It’s an excuse I hear from many who choose not to eat a healthy diet – “Healthy food tastes nasty!”
I actually used to believe this myself. I thought that healthy food didn’t taste good, but like a “good girl”, I suffered through it anyway. This is because I had a completely different idea about what healthy food was. I thought that if I was cutting as much fat and calories out of my diet as possible, I was eating healthy food. What were these foods that I thought of as healthy? Fat free mayonnaise, fat free cottage cheese, dry chicken, and for a real treat – baked pieces of cardboard (otherwise known as “fat-free chips”) with low-cal salsa.
With all due respect to fat-free anything – yuck. Just…yuck. Unless, of course, it is naturally fat free. Apples don’t have fat and they still taste good. But that’s because God made them that way. Real food always tastes better when you eat it the way God made it. (Don’t get me started.) But as soon as you start pulling the real stuff (fat, nutrients, etc.) out of a food and replacing it with chemicals to make it “healthy”, the taste of that food is forever altered and well…yuck.
Now, I don’t claim to be the best cook in the world. I have botched recipes, and scared my family and sometimes my guests with some doozies of dishes that just simply haven’t tasted good. But I’ve got to say, now that we’re eating a healthy, whole foods diet, using real food in its natural form – my food tastes so much better than it ever did compared to the days when we just ate whatever cheap, low fat, low calorie stuff I could find with coupons. (Have you ever put fat-free cheese in your enchiladas? I do not recommend it.)
Serve these Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls, and I bet no one would complain about eating healthier food.
Really? These are made with whole wheat and honey? Yep. :)
Now, sit back and close your eyes. Let the deliciousness of the following food list help you know how wonderful healthy food really does taste. (Oh wait. You may need to open your eyes to read. My bad.)
- Compare a chewy chicken nugget from a box, to a juicy beef roast with gravy, roasted potatoes, and carrots – and tell me healthy food doesn’t taste good.
- Pull some hearty, homemade honey whole wheat bread out of the oven and slather it with (real!) butter – and tell me healthy food doesn’t taste good.
- Whip some cream and plop some on top of fresh strawberries – and tell me healthy food doesn’t taste good.
- Grill a steak, serve it with tossed green salad, and corn on the cob – and tell me healthy food doesn’t taste good.
- Scramble some farm fresh eggs with some chopped tomatoes, peppers, and grated cheddar cheese – and tell me healthy food doesn’t taste good.
You can open your eyes now. ;) I think I’m finished thinking of amazing, healthy food that tastes good, but I’m hungry right now, so no guarantees.
My point is – real food is healthy, and real food tastes incredibly good. In addition, it is satisfying, and makes your body feel good, since your body recognizes what you are feeding it when you are feeding it real food. It is delicious food and you feel great as a result. It’s a win-win situation.
Rich chicken broth with veggies and homemade noodles; fresh whole wheat biscuits right out of the oven dripping with honey; a peach right off the tree; garden fresh vegetables dipped in homemade ranch dip; whole grain pancakes with melted butter and real maple syrup….
Ahhhhh, real food. I love it. (And I should probably go eat some of it right now since I’m so hungry and delicious food is all I can think of…)
What are your favorite real foods?
There are different ways to make kefir, all of which are easy. If you use “kefir grains”, you will save money in the long run. However, I have found that my busy schedule limits my ability to keep up with my kefir grains. This may be a bit of a cop-out, but this is where I’ve landed at this point.
