I have heard it said that for the healthiest options, one should shop the perimeter of the store. In other words, the fresh stuff — produce, dairy, meat — that are usually located on the outside walls of the grocery. I don’t personally know of anyone who ONLY shops the perimeter. Everyone I know purchases at least some packaged food. Well, with this “real food” rule of no more than five ingredients in any packaged food, what do I buy? There are actually plenty of options.  Once I started looking at labels, I was surprised by how many products out there really do have so few ingredients. I was also surprised to find out that some products contain many more than I thought.

So, why only five? Well, I’m not sure of the magic of the number five, but the point is that the more ingredients in a product, the more processed it likely is. And our goal as it is, is to have less processing, closer to the way God made it. Often, the extra ingredients are just additives, flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers, extra fat, extra salt, extra sugar and things with excessively long chemical names that were made in a lab, not raised in a field.

I have started the list of 1, 2 and 3 ingredient products on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page. We have tried/do use 90%+ of those listed. I’m sure there are others that qualify as well. Maybe you use some that could be added..?