Follow me on my "10 Days of Real Food" Pledge!

I have been reading the "100 days of Real Food" blog (http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/) written by a NC mom for several months now, and have enjoyed following her as she learns to eat only "real" foods. She and her family have experienced a lot of health benefits from the changes they've made and she swears she'll never go back to eating like they used to. She invites her readers to join her with a shorter 10-day pledge. I have made a lot of changes in our family's eating habits while reading her blog (and beforehand) and have learned a few great new recipes, but have not yet tried to eat ONLY "real" foods for 10 days. So, here we go.

I am posting the rules from her website so you can see what we (Brett, the kids, and me) will and won't be eating for the next 10 days.

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What you CAN eat:

1. Whole foods that are more a product of nature than a product of industry
2. Lots of fruits and vegetables (we recommend that you shop for these at your local farmers’ market)
3. Dairy products like milk, unsweetened yogurt, eggs, and cheese
4. 100% whole-wheat and whole-grains
5. Seafood (wild caught is the more optimal choice over farm-raised)
6. Snacks like dried fruit, seeds, nuts and popcorn
7. All natural sweeteners including honey, 100% maple syrup, and fruit juice concentrates are acceptable in moderation

What you CANNOT eat:

1. No refined grains such as white flour or white rice (items containing wheat must say WHOLE wheat…not just “wheat”)
2. No refined sweeteners such as sugar, any form of corn syrup, cane juice, or the artificial stuff like Splenda
3. Nothing out of a box, can, bag, bottle or package that has more than 5 ingredients listed on the label
4. No deep fried foods
5. No “fast foods”
6. Only locally raised meats such as pork, beef, and chicken

Beverages will be limited to water, milk, all natural juices, naturally sweetened coffee & tea, and, to help the adults keep their sanity, wine and beer!

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Parts of the pledge will be easy for us because we never eat fast food or deep fried food and for the last year or so we have eaten MOSTLY local, "free-range" meat. We don't drink soda. And we eat whole wheat bread.

However... the trouble spots for us will be avoiding all sugar and all white flour. All of our breakfast cereals contain sugar (even plain Cheerios!), so those are out! I also love to eat a little piece of 70% dark Lindt chocolate at night after dinner to satisfy my sweet tooth, and that will not be an option this week. (I am really craving some chocolate right now, but we officially started at dinner tonight, so it's a no go.) The most difficult part will be rethinking the children's snacks. At least once a day they eat some sort of factory processed, refined white flour or sugar snack like the seemingly harmless Whole Grain Goldfish or Cheezits or graham crackers, etc. I'm going to have to get creative.

The goal of this type of endeavor is partly to get people used to reading labels more carefully and understanding what they are putting in their bodies (and in their children's bodies). And ideally, the exercise should convince you that the best foods don't have lables!

The basis for the original "100 Days of Real Food" blog are all of Michael Pollan's excellent books. I have read them all and strongly support his vision of our food industry and our diets. If you are curious, check out his very well-written and easy-to-read "In Defense of Food," and if you are really curious about what is really being marketed to you in the grocery store and the dangers of eating highly processed and unhealthy "food-like substances," check out "The Omnivore's Dilemma" (a tougher read, but well -worth it).

I'll post lists of things we've eaten this week and some photos and possibly some recipe ideas if you want to follow along. We always shop on a cash-only budget for groceries, so we will stick to that even though we will be avoiding all the "cheap" stuff and eating only organic produce (which we mostly do anyway).

So, for dinner tonight, we had black bean burritos, brown rice with cilantro and cheese, and fruit. Water for the parents (as usual) and organic milk for the kiddos (as usual).

My challenge to you: read the labels of some of the foods in you pantry. If you need a chemistry degree to decipher them, you should be very suspicious!

Ok, wish us luck! Man, I'm hungry already!