It’s no secret there’s a political side to this whole Real Food movement. We’ve read about quite a few people dismissing it out-of-hand as a sort of agrarian fantasy of the far-left, what organic food was before it became much bigger business.
And hey, sometimes those criticisms have their place. Any time people stand up and say the way an entire continent (and increasingly, world) produces and consumes its food is fundamentally broken, you’re going to have some people defending the status quo. It’s normal, and even if we don’t agree with the criticisms, there’s nothing wrong with a little debate!
A Question: Is the ‘real food’ movement left, or right, or neither?
Where real food shines is that it’s actually, at heart, quite a conservative movement (in certain ways). Its main proponents tend to be to the left in their political orientation, but anyone who’s seen the documentary Food, Inc. or read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma will know that one of the film’s/book’s stars, Joel Salatin, is definitely not left-wing in many beliefs.
This is what makes this movement great — its intentions are beyond politics, and move towards spending time, effort, and consciousness on what you put on your plate and into your stomach every day.
But given all that, there’s one other criticism that seems to come up quite regularly, and one that we’ve found ourselves having occasionally too. And it’s this — why, exactly, are additives, supplements, and processed substances apparently so bad for us?
I mean, they do test these things, right?
Yes — no food additive, in general, goes into a product until it undergoes extensive testing. No matter how insane-sounding the substance, if it’s fundamentally bad for you (i.e., poisonous), there isn’t really much of a chance you’ll find it in your breakfast cereal.
Take high-fructose corn syrup, for example. Fundamentally, it contains the same properties as sugar, and functions exactly like it. When it was discovered, it became a fantastic way for companies like Coca-Cola to instantly save millions, as subsidized corn (at least in the USA) could produce a substance equal to sugar, for far less money.
And it’s true — even real food guru Michael Pollan admits it — there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with high fructose corn syrup as a substance, on its own. Like sugar, it’s used to sweeten things.
Same goes for many other substances — MSG, guar gum, and all the other things you’ll find in a typical processed product. What’s wrong with them, exactly? Why do we have to stick to ‘whole’ and ‘natural’ foods? They’re full of chemical compounds, too, and farmers have been ‘modifying’ seeds and trees for hundreds of years — why is this any different, or more dangerous?
Is there one simple explanation for this?
It’s an interesting question. If you’ve embarked on a mission to start eating ‘real food’, you’ll probably get that question quite a bit. Is there a way to explain it easily? Especially if you’re talking to a scientist, or a chemist, or someone like that, you might be pressed to explain — what, exactly, is the problem with a product containing 15 ingredients? It’s edible, no? Nothing in it will kill us or destroy our internal organs? Why this endless focus on real food?
With that in mind, we researched and thought about the two answers we think are the most convincing and useful.
First — no one has ever eaten these things before, let alone in such an insane combination.
This one is a traditional argument, but it works — while our prior generations, our ancestors, have been eating certain foods for many, many generations, and reaping their effects on the human body, this notion of eating heavily refined, processed foods full of synthetic additives is actually a very recent one.
When a huge percentage of all our foods no longer contain what they originally contained, but instead are made out of elements of other foods (mainly corn and soy), broken down, super-heated, and then re-combined in a laboratory somewhere, it not only becomes near-impossible to keep track of what we’re putting into our bodies, but there is no body of scientific or even practical knowledge that suggests this is a sustainable, healthy, or useful diet. It won’t kill us, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be the best way to get the nutrients we need, either.
Why do we have to eat so much corn?
A huge percentage of the average McDonalds meal, for example, will contain corn. But it’ll contain corn in so many different varieties — in the corn syrup used to sweeten the coke and the bun, in the corn feed used to feed the cow who eventually makes up the big mac, or in about 45% of the chicken McNugget, which, after getting through the processing to help the food last longer, is made from chicken fed entirely on corn.
So what? Well, it means that if you’re eating a diet heavy in processed foods, you are eating refined corn a huge amount of the time. No one society has really done that before. Plenty of people have survived on actual corn, but that’s not what we’re eating here. This is corn, broken down and reassembled in thousands of ways, for the sake of economics. This kind of diet, mixed with an overall decrease in physical activity, seems to be a disaster for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease rates.
Second — they cause the body to do strange, unpredictable things.
When we eat a piece of actual corn, there is a pretty solid amount of research that shows (to an extent) what it does to the body. Same with most other ‘real’ foods. Certain vitamins go to receptors in our cells, antioxidants start to take effect, and the actual container of ‘real food’ has a ton of benefits. A carrot is a delivery system for beta-carotine and a lot of other things. Sure, we can take a pill to get some of the same substances, but it’s hard to prove they have the same effect, and somewhat unnecessary.
Take another example — orange juice. A lot of the vitamins have to be re-added to orange juice, because they’re lost in the juicing process — you’ll only get them if you eat an actual orange itself. Same goes for other products — when you buy some kind of green tea infused with omega 3, you’re not getting that ‘omega 3′ in anywhere near its original context. Sure, you’re still getting it, but not in its naturally occuring container.
So what?
Well — this has strange effects on the body. When fat is kept in a product, for example (say, a potato chip that’s higher in calories than a ‘low-fat’ one full of additives), it can often help the various vitamins and other products to be properly absorbed (maybe a potato chip isn’t the best example here…) When you start chemically removing these things from their original context, you then have to add new things in order to get your food-like-substance to function as it once did.
And really — why bother? Real foods are all around us, cost less (environmentally, at least, but that’s another article) to manufacture, and have kept humans healthy for hundreds of years. But that’s the final point of this whole Real Food movement — there’s another, simpler way, and it’s one that our grandparents used, and one that many people around the world still subscribe to, and it’s one that can let us escape from the knowledge overload, the endless supplmenets, additives, boosters, and all that marketing that’s supposed to make us healthier. Why do we need to know that a sugary breakfast cereal might possibly be good for our hearts, in excruciating, complicated detail? We don’t. It’s just another way to confuse us into buying something that isn’t real food.
There’s still lots more to say!
One thing about Real Food, as you might have noticed, is that there’s a lot to talk about, a lot to think about, and several different angles to consider. Every time Zuzana or I sit down to talk and write about it, we keep coming up with more and more to say, more questions, more inquiries, more avenues of discussion. This article started about one small subject (are additives really that bad?), but ended up touching on several!
So now we want to push it over to you — what are some of your questions when it comes to ‘real’ food? We’ve seen a few of them asked here and there in the comments, but now we want you to get specific.
Are you curious about organic food? About why corn-fed beef isn’t as good as grass-fed? What are we supposed to do if we live in cold countries, when it comes to fruits and vegetables, during the winter?
We won’t have the answers right away (again, we’re not experts — we’re still learning), but we’ll take 3 of the best questions and turn them into future articles — we’ll head off, do the research, and then introduce the subjects to you as we learn about them, too. So ask away!
Photo credit: Suat Eman
This is the reason why so many people are sick, have thyroid and other health issues and are over weight. These chemicals ruin are bodies hormonal and endocrine systems.
Enjoyed this article. I think it’s so much simpler to follow a real food diet. If it’s real food, then people have been eating it for years and years. It serves that purpose. Like you said, a lot of what we are eating today is not even real food anymore, it is a heap of crap that we like to call food because it’s either convenient, the package says it is, or we don’t question it if it’s in the grocery store.
Well… I am vegetarian so I don’t have to worry about beef and chicken and all other carnivorous products. As you guys know there are plenty of other sources of protein and vitamin B-12. (thanks for introducing salba to me! i love it!) The only thing i have to worry is about the fruit and veggies.
Even if the product says its organic how do you know it really is organic?
And what exactly is organic???
My chem teacher says organic food is has more carbon atoms. Its a long confusing, complicated process that he explained but just caused more questions than answers.
To SG,
Organic usually consists of products free of chemicals, either in the food itself or the way the food was grown. There’s no pesticides in the soil, no chemicals used to give food a longer shelf life. No genetically modified seeds. It’s about as close to your Grandma’s garden as you can possibly get. Here in the US, the USDA checks facilities to make sure the food that is being grown there qualifies as organic.
when your chem teacher tallks about organic i think he is thinking that carbon determines if somethin (anything) is organic. like carbon based life forms are organic because of the carbon. hence such studies like organic chemistry which is all about carbon chains and how the interact with other molecules. It sounds like to me he didnt understand that you were talking about organic foods instead of just organic things in general. hope this helps clear it up a little
zuzanna,
Have you ever looked into the dangers of microwaving food? It is very controversial. I use to eat microwave food all the time. I started cleansing my body of toxins, and now i am no longer able to eat anything out of a microwave oven. I get very sick everytime i do and suffer bloating, and vomiting. From what i have learned from my research is that microwaving food alters the molecular stucture of the food and makes it toxic to the body. I didnt get sick before because the body builds up a tolerance to toxins,much like smoking. but like smoking it is still doing harm to you even if you have no immediate negative effects. Just thought i would share that with you and maybe you can do some research of your own. You will find a debate over this , but speaking from experience ,all i can say is that i refuse to eat anything from a microwave.
What have you been using to cleanse your body of toxins, because i want to do the same thing but i don’t know what product to use.
It’s been a while since I read the Omnivore’s Dillemma..
But from what I remember about it, it said that “organic” crops
aren’t necessarily “cleaner” than commonly grown crops.
I mean.. if you’ve got workers hand-picking your lettuce,
then there’s a huge source of filth. people getting cut, band-aids
falling onto the soil, and not to mention e-Coli.
Isn’t healthier just to buy regular supermarket vegetables?
You can wash off the filth, you can’t wash off the chemicals used to prolong shelf life for fruits or veggies.
Great article. I see the affects of processed food all around me. I live on an Aisian island, the foods for centuries have been very natural, it’s tropical here so tons of sea food, fruits and veggies. People live long healthy lives. BUT recently, (last 20 years) European type bakeries have become a big deal, as well as ice cream and soda. I never see an over weight elderly person here, but the children and teens are getting thicker, some obese, and terrible acne. Acne that will scar, and I don’t see these scars on the older people. Talking with neighbors has confirmed that these are new developments. I have always tried to eat with health in mind, but as kids get older and we get busier, I have taken shortcuts…I appreciate these articles, they have reminded me of what I really wanted to teach my children about foods. Thanks!
The real food movement is fantastic. If it becomes main stream, it will be one of the greatest health advances of the 21st century. The reason is not only is the food that it advocates healthier but that it pushes people to be aware of the foods that they eat. Vegetarians have better health than non vegetarians. Not because a vegetarian diet is better but because vegetarians pay attention to their food. The same can be said of people who strive to eat real food.
Vitamin deficiency was endemic in the early 20th century and before. It was only with the discovery of vitamins that this started to be reversed. One of the results of this was the artificial adding of vitamins to foods. This with refrigeration was one of the reasons that the life expectancy advanced from the 40s to the 60s in the early 20th century. It was combination of better nutrition, water treatment and sanitation, more than medicine that led this advance.
One of the sad facts is that today it is the poor who pay for the negative change in the food industry. It used to be that you could tell a poor person because they would be thin. Today poor people lead the obesity epidemic in the developed world and it is the rich who are thinner. It is American Samoa, which is not known for its multimillionaires, in the pacific that is the fattest nation in the world. Fast food has all the proper vitamins but is calorically dense. The bad side of processed food is that it makes people fat. Where once food that was sweet or fattening was a rare treat, it is now the cheapest food available. Malnutrition is no longer the leading cause of the poor’s bad health. It is now obesity.
The one down side of the real food movement is the cost or the perceived cost of real food. The politics and economics of food is a major cause of this cost. There is not a developed country in the world which doesn’t subsidize its farmers. This is one of the reasons that real food is expensive. The removal of trade barriers to food and the ending of farm subsidization would make real food much more economical for the poor. Until the costs are addressed, Real food will remain a way for the well to do to stay thin and feel superior.
Maybe there are other ways for real food to become more main stream. But until something is done real food will more like designer clothes or cars, more of a snob effect than a health effect for society.
I would like to know your point of view whether you think vegetarianism/veganism is bad or not?
Hi Katie,
I don’t think that either is bad or good, it’s just a matter of personal choice. You can definitely survive on both, the question is if you really enjoy eating this way. I believe that food is here really not only as a fuel but also for our pleasure. Everyone has different believes about food. I found a video on youtube where a trainer tells people that food shouldn’t taste good and if it does, then it’s probably not healthy for them. I don’t agree with this approach, but who am I to criticize others, right? That said, if you prefer being vegetarian for whatever reason and you enjoy it, then be it.
I am a big supporter and follower of the ‘real food’ movement but I still have many questions. 1. Do frozen veggies and fruits still deliver enough nutrients?
2. If something is labeled ‘organic’ does that mean it won’t have any preservatives and additives? As a general rule I accept anything labeled to be organic as better for my body…is this the same for you two? I still read my labels but I’m just curious if this is the case across all organically labeled products.
3. How much of the nutrients are lost when you boil, steam, and bake veggies?
These are just a few questions I’ve pondered in my journey…
This is an amazing article!
I learned so much just now.
I recently have begun buying organic milk, butter, creamer, eggs, and anything else USDA approved that I can find. I don’t have a lot of money at all but I figured if I stopped driving so much and rode my bike more and stopped buying silly little treats at the checkout, I will not only be saving more money to spend on the expensive organic (and humane – Go Horizon!) foods but I will also be doing so much better things for my body and the world.
This article was so informative that I cannot think of a single question to ask you even after an hour of thinking about it :(
However, I do have a recipe for you two.
It is ridiculously easy so it’s something that y’all could make if you’re not in the mood for cooking an elaborate meal and just want something quick and simple.
Here goes:
Lemon Chicken:
Squeeze a lemon into a ziplock baggy with chicken breasts in it.
Add salt to taste.
Let it soak.
Then cook the chicken in the oven.
All of these directions depend on how you think you would like things done so I didn’t put anything in exact terms. It doesn’t take much to fill me up so I used a piece of chicken breast that was about 3 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick. I squeezed half a lemon on it and let it soak for about 15 minutes. Then I put it on a cookie sheet with a cookie rack on it (to let the stuff drain) and put it in the oven. I first cooked it at 400 Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes and then ended up changing the temp to 425 Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes I think. I’ve never cooked chicken before in my life so this probably sounds silly to y’all but I pretty proud of myself lol. I just started cooking about 3 days ago and so far I feel great!
I hope you try this and like it.
p.s. Zuzana, may I post one of your pictures on my Facebook account? I have an album titled “Likes” and I’d like to put something from this site to show people but I didn’t want to do it without your permission.
HI Nicole D Lopez,
thank you for sharing the recipe with us and feel free to use any of my pictures on your Facebook. Just make sure to pick a nice one :)
I am so glad you have addressed this. I have become a fanatic against anything that isn’t naturally produced. It is amazing how a simple apple sauce has so many “extra” ingredients one cannot even pronounce.
I am 33 years old and up to until 1 year ago, pretty much the time I stopped eating, drinking or showering with any thing with additives in it, I had problems with my skin. People first told me it had to do with my changing hormones as an adolescent and then later on they told me that it should go away by itself. Well, i was 32 and was still getting pimples like a 16 year old. I stopped the additives, stopped the dodgy juices, cokes or whatever that wasn’t directly created by mother nature. The result? a much healthier person. No crazy cravings, energy levels are great and guess what? My skin is clearer than it has ever been.
Sometimes people say that eating clean is expensive, for me if i balance it out with all the “wonder” skin creams I have tried out, it comes out to a much cheaper way of living.
Thumbs up for bringing this up. And since we are on the subject, I thought I’d share with you guys a website that has given me quite some info regarding additives in food: http://www.exploreenumbers.co.uk/
Greets from The Netherlands
Carla
I think another good point to touch on is that the additives in processed foods are actually addicting. Ever wonder why it is so hard to eat just one potato chip? It is not solely lack of discipline, it is the fatty addicting lab made substances put into the chips. Which is why additives are put into every kind of packaged, processed foods. If you are addicted to a product you will keep buying it.
Another interesting fact is that corn syrup was not introduced into our diets until the 1960’s when they discovered it was cheaper to produce. What is so interesting is that this is the exact time period when people began getting heavier. Since then, the average weight of the average person continues to climb. It was not until processed foods were a staple of our diets that obesity was even regularly heard of.
Great article, you guys are awesome! And Zuzana you are still totally my idol =)
Great article…you bring up a subject which is difficult to articulate when speaking with other people who aren’t as concerned about what they eat. Intrinsically and instinctively I know that additives are unnecassry and probably not good for me. Many of them are just added to make food not spoil, taste “better” (?how can anything taste better than something real?) and to get people hooked on buying the product because it’s “healthier”…
So I asked a question a while while grocery shopping. If I can buy chicken which is labelled “hormone and antibitic free, free range”, and this chicken costs me $22 per kilo, then why is the other lesser priced chicken, not labeled “raised with hormones, antibiotics, and force fed animal by-products”? I posted this question on my Facebook account and only a few of my health concious friends commented, I truly believe many folks don’t WANT to Know. So can you guys answer my question? Why don’t they have to label that there are antiobitics and hormones? Onbviosully movies like Food, INC answer this, but I thought you might entertain my conundrum. Keep up the gerat work :)
Zuzana–do you take any protein supplements and/or multi-vitamins?
Inspired by Zuzana and Frederic’s articles, I finally baked my own bread
Apart from simultaneously burning it (IT’S NOT BURNT! IT’S WELL-FIRED!!) and under-cooking the middle, it turned out ok. I’ve decided to buy a bread maker because it was a lot of fuss for one loaf and I don’t relish doing that every few days.
One thing that struck me was how different it tasted compared the wholemeal brands I’m used to. It tasted wrong.
It’s horrifying to think the food companies have over-processed the food so much, it doesn’t taste like it’s supposed to.
http://astrothsknot.livejournal.com/507832.html for pics.
I first would like to say how much I enjoy your website!! I have been following it for some time now but this is my first reply. I think of food as fuel . . . that keeps it in a perspective that I can relate to easily. If you REALLY think about it, our bodies were not created to utilize processed foods and I truly believe that is why there are so many people who are fighting obesity, hypertension, diabetes, depression, arthritis . . . and so on. You do a wonderful job at educating and inspiring people to make choices that will enrich their lives. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge. It does make a difference!!
Hi Zuzana and Frederick :),
my congrats on your very informative and thought-inspiring article. I’d like to share with you one idea that I personally consider an important ‘little thing that may lead to big changes’. You might find it worth mentioning in your next articles on real food or worth investigating for yourself or just plainly worthless, in which case – pls just ignore my babbling ;).
Anyway, here it goes:
you probably are among the people who are not allergic to egg protein and eat eggs from time to time. You probably also heard that hens that lay the eggs are obviously not only fed with some industrial-grade fodder (based on corn, as I can now safely presume having read your article ;) ) but also kept in horrible conditions – tightly crammed in unimaginably small cages, with their beaks cut off, and completely unable to move, often for their whole life. Yeah, I know, even trying to picture that brings dreadful images to one’s mind. I’ve always been skeptical about actually being able to do anything about the whole ‘animals are tortured so we can eat meat’ thing because I couldn’t seem to see how any of my actions would ever make any change to the whole worldwide system. With the eggs however, I think I might have found a weak spot. I don’t know about the rest of the world but in EU all eggs sold anywhere offical have to be stamped with a special code that, among other things, indicates an egg’s size and the type of farm that the egg came from (0, 1, 2 or 3 – see: http://www.lioneggfarms.co.uk/information/egg-codes). And this is the key part! For the first time that I know of, a consumer can actually assess at the moment of purchase whether they want to support the ‘egg industry’ or a small, independent and obviously ‘organic’ (whatever that really means) farm where a couple dozens of hens run freely wherever they want, eating grains, stones /no teeth to grind stuff u know ;)/ and whatever they fancy. And even more importantly, they live their little lives more or less happily, or so I’d like to think at least /I mean, foxes are mostly extinct, so what’s there to fear ;)? /. Sure, the free-farm eggs are ca. 5x more expensive and I understand that not everyone can afford them on regular basis but really: I personally am just unable now to even touch any other eggs at a supermarket. I’m sure that the ones I choose are more healthy, probably 99% natural and, most importantly for me, let me feel that I am finally doing something to actively support respectable treatment of animals that feed us. You know, just like the native American Indians used to put it: it’s ok to kill an animal and eat it but do show it some respect! After all it’s a creature that has given it’s life to feed you. I just cannot stand why humans have become so arrogant! OK, I’ve digressed… ;)
To sum it up: please, think about it and if you find it reasonable and feasible in your shopping environment, do buy only free-farm eggs (coded 0 or 1). If this movement gets momentum, maybe we’ll be the first to actually topple at least one leg of the food industry giant.
I’m really sorry for this unbearable rant ;)… I’ll try to restrain myself next time.
Wish you best of luck :)))
Hi! Have you ever seen that film that came out a few years ago called “Super Size Me”? I think it really addressed the facts and side effects surrounding the consumption of overly processed fast food. The star of the film ate only McDonald’s products for 5 months or something like that until all his laboratory blood tests were so off the charts that many doctors thought he would surely die if he didn’t stop. This just proves how modern, processed foods drive our internal systems wacky. WE human beings were never designed to ingest so many artificially manufactured substances at one time, or at any time for that matter. Yes, it may cost a little more to eat organically, but when you think about it the benefits outweigh the costs.
I just watched Food, Inc last night per reading one of your diet articles about Real Food. I’ve just been so amazed by how our food is now a days, I guess I was just naive to all the processed food I’ve been eating. I had just never taken the time to really think about the food I was eating. I have ulcerative colitis so I have a lot of trouble digesting many of the processed foods and beef especially. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about Clean Eating and Real Food and I am hoping the more I learn and understand this way of eating the better my chances are of actually being able to do this and feel better after I eat.
I have a good grasp on being healthy through workouts (thanks to Zuzana) but I’ve always had a lot of trouble in the food department. My down fall is sweets and other junk food. I think the more I understand how food is processed and how it actually gets to me the better my chances are of fixing my eating habits.
Any more advice or articles or additional knowledge anyone has on clean eating or real food is greatly appreciated on my end. I just ordered an Omnivores delima online so I am waiting for that to come in.
Also, wanted to thank Zuzana, Fredrick and everyone else for all the help with eating and workouts :)
Zuzana and Frederick,
I am a recent subscriber and think you are doing an excellent job with your website. I am glad to see that you have taken on the daunting challenge of educating your readers and yourselves regarding proper nutrition. I can tell from some of the article entries and videos that you are on the right track. However, the degree of skepticism regarding ‘big industry’ food processing should also be applied to the ‘green’, ‘organic’, ‘real’ or whatever labels you chose to describe them. This is not to say there are not tidbits or truth in these movements, and they are all genuine. Case in point. Take the responses above me. There are 19 responses as I read this. A cursory review of these responses, reveal there are at least 8 erroneous statements some of which are potential medically hazardous to ones health. An example:
1. Regarding B-12. Since I think Zuzana’s comment about whether it is healthy to be vegetarian/vegan is a ‘matter of personal choice’ is misleading and can be construed as an endorsement, I will respond specifically to this problem. There are no significantly bioavailable non-animal sources of B-12 to my knowledge. (http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/vitaminb12.asp) Even Vegan sources admit that the absorption of the trace B-12 that may exist in certain plant sources is not enough, since that small, variable amount some may contain is essentially blocked from absorption in the gut, i.e. not bioavailable.(http://www.vegansociety.com/References/Nutrition/B12.aspx) If it wasn’t for this added “chemical” to grains and other products, many vegans would suffer more serious health problems than they now do.
So, what are some of the good questions I would like to see? I would like to see a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of food preparation. Often people think “well-done” is better, since they surmise that if some cooking is a good thing, more must be better. Other people think Raw is Right. Some do not understand bacterial contamination, and cause more harm than good with their attempts at a sterile cooking environment.
I think you are on the right track (what your ‘gut’ tells you, hehe). I think taking your readership along the journey to best food choices will be an enlightening one. If I can be of assistance in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Hi Ralph,
While i (we) appreciate your obvious knowledge and advice, I would not have felt in any way that Zuzana was “endorsing” veganism by stating that it is a matter of personal choice, simply that she is not an expert to advise. There are many posts in which Zuzana mentions her eating of animal products.
That said, it would be great to learn more from your knowledge in the future!
Hi guys,
Great article. I’ve been pretty keen on the 100 mile diet, also known as the Slow Food Movement which is essentially what Joel Salatin practices on his farm. I was wondering what you thought of this concept and is it something you’d write about in the future? It is quintessentially what the real food concept is about, eating only what is raised in a healthy, natural environment, with little transportation incurred to deliver to it’s source. You eat what is available in season, and no growth hormones or preservatives are needed to produce the food because it doesn’t have to be transported over long distances or long periods to make it to the table of the consumer. You think about the food you eat, preserving berries in summer to provide vitamin C in winter, growing or buying veggies to bottle and preserve for winter consumption, supporting local farmers and producers. It’s such a simple idea, but often the best ones are.
an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but how do you get all the wax off the apple quickly and easily. How much wax is on the apple and is that wax bad for you. Its one of the easiest snacks to grab and go. But how good do we need to clean this little round red rubby before we eat it. What is all this wax coating stuff on our fruits and veggies anyways. Do they die the apple with a red ink solution to make them more of a deep dark red. Just wondering.
Always wondering about that, too, and if the pesticides wash/rub off or if I shoud rather peel.
Also, there are so many contradictory statistics about the content of pesticides in non-organic fruit and vegetables.
Is rubbing on the go with a wet handkerchief enough?
Some varieties of apples do have a natural wax-layer, though, e.g. jona, which is very common in Europe, don´t know about elsewhere. So is this harmless, or does this natural wax-layer absorb fat-soluble pesticides?
What do you do?
Hi Zuzana and Frederick! I know you’ve posted before a typical day of eating (your diet) before, but it was awhile ago and it’s was before your move to Malta. I’d love to know what your typical day looks like right now. Is that possible? Thanks!! :)
Hi
I am curious what a typical daily meal plan is like for you now. It has been a while since you posted.
Zuzana,
thank you for being my personal trainer for the last six months. I’ve tried many different exercise programs and I really like the workouts you provide.
My question on this article is – I cannot eat wheat, so all foods with wheat in them has been taken out of my diet. Doing this leaves me with little to select from. Consequently, I eat alot of corn products and rice, usually corn chips and salsa- ummm!. Is this bad for my body? The eating too much corn products I mean.
simple question… I agree that Real food is much better, i mean when i eat something and i feel the least bit weak i know it wasn’t good for me. But then how is the lifespan of humans growing while at the same time obesity and other dietary problems continue to climb?
Hi Frederick,
I don’t have any questions for you to research that I can think of at the moment, but I just want to say thank you for your thoughtful, informative, and enlightening articles. I’ve been reading a few of them, and I especially appreciate your writing skill, particulary in view of so many Internet users wrecklessly destroying the English language with their slang these days. Keep up the good work :)
Hello Zuzana, we’re told that we should try to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day,but i think that sounds too much,even for athletes. I was wondering which fruit and vegetables do you to eat?
Hi John Birch,
from fruit I eat a lots of apples – I love apples. I eat them every day and I am able to eat 5 of them. Usually I eat about 3 a day. I also eat oranges and bananas. In the summer I eat a lots of different fruit all the time. From vegetables I have always in my fridge tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and green salad. I eat vegetables mostly for my dinners and fruit throughout the day. It is not something that I would believe is the best or healthiest way to eat, it’s just because I prefer it.
Hi Zuzanna,
I am a young Canadian who is inspired to be fit and healthy for the rest of my life. I started eating clean almost 8 months ago, but in no way religiously and often have many slip ups when it comes to home made cookies…
I have seen many benefits because of my efforts, but not as many as I would like.
My inspiration and motivation are not lacking, but sometimes I adopt the attitude of ‘who cares’ and throw my philosophy away for an entire meal or evening. I was wondering, what keeps you inspired? What keeps you on track? How do you deal with “cravings”?
Thank you for you time,
haleigh
Hi Haleigh,
I think that the biggest thing that keeps us going with trying to make healthy choices and everything else that we share here is the community that has formed around this site. It really helps to have friendly support from people who have a similar take on life. Don’t get down on yourself for slipping up now and then – it happens to everyone. We went to see Avatar last night ( INCREDIBLE BTW ) and I indulged in some theatre popcorn and my super weakness – Diet Coke. 9/10 I make a better choice – so when I do slip or in this case choose to slip, I don’t let it get me down too much.
I try to keep it simple when it comes to food consumption (I’m not perfect). I ask myself, “Could a caveman have eaten this?” If the answer is “yes” then, you know the food is fresh, free of chemicals, and healthy.
[...] asked this question here, and it’s a good one. Corn is actually a great, nutritious food. One of the most striking [...]
Most people in the world, who do not have financial or other incentives to propose otherwise, probably agree with you that ‘natural’ and ‘whole’ foods are what people were and are supposed to consume to keep their bodies functioning well.
Do you consider, there are times in a person’s life when their intake of PARTICULAR ‘Foods’ is likely to be beneficial?
For example, many WOMEN might unknowingly be anaemic (iron deficiency) for only a relatively small duration during menstruation. So, iron should be within the diet at this time, in addition to vitamin C which the body uses to absorb the iron.
The elderly very often suffer from lost bone density, which can easily lead to fractures of hips/ribs/legs when they fall. Therefore, CALSIUM is highly recommended for men and women of any race as they age. Vitamin D (from sun light) is needed for the body’s absorption of calcium. As for younger people, the bodies absorption of calcium is best up to the mid-late twenties. I think there are many older people who wish they had consumed more calcium (dairy, parsley etc) when their bodies were most receptive to building bone strength and health.
Fish oil is a very interesting and popularly considered ‘good fat’, for instance it very PARTIALLY alleviates chemical symptoms of depression.
Glucosamine and Chondoitrin are affective for arthritis and joint pain…
I understand you both personally avoid supplements. Fine, so do I! But what do you exactly mean by supplement? Please establish your working definition. Because I would argue there are people and times in their lives (infancy, puberty, young adult, elderly) or who have genetic pre-dispositions to medical ailments, warranting very good reason (with medical doctor approval) that they supplement their diet with a ’supplement’ (EG an over the counter iron & Vit C tablet).
I do realise you do not want to be miss interpreted as supplement endorsers or sales people. But, that does not stop you from acknowledging the benefits of the use of FEW ‘natural’ supplements used to AID rather than ‘supplement’ a person’s health, with medical approval.
Frederick, I would like to see research and awareness on
1) genetically modified fruits and vegetables? Why is it done? Where is it prevalent? What are the risks versus the benefits?
Do you support the Food Pyramid idea regarding proportions of different food groups?
Here is a thought for Zuzanna and others, to help in our time poor lives, eat raw vegetables during the day! Of course, you can have cooked ones from the night before or you could prepare and freeze some foods each weekend to have during the week for lunch.
Importantly, other very big issues to consider include AVAILABILITY, COST, EDUCATION, CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE, LONGEVITY of ‘natural’ Real Foods. Of course it isn’t simple; it will vary dramatically between countries and households.
In theory, it is within a countries interest if the people are healthier. They can work more efficiently and for longer to inturn boost the country’s economy and comparativeness in the global market. It would be a good thing for everyone if more governments provided incentives to businesses to co-operate.
hello Zuzana ,
I think that maybe the one way is to be careful about what we eat and to have a personal choice. Zuzana I have a question about do you know something about genetically modified organism (GMO)? I know that in Canada this GMO is very popular and many people eat this NO-organic and unhealthy food.I`m from east Europe and here this is new.Unfortunately our society don`t know what`s is GMO.Cough you tell me your opinion about this ?
i love bodyrockTV :)
I have been in the herb and vitamin world since I was born but I never really looked at foods up close and personal. I watched a documentry called FOOD INC. and just about fell off of my chair. I found a lot of the same information in your article that I did in this documentry. Food is getting really scary if you dont grow it and cook it yourself. Thank you for your article it was really great.
I’ve unknowingly got into the ‘real food’ movement recently. When I was a student, I used to eat processed food daily due to the lack of time and energy to prepare my own food from scratch. I did so for many years and throughout those years I suffered daily digestive problems. It didn’t occur to me at the time that my diet was the cause of it, and I let myself suffer. (What was I thinking?!?)
Two years ago, I decided to learn how to cook and got an excellent cookbook written by the Dietitians of Canada that is all about healthy options and is filled with nutritional information. All the meals come from basic ingredients with no additives or preservatives and within a few weeks of following the recipes, my digestive problems were gone. But then I had to go back to school again and returned to my old eating habits, and the digestive problems returned. I’ve since reverted back to eating healthy again and I feel great. I couldn’t believe the change I experienced in my overall health simply from cutting out processed food.
I still eat processed food on occaision, be it due to a time constraint or just plain weakness for the taste of some of the foods, but real food has certainly won me over purely out of personal experience.
In the article, the line, “… removing these things from their original context … add new things in order to get your food-like-substance to function… ” can also be said about the over-medication of so many people in America and around the world. You’re given one pill, and then one or more others to counteract the side-effects of the first, when you didn’t need the original pill in the first place. Changing one thing just to turn it (sort of) back into what it was seems very inefficient to me, it makes me wonder how they are really saving any money.
I hate to say this, but you could not be more wrong about the statement you made above:
“I mean, they do test these things, right? Yes — no food additive, in general, goes into a product until it undergoes extensive testing. No matter how insane-sounding the substance, if it’s fundamentally bad for you (i.e., poisonous), there isn’t really much of a chance you’ll find it in your breakfast cereal.”
They do test it (somewhat). And in some/most cases they DID test it. Al lot of the test were done in the 50ties and 60ties and they did not have the means back then to test it thoroughly. But they still use those same test results to justify their products. Even when they know the ingredients are not good for you.
Please people make an effort to educate yourself about this stuff because it can seriously effect your life. And besides…knowing what the big corporates and the pharmaceutical industry has done and is still doing to us can only beneficial to everyone.
For instance read: The Hundred-Year Lie (Randall Fitzgerald ISBN:9780452288393).
How to protect yourself from the Chemicals That Are Destroying Your Health.
And better yet, read about the research that Corinne Couget did about E-Numbers.
Grtz and Bon Appetit