Brace yourself…I’m about to make a bold statement: I believe that there is ONE thing you can do to dramatically improve your life, not just your health or your weight, but your whole life.

Any ideas what this one thing might be? If you’ve read any of my other posts, you might have a pretty good guess, but here it is…eat real food!

Over the past five years, I have become so passionate about this topic because I have experienced first hand how many changes can be made by eating real food, and I have also seen the impact it has made on so many other people’s lives as well.

So to show you how eating real food can impact your whole life, I created a list of some of the benefits of eating real food. Then I divided up that list into 3 categories of benefits: physical, emotional, and spiritual.

(To make sure we’re on the same page, I believe the term “spiritual” can refer to an individual’s religious beliefs. In the context of health, though, I think it also includes our search for meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in our lives.)

The benefits described below are ones that many people have found after switching to eating real food and may be possible for you as well. While no guarantees can be made as to which exact benefits you will discover, this list gives you a great idea of what may be possible!

Physical Benefits of Eating Real Food

• Hair and nails become stronger and look healthier.
• Acne and other skin conditions improve.
• Your body naturally gravitates towards your ideal body weight.
• Risk of disease and cancer is reduced.
• You know exactly what you are eating. You know those long, unfamiliar, chemical-sounding words found on food labels? Well, most of them definitely don’t nourish our bodies or keep us healthy because our bodies weren’t actually meant to ingest those.
• You actually consume all (or at least the vast majority) of the health promoting vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants found naturally in the food you eat because they’re not lost during processing.
• Immune system becomes stronger, often resulting in fewer bouts of colds and the flu.
• Blood sugar stabilizes…no more feeling shaky, sick, and irritable because it’s been too long since your last meal.
• Feel good after you eat. You know that heavy, bloated, I just ate-way-too-much feeling you get after eating a heavy meal? Well that feeling can be gone forever and replaced with a feeling of satisfaction and increased energy after eating.
• Taste buds change and become more sensitive to sweet, salty, sour, and bitter flavors. Therefore, foods don’t need to be filled with as much sugar or salt in order to enjoy them.
• Energy levels increase.
• Improved sleep and feeling more refreshed in the morning.
• Improved regularity of bowel movements.
• Fewer symptoms such as headaches, joint pain, and brain fog.

Emotional Benefits of Eating Real Food

• Freedom from food…food cravings dramatically decrease. After avoiding processed food for a couple weeks, cravings for specific foods tend to disappear. What this ultimately leads to is a feeling of freedom from food. For anyone who has ever felt trapped and tied down because of their relationship with food, you know just how wonderful it would be to experience this kind of freedom!
• Emotions and mood can improve and become more stable.
• Simplicity! No more counting calories, or fat, or carbs, or anything else in order to lose weight. It’s less complicated, which means it’s also less stressful.
• Self-confidence improves as you truly feel better about yourself on the inside and out.

Spiritual Benefits

• As we begin to feel better about ourselves, we are free to genuinely care about others and to focus on the needs of other people in our lives. This can dramatically improve the relationships in our lives, our sense of peace, and of satisfaction with our lives.
• As your physical and emotional states improve, you become ready to conquer the world! You have the energy and passion to live out whatever your unique purpose is in life and to make the most out of your gifts and abilities. This is what life is all about and, in my opinion, the best reason of all to eat real food!

My Conclusion

I can’t promise you that you’ll achieve all of these exact benefits if you change the way you eat. One or two of these may not be true for you personally, but you may also find other amazing benefits that aren’t even listed here because this list is only the beginning.

My point is that while there are no guarantees to the exact benefits you’ll achieve, I truly see no drawbacks to changing the way you eat.

I can only begin to imagine the benefits you may find if you decide to make the switch to eating real food (if you haven’t already done so)! It makes me excited to imagine the possibilities of a world filled with healthier people, happier people, and people who are more passionate about their purpose in life.

And it doesn’t matter where you’re at today…your age, your current health status, whether or not you’ve tried eating real food before, you can always give it a try at anytime.

Do you want to know exactly which foods to eat and which ones to avoid to start achieving all of these benefits for yourself? If so, I have created a one page chart for you to use as a resource.  Click here to download the Eat Real Foods graphic. You can also read more about eating real food in my article found here.

Let’s start taking care of this one body that we’ve been given!