breaking away from processed foods

Congrats on making the positive decision to change!

MY definition of processed food includes:

- Plastic-y looking cheeses (I'm looking at you Velveeta and Kraft American Cheese)

- Any kind of mix (pancake, cake, stuffing, Bisquick, Hamburger Helper, Rice-A-Roni)

- Any kind of yogurt with flavoring (buy plain and add your own fresh ingredients)

- SUGAR...ALL OF IT (white, brown, powdered)

- ARTIFICIAL SUGAR (Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet) -- Stevia is an excellent alternative

- Anything canned (especially soups, pastas and sauces)

- Any frozen meals

- Frozen vegetables and meats that add something (i.e. breaded fish, cheesed-up veggies)

In fact, most of the stuff in a modern grocery store is processed.

There are tons of places online for recipes. The important thing is steering clear of those that require ingredients that are already prepared (i.e. cream of mushroom soup, bbq sauce)

I won't lie...it's less convenient when you cook from scratch....but then, isn't being unhealthy the biggest inconvenience?

Good luck!

Depending on which bacon you buy it can have some strange thing sadded. I would expect maybe salt and water in bacon that you buy in a shop, but some have all manner of strange things added. Read food labels, are things made from natural ingredients? I buy smoked salmon, that comes in a package, do I class it as unclean, no. I try to mainly stick to eating things like veg,fruit, nuts, meat, fish and potatos (mostly sweet potatos). I eat dried fruit, which is sometimes cooked in sunflower oil, but I try to avoid these oils mostly.

There are loads of websites for good clean eating, I love things like paleonomnom, even if youre not paleo, there are some great clean eats on there. I also post things I make on my own blog ( http://fridaysatamys.blogspot.co.uk/ )

I wouldnt worry too much about homemade products if youre using natural ingredients, but when you start adding lots of refined sugars, etc, then you're using processed foods. Try using things like bananas and honey for sweetness, or natural ground cocoa instead of chocolate.

I really dont understand these hamburger helper things, its seems to me like its quicker to make your own sauce and cook some pasta.

Well done, that sounds like a very positive change for you and your family.

Don't try to make it too complicated for yourself - simply look for foods that are close to their natural state, like
- apples not apple juice
- rice (white or brown, whichever your family will eat) with nothing else added, not a pack of "ready rice with asian spices just add water" with a list of 20 ingredients
- Chicken or fish or meat without marinades or added extras
- Rolled oats or steel cut oatmeal instead of sachets with flavouring added
- frozen or fresh veggies with no extra sauces or spices ingredients
- single ingredient herbs and spices to add to your food instead of packets of "flavour".
- peanut butter that contains peanuts (only!) not with sugar, oil, maltodextrin, and other unpronounceable extras. Or get one with peanuts and salt if your kids won't eat the peanut only one.

You get the general idea here, look for things that haven't been manufactured too much and don't have lots of added fillers.

But, you have to balance this out with practicality - you might not have time or energy to make your own bread or pasta (and many people would consider them too highly processed anyway) so look for brands without too many added preservatives and with whole grains and seeds. If your kids will eat them - maybe you have to make some changes gradually - go from highly processed white bread to white with added fibre, then white with added seeds, then brown with added seeds to wholegrain.... etc.

The great thing is that you can save a stack of money and feed your family much better quality food by cooking your own wedges, burgers, chicken nuggets, soups, salads etc. They don't have to eat strange and unfamiliar foods, just look for recipes to make the food that you enjoy and work up from there.

If you'd like to do a bit of reading, have a look for anything by Michael Pollan - I have "In Defence of Food" and it's a great read on this topic.

Edited to add: my favourite recipe site is www.taste.com.au
It's not a "healthy eating" or "clean eating" site but just has lots of great recipes for real home cooked food.

I am starting to eat clean this weekend (when I can go to the farmers market) I really don't eat many processed foods right now but on nights I have to work-I usually end up with some kind of frozen meal. So I have decided to do a day of cooking and freezing the food so we can have "quick" healthy meals. Thanks to everyone for the links you have posted and lists, I was a little lost my self!

Just think about what they ate a couple of decades ago, before processed food became the trend.
Anything that is made on farm and not a factory.

They ate whole wheat bread, cheese, meat etc. but I would check the labels. It should only have basic ingredients and no chemicals. Maybe organic would be best and meat is best not marinated. Marinate it yourself with your own herbs and spices.

I love my Happy Herbivore Cookbook By Lindsay S. Nixon's. She also has meal plans for single or familys that come with a shoping list to make it easy.

http://happyherbivore.com/

Another good website to check out is www.100daysofrealfood.com. They are a family that went from eating pretty processed to eating clean for a year, and never went back. She has some good (simple) repcies. Especially for things like pizza dough, whole wheat tortilla shells, muffins (whole wheat and honey, no white sugar)

I love this flowchart:

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