Andrew, over at Eating Rules has posed a fun challenge to folks involved in the world of food. Whether you are a blogger, a home cook, or simply a passionate eater, you may want to check this challenge out. For the month of October, people pledging to challenge must avoid eating and all processed foods. This may sound easier than you think, but this means for an entire month you cannot touch anything that you couldn't cook in your own kitchen from whole ingredients.
Besides the occasional Cool Ranch Dorito weakness, this is how I attempt to eat all the time. One of the most challenging aspects, I have found, is eating out. To be truly vigilant during this kind of challenge, ordering intelligently helps a lot. It only takes a moment to sum up whether or not a restaurant is likely to serve food made from food, or food made from boxes and bags. Often, if a place takes the time to cook from whole food, they let you know. It's a great selling point these days, so keep an eye out for it. Restaurants that rely on processed food often serve in great volume, making chain restaurants particularly suspect. Though there are plenty of chains that do cook their food from scratch, on site, most are just a dressed up version of a drive through. Think McDonald's on a plate.
Once you've picked a restaurant that seems on the up and up, give your choice of meal some thought. Try to pick something with simple ingredients. If you are feeling daring, and really want something that is often processed, like a hot dog, queso, or mac and cheese, talk to your server. It could be possible that the mac and cheese is made from scratch, that the hot dog is all natural, or that the queso is made in-house with real cheese. You'll never know if you don't ask, which is a shame either way.
If you are anything like me, now and then you will have a craving for junk food. It's true that the more healthy you eat, the less junk you crave, but it doesn't mean you'll never get a hankering for a ding dong or a grilled stuft burrito ever again. You might. And if you simply have to have it, try making it yourself! The internet is a wonderful fairyland of recipes for making things from scratch that you might not think possible. If you don't believe me, try googling "homemade twinkies".
Anyway, enough rambling. My point is that going unprocessed is not only sort of easy, it's sort of fun too, and really worth it. It's good for your body, good for the environment, and often, good for your wallet too. Have fun, and enjoy an unprocessed October.