This blog is about reducing fake foods - things that really aren’t food at all. It is about choosing the natural versus the synthetic and unfortunately there is quite a bit of synthetic in our food system. This blog is about total wellness and well being. These are the motivating factors for reducing fake foods, but they encompass so much more.
This blog serves as a creative outlet to share my passion for cooking, food culture, agriculture, travel, photography and wellness.
It really all began when I started reading books like French Women Don't Get Fat and began experiencing other cultures through travel. I found myself feeling as though we were missing something in regards to what we ate and how and why we ate it.
With a background in nutritional and exercise sciences, I've always kept nutrition a priority, and at the same time I've always struggled to keep my weight at a healthy level. Things began to change for me as my journey continued and I discovered books such as Real Food: What to Eat and Why, Food Politics, Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food. As a result of reading these books I began to educate myself on our food system and eating in a way that feels right to me while keeping science, local and global issues in mind. I was ecstatic to find that there are many others out there who feel the same I do about real food, not to mention research that supports our beliefs.
I happen to find whole grains thrilling, natural fats satisfying, and minimally refined sugars complex and intriguing. I experiment with all of these foods. I garden, support my local farmer’s market as well as international markets, I can some of what we grow and we buy our meats from local, sustainable farms. I believe that if you can choose one thing to improve your health it should be cooking your own real food.
Oh, and I'm also a former ex-pat. My husband and I lived in southern Brazil for 2.5 years and just returned to the US late 2009. We love to travel and experience other cultures through food. I believe that we have a lot to learn from other cultures. Their food practices should be spreading to us, not the other way around.
I feel we all find our own path to health. What works for one person may not work for another. Personally, I am on a quest to reduce and eliminate fake food from my diet. By my definition, fake foods are those shelf stable items that list a myriad of chemical and preservative names in their ingredient list. They really aren’t food at all, just a bunch of synthetic substances made to look and taste like food, or foods that have been so altered that they no longer resemble the original in taste and nutrition.
On this quest, I realize that I am only human. Our environments make it difficult to completely eliminate some of these foods. The idea is to make as much of my own food as I can, and remove fake foods as staples in my diet whether they are believed to be healthy or not. They simply are not food and real food is what I want fueling this body.
