Natural Food Substitutions

By Lynn, webmaster of A Natural Food Diet | Natural Food Articles

Below are some ideas for substituting natural, whole foods for heavily processed foods so you can cook, serve, and eat natural, real foods.

Easy Natural Food Substitutions

Processed food item	Natural food substitute	Comments
Croutons	Nuts (there should only be one ingredient listed—the nut)	If you're looking for that crispy crunch on your salad, nuts will give you just what you're looking for.
Koolade, Flavorade, etc.	Fresh-squeezed lemonade or limeade	You don't have to worry about the side-effects of the synthetic colors and flavors that are used in the processed products.
Microwave butter-flavor popcorn	Air popped popcorn with real butter	Why accept a chemical substitute when an air popper takes only 2 to 3 minutes and can melt your butter at the same time? This is my machine.
Table sugar	Honey, maple syrup	Honey gives my Vanilla & Honey Milk a depth it never had before when it was just plain ol' vanilla milk made with table sugar.
Flavored yogurt	Plain (organic) yogurt with honey and berries	Make your own flavored yogurts using frozen berries and a drizzle of honey. It's quick and delicious.
All-purpose (plain, refined) flour	Whole-wheat flour	I can personally attest that chocolate chip cookies, pancakes, and pizza crust made with 100% whole wheat flour are just as delicious as those made with refined white flour.
Margarine, butter spread, butter-flavored shortening	Organic real butter	Fake products are a waste of money when the real thing tastes better and is better for you.
Pancake syrup	Pure maple syrup	It does cost more, but the flavor is so much better and you need so much less for the same taste impact.
White bread	Whole-wheat bread	Find a bread (or make your own) with minimal added ingredients. Some bread-makers add lots of extras to make whole-wheat bread more acceptable to people used to refined white bread, but I think the breads with the least added ingredients actually tastes better.
White rice	Brown rice, wild rice

Section : Natural Food Articles

Real Food Is...: Guide to choosing and eating real food
Natural Food Diet: Why your diet should contain natural foods
Convenient Natural Food: Natural convenience foods—not an oxymoron

Resources

Organic Gardening Magic

Growing your own organic garden is one way to insure you have the safest, freshest fruit and vegetable produce around. This book can help you start your own organic garden so you can harvest your own natural food.

Book Highlights

What Organic Gardening is and how to get started!
The Do's (and Don'ts!) of Making your Own Compost!
What you should never add to your compost or risk poisoning yourself and your family!
The Secrets of Crop Rotation and Companion Planting!
A Simple Yet Hardly Used Trick to Bring Your Fall Tomato Plants Indoors!
Why You Should Consider Raising Your Own Transplants
How To Build Healthy Soil (Even If You Are Working With Very Unhealthy Soil To Begin With)
Why soil pH is important, and how to correct it!
How to Recognize Your Friends and Your Enemies When It Comes To Insects!
Grow More Vegetables in Less Space Than You Thought Possible
Why Pesticide Use Became Prevalent In The First Place!
Simple Steps to Grow Your Own Organic Lettuce for mouthwatering healthy salads!
What is Green Manure and Should You Use It?
Are There Any Benefits Of Using Pesticides At All?
The Magic Mulch That Kills Diseases and Stops Weeds!
The Four Important Aspects Of Organic Gardening According to the USDA
Grow Organically Indoors!

Check out Organic Gardening Magic

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan is only one of the many books I've read or listened to about eating natural food. The book discuss most of the principles I've incorporated into my lifestyle and of which I talk about on A Natural Food Diet. This book is a must read for anyone who worries about what the culture of nutritionism and the food industry's special interest groups are doing to our food supply.

Buy : audio book | paperback | ebook

About A Natural Food Diet

I'm Lynn, the webmaster of A Natural Food Diet. I had the idea for this site when I realized how few people understood how dangerous our typical American diet is. For years, I have struggled to lose weight. After having children and making changes to my diet that seemed "healthy" at the time, I had gained over 50 pounds. I could never understand why I was gaining so much weight and why I was having such a hard time losing it, because until then, when I was about 25, I had never been overweight.

Slowly, as I researched different issues I was having with diet and health, I discovered the dangers of sugar. I had an allergic reaction to Sucralose. I began to associate a headache with hunger instead of an empty stomach. And after a "good" meal, I often felt light-headed. I worried that I was on the path to diabetes. Then, one day, I came across a book that changed my perspective forever.

Two months into the new natural food diet I had begun, I realized I had to share this information with other people. We have a right to live a truly healthy and natural life, and the profit potential of food products should never be allowed to come between us and our good health... Learn more...