It’s About Time We Eat Real Food

[My Bariatric Life 764]

I had a career that kept me away from my home, and my kitchen, 45-60-hours per week. I did not want to cook after a long day, but I wanted to serve a nice meal to my family. However, I learned to develop fast and simple recipes -- typically 5 ingredients that can be prepared in under 30-minutes.

Our food is killing us. Today's families are fat and diseased from a diet of processed foods, and our children will be the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents. Time is of the essence: We must change course right now. It’s time to start eating real food and stop eating ‘frankenfood.’ This is not just another fad diet. It’s about saving lives.

Gastric bypass weight-loss surgery was my wake-up call in 2003 to reverse my personal obesity epidemic and diabetes and hypertension — the death triad as I now call it (read my story). To borrow a phrase, I was sick, fat, and nearly dead in my 30s, a processed food junkie on ~10 prescription medications. Without bariatric surgery and lifestyle changes I would not be alive today. I would have missed out on my grandchildren. That’s a very sobering and humbling thought. Instead, I cheated death, I surely did, thank you, G-d.

The problem underlying these health conditions is the modern American diet heavily-laden with grains, refined sugars, unhealthy fats, and toxic food additives. Obesity is even harder to treat than the diseases/health conditions it causes. The low treatment success rate associated with obesity is likely because people need to commit to changing patterns deeply woven into social fabric, food and beverage commerce patterns, personal eating habits, and sedentary lifestyle. And if you think the bariatric surgery is an easy pass to skinny, then I’m here to tell you that it isn’t.

My approach is one of replacing grains, refined sugars, and unhealthy fats with fresh, local and seasonal food that is chemical-free, sustainable, and nutrient-dense. That was a complete turnaround for me. I had a career that kept me away from my home, and my kitchen, 45-60-hours per week. I did not want to cook after a long day, but I wanted to serve a nice meal to my family. So I relied on processed foods, aka frankenfood, like frozen stuffed chicken cordon blue, frozen broccoli in cheese sauce, and a white rice pilaf from a box.

However I learned to develop fast and simple recipes -- typically 5-ingredients that could be prepared in about 30-minutes. The food industry is very deceiving in their marketing. They craftily paint a picture of health and convenience for us, labelling processed food products as “healthy” or “all natural” and use words like wholesome goodness, when these claims in reality are not backed by truth. There are no regulations or standards that define “healthy” so just because something is labelled healthy doesn’t mean that it is. And generally-speaking, if a food was “all natural” it would not be packaged in a box with an ingredients label.

The food industry also has somehow convinced us that it takes too long to cook a meal from scratch. I know, I used to believe that lie! It’s really not much trouble to grill a chicken breast and some vegetables and serve it with a salad. In fact, in the amount of time it took me to serve up a dinner of processed foods, I was able to serve up a much tastier and far healthier meal of real food to my family — and the rewards are tremendous.

Dinner in my house typically is a grilled or roasted Protein with fresh grilled or roasted vegetables and a salad. Sometimes I’ll make a stir-fry served over quinoa, or a homemade Soup, or crockpot chili. These are all examples of how I make real food real simple in my home, and anyone can learn to cook like this. By the way, this is the way my daughter cooks for her family, too, as cooking skills whether good or bad are passed down from generation to generation. What cooking skills are you teaching your children?

I use some minimally-processed foods. I try to avoid at all costs those foods with any chemical ingredients, or ingredients list that contains more than 5 items. And I never bring any processed foods Desserts into my home, such as boxed cake mixes, frozen donuts, brownies from the supermarket bakery aisle. If I want dessert then I have to make it from scratch and that’s fairly involved. Because it’s so much work I won’t make dessert every day; heck I won’t even make it once a month! You won’t, either.

Living larger than ever,

My Bariatric Life

www.mybariatriclife.org

[joatsaint 2,814]

"The food industry also has somehow convinced us that it takes too long to cook a meal from scratch." - I agree with that quote. I try to cook almost everything myself, that way, I know what's in it.

And I try to live by this quote as well, "Only eat things that are considered the ingredients for other foods." :-) In other words, eat foods that are as close to their natural state as possible or with minimal processing.

[lizcan 77]

The saying "eat only things your grandmother would recognize" comes to mind.

[My Bariatric Life 764]

I like this "Only eat things that are considered the ingredients for other foods." If it has a food label then I think twice about whether or not it is healthy for me. Thank you for sharing your perspective and thank you for your commitment to cook meals from scratch! Bravo to you!!!

"The food industry also has somehow convinced us that it takes too long to cook a meal from scratch." - I agree with that quote. I try to cook almost everything myself, that way, I know what's in it.

And I try to live by this quote as well, "Only eat things that are considered the ingredients for other foods." :-) In other words, eat foods that are as close to their natural state as possible or with minimal processing.

[My Bariatric Life 764]

Great advice, Lizcan! Thank you!!

The saying "eat only things your grandmother would recognize" comes to mind.

[dancingqueene 182]

My plan to prep foods for the week on Sunday's while enjoying my morning coffee so there is no excuse during the week. Veggies, fruits, lean meats, and some grains. I hope that my daughter will eventually gain better eating, but it doesn't help when she goes to her dad's and he serves food that is not the healthiest (not to mention he is a health educator as well lol)!! Slowly changing the way!!

[My Bariatric Life 764]

That's such a great idea to prep food on Sunday. My husband and I used to do this on Saturdays when we got back from the CSA with our haul of fresh veggies and fruits.

My plan to prep foods for the week on Sunday's while enjoying my morning coffee so there is no excuse during the week. Veggies, fruits, lean meats, and some grains. I hope that my daughter will eventually gain better eating, but it doesn't help when she goes to her dad's and he serves food that is not the healthiest (not to mention he is a health educator as well lol)!! Slowly changing the way!!

[Babbs 14,681]

Great article! Aside from my Premier Protein shake I drink every morning, I have been trying to eat as much clean, real food since my surgery. And you're right, it's really not as hard and time consuming as people think. But let's face it, losing weight and more imortantly keeping it off requires preparation and planning. I've never seen anyone be successful with either by just "winging it".

[Smye 694]

Thank you so much for finally posting something like this. My blog is entirely dedicated to the concept: www.baridelciousfood.blogspot.com

[katybelle7 65]

Have you read Pandora's Pantry? A real eye opener to the food industry. Things we thought were healthy for us are chemically changed...especially soy, it's really not for human consumption! And I always used Canola oil thinking it was a good fat. But it goes thru so much processing, you wouldn't want it in your home!

[katybelle7 65]

And don't get me started on artificial sweeteners! (That are in all my Protein Drinks from my hospital)! The dietician actually hung her head when I asked if there were artificial sweeteners in the stuff I had to buy from them for my Liquid Protein.

[Beni 1,484]

I use almost only fresh foods. The exception are Greek yogurt, the occasional Protein bar for a snack mid afternoon when I have to run out the door. An occasional can of chick peas and a very occasional Diet Snapple with Peach. Everything else is fresh and the best I can find. Even the tea I drink is loose leaf and comes in a can from Sri Lanka.

After surgery. I did look at what I ate before surgery with fresh eyes and the picture of health did not come to mind.

We have to make the changes that can best fuel our bodies. Given our reduced absorption it is of the outmost importance to be smart about what we eat.

[My Bariatric Life 764]

I have not seen that documentary but I have seen quite a few others. I believe the first one to really open my eyes was food Inc. As for soy, reportedly it was a product of low value that they could not sell, so they rebranded it as a health food and charged a lot of money for it. Here is why I'll never eat soy: http://www.healthcentral.com/obesity/c/276918/177213/ll-eat-soy (like to my article on HealthCentral)

Have you read Pandora's Pantry? A real eye opener to the food industry. Things we thought were healthy for us are chemically changed...especially soy, it's really not for human consumption! And I always used Canola oil thinking it was a good fat. But it goes thru so much processing, you wouldn't want it in your home!

[My Bariatric Life 764]

I interviewed the lead FDA investigator working on aspartame, which initially was developed for chemical warfare. He quit the FDA because of the corruption that was going on behind the scenes with that product approval. For one thing, the lab rats that developed cancer from aspartame were removed from the clinical trials. Really, a whistle-blower movie should be made about it. And there is lots of data that show artificial sweeteners actually increase appetite and thusly lead to weight increase.

And don't get me started on artificial sweeteners! (That are in all my Protein drinks from my hospital)! The dietician actually hung her head when I asked if there were artificial sweeteners in the stuff I had to buy from them for my liquid Protein.< /p>

[My Bariatric Life 764]

I still use Protein shakes. For several months now I've been using Garden of Life. Its a vegan raw organic high Protein powder with lots of amino acids. Here's a product review that I wrote about it, if you're interested. I think it is far superior to whey-based Protein powders: http://www.healthcentral.com/obesity/c/276918/177450/protein-vegetarians-vegans (links to HealthCentral)

Great article! Aside from my Premier Protein shake I drink every morning, I have been trying to eat as much clean, real food since my surgery. And you're right, it's really not as hard and time consuming as people think. But let's face it, losing weight and more imortantly keeping it off requires preparation and planning. I've never seen anyone be successful with either by just "winging it".