‘Food’ is a problem. REAL FOOD is the solution. Why? Well.. just look around… it’s a mess!

Like me, you’re probably very worried about your food, your health and our planet. We probably agree that we just cannot allow present intensive and unethical industrial farming and food systems to continue to destroy the environment, disrespect animal life and undermine our own health. It must stop now.

One solution is to banish livestock farming and rely on a global plant-based diet, but is this really a solution?

In fact, science clearly tells us that this is NOT the solution. We have strong science and abundant evidence to show that restoring regenerative agriculture, as Nature intended, is the solution to end the cycle of destruction introduced and maintained by intensive, extractive farming practices and unsustainable food systems that spawn highly processed, nutrient deplete diets, unhealthy people and an unsustainable planet.

Why I wrote The Real Food Solution

“Food has the power to change our most important global issues – transforming individual, environmental, economic, societal, and global health, and everything in between.”

– Dr Mark Hyman

Real foods – and why we need them back on the table – is very much the subject of The Real Food Solution. In this book I cut through the fog of public confusion, media hype and bad science to provide a clear summary and analysis of the contemporary food issues that face us today, discussing the debate on food, farming, diets, food trends, regenerative agriculture, sustainability, food as medicine, health creation – and so much more.

Evidence-based science

Everything I have written in this treasury of food wisdom is fully referenced to evidence-based science, to encourage individuals, families and communities to make more informed, considered and better food choices for human health and for the future of our planet.

I care deeply about these issues and have dedicated Real Food Solution to the work of The Real Food Campaign UK.

“The messages in this book about what constitutes a nutrient-dense healthy diet are fully aligned with the message of the ‘campaign’ and with my own beliefs based on many years of learning about nutrition.”

– Dr Antonia Wrigley, Founder of the Real Food Campaign,

Vice-Chair and Operations Manager, British Holistic Medical Association

The Real Food Solution comprises 14 chapters of highly accessible, intensively researched content covering a wide variety of food groups, discussing why many of the foods we’ve been putting on our tables and into our bodies aren’t the deliciously wholesome, healthy traditional foods that our grandparents (and theirs) enjoyed; and why the conveniently prepared and processed food we’ve come to rely upon is not only making and keeping us sick… but is also destroying our planet.

Why we should put real foods back on the table

Once upon a time, we enjoyed the deep nutrition of meat, eggs, butter, cheese and milk from 100% grass-fed animals; bone and mineral broths; a wide variety of organic or pesticide-free fruit and vegetables; wild-caught seafood; cultured and fermented foods; herbs and spices. These were the traditional foods that kept generations of our ancestors free from the chronic diseases which plague us today and indeed, help many to reverse chronic health conditions.

In The Real Food Solution I also discuss why sugar and salt, per se are not the demons they are made out to be… but how they have become unhealthy in excesses we consume them in today’s standard western, processed diet and displace the whole, unprocessed foods carrying health- critical nutrients.

The pages of this book recount the story of why ‘Granny knew best’ and how her food wisdom is (and always has been) supported by sound science, offering an introduction to Granny’s forgotten culinary skills and enjoy delicious, nutritious modern recipes for better energy, vitality and much better health.

Each chapter contains a number of recipes many of which bring a contemporary twist to the traditional foods our grannies (and theirs) enjoyed.

Everything in the Real Food Solution is supported by hundreds of references (linked via this website) to reliable information curated from a wide variety of evidenced sources.

Who is this book for?

Everyone! Everyone who cares about where their food comes from, its impact on their own health and the health of our planet. It’s for everyone who cares about the future.

Why read this book?

“This book is an absolute must for anyone that cares about their health. Izabella eloquently explains that food isn’t just fuel for the body – food carries its own information that can be read by our cells giving the capacity to influence our microbiome, immunity, digestive systems, hormones, gut flora, inflammation i.e. our overall health.

It reveals the truth regarding foods we’ve dubiously been led to believe are healthy/unhealthy so we can make more discerning choices in favour of our health.

Absolutely packed with information, it felt as though it represented a lifetime’s work on behalf of the author. Exceptional – highly recommended.”

– Liz Keaney, Author and Transformational Coach

“It looks really good to me, and terribly useful in giving a clear summary/analysis of all the contemporary food dilemmas.”

– Joanna Blythman, prominent UK investigative food journalist &

Winner of the Food Writers’ Guild Award 2018

“The book I have been waiting to read – pore over EVERY word! An important contribution at a critical time in our history.”

– Darina Allen, leading chef and food activist &

founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School

“I don’t think I’ve read such a thorough book on health and nutrition. It really does cover every aspect of food – soil health, busting myths about meat, fats, salt and dairy, microbes of the gut, pesticides and organic farming, traditional foods and many recipes…and so much more!

You cannot come away from this book without making hugely positive changes to your lifestyle.”

– Afsha Malik, Pharmacist & Holistic Health and Movement Coach

“As a single 60-something woman, this book has really opened my eyes and made me completely rethink my diet. Since reading this book I have switched [from ready meals] to high-quality meat, organic produce and now read all labels. I have found local farm shops and butchers and have a new awareness about the most basic things we eat like bread, milk and eggs.

This book is a must for anyone who wants to become a more informed consumer and who wants to make better choices. The results can be life-changing.”

– Anne Thorn

[bctt tweet=”#Real, traditional foods – and why we need them back on our table!” username=”isabelnatrins”]

Let’s take a sneak peak into The Real Food Solution

The Welcome sets the scene for the book – how many of us face a constant battle with fatigue, overwhelm, ill health and chronic health conditions; how and why our modern food and toxic lifestyle choices are making (and keeping) us sick; and how far we have become disconnected from traditional foods, food producers and cooking methods.

Chapter 1 – Nourishing deeply for better energy, vitality and health: I explain how the myriad (and all-too-often conflicting) advice on health, lifestyle, food and nutrition is frequently founded in poor research, at best inconclusive, and at worst plain wrong and highly damaging to our bodies.

Chapter 2 – It all begins (and ends) in the soil: is a key chapter in the book, where I delved deeply into the soil to understand and explain how generations of damage to our soils are causing many of the health (and environmental) issues that we face today. I look at how microbes from the soil impact our health and immune systems and our own gut microbiome.

Chapter 4 – Meat is a treat (and offal isn’t awful): I defend meat by looking at how and why meats (e.g. beef, pork, chicken) have become ‘demonised’ and put the case for the value of offal’s pre-eminence in a nutrient-dense diet.

Chapter 8 – Keep calm and eat your fruit and veg: In this chapter I explain why our bodies need the important information carried by vitamins, macro, micro and trace minerals, dietary fibre and the role of critically important phytonutrients found in high quality, seasonal fruit and vegetables.

Chapter 6 – Give us back our daily bread: I focus on how the mass-produced, shop-bought bread-imposters are a world away from the real, nutrient-dense bread our grandparents enjoyed. I explain about the nature of the wheat we now consume and how hybridised wheat, the impact of GM farming practices and mass production has rendered much of what we call ‘bread’ nutritionally bankrupt… and for many of us, a potential health risk.

Chapter 9 – Fat: friend or foe? This chapter considers the demonization of traditional (saturated) fats and the craze toward no-fat eating, or low fat/high carb diets. I discuss why and which fats are vital to our diet and the different types of fats best for cooking.

Chapter 11 – Cultured and fermented foods: I dive into cultured and fermented foods and their role in promoting a healthy gut microbiome. I discuss the role they have played throughout history in many different societies and cultures, with a close look at pre- and pro-biotic foods, cultured dairy (such as yoghurt and labneh) and cultured vs wild ferments.

Chapter 13 – Sugar: Sugar has become Public Enemy No.1, not without but… for misplaced reasons. I consider how and why our body’s natural (and healthy) craving for sweet tastes has been high-jacked by modern food technologies and has led us away from natural and minimally processed sugars, to the use of ultra-processed and highly refined and manufactured sweeteners in food production.

Each chapter concludes with delicious recipes (over 40 in total) that showcase traditional foods with a contemporary twist (here’s a recipe for you) and offers links to a wide range of useful resources.

I wrote The Real Food Solution because I care about the quality and provenance of what we put into our mouths. I care that the food we eat can make or break our health and the health of our planet. Join me in caring too… and support the work of The Real Food Campaign.

Izabella Natrins is a whole-health expert with over 30 years’ experience in the health space. A former research psychologist, she is a qualified nutritionist and a lifestyle medicine health coach, a Ballymaloe trained nutritional chef, an educator, speaker and the founder of the health and wellness website IzabellaNatrins.Com.  Izabella is also a member of the Real Food Campaign UK Steering Group and Campaign Manager.  She is the Professional Standards and Development Director at UK Health Coaches Association and a Director of Fordhall Community Land Initiative at Fordhall Organic Farm.