UNPROCESSED
The theory behing living an unprocessed life (as it relates to food) is to eat food that is as close to it's natural state as possible. It's not about being "good" 100% of the time and there is no such thing as "failure." It's really about making the best choice available at the time. When making decisions about what is and isn't considered unprocessed, I will be using The Kitchen Test devised by Andrew Wilder over at Eating Rules.
Unprocessed food is any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with whole-food ingredients.
I call it “The Kitchen Test.” If you pick up something with a label (if it doesn’t have a label, it’s probably unprocessed), and find an ingredient you’d never use in your kitchen and couldn’t possibly make yourself from the whole form, it’s processed.
It doesn’t mean you actually have to make it yourself, it just means that for it to be considered “unprocessed” that you could, in theory, do so.
I have been leaning toward this type of eating and cooking for many years now and was thrilled to find the Eating Rules site that so closely mimics my own views on food and eating.
When I cleaned out my pantry last week, I was shocked at how much processed food I was keeping around...sugar, white flour, canned soups (loaded with preservatives), etc. Once I started really examining the labels, I was again surprised to discover the less-than-natural ingredients in things like a can of Chiles en Adobo (I have since found an acceptable substitute at Whole Foods) and even my sliced water chestnuts.
2 comments:
That's a fabulous word and goal for 2013!
Thats a great goal - and totally doable!
I've been trying to get away from processed, but it is damn easy to sucked into it.
I did a bad job this weekend, but next weekend I'm going to have to do some real cooking and food prep for the week. :)
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