real food: how to make sure you’re buying good olive oil

I’ve been thinking of doing a series on the blog for a while now, and today is the day we start!

This is going to be all about REAL food – or, really, how to make sure you’re actually GETTING real food at the store.

I know what you might be thinking: What am I buying at the store if it isn’t real food?

In all honesty? A LOT of things sneak into our foods and if we’re not paying attention to labels, we can find ourselves getting swindled by lots of companies.

Just one example – did you know most shredded cheeses have added flours / binders / cellulose (basically wood pulp) added to keep them from clumping? You may think you’re just getting cheese, but you’re not. And this is just the beginning. Sugar is in everything these days if it’s packaged. We’re eating way more salt than our bodies need plus lots of “ingredients” that don’t qualify as actual food. And many of these things aren’t allowed in other countries, but America is gobbling them up like swiss chocolate.

I completely understand the changes that have happened in our food system over the past 50 years – for demand and efficiency and shelf life – but that doesn’t mean I have to go along with all of them.

I’d like my cheese to just be 100% cheese and nothing else, please and thank you.

So today, to kick off the series, we’re talking about olive oil and highlighting two of our household favorites.

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http://www.branappetit.com/