Because I am so passionate about nutrition I have been known to get fired up over certain topics. Well the other day I was looking at the ingredients on the half and half container that my dad uses each day to put in his coffee. Normally when I’m shopping I get him the organic variety but this time he picked a nonorganic brand. Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m 99.9% sure that half and half is just milk and cream mixed together. Well this particular brand of half and half had this ingredient list:
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INGREDIENTS: Milk, Cream, Contains Less than 1% of Each of the Following Sodium Citrate, and Disodium Phosphate.
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I just couldn’t understand why it had to have sodium citrate and disodium phosphate. It really got me thinking about the subject of “real food.” I went to the library and took out a book called “Real Food Has Curves: How to Get Off Processed Food, Lose Weight, and Love What You Eat.” I haven’t finished the entire book so far but I am loving it and it has really made me think about the food I am eating.
I am making a pledge to myself and invite my readers to do the same to really look at what we are eating and to focus on eating real food. Yes it is going to take more effort on your part but how can you really put a price on your health. Because what we put in our mouths has a direct relationship to our health. My challenge for you all is to make little changes. Read labels and only buy food with ingredients that you know, shop locally and in season at your local farmers markets, really think about what you are eating as you are doing it, and most importantly get in the kitchen. Next time instead of going to the store to buy an apple pie for dessert from the frozen food section make one from scratch at home.
When I make the argument about real food I challenge people to think back to the time before convenience and diet foods. Before fat free and sugar free where even options. A time when people had gardens and got milk delivered to their doors. My question is was obesity ever and issue back in that time? What about heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure? Yes all of those things existed but in such little numbers that no one paid much attention to them. Thats because people ate real food. They sat down at the table for every meal and ate their meal as a family.
The foods that individuals think of as problem foods today such as cream, butter, eggs are not the problems if you are eating local grass fed, organic varieties. The problems is the abundance of fake foods. Purple ketchup, macaroni and cheese in a box, TV dinners, soda, and fast food. All designed to sell and make a profit and not for nutrition. Although obesity is a norm these days people are more under nourished than ever. We live in a society of overfed under nourished people. Because although people are eating an alarming amount of calories they are lacking important nutrients essential to a healthy diet. So with that being said I challenge you to go to the library and check out a cookbook. Then head to your local farmers market and get in your kitchen and start cooking.
