Challenge to eat unprocessed food during the month of October

Is anyone else taking this challenge to eat unprocessed food during the month of October? Here is link that further describes October Unprocessed

https://eatingrules.com/october-unprocessed/

Bump

Haven't heard of it but there's no time like the present. I definitely focus on whole foods and eat less processed stuff but what kills me is my post lunch need for crunch—(corn tortillas or GF Crackers.)

That said, I'll do my best!

I don't think I eat anything that I couldn't, or wouldn't, make in my own kitchen. Pretty loose definition of "unprocessed" but certainly makes it much easier to follow.

ETA: I love to cook and will take inordinate amount of time to make something I want to cook...

A great and relatively easy thing for folks to try out. If at first you don't succeed... it still won't hurt that you tried!

I had planned to, but realize I am wholly unprepared depending on how strictly I want to follow the rules.

I know the feeling. I just realized that I left the house without taking the banana and orange that I was planning to have as my unprocessed snacks today.

carolanne said:
I had planned to, but realize I am wholly unprepared depending on how strictly I want to follow the rules.

Challenge to eat unprocessed food during the month of October

ONLY unprocessed food? Seems yucky but...challenge accepted.

shh said:
Haven't heard of it but there's no time like the present. I definitely focus on whole foods and eat less processed stuff but what kills me is my post lunch need for crunch—(corn tortillas or GF Crackers.)
That said, I'll do my best!

How about popcorn (not the microwaved kind)?

RobB said:
Challenge to eat unprocessed food during the month of October
ONLY unprocessed food? Seems yucky but...challenge accepted.

The definition from the website. It's pretty broad:

Unprocessed food is any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with whole-food ingredients.

project37 said:

shh said:
Haven't heard of it but there's no time like the present. I definitely focus on whole foods and eat less processed stuff but what kills me is my post lunch need for crunch—(corn tortillas or GF Crackers.)
That said, I'll do my best!

How about popcorn (not the microwaved kind)?

Possibility. Corn in and of itself is not the greatest thing. Maybe I'll try nuts instead. (I'll probably gain 5 lbs.

I think they mean "minimally processed," not "unprocessed." Bob's Red Mill is helping to sponsor this, and just about all products coming from a mill, even whole grain ones, are processed.

Okay, 'minimally processed' I could go with...

I'm out (meant to post this at 12:30)

No way could I do this in an official way (too many rules to be realistic for me) but I did a massive grocery run today and was proud to notice that none of it was processed food. So I am trying to follow the intentions of the concept without participating in a formal "challenge."

I love a challenge, so for me this is great. I was going to say nothing with flour, but forgot bobs is a sponsor.

I like thateveryone can decide for themselves how define "unprocessed" for this challenge. Perfection is not required. The link below provides a more detailed description of how the founder of the challenge thinks about what is considered unprocessed food:

https://eatingrules.com/the-kitchen-test/

So, if I can cook fried chicken, grill a porterhouse, or whip up a chocolate cake in my kitchen, I meet the guidelines? (Using whole flour of course).... Do I have that right?

Nope, no cake. Flour is processed. Even whole wheat flower, unless you are chewing straight unmilled grains with the chaff still on. Steel cut oatmeal is processed. Milk is processed unless you buy it raw. Cheese is processed, even when made from raw milk. Olive oil is processed. These things are minimally processed, but not unprocessed.

Eating mostly unprocessed foods and minimally processed foods is a healthy and achievable goal. Eating all unprocessed foods will leave you eating mostly straight fruits and veggies (no salad dressing, etc), nuts, and meat.

I think they would have been better off saying people should eat simple foods for a month. Much more accurate.

But, but, but they said anything a cook could prepare in their own kitchen SO it's off to TigerLilly's for that chocolate cake...

This is a noble idea but honestly so difficult for so many people to do it perfectly--to the point where I imagine it's too overwhelming to even try. It's too overwhelming for me to try, and we eat pretty simple foods around here. I feel like more people would get on this bandwagon if it wasn't so all or nothing. Like, first week of October, let's do an unprocessed breakfast! Get that under your belt for a week. Then try unprocessed lunches the second week. Snacks the third week. Dinners the fourth week. Slowly get used to any increased prep work, slowly cut out the extra sugar/sodium/what-have-you in your diet. You probably won't get that terrible sugar withdrawal headache if you do it slowly and manageably.

But slow and steady wins the race doesn't drive traffic to a sponsored website, I guess.

TigerLilly said:
So, if I can cook fried chicken, grill a porterhouse, or whip up a chocolate cake in my kitchen, I meet the guidelines? (Using whole flour of course).... Do I have that right?

According to the official rules posted. Means you can eat "boughten" bread too.

I realized I cheated today by having a glass of wine. I wouldn't try that at home...

Edited to fix typo

If you read through the website, the founder is supportive of taking baby steps if needed. I know that I won't be 100% perfect. My goal is to just make an honest try at reducing my consumption of processed food by as much as possible this month. Hopefully, it will become a habit by November. Good luck to everyone that is giving this a try!

afa said:
This is a noble idea but honestly so difficult for so many people to do it perfectly--to the point where I imagine it's too overwhelming to even try. It's too overwhelming for me to try, and we eat pretty simple foods around here. I feel like more people would get on this bandwagon if it wasn't so all or nothing. Like, first week of October, let's do an unprocessed breakfast! Get that under your belt for a week. Then try unprocessed lunches the second week. Snacks the third week. Dinners the fourth week. Slowly get used to any increased prep work, slowly cut out the extra sugar/sodium/what-have-you in your diet. You probably won't get that terrible sugar withdrawal headache if you do it slowly and manageably.


But slow and steady wins the race doesn't drive traffic to a sponsored website, I guess.

Agree 100%! I eat really well already but it's a good opportunity to nix the afternoon tortilla chips and have an apple or nuts instead.