Tamara Mannelly, MEd, HC, CHFS

I am a wife, a mother, a former elementary teacher and now Real Food advocate.

I am passionate about Real Food and healthy living. I find myself boring people to tears at dinner parties with talk of pastured eggs (the yolks are good for you!), benefits of pastured meat, dangers of vegetable oils…all very ‘off the wall’ stuff for the uninitiated! I get strange looks and comments like ‘you buy food from a farm?’, ‘what do you mean you ferment things?’, ‘butter is good for you?’ and I love every minute of it!

After my daughter was born in 2005, I wanted to learn more about providing a healthy diet for her and my family. I began to read about our food industry and the effects of the Standard American Diet (SAD) on our health. I was appalled at everything I read and wanted to make changes but still did not really understand how to incorporate all of this knowledge into my family’s life. It was all so confusing and overwhelming! I also had a hard time digesting some of the information as what I was reading completely contradicted everything I had learned about food growing up. It was all so hard to take in.

I slowly started to implement a few changes here and there as I shopped at the grocery…buying grass fed beef if I could find it, switching to organic milk, mostly organic fruits and vegetables, etc. Every time I learned something new, I’d try to take my journey one step further. I ordered meal plans, experimented with new (to me) vegetables and ingredients and sourced my food from buying clubs and CSA programs. I was well on my way to becoming a Real Foodie!

Thankfully, my family has been on board with the changes to our diet. My husband, a professional athlete, strongly believes “you are what you eat” and is a now a believer of “you are what you eat eats.” It has been very helpful that he already understands how important it is to nourish your body with the proper fuel. I love educating my daughter about Real Food, what it does to our bodies and why it is important to have nourishing food. I am a proud mama when she proclaims that McNuggets ‘aren’t real chicken’, eats her sautéed kale before touching the rest of her meal or asks for a glass of kombucha tea after school.