What I Learned This Week: Eating Well Can Taste Good Too

This realization was the turning point for me.  I love food.  For years I have wanted to eat healthier, but I didn’t want to give up taste. 

When I was younger and my metabolism was more forgiving, I fell into a very bad cycle I jokingly call the “binge and starve” approach to weight management.  I indulge in the foods I want to eat, and once the number on the scale becomes daunting, I diet to lose the unwanted pounds.  Yeah.  Real healthy.  Not surprisingly, as I get older, that method is becoming less effective, and to top it off, my gastrointestinal system seems to be rebelling.  I can’t enjoy food because when I eat what I love, I feel guilty, and when I eat what I think I’m supposed to eat, it doesn’t taste very good.

But since I’ve been reading In Defense of Food (this is a great synopsis, if you don’t feel like reading the whole book) and blogs such as Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Cheeseslave (who I’ve been stalking mercilessly for days), I have completely changed the way I think about food.  Kelly describes this as a “food conversion.”  I may have to borrow that phrase.

The funny thing is, my husband, the skeptic, is the one who checked the book out of the library.  This is the man who brings Lucky Charms into the house and keeps ice cream in the freezer.  But now he’s preaching about eating “real food” to anyone who will listen.  Just ask his sister.  She was held captive by his enthusiasm for at least 30 minutes at the wedding reception on Saturday.

I was immediately intrigued with the premise, but based on the subtitle — “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” — I feared that once again, I was going to be told that in order to be healthy, I would have to give up the things that I love most.  Come to find out, nothing could be further from the truth.

For years, we’ve been told that we should eat low-fat foods.  In fact, the low-fat food fad (try saying THAT 10 times fast!) has created a billion dollar industry out of making things that should be flavorful and nutrition-filled into inferior imitations of their natural counterparts. In fact, did you know that once upon a time, imitation foods had to be labeled as exactly that? Sometime in the middle of the 20th century, the rule was lifted, and suddenly the supermarket shelves were overflowing with all kinds of junk masquerading as health food — food such as margarine, Aunt Jemima’s pancake syrup, enriched bread, egg beaters — each one touting itself as better for us than the original natural version, as if humans ingenuity could possibly improve upon God’s creation.  But we fell for it it — hook, line, and sinker.

The truth is, you can actually feel good about drinking whole milk and eating real butter and real maple syrup, just to name a few. Eggs are better for you than Egg Beaters.  (Click that link to read how they’re made.  GROSS.  And hello, the yolks are the nutritious part!)  Butter is better for you than margarine (um, partially hydrogenated oils, anyone?)  Whole milk is better for you than skim. And don’t EVEN get me started on yogurt.  Even before I started my “whole foods initiative,” I avoided any yogurt with cartoons on the packaging.  Most are full of artificial sugars and flavors and colors.  My mom used to make homemade yogurt when I was a little girl.  Perhaps I should try that next!

Anyway, you get the point.  Oh yeah, if you can afford to buy your meat and dairy from animals that have been fed grass (again, as they did before we humans began interfering with the natural order of things) then it’s better for you still.  That’s my next mission.  In fact, tomorrow morning I’m taking my kids to a local farm where they sell grass fed meat and eggs.  I’ll try to remember my camera.

And here’s the clincher.  REAL FOOD TASTES BETTER TOO.

Here are a few striking examples of things that I would have never considered healthy until now.  Pie crust can actually be nutritious if you make it with healthy beef tallow instead of Crisco (partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.)  Be still my heart.  (I actually ordered beef tallow just this morning, and I can’t wait to try it out.)

Ice cream is typically full of all sorts of extra fillers, but not if you make your own at home.  The other day we were driving by Dairy Queen, and my kids wanted an ice cream.  Typically I would say yes, but this time we stopped at the market to get milk and heavy cream instead.  When we got home we dusted off our old ice cream maker and made a batch.  The kids were delighted because it was something fun to make, it was absolutely delicious, and I was satisfied that I was giving my kids wholesome real food.

Then there are the things that I thought were okay, but I realize now they’re not so good for us.  Take boxed breakfast cereals.  I don’t know about you, but they have always been a staple in our home because they are easy and the kids love them.  I thought I was doing pretty well because I usually stick to the ones lower in sugar and artificial colors and flavors.  But even those are not very nutritious.  The vitamins they have are chemically added, which is no where near as beneficial as the real deal.  (Are you sensing a pattern?)  I informed my children that we will be having eggs or oatmeal (the old fashioned kind, cooked on the stove top) instead of boxed cereals for breakfast from now on.  I couldn’t believe their excitement.  Even the kids know real food tastes better.

I know, I sound like a wackadoo, but I promise, it isn’t as complicated as it sounds. We don’t have to get caught up in all the latest studies and stock our pantries with the nutrient du jour. 

Basically, eating food as close to its natural state as possible is always going to be the best bet.  It will taste better and it will be healthier.  It’s really that simple.

The hardest part, I’m finding, is making the time to prepare more food from scratch and also finding resources for what I want to buy.  I plan to write more in depth posts on that in the weeks to come.

Before we get to Mr. Linky, I want to stop and say that I hope that nothing I’m saying comes off like I think I’m better than anyone else.  There is so much information out there, it’s positively overwhelming.  We’re all busy and trying to do the best we can for our families.  I just can’t help but share what I’m finding, and I hope that some will find it helpful or encouraging.  If it’s not your thing, then please come back tomorrow.  I’m sure I’ll be talking about something more interesting, like the latest trend in denim or how I survived an afternoon at the pool with three kids.

So what did YOU learn this week?

CLICK HERE for the complete carnival rules. Here is the Cliffs Notes version:

1. Any time this week, publish your What I Learned This Week post on your blog and link to this post. Please only link in if you wrote a What I Learned This Week Post.

2. Link up with the Mr. Linky form down below. Please put the link to your POST, not the front page of your blog. More on that here.

3. Then visit the other participants and see what they learned this week. And comment, comment, comment! Spread the love!

Alrightythen. Ready, Set, GO!

Tagged as: In Defense of Food, Real Food, whole foods