Eating Well: Part 2 {a challenge for November}

My family and I are on track to making better decisions with our food.  We are eating well.  I’d love to have you join us!  Check out the intro post {Eating Well} and the first challenge {October}.  I will present a challenge every month for a year, helping families gradually make changes.

Ok… so, we’ve done it.  HFCS, Aspartame, and MSG are out of our diet, per the {October challenge}.  When I say they are out of our diet, I mean that the kids and I no longer intake those nasties.  Paul… well… Paul still drinks Diet Coke, but other than that, the Big 3 are gone.

Was it easy to quit?  Nope.  I already miss Oreos (thankfully we have access to Joe Joe’s!).  I’m not saying I’ll never have them again, but they will not be a part of my regular diet.  The kids already miss Sonic drinks. Paul misses Julio’s chips.  I don’t blame him.  Seriously.

Was it easy to do?  Sorta.  The kids are now fully trained to read ingredient lists again.  They know what it means when they see the Big 3: put it back on the shelf.

Ok… November’s challenge is a bit slippery.  Oily.  Greasy, even.

The next step in {Eating Well} is to be sure we are eating real oils.  What that means is that we should be consuming oil that is actually a food, not a lubricant for machines or some kind of harmful creation.

Top 3 Terrific oils: coconut oil, olive oil, and butter.

The best way to eat is to eat actual food.  That seems a given, but it’s really not.  Almost every single store in our country hawks items for consumption that are actually not food (they are not nourishing, do not promote growth, nor provide good energy).

There is lots of information on why eating margarine and vegetable oil is bad, even though the medical community won’t let go of these products.  I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on all of these oils and the issues around them.

My goal is to help you see that figuring out what is {Eating Well} and what isn’t.  And that it matters.   

So… go back to the concept of eating real food and eating it in a way that keeps it’s original benefits.  One way to do that is to look at how a “food” is made.

Margarine and vegetable oil don’t make the cut when we do that.  Quite a few others don’t either.

Here is a great post on why eating vegetable oil, canola oil and other bleached, deodorized, and hydrogenized oils are a really bad idea.   She even explains how they are made and it’s seriously disgusting.  Do your own research.

We quit eating margarine (I get grossed out even hearing the word now) seven years ago.  Seriously.  I started calling it whipped plastic to get my point across to the children.  Paul was wary.  A little bit of reading helped the case.

We started using real butter and extra virgin olive oil.  I added coconut oil not too long after that.

So… for November, it’s time to kick the nasty oils to the curb.  Don’t put them in your body.  Replace them with actual food products.

{If you are a Costco member, there is a killer deal on the best coconut oil I’ve found right now, Nutiva.  78oz for $21.  Run, don’t walk.}

I admit, this isn’t a huge challenge for me and my family, but when I was considering what I felt was important for people to know, oils kept coming up in my mind.  I want to be sure that the {Eating Well} series addresses as many of the big issues as possible.  Oils are a huge part of everyone’s eating lifestyle.  I admit to using vegetable oil when making cake balls for clients because it’s so cheap.  I’m committing to allowing the client to choose their oil.

What oils do you use currently?  Is this gonna be a challenge for you?