“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” (Albert Einstein)
thefoodlessprocessed describes an alternative to the ultra-processed food system. Ultra-processed ingredients and foods are relatively new phenomena. Over the centuries and throughout the world culinary systems evolved which did not use them because they did not exist. None of these traditional ways of cooking and eating gave rise to the epidemic of diseases and chronic health issues that have accompanied the development of the ultra-processed food system.
We lived for a number of years in both India and China, and have more than a passing familiarity with their cuisines. Nevertheless, it is still an outsider’s knowledge.
To take full advantage of the less processed benefits of a traditional system requires a profound knowledge of its ingredients, how they combine, and the techniques for cooking them. One needs to develop an intuitive sense of the structure of eating, day in, day out, within the system.
Through background and experience our deep and most fundamental knowledge of food lies within the traditional cuisines of Europe and America. For many years our family lived in various countries in Europe, Asia and Francophone Africa where my husband was posted as a diplomat. Our first blog, diplomatickitchen.com, reflected life in those times, which included a great deal of entertaining in our home. The blog was a personal perspective on hospitality and described menus and recipes for a range of occasions.
After moving back to the United States, we began reading about ultra-processed foods. We also began to see and experience the changes they create in a society–changes in the way we eat and how we feel. thefoodlessprocessed reflects a shift in the focus of our interests in food and cooking to evolving a personal alternative for our family to the UPF system. We cannot change the food environment around us, but we can design a wholly different one for our homes.
Hopefully the results of our exploration so far illustrate a way of cooking and eating that is generous, open-handed and a source of life’s goodness. Perhaps some of the ideas presented here may be useful to you as you take your own road away from the UPF system. We wish you a wonderful and most satisfying journey.
thefoodlessprocessed 