The Ultimate Food Table - Processed to Organic

Today I have come up with a table of foods – Processed to Organic. Our family now eats foods from the “Even Better” column. But, it wasn’t that long ago that I blindly went to the grocery store, tossed in the cheapest bread I could find, filled my cart with frozen meals, chicken nuggets, juice for the kids, cartons of fruit-flavored low-fat yogurt, fat-free mayo, cheese slices, lunchmeat and skim milk. I thought I was eating healthy by choosing low-fat or fat-free, drinking skim milk and eating 90/10 ground beef. Well, that life led me to Hypothyroidism, being 40 lbs. overweight, frequent migraines, multiple medicines, feeling sluggish, allergies, hip pain, strange pain in my legs, frequent illnesses and overall yuckiness. Now, a year and a half later, I can tell you that all of the above are GONE! I have practically cured my hypothyroidism, no more headaches or weird pains and I have lost 34 pounds thus far! My kids are drinking water, raw milk, and eating whole foods without added sugar and breading. They gobble up fresh fish, pork tenderloin, kale, raw nuts, and veggies galore! It is possible for your kids to eat this way too! Don’t get me wrong, it took some trial and error to find their favorite veggies and meats, but once you do, you’re golden! So, take a peek at the list and see where you fall.

Processed Food	Swap For	Even Better
Margarine	Real Butter	Organic, or raw milk butter
Skim Milk	2% Organic Milk	Raw Milk or Unsweetened Almond Milk
Flavored fruit Yogurt	Plain Yogurt w/ Honey or fruit	Raw Milk or Org. Greek Yogurt
Vegetable/Canola Oil	Sunflower Oil or Cold-pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil	Coconut Oil
Roasted, Salted Nuts	Unsalted Nuts	Raw, unsalted nuts
Frozen Fish Sticks	Pan-fried Fish	Grilled, baked, poached fish with herbs and spices
Hamburger meat	Hormone/antibiotic-free Beef	Grass-fed beef
Frozen Chicken (sodium solution)	Chicken w/o added sodium	Free-range, Organic Chicken
Canned Vegetables	Fresh or Frozen Veggies	Organic, fresh veggies
Flavored coffee creamer	Half & Half	Raw cream or milk
Lunchmeat	Nitrate/nitrite-free meats	Sliced turkey from the breast
Fat Free Mayo	Full fat Mayo	Homemade or Organic Mayo
Processed Cheese Slices	Full Fat Real Cheese	Organic, block of cheese
White Flour	Whole-wheat flour	Oat, Spelt, Gluten-free flours
White Rice	Brown Rice	Quinoa, Millet, Wild Rice
Regular Pasta	Whole Grain Pasta	Brown Rice or Spelt Pasta
Table Salt	Celtic Sea Salt	Himalayan & Celtic Sea Salts
Sugar, Artificial Sugars	Organic Cane Sugar	Raw Honey, Stevia, Z Sweet, Maple Sugar
Soybean Oil (in pkgd foods), added soy	Just Omit	Omit
Jar of Parmesan Cheese	Fresh block Parmesan	Organic, hard cheese
Jelly w/ High Fructose Corn Syrup	100% Fruit Jelly	Homemade jam, preserves
Soda, Diet Drinks, Juice	Sparkling Water, flavored	Plain Water w/  lemon
Packaged Mac n Cheese	Pasta w/ homemade cheese sauce	Whole Wheat pasta, w/ tomato sauce, herbs
Condensed Cream Soups	Make your own soup base w/ flour, butter, milk and add your flavor (celery, chicken, etc)	Use Organic ingredients, make homemade soup base & freeze
Peanut Butter	PB w/o hydrogenated oils	Natural butters with nuts, oil, salt (almond, cashew are good)
Frozen Chicken Nuggets	Go straight to real…	Homemade Nuggets w/ real chicken coated with Panko or ground almonds
Cereal	Cereal made w/ Whole Grain, no sugar	Steel Cut Oats, Homemade Granola

If your diet is largely based off the foods in the first column, try swapping them out with foods from the middle column. You can work your way towards the right. You might be scared when looking at some of the items calling for full-fat and oils that you may not be used to using. But don’t be. We need fat and it keeps us fuller longer and gives us energy. When you eat foods that have the fat removed, they often replace the fat with sugar and mostly in the form of high fructose corn syrup. To find Organic, grass-fed meats and raw milk sources, visit www.localharvest.org and www.eatwild.com.

To learn more and get weekly meal planning tips, “Like” Unprocessed Living on Facebook and come back often to my blog.

Until next time, Eat Real Food…

Cindy