In this week’s episode of The Whole Circle Podcast we talk about where to start to live additive-free.

We get asked a lot about how to start living additive-free because people can be overwhelmed at the mere thought of trying to change their lifestyle, especially when you have to think about it for not only yourself but your family as well.

We’ve covered many times in previous podcast episodes how to manage family, expectations, negative comments etc. when it comes to living additive-free, but we haven’t specifically covered EXACTLY how to start living additive-free.  So here goes…

What is your why for living additive-free?

For Jo, it was to help her daughter Eva who was going through all sorts of health and behavioural issues because of additives in food that she was eating.

For Tracey, after she had seen Jo go through the changes in her family because they were living additive-free, Tracey realised that there were also health concerns in her family that were linking back to food.

Finding your why is incredibly important.  Your why is what will sustain you through the process of shifting to living additive-free and will be your driving force to maintain it, even if people around you think it’s a load of rubbish.

Your why will also help you to know where to start in switching to additive-free.  For example, if skin issues are your why then looking at what products you are putting on your body or washing your clothes in may be your starting point.

Or maybe your children have behavioural issues and you want to clean up their diets as well as your diet to live a healthier lifestyle.

Look at what’s in your pantry and fridge

To take the overwhelm out of feeling you need to switch everything out or ditch everything all at once then try starting with one food group, ie. breakfast or dinner or snacks or packaged foods.

For example, let’s say you have Taco Tuesday every Tuesday and you cook your meat in a Mexican packet seasoning base.  Why not look at switching that packet mix to a cleaner version.  Try googling taco or Mexican seasoning additive-free and a whole bunch of recipes will come up (even ours, we have a Mexican spice mix on our website – just sayin’ ?).

Just start swapping things out one item at a time.  If you change one item per week, then after 1 year you will have made 52 changes which is awesome!

Make sure you read ingredient listings on the back of packets

Don’t go by what it says on the front of the packet, the front is designed to grab your attention and draw you into buying it straight away regardless of what the ingredients listing is.

Turn the packet over and read the ingredient panel.  If you see ingredients that just don’t make sense to you or you can’t even pronounce the ingredients or you see numbers everywhere, then put it back on the shelf and look for another brand that has ingredients that you understand.

How do you know what to buy?

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