Real food
What is real food?
Real food is food you can recognize, name, and explain. Vowels does not treat every form of processing as a problem. The useful distinction is between processing that makes food safer or more convenient and industrial formulations that can come to dominate what a person eats.
Whole and minimally processed foods
Fruit, vegetables, eggs, beans, plain yogurt, meat, fish, nuts, and grains that are still recognizable as food. Washing, freezing, drying, grinding, or cooking can make food safer or easier to use. That is still real food.
Meals people can name
A plate built from foods a person can point to: vegetables and fruit, a protein, a whole grain or potato, and a fat from food. Home-prepared meals are one way to see what went into the dish.
Ingredients you can read
A short ingredient list is easier to understand. Added sugars, refined starches, and sodium can hide behind names that do not sound like sugar, flour, or salt. Reading the list is part of understanding the food.
Processing is not one thing
Pasteurization, freezing, canning, and fermenting can keep food safe and available. Industrial formulations that combine refined starches, added sugars, sodium, and additives into foods people eat all day are a different question. The lesson is the difference, not a rule that every packaged food is bad.