12 Steps to Whole Foods

Making Salad the Star
So, we’re focusing again this month on a change that will move you closer from the typical American diet of
11 grams of fiber to the typical chimpanzee diet of 300 grams of fiber! Some studies suggest that ancient man
ate 150 grams of fiber daily. We won’t get as far as the chimps or even ancient people, but this step—along
with your green smoothie—will put you in the top 1% of Americans for having a healthy diet! (That’s assuming
the remainder of your diet isn’t burgers, fries, and candy bars, of course.) How many other areas in your life are
you in the top 1%? And you’re only on Step 2!
With these recipes, I’ve endeavored to help you explore the incredible variety of vegetables that are available
in your local market—vegetables you may not have eaten before. I believe the key to making a salad every
night a habit for life is to have a wide repertoire of food-combining choices. If you change it up, it never gets
boring!
Make a big salad the central part of your meal—the “main dish,” if you will. You can have whatever else you
like for dinner—keep your “comfort foods” on the menu if you want to—but begin to make the mental shift to
a mostly raw vegetable dish as the biggest thing on your plate. After a while, you won’t want to go back to the
way you felt before you began eating dinners featuring a big salad.
My family enjoys a tradition of going out every Saturday night to our favorite salad bar restaurant. My children
pile up a huge plate of raw greens and colorful veggies, and I always compliment the child with the most
colorful plate. They tend to compete with each other to impress Mom with their choices! Most of the other kids
at the restaurant choose mostly cubed ham, cheese, and Jell-O as they go through the salad bar. Occasionally
you see a child with peas or corn on the plate: these are the least nutritious of all vegetables, especially canned.
On several occasions, I have seen parents pointing to my kids’ plates and whispering to their children.
My children (clockwise from left) Emma, Tennyson, Kincade, and Mary Elizabeth making
people stare because of how many veggies they eat.
54 12 Steps to Whole Foods
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw