Pantry Purge
This is part of Day 1 of the 21-day Holistic Habit Builder
I find this little summary so useful for any healthy home. Think of it as Marie Kondo-ing your pantry and fridge. Out with the not-so-awesome, and in with the feel-good, nourishing goodies.
To set yourself up for success, it makes the world of a difference to eliminate Standard American Diet (abbrev. SAD) foods lurking in your house. A pantry purge will create a clean foundation to build on. If your family is not on board with these changes, respect their choices and trust that you’ll lead them to follow. In that case, doing this literal purge might not be advised (proceed with caution lol) but it can instead be mental. Know that these foods can be replaced with superior options. Find the better options and replace them one-by-one.
If you are a parent working to change the diet of the whole family, individually replacing favorites with healthier alternatives can be accomplished. Cutting out all of the junk food cold turkey might not be easy. Slowly introducing better options makes the family more complicit in your efforts. Removing all of the junk/fun food in the house should not feel like a punishment, but rather an exciting start to a world of new foods. As always – if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.
What should go and/or be further inspected?
Conventional breads (Ingredients should be only: Organic flour/starter, Water, Salt, Herbs…)
Cereals
Baked goods (see better recipes!)
Sodas (Even diet sodas), juices from concentrate and/or with added sugar
Dairy-free ‘milks’, dairy-free creamers (exception: coconut milk with nothing added), flavored/sweetened creamers, flavored/sweetened low-fat dairy, etc.
Vegan ‘meats’, ‘eggs’, ‘cheeses’…
Greens juices or bottled smoothies (Naked, Suja, Dole, V8, Simply, Motts, Bolthouse Farms…)
Chips, crackers, “mindless crunchy snacks”, candy, gummies…
Packaged foods with grains, sugar, and/or seed oils
Industrial seed, grain, and vegetable oils or spreads (canola, sunflower, safflower, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, soy, rice bran, peanut…)
Any dressings, sauces, spreads, nut butters, and condiments with the above industrial oils, refined sugar, soy, food dyes, nuts, and/or soy
Frozen convenience meals/snacks (Lean Cuisine, Chicken nuggets, Breakfast Sandwiches, Uncrustables, Pizza, Ice Cream, Popcicles, Burritos, Acai smoothie packs with added sugar…)
Boxed/canned convenience foods (Mac-and-Cheese, not-so-great soups, Ramen Noodles, pancake/cake/brownie mix, Minute Rice…)
Refined table salt and seasonings with unapproved ingredients (MSG, starches, sugar, industrial oils, food dye…)
Conventional, non-organic coffee and tea
Just about anything that was produced in a factory.
If you have thrown out what seems to be A LOT don’t feel frustrated.
You are exactly where you need to be to realign your habits to a time-tested way of eating. I am actually excited for you if your pantry purge was a lot because this gives you so much more room to improve. You might have had some lingering symptoms for as long as you could remember, and it might have been stemming from something you’ve just placed in the trash.
I encourage you to observe the foods you’ve just gone away with. Note health-degenerating ingredients to be mindful of and research common ingredients you are unsure of. As a trusted source, look up *the ingredient* followed by ‘Weston A Price Foundation’. This organization will have likely written about the topic from an ancestrally-consistent POV.
Next, ask these three questions that will make daily choices and grocery shopping easier in the long run:
Did this exist 200 years ago?
Could this food be made in a more traditional way to make it health-promoting?
Is this food helping me or hurting me?
Here are a few great documentaries to dismantle any modern nutrition beliefs.
The Perfect Human Diet: Looking at modern food science, fad food trends, and even how our ancestors used to eat, could there be the perfect one-size-fits-all diet?
Fat Fiction: How the United States government relied on questionable evidence to support one of the most damaging public health recommendations in the history of our country: the “low-fat diet.”
Fat: The far-fetched but completely true history of how our country became so unhealthy.
Appreciatively, Mia
