A Whole Food Approach to Meal Time

If a food item comes in a box or package it is probably not something that will nourish your body as food is supposed to. There are always exceptions to this philosophy, but my husband and I have tried to change our shopping and eating habits around this basic principal that encourages whole food consumption instead of processed foods.

There has been an assortment of influences that has caused my family to implement a whole food diet. When I was in grade school my doctor diagnosed me with a sensitivity to monosodium glutamate (MSG) and had my mother cut out the ingredient from my food. Almost instantly my headaches went from almost daily down to maybe one a month. Because so many packaged foods from the grocery store contain MSG (under a variety of different names) my mother had to make more of my foods from scratch, utilizing more whole foods in the process.

My experience has brought the awareness of potential harmful ingredients included in the majority of processed cuisine in our grocery stores. If your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize something you pick up at the store to eat, it likely is not something you should consume. Another approach is to look at the list of ingredients on a package of food. If you do not recognize or know what some of the ingredients are, it is probably best to return the item to the shelf. I prefer to obtain my food items from nature, not a laboratory.

The switch to a whole food diet immediately cuts down your choices at the grocery store, but it also opens up new opportunities to experiment and learn about what you consume. Typically this method limits your shopping to the outskirts of the store, avoiding those things in the middle that are processed and normally have a longer shelf life. Gardening or shopping at farmer’s market is a wonderful way to add to this way of eating that further connects you to the food you use.