What the heck is Real Food, anyway?

As this blog goes forward, I'm going to be making a lot of references to "Real Food" as a way to make food choices.  While there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of blogs out there focusing on Real Food, many of them are for people who are already immersed in the real foodie culture, and some of the blogs are also religious in nature.  

What's compelling to me about Real Food is that the more science studies it, the more we realize that it is EXACTLY what we are supposed to eat.  People who eat Real Food have significantly less incidences of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer.  People who eat real fats actually loose body fat.  (Yes, you can eat fat and lose fat, it's true.  You can also eat fat and improve your health.  But more about that later.)

My work as a trainer and in my own family has been simple.  I'm interested in how real food can help regular people.  So I'm always going to refer to this kind of eating in the baby steps approach, with the complete understanding that we are all living in the modern world, most of us work full time, and we are all juggling multiple commitments in addition to our desire to be healthy and lead a long and happy life.

Here is how I remember what choices to make.  

These are all real foods and healthy fats that
 I buy at Trader Joe's.  Organic Coconut and
Olive Oils, Grass-Fed Cheeses, and butter
 made from grass-fed cows.

Think of us as the omnivores and mammals that we are.  Before the industrial revolution, we spent thousands of years evolving next to our food. We foraged, we hunted, we grew our plants in dirt, we raised our animals on pasture. And as our food evolved and adapted, we evolved and adapted. If a food made us sick, we stopped eating it.  Like every other species, we evolved WITH our environment.  Our lifespans were shorter because we died of diseases and infections that modern medicine has since found ways to prevent or treat, but there was no diabetes or obesity.  As our food has been increasingly industrialized, so has increased our problems with weight gain and food related health.

So, when I'm making choices, I think "Is this a food that I could have eaten before our food was made in factories? Is this food that my great-grandmother could have eaten?" If the answer is no, our bodies have probably not evolved to eat it.

Food our ancestors ate: (depending on the culture)

Wild fish that ate smaller fish and plants natural to their habitat
Animals that got plenty of exercise, lived in the wild, or were raised on grass pastures
Milk and cheese from animals that ate grass
Lots of grains and plants and fruits and nuts
Sugar occurring naturally: in fruit, from trees, from bees

Naturally occuring fiber in plants

Fermented Soy
Fats that came from animals: grass fed butter, lard from pigs who foraged, eggs from chickens who ate grass and grubs, cheese from cows, sheep, and goats that have been fed fed on a pasture
Fats that came from plants: olive oil, sesame oil, coconut oil, peanut oil, chocolate

Foods that have been invented in the last 150 years: (or less)

Cultivated corn and corn products

Industrialized soy and soy products
Fish that have been fed cultivated corn and raised in cages
Poultry that has been raised vegetarian (on corn) and in cages

Large Animals that have been fed cultivated corn, and other animal parts, and raised in cages
Skim milk from cows that have been fed corn
Processed cheese from corn-fed cows

Processed fiber products

Fake Meat
Snacks that come in packages
Fruit juice that has had all the fiber removed
Refined sugar, candy, and soda
New animal fats: eggs from 'vegetarian' chickens, egg-product substitutes, butter from corn-fed cows, industrial lard from corn-fed pigs
New plant fats: crisco, margerine, palm oil, soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, vegetable oil, partially hydrogenated anything (that's the "trans" in trans-fat)

As we move forward I'll talk more about how to incorporate more Real Food into your life, and how to get rid of all that poser processed food that's been tricking you into thinking it's healthy.  Here is a recipe for homemade chicken nuggets (the ones made in a factory are the furthest from real food you can get) and here's a reminder about my great bacon and brussels sprouts recipe.