What does a flavor-honest diet mean? What do flavor-honest meals look like? This page contains photographic examples of flavor-honest meals and offers an illustrated guide for those who are new to this way of eating.
You have probably found this page after reading Foods That Lie, or hearing from someone who has. This book presents a new explanation for the obesity epidemic – centered around deception in the food supply. Foods That Lie outlines how to stop overeating and rapidly initiate normal eating patterns, allowing you to consume a normal, nourishing diet, gradually returning to a healthy weight with only a short dose of concerted effort.
TABLE OF CONTENTS: What is flavor-honest food? | The benefits of eating flavor-honest | Which foods are flavor-honest? | How to begin a flavor-honest diet | Breakfast ideas | Lunch ideas | Dinner ideas | Flavor-honest snacks | Desserts, party foods + treats | Cookbooks + other resources
A definition: what is flavor-honest food?
Flavor-honest food is food that tastes like it should – just as nature intended.
Food manufacturers commonly disguise unpleasant tastes, magnify pleasant flavors, and apply flavors where they do not belong. This muddling of flavor signals disrupts the learned relationships between flavor and nutrition so it is difficult for the body to predict when and where nutrition will be found. Food manufacturers also add many other chemicals – such as preservatives – which further confuse existing flavor-nutrition relationships.
Because these flavor-manipulation strategies are varied and widespread (involving thousands of different additives), a simple rule of thumb is that genuine, flavor-honest food contains no isolated chemicals.
All refined and isolated chemical additives can create intermittent reinforcement. Using isolated chemicals confuses flavor-nutrition relationships and misleads sensory receptors about what is entering the body. – Libby Marama Grace, Foods That Lie (2024)
Whole foods vs flavor-honest foods
What is the difference between whole foods and flavor-honest foods? Some assume that flavor-honest is just another way of saying ‘whole foods,’ but this is not necessarily the case. Although most whole foods are flavor-honest, not all processed foods are deceptive. Traditional processing methods, such as chopping, peeling, squeezing, grinding, cooking, and so on, do not mislead the sensory receptors and can still create reliable flavor-nutrition relationships. In other words, grinding wheat to make flour does not suddenly change the substance from genuine to deceptive. It is the isolating of substances into their individual molecular building blocks and then applying these chemicals in new locations that disrupts the learned relationships between flavor and nutrition.
The benefits of eating flavor-honest food
Flavor manipulation creates intermittent reinforcement, whereby nutritional rewards arrive in random patterns, similar to a slot machine, driving overeating. Returning to a flavor-honest diet (as humans have eaten for millennia) immediately restores reliable flavor-nutrition relationships, rebooting hunger and satiety levels to normal.
One of the most common reasons why people embrace a flavor-honest diet is that it normalizes eating patterns and helps to rapidly extinguish binge eating, leading to the return of a healthy weight. It not only nourishes and heals the body but leaves you satisfied, full, and content after meals, eliminating food-related obsession. This is just one of many wonderful reasons why eating flavor-honest is enjoyable – and unlike any other dietary approach you have tried.
Which foods are flavor-honest?
This way of eating embraces every single genuine food on Earth. There is hence no printable flavor-honest food list because it does not exclude any food group or type of food – only those items that pretend to be something they are not.
It may help to think of this as the best of a vegan diet and carnivore diet thrown together – a flexible whole food extravaganza, but without obsessive concern about basic processing, such as peeling, chopping, squeezing, scraping, polishing, or grinding. – Libby Marama Grace, Foods That Lie (2024)
This way of eating includes:
A wide range of fruit
In addition to fresh fruits, this also includes freshly squeezed juices and dried fruits like dates, raisins, and sultanas (as long as these do not have added sweeteners or preservatives). It also includes very sweet and high-carb fruits like grapes and bananas. Eat these liberally to appetite, and aim to source local, seasonal fruit where possible.
A wide range of fresh vegetables
Eat a wide range of fresh vegetables, including starchy and high-carbohydrate vegetables like potatoes and kumara (sweet potato). Do not fear oxalates or antinutrients – just eat to appetite of these foods as flavor preferences desire. However, make sure that you do not force down any vegetables simply because you believe they are ‘healthy’ – eat only those vegetables you genuinely believe taste good. (For example, do not also consume copious spinach smoothies in the name of health – eat as your appetite dictates.)
Animal products, dairy, and saturated fat
Consume a wide range of fresh animal foods (meat, eggs, fish – full fat, with skin). Fresh, grass-fed meat, shellfish, and fresh fish are ideal. Eat lots of animal fats, cheeses, full-fat milk, and cream. Do not worry about calories. The aim is to maximize nourishment, so that you feel satisfied and full and your body thrives.
Grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes
Do not fear the oxalates and antinutrients in grains, nuts, seeds and legumes. Soaking legumes before cooking helps to deactivate these, and consuming nuts with dairy (such as within muesli with milk) also helps. Your body will naturally gravitate toward combinations that provide the nutrition you need to heal. These things also look beautiful in your pantry! 😊
Flavor-honest sauces, condiments, herbs, spices, and dressings
Traditional herbs and spices contain hundreds of natural compounds with nutritional and medicinal benefits, including antimicrobial properties. Whereas herbs and spices are entire pieces of plants, commercial flavoring strategies rely on isolated chemicals to manipulate flavor. Traditional herbs, spices, as well as other seasonings, such as unrefined salt, aren’t just flavoring agents – they’re whole foods that provide real nutritional benefits.
Where to buy flavor-honest foods
When you are ready to initiate a flavor-honest way of eating, prepare by stocking your home with beautiful, nourishing foods. Visit a fruit shop, butcher, organic store, whole food shop – wherever you wish – and fill your kitchen with a spectacular array of nourishing items. Celebrate bringing these wonderful, life-sustaining foods into your home. 😊
(If you are wondering how to eat flavor-honest food on a budget, do not fear. When I began this way of eating, I was a single mother with very limited funds. It is certainly possible: bulk packs of beef mince, sacks of potatoes, fresh vegetables, and fruit…not to mention the endless savings in increased energy and productivity.)
How to begin a flavor-honest diet
In concept, it is very simple. Eat as high nourishment as you can, three times a day, until full and completely satisfied. At each meal, fill your plate with the most delicious, nourishing, flavor-honest foods you can find: fresh fruit, vegetables, berries, tubers, meats, fish, dairy, legumes, nuts, and so on – seasoned with herbs, spices, salt, lemon juice, etc. Drink water, whole milk, freshly squeezed juices, or homemade bone broth – whatever you desire.
Eat foods that you like until full. Not 80% full, almost full, or ‘maybe-I’m-full-perhaps-I’ll-stop-and-see-in-20-minutes’ full, but until you have no desire at all left to eat. Aim for well-balanced, nourishing meals.
There is no fixed 7-day flavor-honest diet plan nor a meticulous flavor-honest shopping list saying eat this or that. The whole point of this approach is to let your body naturally direct food intake naturally – not to abide by a rigid pre-determined schedule. Every individual requires different nutrients in different quantities at different times. A flavor-honest lifestyle aims to return your dietary patterns to the way nature intended.
It is also worth noting that if you have weight loss goals, a flavor-honest diet for weight loss is no different than any ordinary flavor-honest diet. Eating flavor-honest foods inherently leads to the return of health. No special endeavors are needed.
Flavor-honest breakfast ideas
Here, I have included examples of flavor-honest meals I have consumed over the years to illustrate how simple and delicious this way of eating can be. I may also expand this section at a later date to include easy flavor-honest recipes for those who are struggling for ideas!
Please note: I am not a chef. I am an ordinary mother, with little time to expend making exotic dishes. My go-to cooking technique essentially involves throwing everything on a plate. 😊 Also, bear in mind that during the week, I usually have the same thing over and over again for breakfast – often a homemade flavor-honest granola / muesli type mixture made from dried dates, currants, nuts, seeds, and milk (only in the weekend do I make more exciting things like pancakes)! I have attempted to include a range of different flavor-honest breakfast options here, but really, the best flavor-honest breakfast is one you like.
Flavor-honest lunch ideas
When I work from home, lunch usually involves leftovers from dinner thrown onto a plate alongside freshly chopped vegetables and fruit. Now that I leave for work early in the morning, I often have a huge breakfast and then pack the simplest, easy flavor-honest lunch possible, such as boiled eggs, leftover meat, and whole fresh fruit.
I have included some images of the packed lunches I’ve made for my children below, so you can see that it is more than possible for the whole family to follow this way of eating. It is also possible to make flavor-honest sandwiches using spreads such as raw honey and peanut butter made from only peanuts and salt.
Flavor-honest dinner ideas
When contemplating what to make for dinner, no special considerations are necessary. Any meal can be converted into a delicious flavor-honest recipe with little effort. I tend to favor quick flavor-honest dinners wherever possible, such as roasts, slow-cooker meals, pot roasts as main dishes, alongside salads, chopped veggies, fruit as side dishes, etc. The photographs below illustrate simple and easy flavor-honest meals suitable for beginners to home cooking (as well as busy people like me 😊).
Flavor-honest snacks
With this way of eating, you are likely to be so satisfied and full at meals that snacking endlessly is not necessary. However, if you are starving between meals – to the point that you cannot concentrate on anything else – have something nourishing to eat.
Flavor-honest desserts, party foods, and treats
Treats are special foods – often those which take longer than usual to prepare or are too expensive to justify for ordinary fare.
Any ordinary recipe can be easily converted to a flavor-honest recipe. After all, it is the flavor-honest recipe that was the original, genuine version – it is only the modern forms of deception that have complicated what was once straightforward. For example, honey or coconut sugar can be used in place of refined sugar in baking to make flavor-honest cupcakes, muffins, cookies, and so on. Homemade banana cake can be topped with lashings of freshly whipped cream and berries and drizzled with raw honey or maple syrup to create a beautiful and delicious flavor-honest birthday cake.
Flavor-honest cookbooks and other resources
Flavor-honest cooking is not difficult. After all, it is cooking as it was meant to be. Many existing cookbooks can be useful for generating ideas for easy flavor-honest meals. I tend not to use recipe books anymore and just invent everything; however, due to popular request, I will test some out and add a collection of my best flavor-honest recipe books here soon. If you have any recommendations, please let me know! 😊