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Pam asked: I have started to look at some of the stuff you have on your blog in order to change the way that my family eats, I am just so overwhelmed, can you offer any advice about where I should start.  I am not happy with how my family is eating.  And as the wife and mother, it is my responsibility to make sure I am providing the best possible foods for them.

This is one of many similar emails I regularly receive asking: “where do I start?” Yes, entering the whole/real foods camp can definitely be overwhelming and intimidating. Soaking grains? Grass-fed meat? What does it all mean? I want to begin by encouraging you to see it as a work in progress. You will not be able to change your whole diet at one time. Take baby steps. I hope this will be a practical baby steps guide to eating better. This is basically an overview of where we started as a family and from top down in the priority list. You may decide to re-arrange the steps in the order that you feel is a priority. Whatever works for you…just take one step at a time. Start by adopting one change in a month’s time, or whatever time period is suitable without being overwhelming. And just have fun with it! It takes practice and experimenting. It won’t always turn out the first time! But try and try again and you will succeed.

1. Use real butter instead of margarine.

Real butter is not only far superior is flavor, but it is also very good for you. The best choice I have found here includes Organic Pastures Raw Butter (for CA residents). US Wellness Meats sells organic grass-fed cultured butter. Trader Joe’s and other health stores carry Kerrygold Butter that has been made from entirely grass-fed cows milk and cultured, although pasteurized. Tillamook Butter is a good back-up, as it is made from cow’s that are mostly grass-fed, but it has the disadvantage of having being pasteurized. Otherwise, look for rBST free butter (you can learn what it means later . Why Butter is Better? for further reading.

2. Limit beverage choices to filtered water.

Drinking more water is probably the best step towards better health. Get a good stainless steel water bottle and start drinking! Removing pop and other highly sweetened beverages from your diet is huge! You just really don’t want to go near HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup). There are no HFCS varieties available at health food stores if you cannot drop the habit…but it is definitely worth it for the cost savings alone. Tea and coffee are good beverages if you choice fair trade versions. Kombucha and water kefir soda are also good nutritiously dense drinks. If you can, purchase a good water filter. Berkey is reasonably priced option. Otherwise, a Brita is better than nothing.

3. Eliminate white flour and white sugar. Throw out the refined!

I began by slowly weeding out white flour and white sugar usage in our house and replacing it with more nourishing alternatives. White flour has been refined and processed, eliminating all nutritious content in the grain. Start by gradually adapting your recipes, cup by cup (equal in replacement with most flours), and replacing with whole grains and wholesome sweeteners. You may want to start out by doing half white and half whole wheat and slowly pumping up the whole wheat to help gradually adapt your family to the change. Look for 100% whole grains on your labels and watch out for the sneaky high fructose corn syrup on your store bought bread products. Sprouted grains and bread products are some of the most digestible options.

4. Use brown rice and brown rice pastas instead of white.

The only difference here is you have to use more water to rice in your measurements and cook it longer. I use 1 cup brown rice to 2 1/4 cup water. Cook for about 45 minutes. If you have a rice cooker, it will it it for you! Use brown rice pastas for their easier digestibility than other whole grain pastas. Tinkyada is a good brand of brown rice pastas.

5. Buy grass-fed and pastured beef, chicken and eggs.

Nina Planck recommends to start at the top of the food chain! This is where the most damage is caused by feeding animals corn and dead chicken carcasses, resulting in poor quality of meat. Feeding corn also results in health issues (e-coli for one) for which they will pump animals full of antibiotics and chemicals which collect in the fat. Find a local farmer that raises them right. You want chickens that have seen the light of day and have freedom to roam. You want grass-fed meat that is fed grass and allowed to roam pastures resulting in a superior product for your health. You want free range eggs from pastured chickens. U.S Wellness Meats is a good online source for grass-fed meats. Trader Joes and other whole food stores offer grass-fed alternatives. Stay away from nitrates as well – sodium nitrate is a harmful preservative, most commonly found in pork products. If you cannot find grass fed, go for an organic version. At least this is free of the chemicals!

6. Use healthy fats in your cooking.

I stick with coconut oil, olive oil and butter for everything in my kitchen! Avoid the processed or genetically modified products such as vegetable oil, soybean oil, canola oil, safflower oil, and sunflower oil. Learn more about healthy fats here. Coconut oil is mainly for all my baking, and some sauteing. Olive oil is for salad dressings and some cooking. Butter is for everything in between!

7. Find a raw milk source.

Raw milk is incredibly delicious! It’s the real thing! If you can, seek out a local farm that offers raw milk. Real Milk has a detailed list, state by state. Or order online through Organic Pastures Dairy, offering raw milk, butter, cheese and other products shipped directly to your door. If not possible, check out the good milk alternatives: goat’s milk, organic milk, hemp milk and coconut milk.

8. Learn how to make kefir and yogurt.

Make kefir with kefir grains. Homemade yogurt can be made with a countertop culture or in the crockpot.

9. Pick one product on your grocery list that you can begin making from scratch.

Breads, tortillas, muffins, dressings, condiments – just a few ideas to get you going. Homemade beans in the crockpot is easy and a great way to safe on canned beans. Make spaghetti sauce and chili from tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Returning to the whole product and making it yourself is so beneficial! Canned products are highly processed, contain high sodium content and often have BPA (a harmful plastic) in the lining of the jar. You can find lots of homemade recipes here. Just take one item per month and have fun learning! Homemade versions will be free of preservatives and other loads of additives that are added to extend shelf life. Start moving away from processed, packaged foods, and make the real thing at home.

10. Buy organic or spray free vegetables and fruits – and eat lots!

If you cannot afford organic produce, ask farmers in your area if they use sprays (pesticides and herbicides). Try to avoid the sprays if possible. If not, then still eat lots of fruits and vegetables because they are so nourishing to your body. Studies show that  your health is much superior for eating more vegetables and fruits, whether they be organic or not. Check out the Dirty Dozen list for a helpful guide to what produce contains more sprays and chemicals.

11. Buy wild fish.

While not strictly organic, it is important to buy wild fish and avoid most farmed fish, which can contain high levels of contaminants. Look for “grown in the wild” labeling when you buy salmon especially!

12. Begin soaking your grains.

I put this on the bottom of the list because it can be the most intimidating and complicated step. Take your time with this one. This step is the first to go out the window in busy seasons of life at our home. Soaking brown rice and whole grains help make them more digestible for the body.

Again, take one step at a time and have fun with it! Read, learn and explore the world of whole real foods! Here are some other excellent resources to get you going. Above all, start looking for real foods. If the label has tons of unpronounceable words, then it probably is not real food. If it is fortified, refined, or tweaked in some way, it is probably not real food. Unfortunately, it will cost more to eat real food. But I believe you can always afford what you prioritize in your budget!

A few helpful resources:

Baby Steps to Better Health – this is a wonderful e-book by Shari Graham of Graham Family Ministries. This is the best and most simple guide I have found to help the newbies. She start by encouraging you to drink fresh filtered water and lots of it! Then she follows this by encouraging you to start by replacing one store bought thing with a homemade variety. One by one, have fun with learning to make things yourself. She offers recipes, meal planning tips, bread making tips (including her own soaked bread recipe), using healthy fats, making yogurt, etc. She also covers briefly natural cleaning and body care recipes and tips. I highly recommend this guide! She also offers the contents of this book free on her blog, The Nourishing Cookbook, but the ebook includes helpful printable checklist charts, forms and recipes.

Resources for Beginning a Healthy Lifestyle – a few of my favorite book recommendations

Nutritional Eating: What is Most Important?

Getting Real with Food series (from Heavenly Homemakers) – where to start?

The Real Food Revival: Aisle by Aisle, Morsel by Morsel by Sherri Vinton – a helpful beginners guide to learning all the terms and finding the real whole foods in the supermarket.

Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck – a step up from the Real Food Revival in providing further history, science and knowledge into defining real foods. She details meats, dairy, fats, and vegetables and what to look for. I loved this book!

Natural Living 101 – my compiled list of food sources, article and more on natural living!

Do you have any steps you would add to the list? How do you prioritize real food eating?

Stay tuned…Next we will be taking a closer look at my own food budget, and letting you see what exactly we buy!

Photo above is the cover photo of Nina Planck’s Real Food: What to Eat and Why.

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesdays.

Photo by donkeycart

Originally published on May 21, 2008 under the title Enjoying Local Abundance. Revised and republished.

How spoiled we are when we truly look at the abundance God has provided us within our own communities! Why should I buy food that has traveled thousands of miles at times, when an abundance is available in my own vicinity simply through doing a little research. The more I reflect on enjoying and supporting local agriculture the more I realize that eating locally is the way to go!

1. Buying locally provides you with the freshest food and ingredients.

Local food is fresher and tastes better than food shipped long distances from other states or countries. Local farmers can offer produce varieties bred for taste and freshness rather than for shipping and long shelf life. The average food travels 1,300 miles from farm to table! That means it needs a lot of preservatives and added chemicals to make it last! Refining and processing allow these products to store for months. Supermarket food often travels seven to fourteen days before arriving in your local supermarket. By then, it lacks significant nutritional benefit, making it hardly worth the cost. Make your dollar count!

When trying to find local food that is free of pesticides (to get the most nutrition without the harmful chemicals), make sure to ask! Many local farmers cannot afford the cost to become certified organic, but they make every effort to keep eco-friendly practices. Simply ask them if they use sprays and how they raise their products, and you will know whether it is a quality food source or whether you should look elsewhere.

2. Buying locally is beneficial for the environment.

Local food doesn’t have to travel far. This reduces carbon dioxide emissions and packing materials. When you buy local food, you vote with your food dollar. This ensures that family farms in your community will continue to thrive and that healthy, flavorful, plentiful food will be available for future generations. This is another small way we can be good stewards of the world around us! You are also supporting local farmers and their efforts to provide quality products.

3. Buying locally is often cheaper when you buy in season.

Buying according to the what is in season is definitely cheaper! It doesn’t have to travel very far to your table and thus doesn’t have all those additional costs for transportation and perservation. From my experience, I have found that shopping at the farmers market or local farm stand is a very frugal option. From March-November, our farmer’s market is open, offering us quality produce for just around $15-20 per week, and we eat a lot of produce!

4. Buying locally is so much fun!

Getting to know farmers in the area is quite enjoyable! It is refreshing to know where your food is coming from, knowing how farmers go about producing their goods, and to get to knows them in the process is a great joy. The commercial food industry has fallen short (read more in my review of In Defense of Food), resorting to inhumane practices, harmful pesticides and preservation techniques, so it is growing more and more important to know where your food is coming from!

Even if you do spend more to buy locally, you can be assured that more often then not, the quality is superior, meaning you are getting more nutrition for your dollar.

Where to find local food?

Eat Well Guide -is an online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs. Enter your zip code to find healthful, humane, and ecofriendly products from farm, stores, and restaurants in your area. This guide includes listings for US & Canada. It is awesome!

Eat Wild -lists local suppliers for grass-fed meat and dairy products.

Local Harvest – helps you connect with local farmers, CSAs, and farmers’ markets.

Pick Your Own – find local farms with fruits and berries. Make sure to ask if they spray. You want to avoid those pesticides!

Check out restaurants in your area through Eat Wild (select your state, and then click on the right side bar “Beyond the Farm” for a full listing of restaurants) & Chef’s Collaborative.

Another recent find has been Edible Communities which is a network of excellent local magazines on local food. Edible Portland is for me!

What foods are in season?

Check out these fun resources: Epicurious offers a table that includes what is in season by state and then provides shopping guides and recipes for using those items. You can also find a seasonal guide at Sustainable Table.

How to find the best deals on local food?

Look outside the city. I have found I can get far better deals if I look to communities outside of the city. Just a few miles north of us can provide me with a significant discount of berries each summer. Or buying meat from Tillmook, a few hours drive south of us, provides us with $2 per pound grass-fed meat, versus the $4-5 per pound cost in town.

Find local farm stands. Local farm stands are one of the best providers for our seasonal produce. CSA’s are a great option, but they are usually significantly more expensive than buying at a farm stand or farmer’s market. Plus, you usually can get more for your money than through a CSA’s and still be supporting the local farmers.

Local Food Sources & Restaurants – NW Washington & Portland

If you live in close proximity to us, you are in luck! I have compiled a huge resource of local food sources, restaurants, CSAs & markets in the area. You can check it out at my Local Resources page.

Further Resources

Food Routes – a national nonprofit dedicated to ‘reintroducing Americans to their food – the seeds it grows from, the farmers who produce it, and the routes that carry if from the fields to our tables.’
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver – the story of one families journey to eat locally!
Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets by Deborah Madison
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Food by Gary Paul Nabhan
Holy Cows And Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer’s Guide To Farm Friendly Food by Joel Salatin

Check out your packaging! Where are these items coming from?

Have fun exploring the bounty that surrounds you! Every little step is making progress! We started with CSA, then we began visiting our local farmer’s market, and now I am starting to check out my labels for other items! You would be surprised how far things can travel before getting to your table! While shopping at Costco, I found organic salsa produced in Eugene, OR which is just two hours south of us. I also found raisins grown and produced in Oregon as well. It’s surprising what you can find when you look a little closer!

Find more helpful resources at Real Food Wednesday.

I recently completed In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan, and what a mind-boggling, insightful and enjoyable read it was. I read frequent quotes from the book to my husband and we were both astounded at how far the food industry has fallen in providing healthy nutritious food.

In just 200 pages, In Defense of Food gives you a guided tour of 20th century food science, a history of “nutritionism” in America and a glimpse into the union of government and the food industry. It provides the reader with very helpful step by step tips to guide them in food shopping.

“Nutritionism prefers to tinker with the Western Diet, adjusting the various nutrients (lowering the fat, boosting the protein) and fortifying processed foods rather than questioning their value in the first place.”

With the age of industrialization, we have more heart disease, obesity, and diabetes than any other period of time. And these diseases are only so common in Western societies. Why? Corn, soy, wheat and rice is the majority of what we are eating!

“Corn contributes 554 calories a day to America’s per capita food supply and soy another 257. Add wheat (768 calories) and rice (91) and you can see there isn’t a whole lot of room left in the American stomach for any other foods. Today these four crops account for two thirds of the calories we eat. When you consider that humankind has historically consumed some eighty thousand species, and that three thousand of these have been in widespread use, this represents a radical simplification of the human diet. Why should this concern us? Be humans are omnivores, we need somewhere between 50 and a 100 different chemical compounds and elements in order to be healthy. It’s hard to believe we’re getting everything we need from a diet consisting largely of processed corn, soybeans, rice, and wheat.” (page 117-118)

Why are we eating so much of these products? Because it grows fast, is cheap to grow, and the government pays farmers to grow corn and soy! Most of the corn and soy winds up in the feed of our food animals (and then we pump them up with antibiotics because they get sick on it), but the rest goes into processed foods. Thus it results in cheap food; unfortunately, food that is depleted in nutrients because it has grown too fast to get what it needs. Then it is processed and refined so that there are no living organisms in it that would cause it to spoil over the long distance that it must travel to get to the supermarket. People are more worried about what to eat then ever before. Health claims are smacked on every packaged food on the market. Is this really advancement? Americans now eat more calories resulting in being overfed and yet undernourished.

Food quality has declined since the introduction of industrialization with the depletion of soil nutrients from chemicals and pesticides. “To put this in more concrete terms, you now have to eat three apples to get the same amount of iron as you would have gotten from a single 1940 apple, and you’d have to eat several more slices of bread to get your recommended daily allowance of zinc than you would have a century ago.”

I love how this book doesn’t supply us with a new diet plan! It is just a gentle reminder to return to the way our ancestors ate. A more traditional, whole foods diet of REAL food. As Dr Weston Price discovered in his research studying the diets and health of various traditional cultures around the globe: “The human animal is adapted to, and apparently can thrive on, an extraordinary range of different diets, but the Western diet, however you define it, does not seem to be one of them.” It’s a new look at encouraging readers to avoid processed, packaged so called “food” and return to the basics: produce, dairy, real fat, whole grains and meat.

How do we find real food? Michael Pollan offers these helpful guidelines:

1. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

2. Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A) Unfamiliar, B) Unpronounceable, C) More than five in number or that include D) High-Fructose Corn Syrup. The main idea here is if it has a package, there is a significant increase in the possibility that it is not really food. Always check those ingredient lists. Even “whole grain” products can just be a combination of refined and fortified ingredients with the addition of HFCS.

3. Avoid food products that make health claims.

“If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.”

4. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle. Processed foods dominate the center aisles, whereas whole foods can be found among the meat, dairy and produce.

5. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. Find those local sources in farmer’s markets, CSAs, etc.

Overall, I highly recommend this read, if you overlook some of the evolutionary thought that jumps out here and there. If you are new to the whole foods way of eating, or even if you are like me and been on the journey for a few years, but don’t know all the history and truth behind it, this is a must read for all! It was very fascinating to me!