Book Review: Refined to Real Food

I saw this book in the library a few weeks ago, and decided to read it. Refined to Real Food: Moving Your Family Toward Healthier, Wholesome Eating by Allison Anneser describes a systematic approach to cutting out the junk in our diets and progressing towards a healthier way of eating. She talks about "shifting" to more nutritious foods in a gradual way. By making small changes slowly, you move from processed to real food in a way that your family will accept. If they've been used to take-out and twinkies, switching to home cooked meals and fresh fruit takes some adjusting.

From vegetables and fruits to grains and meats, she describes and encourages small substitutions in incremental ways. For example, shifting to whole grains might involve substituting brown rice for white rice. Then swap whole grain flour for white flour. Later, you might try quinoa or buckwheat. If your kids like cereal for breakfast, try oatmeal. Later, switch to steel-cut oats and add your own sweetener, like honey.

For meats, a shifting strategy might include starting with naturally-raised, antibiotic-free chickens (not sure if Perdue birds fall into this category), then shift to cage-free, organically fed birds, and finally moving towards a local source of pasture-fed poultry, if possible.

She suggests ideas and strategies that encourage meal planning so that most of our meals will be home cooked. A lot of it is common sense and organization, but I suppose a lot of us just don't do this. Freezing leftovers or cooking twice as much for another meal seems obvious to me, but maybe I'm just used to bulk cooking with teenagers.

I liked the attitude of this book. Anneser recognizes that suddenly revamping our food lifestyles, especially with families, can be difficult and extreme. Her "shifting" premise gives us permission to make changes slowly and flexibly. She is not dogmatic in her approach and recognizes that it doesn't have to be an "all-or-nothing" lifestyle change. For some of us, cleaning out the cupboard in one fell swoop wouldn't work for our families. She gives us permission to make the changes that work for us, when and how we can. For me, it was a guilt-free read on the road to better nutrition.