Food in Ecuador

This is our water filter.  We try and drink plenty of water each day.  It is good for your digestive system, skin,  weight loss, increases energy, flushes out toxins, boosts your immune system, a great headache remedy, helps keep joints lubricated and muscles elastic, helps you feel good and you save money because it's free!!

Every morning we eat a bowl of bananas, pineapple and yogurt.

The pineapple here is REALLY good.  This is a white pineapple.

For desset sometimes we have homemade orange nut bread topped with whipping cream and homemade strawberry jam. 

One of our favorite dinners.  Potatoes with a chicken gravy, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers.  The more color the better it is for you!

Some street vendors in Quito.  I can't tell what she is selling.

Barbecued corn.

More corn for sale!

Shishkobobs that smelled really good.  We don't eat off the street.  Don't want to get sick!  So far so good!!

 Good Food

A diet based on starchy foods such as potatoes, bread, rice and pasta; with plenty of fruit and vegetables; some protein-rich foods such as meat, fish and lentils; some milk and dairy foods; and not too much fat, salt or sugar, will give you all the nutrients you need.
When it comes to a healthy diet, balance is the key to getting it right. This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions, and consuming the right amount of food and drink to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight.
 The eatwell plate shows that to have a healthy, balanced diet, people should try to eat:

• plenty of fruit and vegetables
• plenty of starchy foods, such as bread, rice, potatoes and pasta
• some meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein
• some milk and dairy foods
• just a small amount of food and drinks that are high in fat and/or sugar 

 http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/Healthyeating.aspx

We eat beans almost every day for lunch.  These beans swell up to 3 times their size.

We found this drink that we love.  It's like Pero or Postum.  It's made out of hava seeds that are ground up.

All our fruits and veggies get a clorox bath and rinse in purified water before we eat them.

Yummy pineapple.  Dad used to eat a whole one of these on his first mission.  Can't do that now!!

Our hot drink of Solfk.

Lunch made up of beans, rice, veggies and sometimes bread.  In the store below us there is a bakery and they have really good bread!!

We made these oatmeal raisin cookies and forgot to put in half the sugar.  They are a great dessert or snack,

We love coleslaw too with our beans and rice!!

Tomatoes taste like they came out of the garden.

Same with the cucumbers.  Very tasty!!

Our veggies for dinner.  We were talking to some eye doctors here and they said over 50% of the people in Ecuador develop diabetes which causes eye problems because they don't eat fruits and veggies.  It's an epidemic here and the doctors can't keep up with the eye problems.

The bread.  It has seeds in it and we eat it with our homemade strawberry jam.  We bought some stawberries from a little lady outside out apt. building and made freezer jam.

Our breakfast each morning is oatmeal.  Dad puts these oats in the blender and then cooks them.  They are delicious.

Dad loves his peanuts.  We buy them raw and then he roasts them in the oven with a little oil and salt.

These are raisins and they are huge!  We mix them with the peanuts for a snack.

You can buy yogurt here by the gallon and it's runny.  They don't have regular thick yogurt here but this is our favorite one with fruit in the morning.

Our milk looks like this and it tastes really good.  The boxed milk in the DR was gross!!

We inherited a popcorn popper from another apartment so we make popcorn once in a while.  Last night we had FHE here with the other 4 senior missionaries and we made carmel popcorn.

I think if you eat more fiber with your meals, it lowers your insulin response.

Fruit and vegetables are high in fiber, and so are legumes.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2995635

Benjamin Arch Francom

And of course our diet wouldn't be complete without a Magnum ice cream bar once in a while.  If you haven't tried one go out and get some, especially the dark chocolate ones.