– My top ten favorite REAL FOODs, not in any specific order:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 1-Liver, heart, and other organ meats from healthy pastured animals Here’s How I Describe Fake Foods<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n What kinds of foods do I\u00a0stay away from?\u00a0 These NOT <\/strong><\/em>REAL FOODS are\u00a0called by many names–junk food, fake food, pseudo food,\u00a0faux food, etc.\u00a0 I think of them mostly as fake food<\/em>; they are highly processed, artificially flavored, colored, and texturized pretend foods, and they are not<\/strong><\/em> REAL FOOD!\u00a0 Fake foods can be described with one or more, and sometimes all, of the following characteristics.<\/p>\n –They\u00a0require a factory\/machinery–can’t readily be made at home. Here are ten\u00a0‘foods’ I avoid:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n 1-Processed food-like products that pretend to be an actual food, like soy hot dogs, soy crumbles, non-dairy cheese, non-dairy cream, and egg substitutes. Eating REAL FOOD makes it easier to avoid the fake foods.<\/p>\n You might also be interested in these previous Real Food Houston posts:<\/p>\n Real Food On a Budget–Coupons Can’t Help!<\/a> Here are some other good posts about What is Real Food?<\/p>\n What is Real Food? from Real Food Challenge<\/a>![\"Local](\"http:\/\/realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Farmers_market.jpg\" "\\"Local")
<\/a>-REAL FOOD can be made, raised, grown at home with reasonable effort, i.e., it doesn\u2019t require miles of stainless steel pipes, high pressure equipment, or extremes of temperature.
\n–REAL FOOD meat is from animals that are\u00a0pastured, humanely raised,\u00a0and are not given antibiotics or added hormones,\u00a0and are fed a traditional diet not containing genetically engineered ingredients
\n–READ FOOD is fruits and vegetables\u00a0grown using\u00a0sustainable farming methods that\u00a0maintain a\u00a0soil quality and using healthy, non-gmo seed, without synthetic pesticides or herbicides.
\n–REAL FOOD is preferably grown and prepared locally.
\n–Most important, REAL FOOD is highly nutritious and good for our health.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n
\n2-Butter from grassfed cows [I’m partial to butter because I like it on so many foods.] and other healthy fats like unprocessed coconut oil, olive oil, lard and beef tallow
\n3-Eggs from chickens that roam free and can peck and hunt for bugs
\n4-Kale, collards, spinach, chard, and other greens
\n<\/a>5-Blueberries and other berries, apples, lemons, and limes
\n6-Real farm-fresh\u00a0natural raw\u00a0milk,\u00a0cheese, and kefir
\n7-Beef, poultry, or pork from animals that were pasture raised on a traditional diet
\n8-Bacon and sausage from pasture raised pigs, cured traditionally without nitrites and nitrates
\n9-Kombucha, fermented tea, is my favorite beverage, plain or with fruit.
\n10-Wild caught seafood such as shrimp, salmon, and tuna<\/p>\n
\n–They are produced by the food processing\/technology industry, not by cooks in kitchens,\u00a0and frequently include ingredients made in a lab, not<\/em> grown on a farm.
\n–They\u00a0include genetically engineered ingredients.
\n–They are ‘enhanced’ with additives like msg, artificial flavors,\u00a0artificial colors, texturizers, and conditioners\u00a0that make them look and taste like REAL FOOD even though they aren’t.
\n–Most important, due to harmful farming methods and over processing, fake foods are not as nutritious as we need and can even be harmful.<\/p>\n
\n2-Cheese that can be squeezed or sprayed or has been pressed or poured\u00a0into plastic sleeves.
\n3-Meat from animals raised in unnatural, inhumane surroundings (includes CAFO–confined animal feeding operation), routinely dosed with antibiotics and hormones, and fed an unsuitable, non-traditional diet, such as grain for cows, or worse, cows for cows.
\n4-Low-fat or nonfat pasteurized, homogenized milk (these milks are almost always doctored with additives and coloring to synthesize the look, feel, and taste of real whole milk)
\n5-Frozen whipped topping (fake whipped cream)
\n6-Vegetable shortening (fake lard) and margarine (fake butter)
\n7-Soda and other soft drinks made with high fructose corn syrup, sugar, or artificial sweeteners
\n<\/a>8-Store or factory made cakes, cookies, and desserts\u00a0in boxes or packages. [These are full of highly processed ingredients like vegetable shortening, refined flour, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, preservatives, and conditioners.]
\n9-Foods labeled “low fat,” “diet,” or “high fiber” because some natural, and nutritious, part of the food, like fat, has been removed and\/or some unnatural ingredient, like cellulose, has been added.
\n10-Frankenfoods, any food that contains genetically engineered ingredients such as soy, corn, or sugar beets.<\/p>\n
\nGlyphosate is already in our food, air, and water: What is it and why should we care?<\/a>
\nDouble GM Whammy for the Monarch Butterfly<\/a>
\nIt’s Not Pretty Behind the Biotech Veil, and Interview with Howard Vlieger<\/a>
\nWhat Does Genetically Engineered (or GMO) Mean?<\/a>
\nMilk–Why Homogenized, Pasteurized? Follow the Profit!<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWhat is Real Food? from Delicious Obsessions<\/a>
\nWhat is Real Food? from The Sentinel<\/a>
\nThe Illusion of Nutrient-Dense Food, from Robb Wolf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"