When was the last time you ate real food? Did you use heavy cream in your coffee this morning (or maybe you made butter coffee using my recipe)? Or did you use a “creamer”? I’ve noticed that many people don’t really think about what they put into their bodies-or they are so hungry that it doesn’t matter.

This is a huge problem, y’all. Did you know that 1 in 7 Americans are at risk of hunger, and our food banks need real food-not the frankenfood that many people reach for. But real, honest to goodness food.

Let’s talk about what real food isn’t, for a minute.

Real food doesn’t have huge lists of ingredients with names you can’t pronounce or feel the need to Google. This includes:

• Refined grains
• Refined or artificial sweeteners
• Faux seasonings
• Fast Food (most of them, anyway)
• “Farmed” food

Real Food

Real food is fairly easy to identify. Generally, it’s found in the outer aisles of your grocery store, or in the natural health section. Real food includes:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Whole grains
• Nuts and seeds
• Natural spices
• Natural sweeteners
• Grassfed or pasture raised meats
• Wild caught seafood
• Raw and minimally processed cheeses, milks, and dairy products

Now, I get that this makes real food seem complicated, but it doesn’t need to be. For many, the struggle around real food is its accessibility. Either it’s too pricey, hard to find, or its simply not the first thing that people think about.

But what if we could change that? What if we could change the way we snack, and the way our children snack? What if we could make a real difference?

Did you know that in a survey conducted by Larabar, 72% of consumers feel that packaged food is not real food. Interestingly, 90% of consumers felt that fruit qualified as real food and 78% felt that nuts qualified as real food.

Larabars come in a package, yes, but they are creating using unsweetened fruit, nuts, and spices. In fact, you can pronounce all of the ingredients in a Larabar-and there are never more than nine ingredients in any flavor.

Real Food Shouldn’t Take Hours

You could grab an apple, a bag of baby carrots, sustainably sourced granola and dried fruit, or even a Larabar. Your real food journey does not have to be difficult! In fact, it can be really simple. When you stock your kitchen with real food, that’s going to be what you reach for.

My boys have moved from complaining about to begging for oranges, apples, cherries, and (their favorite treat) blueberry muffin Larabars (I’m personally a lemon bar or apple pie kind of girl). Real food isn’t hard-but it may be a change that your family needs.

Next time you run out of the odd boxed snack, pick up healthy options at the store-look for deals! Often our local grocery will have whole foods on sale 5/$5.00 or less. It’s worth taking a trip into your natural or health aisle once in awhile.

Our pantry is full of jars of gluten free goodies, dried fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds…real food. And it’s mostly grab and go. Yes, I make muffins and hard boil eggs to keep on hand, but my children (and the husband) can feed themselves.

Make Your Own Larabars

I love to make homemade Larabars when I have time, but I always keep the packaged bars on hand for school pick ups (someone is always cranky and hungry), appointments, and basically any time I may need to hand someone a snack.

All you need to make your own are a few simple ingredients:

• Fruits
• Nuts
• Seasonings

You’ll also want to have a quality food processor handy. You can make lemon bars using my recipe.

Feeding America

In fact, when we last filled a bag for our Feeding America food bank, it was full of healthy, real foods-canned beans, rice, grains, dried fruits, freeze dried vegetables, and even a box of cherry pie Larabars.

If everyone makes even small changes in the way we vote with our food shopping dollars, likely, we’ll see more varieties of Larabars (I’m still praying for cheesecake), better quality snacks, and more sustainable real food at more reasonable prices.

I love that I can put Larabars into my blessing bags for those in need (find out how to make a blessing bag here), send them to school for snacks (usually the cashew cookie ones at Smalls request), and even feed the neighborhood kids.

I am blessed to have access to fast and easy real food, but not everyone is so lucky. You can help #sharerealfood by donating to your local Feeding America food bank, and filling a bag (or two) with real food that will nourish. Find out how to get involved in the movement: https://www.larabar.com/our-purpose

Who wants to win some Larabars?

I am excited to host a giveaway  for a variety pack of Larabar natural food bars! Entry is simple:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post is sponsored by FitFluential on behalf of Larabar.