I have mulled this over since Tuesday and after losing another hour of sleep last night lying awake thinking about this, I have decided to be honest. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share my thoughts but at the end of the day, why the heck not?
Let’s back track to Tuesday evening. I was getting ready to leave the office and decided to check CNN for a few minutes. My CNN perusing usually goes like this: scan the opening page for unread/interesting articles and then immediately click on the Health section. On Tuesday afternoon, the Health section opened to this article: And Inconvenient Challenge: Eat ‘Real Food’ for a Month.
The article explains the challenge that blogger Jennifer McGruther of the Nourished Kitchen gave to her readers. She gave them simple task to “purge your pantry of processed foods.” Organic processed foods had to go too. During the month Jennifer blogged about her forays into cultivating yogurt and making cheese at home instead of buying them in the store. She did this challenge to show that eating an unprocessed diet is doable.
To put it simply, this article infuriated me. I felt like one of those cartoon characters where they are so angry that stream is coming from their ears. I kept reading it over and over hoping I was reading it incorrectly. I stopped my
Iamsomadatthisarticle thoughts for a moment and realized that I wasn’t actually mad. I was sad. Isn’t sadness always the underlying feeling when we are angry?
But why was I sad? Why does it still make me sad to re-read this article? I am not exactly sure. Jennifer said that she likes the idea of eating less processed foods but there are healthy processed foods that you can buy too. I completely agree but my concerns came with the term ‘real food.
My first issue is that healthy, useful foods like refined oils, flour, sugar, milk, cheese, bread, and dried pastas are lumped together with soda, candy, cookies, and chips as “processed foods.” Yes, the whole wheat flour you buy in a paper bag at the grocery store is technically processed because your not grinding wheat in your kitchen but to include it in the same category as soda is just asinine. Not all processed foods are created equal.
My concern is how we define ‘real food.’ We don’t need to victimize refined oils, flour, salt, dairy, and pasta as ‘bad’ when they are in fact, perfectly healthy (and delicious!) in most diets. Real food should be food that makes sense. If you understand how something is made or where it comes from, then it is real. If you can’t explain a food’s origin, then it probably isn’t the most ideal thing to eat. Case in point, apples come from apple trees, milk comes from a cow, bread is from wheat, and Strawberry Pop-Tarts… no idea!
I understand the point of Jennifer’s challenge and I think it is admirable to show that eating an unprocessed diet it attainable. It is great that she asked her readers to become more aware of their daily food choices. I completely agree that it isn’t always the easiest way to eat but it bothered me that this article acted as if it was difficult or impossible. One of Jennifer’s reader’s said ” I got rid of tons of stuff — enough stuff, that I had trouble figuring out what to feed my kids.” It wasn’t Jennifer’s challenge that made me sad, it was notion that solely eating unprocessed foods for 30 days is somehow burdensome. It shouldn’t be that way. Nobody should think that eating a diet based on unprocessed food is challenging. It should be easier to order a salad than a burger with fries at a restaurant. It should be easier for kids to chose milk instead of soda in the school’s cafeteria. It should be easier. But often time it is not. What does that say about us? Are we so dependent on boxed, canned, bagged, prepared and frozen foods that we cannot survive without them? That is sad.
My favorite quote of this article comes from Jennifer when she says, “real health comes from real food, and real food never comes from a box.”
Enough of my ramblings, what are you thoughts? How do you define ‘real food’?
To put it simply, this article infuriated me. I felt like one of those cartoon characters where they are so angry that stream is coming from their ears. I kept reading it over and over hoping I was reading it incorrectly. I stopped my Iamsomadatthisarticle thoughts for a moment and realized that I wasn’t actually mad. I was sad. Isn’t sadness always the underlying feeling when we are angry?
Hey there! I am twenty something vegetarian with a passion for real food, cooking, and living a healthy, happy life.
i get that if i eat, say, sour cream and cheddar potato chips (which, once a month, i do) it’s not real food.
but dried pasta? really?
i think of real food as undergoing minimal processing… but i’m ok with someone else milling my flour, even baking my bread, so long as i understand all the ingredients…
I absolutely agree that the term ‘processed food’ is too broad to be useful. It certainly needs to be qualified at least as either highly processed / refined or minimally processed. And it certainly does relate to being able to identify a food and it’s origins – the more processing steps and additives that are involved, the less ‘real’ it becomes. Real food shouldn’t be a mystery.
that’s interesting; I hadn’t seen that article.
While I don’t think everything in a box is super processed or unhealthy, I get why she did that rule for the challenge. Most Americans rely SO much on packaged/processed foods that it was probably easier (and more dramatic!) to say that.
But I agree with you: there are healthy items that come in boxes and I can’t always make my own pasta.
Some people just take it way too far.
I agree with you completely with processed food; Sometimes, I’d rather eat something processed than whole, because it doesn’t mean any of the nutrients were terribly stripped away. Processed grains can be soooo beneficial for us. Am I going to grow and hull my own hemp seeds? probably not.
I read that article too and appreciate reading your thoughts about it!
I agree…. that is sad. While I do not eat boxed items, I buy very minimally processed pasta (i.e. Kamut Spirals) for my family, and clients. They love them!!! And it is sooo much better than that white stuff with all of those preservatives. I do not agree that processed grains are beneficial– but I think it would be absurd to sprout your own grains and make bread… and geez! You would be living in the kitchen.
What is tragic about that article is that instead of enlightening readers to the wonder and ease and BENEFIT of eating “real food”– she made it seem over the top, time consuming and extremely impractical to mainstream America.
Such a shame. I suppose there were good intentions there.
My definition of real food is BASIC food… fresh produce, greens, fruit, foods that have not been heated to high temperatures… dried fruits, that do not contain other ingredients (which is a packaged item)… when I look at a product, I look at the ingredients. I want to know what it was cooked in, what was added, and how it was cooked.
A sprouted grain bagel is real for my clients. An Avocado is VERY real.
Why was this woman playing with lard? It may be “real” but it sure isn’t healthy… and wasn’t that her point?
Thanks for bringing this article to my attention.
Some people take things to a whole other level. Am I any less healthy if I eat yogurt after I run 8 miles instead of an apple I handpicked from an orchard? I’m guessing no.
Sure, maybe if I didn’t have anything to do other than grind and culture my own…everything. That’s a full time job and then some. I completely disagree with all of that, AS A DIETITIAN. We need to be making nutrition more approachable and doable for people, not telling them that if you don’t do x, y, and z, you might as well be eating Ramen noodles and hot dogs. That really upsets me — I do have madatthatarticle feelings! This is just not reality, people need to get a clue.
Interesting. I don’t know if I would have the same reaction that you did. I think this challenge is kind of neat. what I don’t like about it, however, is the NO PROCESSED foods part. I am against that, because I will always say anything is ok in moderation. There is no need for such an extreme, and I will enjoy my processed ice cream right now, thanks
Nice post, we appreciate your honesty! That’s what a blog is for, right?!
I wanted to let you know this post inspired me to write one similar myself! That article struck a cord with me!!!
I think there is a fine line between obsessive and logical. I try my hardest to eat unprocessed foods, but…they’re not all evil! I mean,by those standards..even tofu would be the devil.
I define real food as not processed. But it’s also next to impossible in today’s world to consume only “real food” because, like you said, a lot of folks have become so accustomed to boxed, canned, and processed foods they can’t imagine life without them.
We can choose real food as often as possible, though, and always make an extra effort to be aware of our food choices and to try to choose real food more often than not, in my opinion.
*smiles*
Michele
P.S. LOVE your site, by the way!
I agree with you. Technically a LOT of foods are processed, even whole grains like oatmeal but it is definitely not a bad food! I just think the article meant to eat things that are chemically enhanced or produced – something along those lines. I agree though that we should eat more whole foods in general. I feel so much better physically and mentally when I do.