It’s February 1st, and that means the 28-day Real Food Challenge is underway here at Nourished Kitchen. Day #1′s assignment – cleaning your cupboards – has been sent out and participants should be receiving it shortly. We’ll follow up with another assignment every day for the entire month of February with goal of introducing the principles of a nourishing diet to newcomers of the traditional foods movement while helping to reinvigorate the passion of those who’ve followed a traditional diet for some time.
We’ve over 500 participants, and I’m thrilled to be able to host such a positive coming together of real food enthusiasts here at Nourished Kitchen. We even have some fantastic prizes for those who participate for the entire challenge, touching base each Monday to share their progress, their trials and show support for other folks joining the Real Food Challenge. The steps are simple, but designed to make marked, but simple improvements in the foods with which you nourish your body.
Next Monday, it’ll be time to check in here at Nourished Kitchen to let us all know how your first week went. In the meantime, continue to spread the word about the challenge by sharing it with your friends by email, facebook or twitter.
If you’ve missed any days or assignments:
If you’ve missed any of the challenge’s updates, emails or assignments please check out the challenge’s archive to get caught up (click here).
Real Food Challenge Prizes:
- 2 Participants will receive a 1-year Subscription to Nourished Kitchen’s Recipe Cards by Mail.
- 1 Participant will receive a Real Food Ingredient Guide by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
- 1 Participant will receive a culture kit containing water kefir grains, dairy kefir grains and a kombucha mother courtesy of Cultures for Health (see their listing on the resources page)
If you haven’t already, sign up now:
The first assignment just went out during the wee hours of the morning, so if you haven’t signed up, do so now. In the meantime, join the discussion on Nourished Kitchen’s facebook fan page. Remember, the challenge’s assignments will not hit your RSS feed so you do need to sign up to participate if you haven’t already done so.
Technically, it’s Monday, so I blogged about my cupboard clean-out. It’s a pretty important step to any new food lifestyle, so I figured it deserved its own update.
I received the email tonight (also Monday). So, it means, I could share my experience next Monday? This is a good challenge. I’ve been promoting real and whole food too but I need some encouragement on my own as well.
I just signed up. Any chance I can get my hands on the day 1 assignment?
We have made progress towards real foods, but just in this first week, I have found a few things to dispose. Looking forward to the challenge and writing about it. Thank you again for helping us make this progress steps further!
You are way on top of it, Jenn! I love it!
- jenny
Divina -
Yes, please do share your experience next Monday when we have a full week under our belts. Your also welcome to share your experiences with today’s assignment today too.
Take care -
Jenny
Michelle -
I’m glad you found it helpful. Undoubtedly, there’s a few things lurking in my cupboards too that I ought not to have been there in the first place. So it’s good for me as well, to renew my family’s vigor for wholesome real foods.
- Jenny
I think I must have typed my email incorrectly on the sign-up sheet. Could you repair it for me, or tell me what to do to reenter it? Thanks!
Hi, How do you send out the 28 day challenge? I did not receive anything in my email yet. Or do I have to check my facebook page? thanks, Melanie
I can’t wait! My fridge was pretty bare this weekend, so I took the opportunity to stock up extra from the farmers market and local foods health store on Saturday in anticipation
I need this kick in the pants lol.
I am so excited about this challenge. My husband and I eat mostly from a CSA and our wonderful local organic farm. But….this first day challenge found some unwanted items for me…. The main thing is pasta…do you mean even whole wheat pasta? Ir fresh pasta, how about that?
Blogged it… and WOW. What an eye opener from someone who claims not to eat processed food. Now I just have to decide what to do with it all… most of it wasn’t even open.
Maybe someone can tell me about sour cream, though… it’s the only thing on the list that I had no clue why it was there… I buy the kind that just says “cultured cream” in the ingredients list.
please explain what’s wrong with stevia…
oh, and palm shortening. i was under the impression that Spectrum palm shortening was akin to palm oil and was a good fat…
Dawn -
Low-fat, non-fat and vegan sour “creams” if you can call them that with a straight face are off the list. Full-fat sour cream (preferably organic and grass-fed) should stay in your kitchen.
Hope that helps -
Jenny
Kathy -
I’m glad you’re on board! Yes, do remove even the whole wheat pasta from your shelves and fresh pasta too. Sprouted grain pasta and sourdough noodles can stay. Brown rice pasta is a stretch – a good compromise.
The reason is this, and we’ll get into this in further detail later in the challenge: whole grains contain phytic acid which is an antinutrient that binds up minerals preventing their full absorption in your intestinal tract. This means that you’re essentially operating at a nutritional loss when you consume whole grain products that haven’t been properly prepared to mitigate the effects of this antinutrient – like pasta. When you sour, sprout or soak your whole grains in an acidic solution you mitigate the effects of that antinutrient and that extra effort makes whole grains more digestible and the nutrients (particularly minerals) they contain more readily absorbed by your body. So later in the challenge we’ll talk about this in greater detail and I’ll teach you how you can better prepare these foods to maximize nutrient density.
- Jenny
Emily -
On stevia: white stevia powder and liquid stevia are heavily processed and do not remotely resemble the native, natural plant. Moreover, stevia (despite its acclaim in low-carb circles) was never traditionally used as a sweetener; rather, it was traditionally used as a contraceptive by indigenous South American peoples. Very few studies have been carried out on stevia, and those that focused on its purported contraceptive effects have been contradictory: some say it’s contraceptive, others don’t. Interestingly, the same factors that make stevia sweet are those that are thought to have contraceptive effects. In the end, I always fall back to tradition and food history: in this case, stevia never held a place in traditional societies as a sweetener. That said, if you still want to use stevia make sure to only use the green stevia which is simply the stevia herb powdered. Do not use processed stevia: white powder or liquid.
On palm shortening: palm shortening is just find. Participants should rid their kitchens of shortening (EXcluding palm shortening).
Hope that helps -
Jenny
I havent received my first 28-day challenge email yet. Have they gone out?
^ Same here, I still have not received the email, even though I did sign up!
I just found my email in my regular account, but in the spam. Perhaps that’s where some of your messages landed!
I haven’t recieved my email yet either and I signed up a while ago, I sent an email regarding this so hopefully all can be resolved. I am just so eager!!!
I can’t wait to read what you have to say about some of the specific things on today’s check list! Thanks for doing this!
I am diabetic, and regularly use white stevia to avoid artifical sweeteners while maintaining low blood sugar levels. If green stevia isn’t useful for cooking, and unprocessed sugars have a detrimental effect on blood sugar, what CAN I used?
We cleaned out our allergens a long time ago, but there’s always something questionable creeping back into the cupboards. We are now down to single ingredient items. Yay!
I signed up this morning but never received anything. How do I get the first challenge?
I have a quick question about two items and the whys/wherefores.
First, is honey (from a local source) okay to keep?
And what about white flour to feed my sourdough culture? I have been trying to work with a sourdough culture that is half white flour and half wheat flour, and noticed that the Sourdough Starter shop lists a bunch of white flour varieties. Can my sourdough starter keep eating white flour?
Hi, it appears I have the same problem that everyone else has. I signed up but have not recieved my challenge. Please help! I am eager to get started! Thanks for your help!
I signed up last week, and didn’t get the first challenge
Please help! Thanks!
I just signed up and would love to get the first challenge that I missed…can you send it to me! ….funny, I cleaned cupboards yesterday…so curious if I need to do it again with a different mindset…
Did not receive the first assignment so I signed up again. I hope I get the next one and can receive the first one!
I was able to blog Day 1 and Day 2. I hope to be able to blog the whole 28 days.
Blogged Day 1. It was kind of painful and I didn’t even go all the way to one ingredient stuff. Like others, I didn’t get an email about Day 1. For all who didn’t there is a copy of it on the Week 1 discussion on the Facebook group.
I might have to blog again today to share my homemade mayo. I considered cheating and using a day of my husband’s soybean-oil-based stuff but then I saw the brand new dozen pastured eggs and decided to make my own instead…
Also, I had a question about Food for Life Ezekiel 4:9 products — they all contain sprouted soybeans. It’s my understanding that even sprouted soy contains plant estrogens and should probably be avoided. What’s the best brand for sprouted noodles?
I really need this! I am a busy mom of four young ones (all under 5). I am nursing and really need good nutrition. I have been really focused on making homemade yogurt, which my kids love, but I’ve been wanting to venture out and start doing kefir. My hubby wants me to start doing Kombucha again too. I need this encouragement and challenge…thanks! Also, I was just about to place an order at Cultures for Health, but now I’ll wait a month…just in case. Oh, yeah I also desperately needed to clean out my cupboards…Thank you!
I declined to participate because my family doesn’t eat meat, and we also can’t/won’t have cow’s milk products. (We did join a goatshare program but the goats are pregnant right now, so, no milk.) I figured I wouldn’t be able to participate much if we won’t do meat or dairy, so I thought I’d just watch from afar.
But I did wander over to a few of the blogs listed to see what the challenge has been this week, and we’re starting out pretty well without even trying! No vegetable oils. No sugar except local, raw honey. No stevia except what I’ve grown myself (I occasionally brew the leaves with tea). No margarine. No white flour. (Hardly any flour at all, actually, and no wheat.) No cornstarch. We do occasional soy foods – only fermented varieties, i.e. tempeh and miso. No soy sauce, flour, milk, lecithin, and nothing enriched with soy. No refined or iodized salt. I do have some dried buckwheat noodles. No meat or dairy replacements except coconut milk that I made myself (which I don’t consider a dairy replacement). No adulturated dairy products. No boxed cereals, crackers, or cookies.
There will probably be meat-related challenges later so I still won’t join up, but I thought you might like to know that a vegetarian reader isn’t doing too bad.
I apologize for my boring comments! I just read a post about day 2 and now I’m thinking of participating after all.
Natural sweeteners – check. (The aforementioned honey, and blackstrap molasses for the kids’ oatmeal. I quit all sugar cane at the beginning of the year and reduced my added (non-fruit) sugar intake to 1/2 tsp. of honey a day.)
Wholesome fats – check. Organic, extra-virgin, cold-pressed olive oil and coconut oil, and the olive oil is local, too. Those are the only oils we use. No animal fats yet – maybe we’ll make butter when we start getting goat’s milk.
Whole-meal flours – I’m not doing a lot of grains right now. I do have whole spelt and rye in the house which I ferment to make bread for my kids. That’s it for flours.
Unrefined salt – yep, RealSalt that I bought in bulk when it was a local product.
Meat – nope.
Fresh vegetables and fruit – lots! Mostly organic, entirely local.
Full-fat raw dairy – if not for pregnant goats.
Fermented foods – water kefir, sauerkraut, beets, root vegetable kimchi, miso, tempeh, and coconut milk yogurt (homemade).
Maybe I should join up? What do you think, Jenny?
Is there a way to find the day 1 and day 2 challenges for those of us joining in a bit late?
Hey Sahara -
Yes, absolutely. Latecomers can find the archives for the previous day’s assignments here: http://ymlp.com/archive_geujmqmgjge.php! Hope that helps.
- Jenny
Chandelle -
I love your comments! I think you should absolutely participate. Very little of the challenge will focus on meat, so just skip those days. Meat-eating, while integral to many traditional societies, is just one aspect of traditional foods. How we prepare our foods is even more important, and I’d cherish your input on the challenge. As with anything, take what works for you.
Take Care -
Jenny
I’m soaking some pure oats (certified gluten-free) right now! I
didn’t realize oats had phytic acid that inhibits absorption. I
have celiac disease, malabsorption, and fructose malabsorption, so
I especially need to follow advice that will serve to increase my
absorption! Thanks so much for the “grocery list” guidelines for
traditional foods!
Jenny, I signed up but never received anything. Does that mean I’m too late to participate?
I blogged about Assignment #1. Thanks for the challenge!
I’m still waiting for Day 3 of the challenge.
I’m super excited about this month of challenges! I’ve been responding on Facebook, where I have a different name (long story), but I’ll check in here at the weekly check-ins. I’m Frances on Facebook, btw.
I’m getting so many good ideas already! Yay!
I blogged about using yogurt for soaking whole grains. This is one of the best ways to use all the whey I have from making homemade yogurt. I love the Soaked Oatmeal Porridge recipe too. I think that oatmeal soaked in yogurt has a wonderful flavor. Also did you know that Quaker oats use to have instructions for soaking overnight on their label? This is definitely something our modern society needs to get back to.
@ Jen
Oh my goodness I did not know all that about the white powder stevia. I’ve had a bad feeling about it for a while. I’m switching back to raw honey.
Already cleaned out the cupboards as part of New years resolution. It’s amazing how little space gets taken up now with whole grains and related items!
re: soaking grains…so happy that I read that article!