De-chemming Your Diet - How to Eat More Naturally Without Going Nuts

Everyone has their own reason for wanting to eat a more natural diet. For me, it was the suspicion that a sensitivity to MSG (monosodium glutamate) was responsible for a number of nagging health problems I've had over the years. Others might be interested in losing weight, eating more environmentally/globally responsible food, or simply increasing their well-being in general. Whatever your motivation, it can be difficult to alter your cooking and eating habits in order to reduce the number of artificial ingredients in your food.

While I started my journey by simply avoiding MSG in my diet, the time I spent reading food labels sensitized me to foods with large amounts of processed and artificial ingredients. I soon decided that I would also avoid eating foods containing high-fructose corn syrup, and would in general try not to buy foods with large numbers of artificial ingredients. It hasn't been easy, but through careful shopping I've managed to both greatly reduce my consumption of processed/artificial foods and significantly reduce my grocery bill. I no longer suffer from regular intestinal problems and dizzy spells, I've lost weight, and I have more energy. It's been great for me, and I thought I'd share my tips for others who'd like to eat better, but who also want to eat affordably. I make compromises - I'm not sure if the organic foods I buy are truly organic and completely pesticide free - but I've made a good start without breaking the bank or driving myself insane.

Here are my shopping tips:

1. Shop on the periphery of the grocery store. I noticed a popular nutrition/diet book out that gave this same advice about a year after I'd started doing it myself. The vast majority of my current food purchases are from the produce, meat, and dairy sections of the store. The middle aisles of the store are Processed Food Central, and shopping there usually involves a lot of label reading for me.

2. Read labels and decide which ingredients you will definitely avoid, and which you will tolerate. If you want to avoid MSG, look both for "monosodium glutamate" and any "hydrolized" ingredients on food labels. Also avoid buying foods that list "soy" + anything that isn't "beans", such as "soy protein isolate". Soy lecithin, however, is not associated with MSG and seems relatively non-toxic.

In general, when comparing products, I will go with the product that has the simplest, least polysyllabic ingredient list. Since I now know which ingredients are most important for me to avoid, I've gotten much faster at choosing what I'm willing or unwilling to buy.

3. Check around town for inexpensive ways to buy organic/natural food. Many organic/natural food stores (hello, Whole Foods) are expensive, but luckily organic and natural foods are becoming more popular. Sometimes you can find them in surprising places. For example, in Canada, Shopper's Drug Mart is currently selling an affordable line of organic canned and boxed foods. Finding MSG-free soup at Shopper's has been a godsend for our emergency food supply. In the States, you may be one of the lucky individuals who lives near a Trader Joe's. If you are, I am very jealous. Tell them to open a store in Toronto, damn it!

Just like for regular groceries, you'll have to read the labels on so-called organic and natural foods. Many supposedly healthy or natural foods are full of the exact same artificial ingredients as normal processed foods.

4. Take a serious look at store brands. This may not be true of all store brands, but I've found that the store brands at my local grocery stores contain far fewer artificial ingredients than the big brands. Foods with a lower price and with natural ingredients? Yes, please!

Hopefully, this will help budding natural eaters get started with the shopping. Next time, I'll talk about eating naturally while keeping your cooking time down and your flavour level up.

Note: I have linked to Wikipedia in this entry because it's an easy central location from which to get basic information. Of course, if you want to get serious about researching food processing and artificial ingredients, find better scientific sources than Wikipedia.