What the health is nutrient dense food???

                                  Isn't that what I've been eating? 

 That would be uh, nooooooo.

     When we look at a package and see words like  "Enriched", "natural" and "whole grains!" many people think that it sounds healthy. Those words don't mean what they lead you to believe. "Natural" can mean any number of things or nothing at all.  Enriched? Let me give you an example. White bread. That pure bleached white squishy loaf  stripped of fiber and nutrition.  Companies then "enrich" that said loaf with chemicals to put  some of the vitamins back. Yum.  Bleached, enriched flour. Who are they kidding? Apparently a lot of you. Yippee, it contains whole grains. Great, what else is in it??? It has been said that it's not a matter of what it really means, but rather what we can get the public to believe.

      Not only do we need to read and understand labels, we need to know where our food is sourced. Not only do we need to know where it was made but how many hands and/or countries has this product passed through. Just because something says it's a product of ____________{enter country of your choice} doesn't mean it was processed or packaged there.

     Food in it's unprocessed state is nutrient rich. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains. .(yes, grains, thank you very much} The more it's processed, the unhealthier it is. Everything good has been stripped away. The more nutrient dense food you eat, the less cravings you will experience. I never thought I would be free from my food addiction.  Every hour of every day was occupied with food. Where can I get it? Where can I hide it, and most importantly, when can I sneak off and eat it? Have you ever had a dream where you were in a banquet hall and you eat your way along a very long table of food? I have, usually after starting yet another new diet. I've actually woke up shaking and thinking I'd actually done it!

 TRUE STORY 

     One of my old bosses told me that because they wanted to raise their young children to be strong and healthy, his family was cleaning up their eating habits.  He came in one day and said that he was just jonesing for one of his old go to junk food.  "I ripped it open and practically shoved it in my mouth whole". However, within the next second, he was spitting the entire thing out.  Since they had retrained their taste-buds to the beautiful flavors of real food, that junk became inedible! 

     I proved this to myself with my old nemesis  cake bar that was dyed bright pink and covered in something resembling coconut.  I would eat the whole box {What's a leftover?!?} I bought a box, why yes, yes I did. I didn't even wait until I got home.  Your car is a wonderful place to be alone with your frankin' food.  Memories flooded over me. The soft sponge, the creamy filling,the..."Oh my God these are disgusting" I mumbled out load as I spit it out directly back into the box. How could I have eaten box after box of these?  I think now I'd rather eat the box itself.

     The sponge now tasted like tasteless mush. That creamy filling? Grainy and so sweet it practically made me gag.

     The point I'm making is that when you become accustomed to the wonderful world of beautiful ingredients, there is no going back. You too can finally be free.