Any SmartChick (or SmartGuy) knows that what we put into our bodies is the single biggest thing that affects our health. Sure there are major impacts on our health by genetics and environment. But what we take in every day is what courses through our bodies and really determines how we feel.

I had the chance to write an article earlier on 20 Foods that are Great for your Skin which really got me thinking about the foods that we eat and the way they can benefit us or cause us problems. It makes sense that if you drink a lot of water and eat foods that are rich in antiocidants, selenium, Vitamin A and Vitamin C then you’re going to have a healthy body and good skin.

So why is doing that so hard sometimes? I do tend to have a pretty good diet. I’m lucky because I like a lot of foods that are healthy for me. I also don’t particularly like to cook (although I’m learning new recipes that are changing my opinion on that) so I tend to choose methods of cooking (broiling, steaming and eating things raw) that are healthier for me than other options.

Nevertheless, I definitely indulge in junk food more often than I should. Mostly I think moderation is the key here but writing that article definitely has me thinking that if I really want to be smart, I needed to focus on being smarter about what I put into my body each day!

Tags: diet, Food, foods for skin, health, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, nutrition, skin

I have been exploring the art of cooking recently. I used to really dislike cooking and I have to admit that it’s something I’m still kind of iffy about. However, I am starting to learn about the creativity behidn making meals and that’s making me more inclined to try out different dishes in my kitchen and to experiment with having fun while cooking.

As a result of this newfound interest, I’ve been writing and reading more about food lately. I just started a really good book by Isabelle Allende on Aphrodisiacs (Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses) which I highly recommend to anyone interested in the passion of food. And I’m doing a lot more reading of food blogs and articles about cooking.

Today I got the chance to explore an interesting aspect of this topic when answering a HubPages request that someone made for an article with a vegetarian recipe alternative to bigos. Bigos is a traditional Polish dish made with multiple kinds of meat so I got to explore the creativity of this dish in my mind to consider how to make a vegetarian alternative to it that would be comparable to the original.

This got me thinking about all of the different foods there are that we can use in place of meat. There are meat alternatives made in factories. There are more ntural meat alternatives like soy and tofu. And then there are vegetables that are thick and yet rather bland (potatoes and mushrooms) which can provide a meat-like texture to dishes for vegetarians. Hm, this is making me want to go play around in my kitchen!

Tags: bigos, eating, Food, healthy, recipe, vegetarian alternatives, vegetarian bigos