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Industrial Food vs Traditional Food

Nina Planck’s Real Food: What To Eat and Why was the second book I read when I discovered the real food movement.  Her personal story is fascinating and drew me in instantly, and her information is compelling.  I highly recommend this book to anyone has an interest in moving their family towards a more traditional diet.

This video is a portion of Nina Planck’s interview with Bigthink

Hat tip to Agriculture Society via the Real Food Wednesday blog carnival.

I like how she makes a distinction between the diseases of industrialization, rather than the diseases of civilization.  She also gives very practical explanation of traditional foods and how the industrialization of food removes nutritional value.  It’s definitely worth your 6 minutes to watch.  The entire interview can be viewed here.

Thoughts?

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13 Responses

  1. Such a complex topic.

    I agree with what she is saying and am glad you posted this. And, I think the tide is slowly, slowly turning and more whole foods are becoming more available to the masses and not just those who can afford the time and money to seek out local, farm raised foods.

    I think it’s not only the industrialized foods, but the severe over consumption (big gulps, super sizing, enormous portions,etc) that compounds the problems and diseases. It isn’t just the food processor’s faults – food companies are for profit businesses. They will make what people will buy. Like Michael Pollen says, “vote with your fork 3 times a day.” If people stop eating bad foods, if retailers are having to throw it away because it isn’t moving off the shelf, food companies will stop making it.

    I don’t think all processed foods are evil and I worry that the whole foods movement may become a bit elitist and turn off lots and lots of people who are too intimidated to do a complete overhaul of their diet overnight, or don’t have the time to make everything from scratch or drive to a local farm.

    I’ll stop typing my novel with the following: I love that you are bringing awareness to the issue!

    1. Absolutely. And it’s that tendency to be elitist that bothers me about the whole movement. But there is so much improvement that can be made without even venturing outside of the grocery store. Everyone has to start somewhere, and I hope that we as a nation are waking up to the fact that we MUST do SOME thing or we are going to be dying younger and younger, and our quality of life is going to start deteriorating for the first time in history. It’s just sad.

  2. Great video thanks for posting! I agree, whole foods is the way to go. Real butter vs. the other spreads out there – the real butter has no chemicals or preservatives/additives which makes it a better choice. Everything should be consumed in moderation!

  3. “Real Food” was also one of the first books that I read on the subject, too. I had just read a book with a terrible title, “Skinny B—” but was recommended by a friend. While that opened my eyes even more to many of the horrors of the industrial meat industry, I knew that a lot of their actual health info. was just plain wrong. They encourage you to become a vegan in order to be skinny and healthy. I’ve always thought that vegans were more elitist than anyone else. Then, I got a copy of, “Real Food” and it just seemed to make so much sense. As many food, diet, and health books as I have read, I tend to know when something is just a little or a lot, “off” and and when something is right…at least for our family. I really liked reading about Nina’s journey through vegetarianism and how she really was not healthy until she began to eat real foods. For me, a book could go on and on about the benefits of eating a certain way, but when I read personal accounts of health improvements, then I am intrigued to delve a little further. I could go on and on with this subject but I’ll stop.

    I will say that this has been a very slow journey for us. That’s the only way I knew things would, “stick.” I don’t like abrupt changes and I know that I have a tendency to go whole hog with something only to burn out and give up quickly (hmm…I think this came up with an exercise comment a while ago 🙂 ) So, first I cut out snacks, breads, drinks, etc. with high-fructose corn syrup, then I cut out artificial sweeteners including my beloved Diet Cokes. Then we switched to raw milk. Now I grind my own grain and make our bread. (Which, by the way, only takes about 5 minutes to throw into the breadmaker so it’s really not that time-consuming.) These have been small but significant steps and I can’t imagine going back for the sake of convenience. My next goal is to sprout the grains before making the bread. It seems so easy, I don’t know why I keep putting it off. Oh well, I’ll get to it soon enough. Thanks again for great information!

    1. Oh I really want to talk to you about grinding your grain. What grinder did you get? Is it a lot more work? Where do you get the grains?

      After reading about the flour we buy at the supermarket already being rancid and devoid of nutrients, I’m about ready to take this next step.

      I find it interesting how different we all are. I am an all-or-nothing kind of girl. I still took this journey in steps. I mean, it’s the ONLY way. But I think I took some pretty big leaps b/c that’s how I roll. If I do things half way then I will likely regress and get lazy and eventually quit. I have to do things all the way for them to stick.

      But I’m a big proponent of WHATEVER WORKS. 🙂 I would hate for people to make no changes b/c they feel like it’s all or nothing. Thanks for your input!

      1. After lots of research and hemming and hawing, I decided to get the Nutrimill. It has the largest capacity and you can grind beans as well. It’s loud, but most of them are. I think the Wondermill is supposed to be quieter but my friend has one I don’t think there is a big difference. They are all about the same price too, and rarely go on sale. I also bought the zojirushi 2lb. breadmaker which makes beautiful normal sized loaves. I have six kids so when my husband is working from home for the day, we pretty much go through one loaf per day. I was worried about the time at first but I literally, throw the grain in the mill, and gather the other ingredients and put them in the breadmaker while the grain is milling. I have everything but the eggs in a basket that I keep near the breadmaker so I just take that out when I’m ready to make the bread. When the mill stops, I throw in the flour and yeast and turn turn it on. It takes about 5 minutes. You don’t have to thoroughly clean the mill every time either so that’s not always an issue.

        I get my grains from a food co-op based in the Northern Neck of VA. They only deliver to MD and VA but I’m sure there is one near you in PA. If not, I have gotten grains and the recipe book from which I got my basic loaf recipe from this website https://www.breadbeckers.com/store/pc/home.asp They sell a huge canister for the wheat that allows you to keep it fresh for a very long time. 50 lbs of wheat lasts us a long time and we use it almost every day. I usually get organic whole wheat and the hard white spring wheat and mix them together for my bread. I also throw in some ground flax seeds for a little nutritional oomph that the kids don’t really notice. I’ve found that since we eat our bread so quickly, we don’t need to add the soy lecithin that is called for in many recipes. It’s hard to find Non-GMO soy so I would rather just leave that out. Hope that helps!

        1. ACK. Color me overwhelmed. LOL. So you make a loaf a day? I asked for a huge Kitchen Aid for Christmas so I could make bread so I can’t see investing in a bread maker. I make 4 loaves at once and freeze them and pull them out as needed. They last about a week.

          But I will look into the mill and the store you mentioned. THANKS!

          1. …and I’m completely overwhelmed at the thought of making bread from scratch. For some reason, getting the yeast and rising times right really just scares me. I remember the breadmaking post that you did, though and I’d love to try it and get those cool iron loaf pans that you have. 🙂

  4. Watched the whole interview…love it! I havent started having babies yet…but am interested in what she says about eating prenatal and feeding babies. im going to share this on my blog too! thanks for sharing!

    1. Nina also has a book called, “Real Food for Mothers and Babies” which I found very interesting. It really put me at ease about what my babies were eating. I would highly recommend reading that as you start a family. 🙂

  5. Thanks for posting the link! Real Food was also one of the first books (after The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food) that I read when I started to get really interested in the food industry. Although at times I found it a little bit dry, it was extremely informative and made some really great points. I’m planning on reviewing her book next in my series of book reviews on my own blog.
    Thanks again for the link!

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