I am reading "Real Food: What to Eat and Why" by Nina Planck...and it is freaking me out. We (the common American) eat such junk, even when we are trying to eat healthy. The thing I keep telling myself is "baby steps". I can't change everything we eat all at once. But I can make small changes till I get where I want us to be. And that is what I have been doing, cutting out FHCS, and only buying whole wheat bread and pasta. I have always used butter instead of margarine...but now I am debating using lard instead of Crisco...I am already reading the labels to make make sure I don't buy food with hydrogenated oils...but trying to find anything that does not have sunflower/soybean/corn oil in it is almost impossible.
One easy change that I can make right away is grass-fed beef. I know it will be more expensive, but we don't eat a lot of beef now, so it is worth it. Also I will be getting whole mike only...not quite ready to make the change to raw milk...
Now it is time to go to Trader Joe's...
Why whole instead of low fat -- 2%? that seems outside the scope of "real vs processed" Is what they use to skim the fat a chemical or something? I am a REAL city girl, but I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that book is pretty intense. I really love it, but it really makes you think of all the stuff we just take for granted as "food". One thing you can use instead of butter in baking and cooking is coconut oil or ghee. Ghee is clarified butter, so it can be heated to higher temperatures. Coconut oil, when cooked or added to baked stuff, doesn't keep its taste, so the final product tastes the same.
ReplyDeleteIt IS so hard to find stuff w/o soybean/corn oil in it, especially since all of the "health" brands use it instead of animal fats, which they think are bad for you. Eating her way definitely means you're cooking more, which I've actually really enjoyed doing. You eat less crap if you have to make it yourself :-) The hardest things to make or eat less of are cereals/crackers though, which is hard with a little boy around, I'm sure.
We buy the whole, raw milk and love it. It's so satisfying and creamy. It takes a little bit to get used to it again, though, since most of us have been drinking skim/2% for so long. I'm sure Seth will love it though :-)
Barb: Nina's book/philosophy is about eating foods as close to their natural state as possible. I'm not quite sure about how they get the 2% or nonfat milk, but I do know that when I skim the cream off my milk, it is still technically "whole" milk, so they must do something extra. I think she also goes into the idea that whole, raw milk is easier for those that have lactose issues to metabolize. Again, when you eat a food that is "whole", it is processed by your body in a completely different, and usually helpful/healthier, way.
You're so lucky to live close to Trader Joe's though! We have our Co-op here, which is great, but it's so much more expensive than TJ's.
WOW that was a long comment! Sorry!
ReplyDelete