Are You Missing "Real" Food?

One thing I often hear from individuals who are on 5&1 is, "I love the results I'm getting, but I sure do miss real food!"  Do you ever find yourself saying, or thinking, this, too? When I was on 5&1 to lose my 120 pounds, I confess that I often thought and said the very same thing. I loved the results I was getting, but opening up packet after packet of what I deemed "fake food" got old at times.

Then I did some thinking about what "real" food really is. Real food is food that nourishes my body. 

It's funny, but before I started on my transformational journey, I never viewed anything I ate as anything less than "real" food, no matter how nutritionally poor it was. I did eat a lot of healthy food, just way too much of it, but food void of any real nutritional value also routinely found its way into my body.

Just for fun, I did a search on the ingredients of a couple of popular foods that are commonly consumed.  Here's what I found:

Ingredients in Twinkies: 

Enriched Wheat Flour (enriched with ferrous sulfate (iron), B vitamins (niacin, thiamine mononitrate [B1], riboflavin [B2] and folic acid)) 

Sugar
Corn syrup
Water
High fructose corn syrup
Vegetable and/or animal shortening (containing one or more of partially hydrogenated soybean, cottonseed or canola oil, and beef fat)
Dextrose
Whole eggs
2% or less of:
Modified corn starch
Cellulose gum
Whey
Leavenings (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate)
Salt
Cornstarch
Corn flour
Corn syrup solids
Mono and diglycerides
Soy lecithin
Polysorbate 60
Dextrin
Calcium caseinate
Sodium stearol lactylate
Wheat gluten
Calcium sulfate
Natural and artificial flavors
Caramel color
Sorbic acid (to retain freshness)
Artificial color (yellow 5, red 40)

How about McDonald french fries?

Potatoes, canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, safflower oil, natural flavour (vegetable source), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain colour), citric acid (preservative), dimethylpolysiloxane (antifoaming agent) and cooked in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with THBQ, citric acid and dimethylpolysiloxane) and salt (silicoaluminate, dextrose, potassium iodide). - See more at: http://www.undergroundhealth.com/mcdonalds-reveals-17-foul-ingredients-in-their-french-fries-including-gmos/#sthash.ZDYzPnXu.dpuf

Yet we didn't view ourselves as eating "fake" food when consuming these, did we?  When we look at the ingredients in Medifast products, do you know what we find? Most of the ingredients are just food or naturally-derived; most of the unpronounceable things are part of the vitamin and minerals that our meals are fortified with.  And the Medifast products are doing something really important - they are providing the nutrition we need while helping us get to a healthy weight.

One thing I know for sure, even though I ate a lot of "natural" and even organic food at 260+ pounds and Type 2 diabetic, it was infinitely healthier for me to eat my five Medifast meals and a lean & green to get to a healthy weight rather than continue eating organic and being morbidly obese.

Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen, Take Shape for Life co-founder and Medifast medical director, recently wrote a terrific blog entitled "Think Beyond Meal Replacements." Here's a link to his article: http://www.drwayneandersen.com/health-info/articles/#/think-beyond-meal-replacements

So take heart, you ARE eating "real" food, food that is nourishing your body and helping you get to a healthy weight. As you are opening your meal replacements today, know that you are doing something that is incredibly healthy for yourself and bon appetite!  You are getting healthier with each meal and each choice . . . choose wisely :-)