Here are some questions to ask yourself as you choose your foods:
“What should I be buying, preparing, and eating?”
“What should I be making for my family, or co-workers?”
“Does this provide me with nutrients and building blocks?”
“Does it help my body to grow, to heal, to be strong and healthy?”
“Does it nourish me?”

To thrive or not to thrive, that is the question.

Real food nourishes. We convert food molecules into muscles, bones, blood vessels. We use those molecules to strengthen our immune systems, to guide our brains to relax, to hike up hills and run marathons.

Garbage in, garbage out. Sugar, Crisco®, food dye? Having some difficulty focusing? You might want to consider whether it’s your food choices.

I didn’t just wake up one morning and start eating like this. It’s been a process. First I stopped eating white flour. Then diet Coke. Then frozen fish sticks. Margarine. “Breakfast cereals.” I put that in quotes because it’s like “TV dinners.” When marketers tell me what to eat and when to eat it, that’s a very bad sign. “Lunchables,” there’s another one. No thanks.

Then there was the night years ago that I finally “flipped” the kitchen once and for all. My elementary-school-aged children threatened that “we’re gonna eat white bread at school!,” to which I replied, “You may eat anything you like when you’re at school or a friend’s house. I’m not saying you can’t eat white bread. I’m just saying that we won’t be having that in our kitchen anymore.” In the ensuing months they settled down a lot, especially when they noticed that they actually felt better.

Is it ever okay to eat “food-like items” that are not nourishing? Yes, just like it’s okay to go to the movies once in a while. But you probably wouldn’t want to live there.