Huh? Don’t I already eat real food? Well, I don’t know… do you? When I talk about real food, I mean food that’s as close as possible to how nature made it. If it’s made in a lab it’s not real food.

Real food: Meats, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, oils

Processed food: May have real foods listed on the label, but it also has chemical preservatives, flavorings and/or colors. If the ingredient list is longer than about 3-4 things (excluding spices) or it has ingredients that aren’t found in nature, watch out.

5 Reasons Why You Should Eat Real Food

Your poop. It will get better. Really.

Things like constipation and diarrhea will often resolve themselves. Eating real food feeds the gut bacteria who have everything to do with elimination. Real food has their favorite food, fiber. Fiber also binds to waste products, including toxins, to escort them out of the body. Processed, packaged food has chemicals that not only don’t help, they slow the process down by gunking up the liver and feeding the bad bacteria.

Weight loss and maintenance becomes EASY.

If you’re eating real food, the body gets what it needs. All the tissues and organs and systems are able to balance themselves, and there’s no need to hang on to extra weight. You don’t have to count calories or points or to measure portion sizes of everything you eat. Your body gets the nutrients it needs, so you’re not as hungry. But if you’re eating meals that come in packages or from a drive-thru, there are fewer actual nutrients and more non-food ingredients, like preservatives and flavorings and colors, so you stay hungry for real nutrition. Besides that, the body has to process all those non-food things, and if it can’t get them out, you know where they’re stored? In fat cells.

Reduced risk of chronic disease.

Things like Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease and believe it or not, even cancer, are all preventable and often reversible. Diet is the place to start. Without getting too science-y, things like blood sugar regulation and detoxification have to work properly for us to stay well. If we eat real food, and take care of our bodies, they can serve us long into old age without these chronic lifestyle diseases that have a negative effect on quality of life and are an enormous drain on the medical system.

Healthier immunity.

Did you know that gut bacteria play a starring role in immune health? Some people say that up to 70% of immunity resides in the gut. Before you start taking a bunch of probiotics though, know that there’s more to it. Digestion has to be healthy in order to even absorb those probiotics and the ones that come in capsules are usually “transient” – meaning they stay in the gut for a while, but don’t take up permanent residence there. Eat real food – lots of fruits and vegetables, fiber and fermented foods– and the bacteria who already live there will reproduce to create a strong healthy community. Eat a lot of processed foods, and there will be fewer health promoting bacteria and more of the ones that cause problems.

You’ll just FEEL BETTER.

Your body processes will hum along and not have to spend a bunch of energy dealing with non-food substances, so you’ll have more energy to do the things you want to do. Everything will work better, so a lot of health problems will just resolve themselves. A lot of people see reductions in mental/emotional issues, since the body and mind are so connected.

So. Isn’t it worth it to eat real food? And you can do it easily, without spending all day in the kitchen, and without a sense of deprivation.

Join the 14 Day Real Food Reset to get started changing your life!