Lots of readers have signed up to take our “10 Days of Real Food” pledge in the New Year, and this is what some of them say they have learned from the experience…
“Doing this has made me realize how horribly we were eating, with all of the ‘time crunches’ we place on ourselves. This has caused us to slow down, eat and prepare food together and has improved family dynamic as well as over all health.” – Port Orchard, WA
“I learned coffee creamer has no cream! That my children are willing to try new things, especially if presented in a fun way. I used to use way more processed foods than I realized. I also learned I love spaghetti squash!” – Auburndale, FL
“I learned a great deal about food additives – we were already what I considered ‘healthy,’ but upon closer examination of our food choices, I realized that there were a host of contaminants in our meals, and subsequently in our bodies. As we traded in our breakfast cereal for green smoothies, I saw changes. Moods lightened, bowels began behaving, and cravings even started changing. The crunch of an apple is as addictive as that of a potato chip.” – Old Hickory, TN
“After a few days of withdrawal and brain fog, I started feeling great. I now have less fatigue during the day and just feel good about what we’re eating.” – Des Allemands, LA
“It has made me a much more thoughtful eater and shopper. I definitely have more energy and I’m not experiencing the hunger highs and lows I had before. I even had a few people tell me I look great.” – Swampscott, MA
“I have learned so much more on the problems preservative can have on my children. My son has ADD and we feel we see a change. I cut out food dye a while ago but with the change of food, he seems to be doing more talking and can concentrate more.” – Roseville, MI
“I have to admit the first day I was a little worried that I wouldn’t do the challenge, that I would get 3 days in and give up. I have tried so many of these types of challenges and failed miserable at them. This time was different – I really wanted to succeed, and I did. I have noticed I have more energy and I seem to be happier. That could be because my body feels better, or the fact that I am happy I was able to accomplish this. Either way, yay me for doing this.” – Outside of the U.S.
“The biggest thing I learned was that organic and natural does not equate to bland and tasteless. With some ingenuity we had some tasty meals. Eliminating that stigma came easily. The key was planning out the meals as opposed to quickly grabbing something convenient.” – Tacoma, WA
“I had been trying to integrate real food recipes into our diet for several months and trying to learn the ‘rules’ to make better decisions. Therefore it was not as overwhelming to do the ten days once we had been cooking this way for a few months.” – Pell City, AL
“I feel better, I have more energy, I’m even not craving sugar AS much as I used to, my skin looks great, I’ve lost 4 lbs, and I KNOW I am eating SO much better! The kids have been eating more fruit and vegetables because there is very little junk in the house.” – Overland Park, KS
“I learned that you really have to plan out your meals and snacks– and that real food tastes really good! I have slowly been cutting out processed food over several months and have lost several pounds. I was surprised that I didn’t miss eating out. It’s comforting knowing exactly what is in my food.” – Des Plaines, IL
“At first it was MISERABLE!! The sugar cravings and headaches from it was bad, but pushing through it I noticed I started to have more energy, actually wanting to get out of bed in the morning. My boys started acting calmer, and less out burst/tantrums! If I’d have known it would have such great effects I would have done this SO long ago!” – Tehachapi, CA
“Just reading labels has been an eye opening experience. Something as simple as a chicken broth can have so many unnecessary ingredients and sugar! This has definitely changed my lifestyle, and since Jan 2nd I have lost 9.8 pounds!” – Midlothian, VA
“I learned that eating healthy is not painful! The food was actually tasty and not difficult to follow. I feel really good! I even lost 7 lbs…which is huge for me! For the first time, this doesn’t feel like a ‘diet’ but like a real ‘life-style change.’” – Westfield, IN
“The first 5 days were hard, lots of cravings and hunger, and intermittent headaches. There was a fairly abrupt change at day 5/6, I suddenly had more energy, less hunger and cravings, and I felt better overall.” – Piscataway, NJ
“Where do I start???? We have learned so much about our bodies in just these few 10 days. We learned that eating “Real Food” taste better, looks better, makes us feel better, helps you loose weight, helps my son focus better in school and have better behavior. Just to name a few. And since we are eating better we felt like we need to move more. So have been doing some form of exercise almost every day since we started. So it has a trickle down effect.” – Plainview, TX
What have you learned since ditching processed food?
The Key to Cutting out Processed Food Is Planning Ahead…
We’ve partnered with Prepear to bring you recipes from me (plus other “Prepear Pros”) pre-loaded into a FREE meal planning app for your smartphone! Give it a try…the automatic shopping list feature is very convenient. If you want “made-for you” meal plans, they are available as well via a one-time purchase or a Gold membership (free trial available).
Food Babe Investigates: How Food Companies Exploit Americans with Ingredients Banned in Other Countries
I live in Europe and go regularly back to the States. I have been struck recently by how American food and recipes add sugar when it is neither needed nor desired, e.g. to a potato salad. American canned tomato juice is disgustingly sweet, for instance. I don’t eat food that I have not cooked myself and certainly not in the States. If you compare a good French recipe to an American one the latter almost always has a totally redundant addition of sugar. This is recent. Julia Child wrote an excellent cook book and didn’t add sugar where not wanted. Now a recipe on the Internet has sugar as often as salt. Tastebuds seem to have been blunted.
No wonder so many Americans are obese!! They weren’t when I was young.
We didn’t do the pledge in our house, just sort of went cold turkey on a big grocery day. It has been great and not nearly as difficult as I thought! We are on about 85-90% “real” food in our house. Still keeping a very few basic things around (like ketchup, mustard, pickles…) because I don’t want to throw them out, when they’re gone I’ll replace them with the real food counterparts. Other than those few things we are making so much from scratch at home and really enjoying the switch. Since the switch (almost a month) I noticed my energy level really coming up in the first week or so, but now….I am so tired all the time. Did anyone else experience this in transition? Can’t say we are even eating less meats, (iron) we always buy our meats “real” anyway, so that hasn’t been altered in our move towards 100% real. Thoughts anyone? Thanks to all who contribute here, I have learned loads, and can’t wait to learn more :)
Just found your blog , my family has been eating real food for years . I make all my dressings ,marinates and ketup all from real food . We live in Vt. So we have no problem finding GOOD eggs ,grass feed beef. pastured pork and free range chickens. Wish more people understood how important it is to eat real food. The Vermont house is working on a bill to label GMO products .it has passed the agerculture commitee on to Judesuary . Keep up the good work will be checking your blog dailey!! Steph
Hello,
Please read this article, it is a horrifying glimpse into our food industry ( but what they actually provide is not even close to food):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all
Thanks Christopher. We have read this. ~Amy
We’ve eaten this way for all of our married life (going on 15 years now!), and I’m really glad to see your website helping more people to realize how much non-food they were eating! My family and I do most of our shopping at a natural foods store, and when we’re on vacation and can’t find one, we’re always shocked at how hard it is to find anything we consider food in a regular, chain grocery. Tortillas? Forget whole wheat because those seem to be even more processed than the white-flour ones in mainstream stores. All a flour tortilla needs is flour, fat, and maybe some salt, but you have to look long and hard to find one like that if you’re shopping in a mainstream grocery. It’s no wonder so many people eat the way they do–it’s just about all you can find at many stores.
Keep up the great work! I’m so happy more people are figuring out how artificial much of their “food” is!
I forgot to add that I’ve lost more than 20 pounds in 18 months. That wasn’t even my goal, but an awesome fringe benefit. :-)
I started reading this blog about 18 months ago after reading some of Michael Pollan’s books and being aghast at what was in the boxes of Hamburger Helper and other processed foods I was making for my family. I thought I was being healthy by buying the light/low-fat yogurt, low sodium but still processed canned soup, and Cheerios. I was being “good” when I used sugar-free coffee creamer (which doesn’t contain any cream!). It took me a while to accept that whole milk dairy products weren’t going to make me fat and sick and that whole grains could be made to taste good. The different taste of grass-fed beef was exciting.
I’m not 100% real food. We still eat out at least once a week and when I’m in a major time crunch, I will go to Starbucks and get a sandwich. I add a little Coke to my whiskey here and there. I do the best I can in my circumstances and I think that is all one can ask. I make our dinners nearly every night and our breakfasts and lunches on the weekends and that has to be good enough for now. I’m teaching my kids to enjoy cooking and food and to eat together as a family every night even if for only 20 minutes. Our minuscule garden of strawberries, bell peppers and citrus trees are a marvelous start for my kids. Discovering our local farmers market was an epiphany as was the local butcher and dairy farmers. I don’t need to shop at the chain store if I don’t want to – I can feed my family on items grown within mere miles of my home.
I like Lisa’s blog because I’m a fulltime working mother of two young kids. I need some answers and I need them fast.
It is so inspiring reading the feedback and all these supportive comments. I didn’t the the pledge, but am changing the way I eat since about a year ago. Little steps that lead to a healthier life.
Thank you for sharing!
You can also save on organic, natural, and vegan food iherb.com $5-$10 2013 Coupon Code: JBV705 I have recently made the pledge to eat “real food for life”
It must warm your heart to see all the people you’ve helped. You can count my family in that number, too. Our lives are completely different. My younger son stopped having almost-constant seizures the same week we started eating real food. We’ll celebrate one year this Monday, and in that time, he has had probably only a few dozen seizures total. My older son has shown big improvements in self control, too, and has so many less “atypical behaviors’ now. :)
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Wow, that is amazing…good for you and your family!! I am thrilled we could help :)