CNN recently featured a story on a blogger who challenged people to eat real food for a month - An inconvenient challenge: Eat 'real food' for a month (http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/23/real.food.challenge/index.html?hpt=Sbin). The blogger, Jennifer McGruther, asked people to purge their pantry of all processed foods, including refined oils, white flour, sugar, low- and skimmed-milk products, margarine, processed cheeses, refined salt and dried pastas. Jennifer also stipulated that
It didn’t matter if the foods were organic or not. “Toss them anyway," she said. "You may well have paid good money for the food at one time, but remember, real health comes from real food, and real food never comes from a box." Apparently, a number of the participants felt overwhelmed by their perceived lack of choices or the time required to prepare “real foods”. I personally think these two issues are real foods myths and excuses. Some also felt that the increased grocery costs were an obstacle. As with anything in life, you have choices. While it’s true that you have to be more creative with your grocery list and coming up with menu selections, there are boundless opportunities to create tasty meals from basic ingredients. The time myth? I counter that with that if you have time to watch TV, you have time to prepare a meal… It’s just as relaxing. And for cost implications? I bet you’ll save tons of money not buying the chips, cookies, and sodas. Plus, how about the long-term health costs? You’re saving yourself added expenses in your latter years… J So, time to sign up for the challenge yourself!