Key Points:
- We should eat real food based on our needs.
- If a food didn’t come from the ground, a tree, or living creature that was fed by the other living organisms (plants, other animals, etc), then it isn’t real food.
- Use the five second and the ingredient list tests to identify real food.
- Use the bonus the shelf life and location tests to identify real food.
Diets seem to rank up there with politics and religion as a taboo topic. Regardless of how you describe the way you eat, whether it’s the Standard American Diet (or SAD… irony?), Paleo, Primal, high carb/low fat, low carb/high fat, etc, you are on a diet! Face it! Your diet is simply what you ate today.
I don’t promote or subscribe to any particular style of eating over another. Instead, I feel that we should eat real foods based on what our bodies need.
So, there are two parts to that statement: “eat real foods” and “based on what your body needs.” Let’s start with “eat real foods”. What does that mean? What is “fake” food? Let’s look at three distinct but accurate definitions.
What is “real food”?
First, Mike Dolce, MMA’s expert on weight cutting and nutrition, tells listeners of the Mike Dolce Show to eat “earth grown nutrients”. When he refers to earth-grown nutrients, Dolce says, “Now, I’m not talking about cocaine or things like that, obviously. We’re talking about blueberries, avocados, chia seeds, and a tremendous amount of green vegetables.”[i]
Second, Loren Cordain, Ph.D., says to eat a diet with “lots of lean meats, fresh fruits, and vegetables.”[ii]
Third, CrossFit’s Coach Greg Glassman says to “eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar.”[iii]
So, I think you could use anyone of those definitions to describe “real food”. My favorite has to be Dolce’s “earth grown nutrients”. Essentially, if it didn’t come from the ground, a tree, or living creature that was fed by the other living organisms (plants, other animals, etc), then it isn’t real food.
Consider homemade sweet potato fries. To make them, you might use sweet potatoes, sea salt, cinnamon, and a little coconut oil to season them. You would throw them in the oven and bake them. That’s it. You can easily identify every ingredient.
On the other hand, consider the ingredients in McDonald’s French Fries:
“Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (Canola Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Natural Beef Flavor [Wheat and Milk Derivatives]*, Citric Acid [Preservative]), Dextrose, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (Maintain Color), Salt. Prepared in Vegetable Oil: Canola Oil, Corn Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil with TBHQ and Citric Acid added to preserve freshness. Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.”[iv]
I have to give them credit; at least there are potatoes in there. But the next ingredient is vegetable oil which presents a host of health concerns. By the way, can you tell me what half of the remaining ingredients are? And what in the hell is “Natural Beef Flavor” and why does it have wheat derivatives? Finally, why would I need to worry about potatoes foaming?
Let’s take another example. Who loves pizza? Me & my family sure do. When I make pizza dough, I use eggs, coconut flour, flax meal, coconut milk, oregano, basil, and garlic powder. While you may not have used all of those ingredients before, I bet you realize that coconut flour and flax meal come directly from coconuts and flax seeds.
Pretty straight forward!
What about the ingredients in Pizza Huts Pan Pizza crust:
“Enriched bleached wheat flour (bleached flour, malted barley flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, salt, sugar, soybean &/or cottonseed oil, whey, may contain 2% or less of enzymes &/or datem, vital wheat gluten, potassium sorbate (preservative), ascorbic acid, sodium stearoyl lactylate.”[v]
Okay, one more for kicks. Everyone likes to eat at Subway because it’s fresh and healthy. Jared Fogle even lost 245 lbs on the “Subway Diet” consisting of a 6” and 12” inch sandwich per day.[vi] So, the bread must be made from “real food” and good for you… right? WRONG!!!!
The 9 Grain Wheat has the following ingredients:
“Whole wheat flour, enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yeast, sugar, wheat gluten, contains 2% or less of: calcium carbonate, soybean oil, salt, wheat, rye, yellow corn, oats, triticale, brown rice, barley, flax seed, millet, sorghum, refinery syrup, vitamin D2, sunflower lecithin, natural flavor, honey, ascorbic acid, yeast extract, enzymes.”[vii]
You get my point. If you can’t look at the food on your plate and tell me most if not all of the ingredients and where they come from, IT’S NOT REAL FOOD!
Does it pass the test?
Take make it even easier, here are 2 simple tests to determine if it’s real food or not:
- The five second test – if you can’t look at a food and within five seconds determine what the food is made of, then it isn’t real food.
- The ingredient list test – if you can’t identify an ingredient or pronounce its name, then it doesn’t qualify as real food. Man-made foods have names that are scientific and hard to pronounce. Also, real food generally has very few ingredients and the ingredients are ones that you can readily identify. If not, it’s not real food.
Bonus tests:
- The shelf life test – does the food have a shelf life longer than the typical life expectancy in the US? If the food doesn’t go bad within a few days or maybe weeks, in some cases, after you purchase it, it’s not real food.
- The location test – did you buy the food in the middle of the store or on the perimeter? Think about where the fresh veggies and meats are located in the store. If you bought it in the middle of the store, it’s not real food (with rare exceptions).
There you have it. Those tests will help ensure you are eating real food based on your needs. It’s that simple. And by eating only real food, you will be well on your way to improving your health and fitness.
[i] Curreri, Frank. “Mike Dolce Is Talking, So You Need To Listen.” UFC. 24 May 2012. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <http://www.ufc.com/news/Mike-Dolce-Is-Talking-So-You-Need-To-Listen?redirect=no>.
[ii] Cordain, Ph.D., Loren. “The Ground Rules for the Paleo Diet.” The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight & Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat. Revised ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. 24. Print.
[iii] Glassman, Greg. “What Is Fitness.” CrossFit Journal (2002). CrossFit Journal. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_Trial_04_2012.pdf>.
[iv] “World Famous Fries.” Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/product_nutrition.snackssides.6050.small-french-fries.html>.
[v] “Pizza Hut Ingredient Statements.” Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <http://www.pizzahut.com/Files/PDF/ph_ingredients.pdf>.
[vi] McCoy, William. “Jared’s “Subway Sandwich Diet”” Livestrong. 9 Mar. 2014. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/464704-jareds-subway-sandwich-diet/>.
[vii] “Subway US Product Ingredients.” 1 Mar. 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <https://www.subway.com/Nutrition/Files/usProdIngredients.pdf>.
