EATING HEALTHILY SHOULD be simple, but it can be easy to get bamboozled by all the information out there. Should I go Paleo? Veggie? Should I juice fast? Do I give up carbs?
The brothers behind the Happy Pear restaurant and grocery store in Greystones Co Wicklow have a very simple philosophy when it comes to healthy eating, one that they have built a hugely successful business on: eat wholefoods, with an emphasis on the plants.
Once they felt the positive impact of following a plant-based diet, with organic wholefoods and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, they wanted to spread the word.
So they opened a veg shop, then a café-restaurant. And now they have a cookbook out (which you can find out more about in our interview here).
How to eat better – it’s simple
We asked them for their tips on eating better, and in their typically energetic style, they showed us.
“If you look at how our diet’s changed over the last 100 years, pre-1900s our diet was made up of: 90% was wholefoods and about 10% was animal foods. Whereas nowadays, 50% is animal foods, 40% is processed foods and 10% is wholefoods. So it’s inverted massively,” says David.
When you think about it we lived very active lives, we ploughed the fields. We laboured, we worked. And this is how we evolved over millions of years. And we ate porridge and cabbage and potatoes and we had carrots.
Once a month someone killed a cow and we all ate cow for a few days. And the we went back to cabbage and carrots and potatoes. Whereas nowadays our diet is shit.
He and his brother want to change that, and bring down the levels of people suffering from diseases of affluence, such as obesity.
“It’s the first time in the world that people will die of obesity and diseases of affluence rather than starvation,” says David. Adds his brother Steve of today’s food issues: “It’s an addiction to refined foods and stress.”
Their food philosophy? It’s simple, and cheap.
Eat your vegetables, eat your beans, eat your cereals [not boxed breakfast cereals - they mean wholegrains like oats and barley]. It’s really simple. Wholefoods.
What do you think?
Video filmed and edited by Michelle Hennessy
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