Excerpts: "It's processed, packaged, ridiculously sweet, unbelievably salty, mass-produced in such plummeting quality that it'shad to be shellacked with fat and artificial junk just to make it palatable-not to mention pumped with preservatives and emulsifies to keep it on the shelf well into the next Ice Age..."
"Elves don't make cookies. Uncle Ben doesn't convert rice. And Mrs. Baird doesn't bake bread."
"The road to Hell is paved with fake food."
"It's not that we love food to much. It's that we love food to little."
"Resolution aren't plans."
"You don't really want boxes, mixes or frozen entrees. You want ripe, gorgeous tomatoes; chicken with a crisp, brown skin; and a fruit crisp with a fulfilling allure..."
"A key part of finding real food: preparing it."
"...pantries of ready-to-eat meals we call restaurants."
"If a peach doesn't smell like anything, it won't taste like anything."
"Step away from all that is processed, packaged, low nutrition and poor quality. You just started down the road to enjoying food more, weighing less and being more content with your life."
"Taste: a seriously underrated sense."
"Taste's only rival may well be sexual arousal."
"When we talk about the texture of food, by and large we're talking about how quickly it becomes bolus..most of what we eat is soft. It becomes a bolus very quickly."
"People who chew more eat less. Chewing more means more time at the table. Chewing is the first step to good digestive health."
"Why are they called cheese food and not cheese?"
"Ideally, look for a small restaurant where someone is not just cooking but actually creating dishes in the kitchen. You want a place without corporate recipe development."
"What can I order that has lots of texture?"
"Do you really want to eat something that won't spoil until after your birthday next year- or even the year after that?"
"Since we don't eat real food anymore, we have had to add essential ingredients where they don't naturally occur to make up for the deficit. These additives are replacements for natural fats and proteins, all of which eventually go bad or rancid."
"Shelf life has become more important than taste or nutrition."
"BHT (organic compounds that preserve fats) is also used in jet fuel, exfoliating creams and embalming fluids."
"Sodium Benzoate (a salt that slows growth of mold and bacteria in salad dressings and soda) is also the stuff that makes fireworks whistle."
"Salt water injected into the meat as well as artificial flavorings...what would the chicken taste like if they didn't add flavorings?"
"Many canned broths are stocked with MSG...beef flavor."
"No one has tested all those additives and preservatives for long term use. They were given a human trial of forty days, three months... no one knows what those chemicals do in combination with each other."
"one draw back to real food is price."
"Fat free is not real food."
"When people say they don't have the time to make real food, they really mean they don't want to spend the effort."
"The amount of effort we put into making real food will pay off in better health, better weight maintenance, and better all-around contentment."
"People of normal weight spend more time shopping for and cooking food than people who are overweight."
"Cooking itself can be enjoyable, a way to experience life fully and to be creative."
"If our goal is to lose weight, we need to stop boiling dinner in a bag, or going on the fat flush purge, or doing any of the other unspeakable things all those diets require."
"In 2010, it's projected that the average American will spend EIGHT MINUTES a day preparing food at home - not per meal, but for all three meals, snacks included."
"Only 58% of our meals use at least one raw ingredient. Milk on cereal counts. Which means 42% of foods cooked at home did not include even one raw ingredient."
"If you're serious about taking control of what you eat, you start to find it really hard to go out."
"Imagine yourself as a person who slows down, who takes time with what you eat."
"Calories may be equal in science but they're not in our bellies. Protein and fiber leave our stomachs slowly."
"We don't just need to slow down; we must also choose foods that will stick with us for longer periods of time...protein and fiber."
"Foods are more than a vehicle for salt, fat and added flavors."
"Ever make cookies at home? Ever had them sit around for a month? If they don't mold, they'll probably rocks. But not those packaged ones"
"Why do people butter their bread? Or dip it in olive oil? Because it tastes good. You'll never see anyone corn-oiling their bread."
"soothing fears...calm down...that's not the point of food, that's the point of a bath, walk or favorite movies while snuggled down in the den."
"Food must not anesthetize, it has to stimulate."
"No part of a turkey, chicken, or pig looks like a football."
"Always push for the better alternative, buying the best you can afford."
"Why is it so difficult to add more vegetables? Because most require preparation."
Mark Scarbrough also writes the blog Real Food Has Curves.
Combine 2.5 tsp cinnamon and ginger, 3/4tsp nutmeg, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/4 tea salt.
In a separate bowl, add 2 eggs and 1 egg white, 1/2 c almond or other oil and 1/2 c raw honey or molasses. If you want a very sweet cake, add 1/3 c brown sugar. If you are watching your sugar intake, omit it, as I did. To this mixture, stir in 1 cup fresh or canned pumpkin puree.
Optional: 1/2 c chopped walnuts or other nut and 1/4 c crystallized ginger, minced. Add to wet ingredients then fold in dry ingredients.
Bake at 350 F for 35-40 min, looking for the gingerbread to pull away from the sides of the pan and an inserted toothpick in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or cool on a rack.
