Welcome back to The Real Food Experience 2014. We are working week by week to change from a processed food diet to a real food lifestyle. So far we have included 2 fruits or vegetables in each meal, eaten more whole grains, cut out artificial colors, switched to using only natural sweeteners, made the switch to real beverages and limited ingredients in our food to 5. We have been going along pretty smoothly until this last week. I’ve been rather impressed with everyone. They have been making this transitions rather easily……..until this week. I got all kinds of feedback about how finding foods with only 5 ingredients has proven to be problematic.
Thank goodness! This transition was difficult for me as well and let me tell you……..it took a lot more than a week for my family to make this change. I was beginning to think that I was the odd one for taking so long to make the transition from a mostly processed food diet to a real food lifestyle.
What I found is that there are very few processed food products that have only 5 ingredients. We really live in a highly processed food society. That is why we are going to spend another week working on reading labels and trying to find foods that we can eat while following our 5 ingredient guideline.
In our Real Food Experience Facebook group we are going to start sharing brands and foods that meet this guideline. I invite you to do that here as well.
Why 5 Ingredients?
That’s easy. We have to pick a number and this sounds good to me if we are trying to avoid a highly processed food diet. I’ve also found that if I stick to this rule for my family, then I am also more easily cutting out artificial colors, processed sugars, and all of the other ingredients that I am trying to avoid.
Where did we start? Whole foods. We shopped the perimeter of the grocery store and spent lots of time at the farmer’s market. I prepared really basic meals with lots of fruits and vegetables. There are lots and lots of wonderful real food recipes, but to keep it simple………..I started by eating vegetables with butter and salt and fruit salads with orange or lemon juice squirted over it. Carrots. I eat lots and lots of carrots. They are just the crunch I need when I’m craving potato chips. Cucumbers work for this too. I love a really simple Garlic and Lemon Hummus with them. My friend Nicky at Little Family Adventure has a great Sun Dried Tomato Hummus to try too.
Are there foods that we miss? At first, there were plenty of food that we missed. My kids wanted their chicken nuggets and chocolate milk. I learned to make chicken nuggets from scratch and switched my very addicted to chocolate milk little guy to maple milk. It is difficult with children (and some husbands) to completely change what they are used to eating all at once. Each of our meals brought conversation about the food and how we could make it better. All of a sudden, I had a house full of food critics. I was plenty discouraged at times when they didn’t all like things that I took so much time preparing. I didn’t give up. How could I expect them all to like one meal when I couldn’t get them to all agree on the same fast food establishment.
So…….give it another week. Let me know how you are doing and we’ll start sharing what we find here and on Facebook. We will move through this real food journey together and come out on the other side as much healthier families. We will have the energy to keep up with our busy family schedules and fight off disease. Remember……..we truly are what we eat.
Let me know what you eat that meets this 5 ingredient rule. What foods do you miss the most? What are you having a hard time finding a replacement for? What resistance are you getting from your family?
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This is great advice! I have just started my real food journey and this is helpful info to me!
Welcome to the journey Amanda. It is one you won't regret. There are plenty of resources here to help you. I hope you come back and share your experiences with us here often.
I get irritated when I read labels sometimes. Great advice for shopping around the edges of the store. 🙂
I agree Lydia. I am very often irritated with labels. It is so hard to avoid the artificial colors and sugar here in the US. They are in everything it seems!
This is a very helpful article. A lot of times, my patients are simply too overwhelmed with the prospect of doing a complete diet overhaul. They think they have to "go cold turkey" and switch from eating donuts to lettuce in just one day. This rule simplifies things. Keep up the good work!
I'm glad you found this helpful. My family made the switch from fast food to real food in a very systematic way. I could never switch everything all at once and expect it to stick. It can be very overwhelming to make such a drastic change, but this method worked for our family.
This is definitely difficult. Most things that are expensive fall into this ball park. I think because people are so used to eating themselves into a stupor and only paying for medical care if something happens, the idea of preventative health sounds silly and useless. It definitely makes it so all of your money going to the insurance companies and or doctors for medications and tests can actually go towards living a healthier lifestyle. Then the doctor becomes the infrequent visit that we all take just to get a check up. 🙂 Thanks for sharing this post with us at Countdown in Style! I love that you've been impacting so many people with your journey 🙂 Don't forget to stop by Friday to see if you are featured!
You make some good points, Brittnei. I certainly don't have money to waste, but I feel that shopping for good quality food is important. Sure, it's more expensive than the dollar menu, but it was that dollar menu that made me sick. For me it was obvious that it was making me sick………for others it may not be so obvious. I would rather spend my money at the grocery store than the doctors office.
I haven't yet gotten down to five ingredients ~ on purpose. Since I make most meals from scratch, and I don't pull out a recipe book, I'm sure most of them have less than 5 ingredients from sheer laziness to do more. I love how you are breaking this down step by step. Makes it easier to digest when you're making a lifestyle overhaul. Thank you for linking up and sharing with Countdown in Style.
Thanks for dropping by April. When cooking from scratch, you don't need to worry about the number of ingredients. What I'm talking about is processed food. How many ingredients are in the jar pasta sauce? How many ingredients are in your fruit cup? Use as many whole ingredients as possible when you cook. Each one only enhances your nutrition.
It's so tough… especially with kids. My husband and I are doing Paleo, and we are slowly weaning our kids into it. We've done Paleo as a family before and it was hard to implement; especially when the kiddos' friends are eating treats they could not have.
I make most meals from scratch, especially since we started making make-ahead freezer meals.
Thanks for sharing via Mommy Monday!
XOXO