Warren - Living a Real Life with Real Food : How to Get Healthy, Lose Weight, and Stay Energized?the Kosher Way

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is complete and accurate. However, neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, procedures, and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician. All matters regarding your health require medical supervision. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book. The opinions expressed in this book represent the personal views of the author and not of the publisher.

Copyright 2014 by Beth Warren

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eISBN: 978-1-62873-937-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Warren, Beth, 1984

Living a real life with real food: how to get healthy, lose weight, and stay energized, the kosher way / Beth Warren, MS, RD, CDN.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-62636-571-1 (alk. paper)

1. Natural foodsTherapeutic use. 2. Kosher food. 3. Reducing dietsRecipes.
I. Title.

RM237.55.W37 2014

613.265dc23

2013034823

Printed in China

It is a mitzvah (commandment) for one to conduct himself with good measure and good habits and to maintain his health in order to be healthy and strong for the service of the Creator, may He be exalted.

The Tur

(a commentator during the thirteenth century in Spain and the son of the Rosh, on the eleventh chapter in the book, The Laws of the Daily Conduct)

The real-food diet. It sounds simple enough. Eat real foods.

Unfortunately, life is complicated. The simplicity got pushed beneath all the clutter of information out there.

Figuring out the healthiest food to eat is harder than learning to use the aptly called smartphone. Supermarkets feature numerous products and it is difficult to navigate through poor health choices to find the foods that are actually good for you. More is not better when it comes to the food industry.

Picture this: Standing in the bread aisle, you scratch head, confused. You are trying to be a health-savvy shopper and yet the food industry is not making it easy. Overwhelmed, you allow your child to play the game eeny meeny miny moe and voila ! Little Timmy picks the bread of the week. Without realizing it, you leave the store with the worst kind... you know, the enriched (more like depleted) white flour, high fructose corn syrup, fiberless bread that should really be served as your dessert following dinner and not as a sandwich accessory.

Packaged bread is a classic example of a heavily processed food often made with too many unrecognizable and unpronounceable ingredients rather than a basic mixture of real food. This problem is exemplified by the abundance of brands on the market that produce similar poor-quality foodsmimicking more options to the consumer; but in reality, they are all the same, single, unhealthy choice.

Making choices like these and not choosing real food is one major factor in the rise of obesity in America. Its beyond Houston... United States, we have a big problem.

A female client, Laura, came for an appointment one day with a bag full of empty food packages. An eighty-nine year old woman, Laura was living an organic, real-food way of life for longer than I have been alive. I was helping her gain much-needed weight, despite the painful shadow of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) lurking in her every bite of food. She was teaching me, tooabout real food.

One of the plastic food packages she had was for pita, a pocketed flatbread that is a mainstay in my Middle Eastern, Mediterranean culture.

Beth, Ive been buying this bread for weeks and just realized it is not 100 percent whole grain! Laura exclaimed.

Knowing that she is not one to be taken for a nutritionally uneducated consumer, I examined the package. Unsurprising to me, it was one of the most deceiving food products I have seen. They designed the package to make you think it is the healthiest choice. Here is what was listed on the front of the package:

Organic: Although better for your health in many ways, it does not make a product automatically healthier (see ).

Wheat Flour: The term makes you think it is whole-wheat flour but it does not say whole.

100% Natural: The term natural is not Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulated and can mean anything. Petroleum gas is natural, but would that make us eat it? Also, the 100% at quick glance makes you think it was stating 100% whole wheat, a sign I tell my patients to look for on healthier products.

Fat Free, Sugar Free, Fiber Rich: All three are playing on fad diets by highlighting the one nutrient, but is the bread as a whole healthy?

The term wheat flour in the ingredients list on the back of the label confirms that this is not, in fact, 100 percent whole wheat. Ultimately, there are better whole-grain choices.

If an educated consumer and nutritionist had to look twice at a brand of Middle Eastern Bakery Pita Bread, what hope is there for those consumers on the run? Most of us go food shopping in a rush, coming from or going to work, with children screaming in the shopping cart. For many of us, food shopping is simply one task on a seemingly endless list of things to do for that specific day. We need food packages to be designed simply, so that if we have only a few seconds to grab bread from the bread aisle, we grab one that will help and not hurt our health.

Wishful thinking? Perhaps. It may be too big of an undertaking to challenge the entire food industry, but we can take control over our food choices.

Through this book, I can help make it easier for you to choose foods to eat to create a healthier you. You will receive guidance on how to make your plate, which foods to eat more or less of, how to eat real foods out of your home, and of course, how to shop for real foods. After following the advice in this book, you will notice more energy, a clearer complexion, better digestive health and sleep patterns, and other lifestyle improvements, in addition to the scale sliding downward in the best possible way: continuously, slowly, and steadily.

Along with helping you eat real food for your real life, I will give you a glimpse into my kosher way of life. Food plays an integral role in the Jewish culture. The importance of family, observance of holidays, and frequent celebrations all share one thing in common: good food.