Jen Villa

Eli O’Donohue sells vegetables from Lane Farms at the Farmers Market in Goleta.

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With the summer and autumn harvests offering us a bounty of wonderful, healthful foods, it's easier to remember what real food is.

A century ago, people ate real food because the stores weren't selling corn syrup soda and chips, power bars and vitamin water.

In the last few decades, with ever more convenient processed and fast foods being consumed in ever increasing amounts, our diets have continuously changed. The markets (not the farmers' kind) have brought us zillions of tasty products, with the help of chemical colorings and flavorings, preservatives and sweeteners. Our diets have been yanked around as we were led to believe first one thing and then another - we would be better off if we: ate less sugar (replace it with artificial sweetners ... oops, maybe not); quit eating fats (oh, but some fats are healthful and essential); took nutritional supplements (we have to replace those that were removed from our food); ate more meat; ate less meat. ...

Obesity, heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses have all been linked to our new ways of eating, and this is finally becoming evident.

Best-selling authors like Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver are illuminating this truth: what may be good for the food and diet industry, may not be the best for us. For a multitude of reasons, but even only considering human health and the planet's, returning to real food just seems like a good idea, you know, the easily identifiable stuff with few ingredients and clear origins.

Related Links

• Michael Pollen, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
• Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
• Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Additives
• Harvard School of Public Health, Fats and Cholesterol: The Bottom Line
• More Ecofacts columns

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