Whole Foods Diet - how realistic is it anyway?

Food engineering is a bit of a funny term. It does not refer to Farmers or to Chefs', but to scientists who try to find ways to make fake food taste good and make you think that you're getting the same nutrition as what real food has. They have been working hard, and been very successful.

When I started my practice over 6 years ago, I used to say 'eat more whole grains', and people knew what I meant. Now - that's not the case. When I say 'eat more whole grains', some people think that I mean buy Wonder Invisibles for their sandwich bread. I also used to be able to tell people to eat 35 grams of fibre each day and they could just read labels to know if the food had it. Now, there are all kinds of isolated fibres (like inulin) that do not have the same effects as intact fibres (like bran). But without a distinction on the label, people are lost.

So really, the safest and best diet to follow would be a whole food diet - one that does not include processed foods at all. But how realistic is it to eat only whole foods in today's world? With family obligations and work it does seem a little daunting.

Well, I'm going to give it a go. For the month's of July and August, I will eat only whole foods - fruits, veggies, legumes, meat, dairy, nuts and seeds, and whole grains. That means, no breads, pastas, crackers, cereals, baked goods - just whole food. I gave up sugar about eight months ago so at least I have that step down already.

I asked my husband if he would do it with me ... he laughed pretty hard. 'Not eat bread? Are you kidding?'. For the purposes of this experiment, his refusal actually works to my advantage. Most of my patients are faced with families that are not interested in changing their diets this much. So I will be able to tell you about what it's like to be the only one in the family eating a whole food diet. I will be able to share how I've been able to have family meals without cooking three meals!
I will blog about my experience and well as any body changes that may occur.

I will post here every Friday with a thorough update of how things are going, what recipes that I have discovered, and I will tweet more regularly about the day-to-day challenges and insights.

I hope that you will join me (or at least follow me) on this adventure and share your thoughts and questions as I go along.

Yours in Health,
Kerri Fullerton, ND