(I’ve been taking pictures of my meals – seriously – for 10 months to prepare for this blog. View here on Facebook.)
In 2011, I was preparing lunch in the corporate break room. A colleague who I was friendly with – who also formerly reported to me – pulled me aside and asked if she could speak with me privately.
Curious and very interested, I said yes. She booked a private meeting room and sent me an invite.
I thought for sure an invitation of this secrecy would be related to office politics or to tell me she was looking for another job and ask for a reference.
But what happened next totally caught me off guard.
‘Angela,’ my colleague said very seriously looking straight in my eyes, ‘I notice you eat different from other people.’
lol – What?
I said, ‘OK. Is that why we’re here today?’
She confirmed yes, indeed it was. She was very interested in how I eat, what I eat, and why I ate that way.
I don’t eat extreme. I eat real food. It’s our US food culture that is extreme – the grocery stores, fast food, and many restaurants are full of food-like products, processed to a degree that the primary ingredient is unrecognizable from its original, nature-intended form.
It’s our US government that subsidizes corn, soybeans, milk, and wheat that fuels the food industry for profits – not our health. I wish the government subsidized bell peppers, peaches, bing cherries, swiss chard, and sweet potatoes!
When I was going through my personal health crisis, I started to immerse myself in nutrition to find ways to heal myself and support my well-being.
Back then, I would have told you I had a pretty good – better than the average American – diet. Ya know, yogurt, granola, Chick-fil-A, olive oil, Wheat-Thins and cheese, turkey sandwiches, etc.
The more I researched and learned, the more I realized my ‘better than average’ American diet was nowhere near eating real food that my body desperately needed to nourish its brain function, organs, hormones, and cells.
Eating well is not about restricting your caloric and fat count, but is about getting the nutrients the body needs to maintain a healthy gut, digestion, organs, and blood.
Chances are, even if you are overfed, you’re starving yourself.
I don’t postulate a certain way of eating as best – think paleo, vegan, raw, gluten-free, macrobiotic, low-carb, etc. You’ll need to sort that out on your own journey and/or with a doctor (functional medicine doctors are great, your traditional allopathic doctor has no to little nutrition training) or a conscious nutritionist.
What is real food? Real food is not a food product. It generally has one ingredient (think carrot, potato, pumpkin seed, collard green) and doesn’t need a label.
Real food isn’t processed. Boxed cereals, crackers (my former beloved Wheat-Thins!), cookies, frozen meals, candy, anything that says reduced fat, has high fructose corn syrup, refined sugar (which is plain white sugar), vegetable oil, margarine, preservatives, stabilizers, artificial dyes/colors, and most stuff that comes in a box, can, or wrapper is processed, even if it says organic.
To carry out bodily functions, reduce the opportunity for inflammatory processes (which is the root of many ailments), and build resilience, the body craves nourishment. Nutrients. Real food.
I acknowledge food and eating has a lot of psychological and emotional baggage in our culture. If you have an eating disorder or a specific illness that requires unique dietary needs, this post is likely not for you. You, along with everyone else, are the master of your body.
But I know there are those of you out there that really desire and want to know how to eat a real foods diet. It comes from a genuine, healthy place inside you and you don’t want to rely on the latest craze, juice, smoothie, or cleanse to find your balance of healthy.
You want to eat real food.
Below are steps you can use to navigate your way to eating a whole food – real food diet.
A couple important things for me to point out before you get started:
- What you eat does not make you a better person. If you choose to try this out, the only rule to follow is to eliminate these words from your vocabulary around food: should, shouldn’t, supposed to, not supposed to, can, can’t, cheat, bad, & good
- People who eat a real food diet likely did not make the switch all at once. I would say the below list could take 3 years to incorporate and fine tune to your body. There is no all or nothing.
- The more you eat real food, the more your palate will refine and become sensitive to real food. You will want real food. I used to love Starburst candy, but putting a Starburst in my mouth now is disgusting. My husband recently bit into an Oreo at work and spit it out. It’s not because we’re ‘good,’ it’s because eating real food sensitizes you to real food. You’ll see with time how desensitized you may have been to processed or fake foods. With time, you will likely not want processed foods or they may make you immediately feel sick.
- You’ll notice I say once you have practiced a step 80% to move on. I don’t have an 80/20 rule. Some days I’m 90/10. Some days I’m 40/60. I use 80% as a reference guideline only because in general, it normalizes an ease of change. The only rule is to eliminate – repeat with me – should, shouldn’t, supposed to, not supposed to, can, can’t, cheat, good, bad – from your food vocabulary.
- If there’s a step that doesn’t feel right to you or that you’re not ready for, feel free to mix and match! You are your own master and free as a bird.
STEP 1
Drink plain water and no artificial flavoring teas (preferably herbal tea and minimally sweetened if necessary with honey, maple syrup. or coconut sugar) for beverages.
This means eliminating soda, flavored drinks, and fruit juices. If you already drink milk, continue with your regular allotment and drink whole milk, vat pasteurized if you can find it (yes, skim milk is processed even more than whole milk and fat does not make you fat). If you don’t drink milk, don’t start. If you must drink coffee, drink coffee plain or with full fat cream or milk. If you must have sweetness to your coffee, use honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar. Continue with your alcohol consumption as normal (for now).
This sensitizes your palate to sugar, artificial flavorings, and colors.
Once you’ve practiced this with ease 80% of the time for one month, move on to:
STEP 2
Eat 3 vegetables or more a day. Many more if you like! Keep your fruit consumption as normal. Note this is not 3 fruits and vegetables, this is just 3 vegetables. If you want to eat a real food diet, you’ll need to get used to liking vegetables. Fresh, frozen, raw, or cooked – 3 vegetables or more a day.
Most people think salad – aka lettuce – is their only vegetable choice. The earth is full of tasty vegetables! Carrots, bok choy, swiss chard, sweet potatoes, kale, collard greens, celery, broccolini, bell peppers, onion, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, zucchini, squash, beets, asparagus, cabbage, spinach, artichokes – delicious!
Sorry – ketchup, and processed and dehydrated ‘veggie chips’ in a bag aren’t vegetables.
Once you’ve practiced this with ease 80% of the time for one month, move on to:
STEP 3
Buy and use real butter, coconut oil, and/or ghee to use at the house for cooking. Organic lard and duck fat if you like too! Eliminate vegetable oil, canola oil, margarine, and shortening (all processed and foreign to the body). This means any recipe you have that calls for the other stuff, you will find an upgrade for (hello intarnets!).
Note olive oil is not meant for cooking. It goes rancid when heated at high temperatures and is meant for eating cold, room temp and/or salad dressings.
Once you’ve practiced this with ease 80% of the time for one month, move on to:
STEP 4
Upgrade your salt. Trade out your processed table salt and switch it up with sea salt, himalayan salt, or any type of naturally occurring salt you like and tastes good to you.
If you are concerned about getting enough iodine, a simple solution (this is what I do), is to have a daily dose of dehydrated kelp flakes. It’s inexpensive (around $3.50 for a shaker bottle). They can be found in the ethnic food aisle of your grocery store, usually next to the Thai condiments and nori paper.
STEP 5
Stop buying reduced fat anything. Buy full fat. Fat does not make you fat. Anything that says ‘reduced fat’ is not in its original form.
Once you’ve practiced this with ease 80% of the time for one month, move on to:
STEP 6
Eat real snacks. If you’re eating granola bars (yes, even organic ones), sweetened yogurt, cereal bars, crackers, candy, and chips for snacks, time to upgrade to real food snacks.
Try cashews, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, fruit, plain full fat cow, goat, or coconut yogurt, homemade trail mix, leftover meat, raw cheese, or vegetables – delicious and very satisfying!
Once you’ve practiced this with ease 80% of the time for one month, move on to:
STEP 7
Eat real food for breakfast – eggs, pasture-raised meats, fruit, vegetables, a whole food – no refined sugar smoothie, full fat plain yogurt, oatmeal cooked with plain oats.
Once you’ve practiced this with ease 80% of the time for one month, move on to:
STEP 8
Here we go – wheat products. I hear Satanists are more popular in L.A. and Boulder, CO than people who eat gluten. Remember, what you eat does not make you a better person.
Wheat and gluten have a bad rap. Google ‘wheat hybridization’ and ‘wheat glyphosate’ to do your own research.
Conventional, non-organic wheat, has probably been sprayed with glyphosate, aka Roundup – not so healthy for your bod, brain, or the environment. In your home and out and about, choose organic wheat products. I eat wheat products about 2-3x/week, mainly at home. For bread, I love and use sprouted, organic Ezekiel bread. You can find it in the freezer section of your health food store and maybe even some bigger grocery store chains.
Boxed and pre-made frozen pasta and crackers are processed. Gluten-free pizza crusts are usually processed. Take a good look at the label. There are some organic wheat pizza doughs out there in the freezer section, or you can make your own and freeze them – fun!
This means you’ll start making different choices when you eat out and in the freezer aisle. Fast food or semi-fast food is becoming less and less an option. You’ll plan ahead or know your local cafes or health stores where you want to eat when you need convenience.
Once you’ve practiced this with ease 80% of the time for one month, move on to:
STEP 9
Upgrade to pasture-fed eggs and organic dairy. These last two steps are about choosing clean sources of protein. If you care about animals and/or are concerned about environmental issues, this step and step 10 will be of particular concern to you due to how conventional eggs, meat and fish are raised and farmed. It’s not pretty and very disturbing. I suggest watching Food Inc. to learn more about what you are really eating when you eat eggs and meat (yes, even some organic) from fast food, restaurant, grocery stores, and even health food store.
Google ‘pastured eggs’ and your city to find where to purchase eggs that come from birds that are free roaming. Cage-free doesn’t mean much. Go for pastured from your local farm.
Upgrade to organic for all your dairy. Conventional farming practices still use
STEP 10
Choose wild-caught seafood and organic, pastured animal protein. Most fish – even in the grocery store – is farmed. Google ‘fish farming’ for environmental and potential health concerns.
In a restaurant, ask if the seafood is wild caught and where their meat comes from. If the server doesn’t know, I always assume the seafood is farmed and the animals came from a factory farm. Conscious restaurants who carefully select their seafood and animal protein make it a point to educate their consumers and staff on the source of their seafood and meat. Note most chain restaurants and fast food only use conventionally raised factory farm meat or farmed fish. Even if the restaurant claims, ‘antibiotic free,’ or ‘no hormones’ that does not mean it is pastured and organic.
Sometimes you cannot find organic pastured meat, even at Whole Foods and Earth Fare. Google your local farm or meat CSA. You will invest more for this, but money is a form of energy. Your dollar says ‘Yes, I support this’ or ‘No, I don’t support this.’
If you want meat and eat out, you’ll likely need to upgrade the restaurants you frequent. It is really fun and community building to try out local, independent restaurants who are farm-to-table and care about health and sustainable living! You’ll find your peeps!
STEP 11
Final sweep – eliminate what remains of refined sugar, refined flour, artificial sweeteners, artificial colors, stabilizers, and preservatives. For the most part, you have by now and are fine tuning eating real food.
Natural flavoring can be code for MSG. Red #such and such – is a petroleum byproduct. No ingredients? It’s real food!
STEP 12
Now fine-tune for you. The first 11 steps are just the beginning of eating a real and preparing a whole food – real food diet. You can now research and experiment with what to choose organic for produce (google dirty dozen and clean fifteen) and how to prepare foods for maximum nutrient absorption like soaking seeds, beans, and grains. You can experiment with spices and ways to boost digestion (like drinking warm lemon water before meals). You’ll learn what your body likes cooked or raw. You’ll learn how your body really responds to caffeine and alcohol so you can make supportive choices for your body.
You’ll discover how the seasons affect your choice of whether a fresh cantaloupe or chicken stew feels nourishing to you. Your body will say ‘Thank You!” for the nourishment it receives. The animals, farmers, and ocean creatures will live with respect and sustainability.
And we all sing kumbaya!
(I’ve been taking pictures of my meals – seriously – for 10 months to prepare for this blog. View here on Facebook.)
Real Food Rocks,
Angela
