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Real Life, Real Food

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  • Main Ideas

    Learning Objective

    Understand the importance of making thoughtful grocery shopping decisions to support long-term health and well-being.


    Behavioral Objective

    Evaluate grocery store purchases by applying strategies like the Farmer Test and reading food labels to prioritize whole, unprocessed foods.


    Key Thought

    The food choices made at the grocery store influence health outcomes for the entire week and can have lasting effects on overall wellness.

  • Main Ideas

    Learning Objective

    Understand the importance of making thoughtful grocery shopping decisions to support long-term health and well-being.


    Behavioral Objective

    Evaluate grocery store purchases by applying strategies like the Farmer Test and reading food labels to prioritize whole, unprocessed foods.


    Key Thought

    The food choices made at the grocery store influence health outcomes for the entire week and can have lasting effects on overall wellness.

  • Terms

    Farmer Test

    noun

    A practical way to determine if a food is real by asking whether it could be grown or harvested directly from a farmer's field or barn. Foods that fail the Farmer Test are likely highly processed and less nutritious.

    Inflammation

    noun

    The body's response to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Chronic inflammation in the gut can contribute to mental health disorders like anxiety and depression.

    The Frightening Four

    noun

    Foods known to promote inflammation, including sugars, refined flours, fructose, and inflammatory oils.

    Whole Foods

    noun

    Foods that are minimally processed and as close to their natural form as possible, providing essential nutrients without added chemicals or artificial ingredients.

  • Terms

    Farmer Test

    noun

    A practical way to determine if a food is real by asking whether it could be grown or harvested directly from a farmer's field or barn. Foods that fail the Farmer Test are likely highly processed and less nutritious.

    Inflammation

    noun

    The body's response to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Chronic inflammation in the gut can contribute to mental health disorders like anxiety and depression.

    The Frightening Four

    noun

    Foods known to promote inflammation, including sugars, refined flours, fructose, and inflammatory oils.

    Whole Foods

    noun

    Foods that are minimally processed and as close to their natural form as possible, providing essential nutrients without added chemicals or artificial ingredients.

Introduction

Grocery shopping might seem like just another errand, but the choices made in the aisles can impact your health. What you put into your cart determines the food quality on your plate, influencing your overall well-being. Understanding the difference between natural, whole foods, and processed items is needed for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. By making informed choices, you can nourish your body with nutrient-rich foods and avoid those that contribute to inflammation and chronic health issues. A trip to the grocery store is more than just a task-it's an opportunity to invest in your long-term health.

The Importance of Grocery Shopping: More Than Just an Errand

It's Saturday morning, and it is time to run all those errands... drugstore, hardware store, department store, and finally, the grocery store. Most of us consider the grocery store to be just another errand. But that one single errand, going to the grocery store, has more consequences for your life than almost anything else you'll do all week.

Imagine going to the drugstore and getting the wrong shampoo. You may have lifeless hair or look greasy by late afternoon. Not an intended consequence, but certainly not life-altering. What if you got 3" nails at the hardware store instead of 3" screws? Again, not perfect, but no life-altering consequences. But what happens when you must make better grocery store choices? It influences every food decision you make for the rest of the week! When you do this week after week, it influences the food decisions for your whole life, and this does have life-altering consequences.

Going to the grocery store is NOT just another errand! It's an important part of caring for your life and health. It takes planning and hard work to make sure that you get accurate, wholesome, good food in your house each week, but the benefits last a lifetime.

What Is Food Anyway?

It doesn't seem we should have to ask this question! Many of us presume that everything in the grocery store is food. But most packaged foods in the grocery store aren't real food. We now know that inflammation causes disease... and processed food causes inflammation. That means we must learn to eat non-processed, real food. And the sacred weekly visit to the grocery store is just the place to do it!

Some Practical Advice for Grocery Shopping

The first few times you go to the grocery store and look for real food, it can be a lot of work and confusing. Here are some tips to help you decide what to buy.

Give it the Farmer Test

Before you toss something in your cart, ask yourself whether you could knock on a farmer's door and ask them to harvest the food item you're considering from their field or barn. For example, could you walk down a country lane to a farmer's house and ask for an egg? Of course! Farmers worldwide grow corn, pineapples, mushrooms, and pork chops. Our fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and whole grains pass the Farmer Test. So do fish and meats like roasts, steaks, and chops. However, much of what we buy in stores still needs to pass the Farmer Test. While the food may have originated in a field or barn, it has been processed into something that may taste good but isn't real. Take cereal, for instance. Even though cereal starts as a grain, it's no longer a whole, living food. Farmers don't grow hamburger buns, Pop-Tarts, or Doritos. These fail the Farmer Test and cause inflammation in our bodies.

Read the Ingredient List on the Food Label

If you need clarification about whether a food passes the Farmer Test, read the ingredient list. If you can pronounce the ingredients and picture them, you're buying minimally processed, real food. Most bakery items don't qualify. Also, watch for the "Frightening Four" ingredients: flour, sugar, fructose, and oil. These indicate processed, inflammatory foods.

Buy Foods You Have to Prepare

If you have to clean, peel, dice, or chop what you're about to eat, there's a good chance it's real food. You must clean grapes, peel a banana, and chop an onion-all signs of real food. You don't have to clean a breakfast bar, peel a Cheez-It, or dice your Jello. These aren't real foods!

Grocery Shopping Tips : 3:38

Activities

The Farmer Test

Objective: Apply the Farmer Test to evaluate your food choices and identify which foods are real and minimally processed.

  • Next time you go grocery shopping, use the Farmer Test for each item in your cart. Ask yourself if a farmer could grow or harvest it directly from the field or barn.
  • Make a list of the items that pass the test and those that don't.
  • Gradually replace any processed foods with healthier, real food options over time.

Ingredient List Awareness

Objective: Learn to recognize processed foods by reading the ingredient list and understanding how additives affect health.

  • Pick five food items you typically buy and read their ingredient lists.
  • Identify any ingredients you cannot pronounce or visualize.
  • If these items contain one or more of the "Frightening Four" (sugar, flour, fructose, or oil), consider replacing them with healthier options.
  • Track your progress in reducing processed foods over the next month.

Stick To The Walls

Objective: Practice mindful shopping by focusing on whole, natural foods and minimizing processed food purchases.

Activity:

  • Before your next grocery run, make a simple list of staple items you know you will need.
  • Challenge yourself to try 3 new whole, natural foods (e.g., fruits, vegetables, or grains) that you haven't used before.
  • Limit the processed foods to only what is on your list and ensure it can fit in the child seat section of the shopping cart.
  • After shopping, reflect on your experience: Were you able to stick to the outer aisles and avoid impulse purchases?

Course Outline



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