Keeping it real

We bang on a fair bit about ‘real food’ on this page…but what exactly does that term mean?

Real food is food that is unprocessed, simple and pure. It’s nutritious. It is healthy. It helps the body, rather than hindering it.

Think of real food as single-ingredient food. If you go into a supermarket – what things can you buy that are made up of just one thing? Fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, legumes, nuts and seeds…anything that hasn’t been processed or refined would fall into this category.

If the item you pick up in the shopping aisle has ingredients like salt, fat or sugar added, it’s not ‘real food’.

What does it take to make it?

Another good way to determine how healthy a type of food is for you, is to consider what it takes to make it. The simpler the process – the better it is for you.

When food is refined and processed it loses important vitamins and nutrients. Take white bread for example. It’s made by flour that has been ground and refined by stripping off the outer layer which is where the fibre is located.

Processed food, or ‘white food’ as some call it, is easy to binge on and is not satisfying to the body…it leaves us craving more. This is because things like pasta and white bread are quickly absorbed by the body, causing a spike in insulin, which can leave us feeling hungry again in a few hours.

The other concerning factor when it comes to processed food is the use of chemicals and additives for aesthetic purposes. In terms of white bread chemicals such as potassium bromate, azodicarbonamide, or chlorine dioxide gas can be used to bleach and lighten the dough.

The process of making white sugar…

Pure and simple

What could be simpler than an apple picked straight from the tree? Or grabbing a handful of nuts as a snack when you’re on the run? Mother Nature has provided us with a whole bunch of foods that come in their own perfect packages – full of vitamins, fibre and nutrients that help build strong bodies. There really is no need to tamper with perfection, right?