REAL vs. REALality.
Yesterday, I was reading the comments on HEAB and came across this article which led me to the Nourished Kitchen blog (which btw I ended up subscribing too). As far as I can tell, The Nourished Kitchen seems to be a blog devoted to traditional food preparation. A very cool blog, I might add.
However, I found the title of the CNN article, “An Inconvenient Challenge: Eat “Real Rood” For a Month” misleading. It should have said eat “Traditionally Prepared Food for a Month” because if you are using traditional methods of preparation you have no choice but for your food to be real. You can’t sprout Cheerios. Not only was the title of article misleading I feel like it was somewhat irresponsible. Why? The majority of Americans are struggling to make some simple changes such as not eating out every night of the week or switching from white to wheat. Then when these Americans read “Eat Real Food”, they scroll down with hope only to find out they must make their own lard and grind their own grains if they want to be healthy. Suddenly, for some, eating “real food”becomes more than a challenge, it becomes impossible and they give up before they even begin. I’ve been reading and trying various methods of traditional food preparation for years and even I felt a little overwhelmed reading it. Then again, I have issues.
The CNN article was presented as it if was simply about eating real when, in fact, it was about eating traditionally prepared food. I like traditional foods. I own Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, the Bible of traditional food preparation. I do soak my beans. I’ve tried sprouting. I’ve bought raw milk. Hell, I even bought raw colostrum once which tasted the way baby spit up smells. BUT I also have canned beans on my shelf and bread that someone else sprouted and baked in my fridge. I don’t grind my own grain. I don’t churn my own butter. I live in 2010 not 1010. I do the BEST I CAN with the resources I have and I refuse to feel guilty anymore. I get really tired of the media telling me I’m not thin enough, pretty enough, rich enough, and now they are telling me I’m not healthy enough because my cottage cheese came off the shelf. Sure I’d love to make my own yogurts and my own chicken stocks. I might even pluck a chicken if I had too. Last summer, I went to the fair to talk to goat breeders about buying a milk goat but I came to the conclusion I like a lot of things in life and milking a goat twice a day doesn’t make the cut. Health is a priority including my mental health. A few years ago I nearly drove myself (and my family) nuts trying to eat 100% traditionally prepared foods. When I feel overwhelmed I get depressed and when I get depressed I’m doing good if I cook at all much less figure out what grains I need to sprout on Monday so I can grind flour and bake bread all day on Saturday.
I’ve always said I don’t do moderation well but after reading this article I realize I don’t give myself enough credit. Okay so I may suck when it comes to eating a handful of M&M’s (which is why I haven’t had one in over two years) but I’ve gotten pretty good at eating healthy and maintaining my sanity. In one of my ideal worlds, I pick deep red peppers from my garden, get up at dawn to milk my goats, collect eggs from the henhouse, sprout all my grains, make yogurt from my goat’s milk, and my kids delight in my homemade cheeses. In my other ideal world, I travel the continents, enjoy frequent museum visits, have lunches with friends, spend weeks camping, become a world class martial artist, write screenplays that actually get made, compete in figure competitions, spend hours frolicking at the beach (sans cellulite), build lifelike famous monuments out of Legos with my kids and have enough energy left over at the end of the day to carry on important conversations with my husband. Neither ideal is going to be fully realized and certainly not both of them. I’ve realized I am my happiest somewhere in the middle. I spend some time in the kitchen preparing traditional food but I also spend a lot of time outside of it enjoying other gifts in my life and yes…sometimes that means, for time’s sake, I will use canned beans or even (gasp) take a trip through the drive-thru.
This is how I merge REAL food into my REALity to keep my sanity.
How do you make real food a part of your reality?
Hugs and High Fives,
jenn
If you enjoyed this this post please Subscribe to the RSS Feed.
Sign up for up to have posts emailed to your inbox.
Pin It
This is my (almost) sane quest for insane health. Let's 
You wanted to buy a goat once?! Very interesting.
Maybe this makes you feel better, but traditional does not equal healthy, neither does natural! I checked out their website and while I think going back to nature CAN be a good thing, health is just not that simple. Even a sprouted donut is still a freaking donut. And drowning your parsnips in maple syrup has nothing to do with nourishing your body. (two of their breakfast recipes) Think about this, did people back then live as long as healthy people do now? No. And trust me they did not just die of things that we have vaccines for now, most of the deaths were also good old heart disease and cancer related. I think thanks to modern science we have a good information that can help us to eat better, and while people back in the days were right about some things (maybe by accident) they also got a lot of things wrong. So try not to worry too much about eating traditionally. It’s not that healthy, especially for your mind.
I am so impressed with you! I can’t say it enough. I just stare at your transformation pictures sometimes. haha And not eating sugar for so long after being addicted to eat…is there a nobel prize for that? 😉
Love the shot of the goat licking your ear! 😀
That’s impressive that you wanted to do all this stuff from scratch. I must admit that while I do make my own chicken broth (only because it’s so damn easy to add water and some spices to a chicken carcass and let it boil a few hours) and I intend to make Charlotte’s Slow Cooker home made yogurt, I do these things for fun more than healthful righteousness. I have a pantry full of canned food. Don’t get me started on the frankenfoods I have- the Torani syrups (sugarfree natch), shirataki “noodles”, processed cheese products because they are 35 cals, etc. I have lost nearly 90 pounds and if that means relying on some processed foods to stay here, so be it!
Great post Jenn!
i say eat as real as you can! people get sooo obsessed with any splinter faction of healthy eating, it’s kind of ridiculous. any little bit helps, no need to go balls to the wall with the restrictions! so funny i have a pic of a baby deer doing the same thing to my ear, lol! except i look totally goofy in mine and you look adorable. check it out in katie’s furbaby post:
http://www.healthydivaeats.com/2010/03/friday-blogger-furbabies-post.html
Awesome post! We all struggle with balance in so many areas of our lives, I love your message of do the best you can and find a happy medium!
I agree … do the best you can. I would love to make everything from scratch and provide my fam with a completely organic, natural , chemical free diet. It’s nearly impossible. So, I balance work, school and motherhood and do the best I can. Yes, Snuffy’s cereal bars and Cheddar bunnies are processed but they are all natural and organic. I buy only free-range meat that is synthetic hormone and anti-biotic free. But, I can’t break Mallard of his spray butter habit and once a week pizza orders.
I never thought I would find such an everyday topic so enlhtarling!
Great Post! I love all the comments also.
Well I guess I don’t have to spend the weekend figrniug this one out!
Love the pic of the goal trying to have your hat for lunch!!!
Wonderful post Jenn!
You’re so right about the garden, goats and sprouting all being so very romantic and ideal (for 1010) … seeking balance and sticking to it *is* difficult esp. in a world where we have quick-quick, fast-fast options everywhere! Difficult but very POSSSIBLE!
We have found a good balance in our home. I hope my kids form a sound wiring for “healthy” food choices. I saw my brother yesterday and he is looking fantastic. We talk a lot of nutrition and exercise and this morning I thought, “what a great thing that two kids who grew up on Hawaiian Punch and Apple Jacks look fit and eat healthy foods as adults!”
PS – Frolicking on the beach with my kids sans cellulite are part of my dream-reality too 😉
You make great efforts, and we can only do our best. I’d love to soak all my grains and then sprout them, churn my own butter, etc. There is no way I could fit in all this traditional food prep with my job and other activities. Well, I could, but I don’t think I’d get much sleep.
So, we have some modern conveniences that make this way of life easier. I can buy grass fed butter and sprouted bread from the store, and for that I am grateful.
“Now they are telling me I’m not healthy enough because my cottage cheese came off the shelf…I’m doing good if I cook at all much less figure out what grains I need to sprout on Monday so I can grind flour and bake bread all day on Saturday.”
Thanks so much for the great post I can see myself in so many things you wrote, although I’m working on it, moderation is not my strong suit, I am very all or nothing, one extreme to the next.
Glad to know that you feel this way at times too, I’d love to understand one day where that mentality came from, but for now I’m just ok with knowing that’s the way I am and working to improve it.
For me its all about balance, I try to lead a healthy lifestyle as much as I can!
Awwwwww the goat is so cute!! Love the pic!!
So funny you got sushi too !!! Where are the pics??
Im sure your sushi was amazing too!! I treat myself to sushi like that once a month, sometimes twice if special occasion, but Mike and I try to only go out to eat once a month, thats it, makes it more enjoyable too, plus eating out these days , it’s expensive, portions are way huge, etc…
Love ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
awesome post girl! i love your thoughtful comments on everything…and most of all love that pic of the goat likcing your ear hahaah…one thing my BF and i talk abotu all the time is balance-with life, friends, food, work, everything…balance is the key to life…you should never beat yourself up from eating badly for one day when the next day you can be 100% back to healthy again…if you spend too much tiome with your boyfriend, youi know its time to see some of your girlfriends or vice versa. Its what life is about!
Oh I love this post! I feel such GUILT when I buy shredded cheese or canned beans or a fancy baguette. I need to give myself more credit too. Considering I work one full time job and two part time jobs, I am doing ok for myself!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog and your approach to life!
Woot! Couldn’t gave said it better myself!
Love this post!
ahhh.. see what i miss when i dont read blogs? great post. and thanks for leading me to more good blogs, which i definitely have sooo much time for 😉 i cant help but check our your recommendations though, you know what’s up! you are the epitome of balanced and i totally admire you. oh and we talked about you and your kettleballs at my dinner with friends the other night
xo
Hiya – Deb sent me, and I’ve been getting caught up but had to post here.
I felt the same way about this article – like it was a backwards way of telling people “Don’t even TRY to eat real food. It’s too hard.” It did SUCH a disservice and, frankly, made me really mad.
Is it a crazy experiment to eat “real?” No – it’s totally doable, but in a modern world you shouldn’t expect people to churn their own butter.
Like everything, there is a spectrum and every move towards more real is a good move.
im just catching up here on ur blog, and can i just say DITTO!!! love this post 😀
Don’t know if you get late comments, Jenn, but I LOVE this post. So many things about it I could relate to. Wanting to do everything, but realizing its not possible in this lifetime. I actually want a goat someday, but mostly just because they are so darn cute. I make my own yogurt, but like someone said in the comments, just because its so fun. Well, it does taste pretty amazing too. And the bit about not being able to eat just a handful of m&m’s so you haven’t had one in over two years. Well, that’s just the best! I haven’t gone two years without them, but I often think about why I don’t eat chocolate chip cookies more often. And that is why. As good as they are, its just easier without them…