycle until she was 86. She was a bit of a naughty Granny. She was known to indulge in the occasional glass of “medicinal” brandy, and had she not smoked almost till the day she died, might well have lived even longer! If she hadn’t actually existed, it would be necessary to invent her. So if you are not fortunate enough to have a grandmother like that of your own for the Grandmother Test, then you are welcome to borrow mine!