If you check my blog every day you probably noticed that there was no post yesterday. I plead LAZY, because I didn’t feel like writing in the morning, then when I checked in the afternoon I also didn’t feel like writing. Once I got home I had no time to write anything, and just before bed I checked again. Sorry, no post.

Last night we had guests over for dinner and made nothing but healthy food for us all to eat. As usual, nobody would ever notice that anything is missing in a healthy meal. I made ranch dressing from scratch, which I commented on. I wanted to show off the fact that a person can actually make foods that normally come already bottled for you. They were surprised to find out that ranch dressing is only buttermilk and mayonnaise. I also told them that Russian dressing is a similarly simple thing to make, equal parts of mayonnaise and ketchup.

This morning a friend posted to one of my Facebook groups a list of things that we should all endeavor to stop eating. I appreciate the effort that we are all making to help one another get control of our food chain. Shining a light on the system tends to clean the system up. One thing that might not be helpful is to give advice like “don’t eat meat that contains ‘polyunlactorylium’. I made that ingredient up just now. As far as I know there is no such thing, but the point is, how on earth could you easily find out if your meat supply has such a thing in it? This is why my advice just about every day is to “Not eat foods out of boxes, bags, or bottles.”

By advising our friends what they should do, instead of what they should not do, we greatly simplify the adoption of great new habits of eating and shopping. I still feel that the place we need to change first is in the grocery store. Once all of the processed foods have been eaten at home, you will be left with just real foods and your imagination to guide you on how to best prepare them.

Buy naturally raised meats. Get your dairy from cattle that are eating grass. Buy your eggs from the farmer’s market from a friend or some other source where the chickens can eat their natural diet.

If you can’t find these foods easily where you live, just eat REAL foods, that are single ingredient foods. Processed foods have been modified to last forever on the shelf, and the ingredients that make that possible are in a significant number of instances not good for people. There is no agency of the government that tests the effects of artificial ingredients on large groups of the population. There are no ‘food trials’ like there are drug trials. Food companies are not required to ‘beta test’ their products, so they don’t. Making you fat isn’t something that will keep them from putting it in food. Giving you high blood pressure doesn’t keep the FDA from allowing it in your food. Be your own best help in this case. Just eat REAL.