I’m becoming slightly fanatic about food these days. I realized this as I was switching my minestrone soup from a plastic bowl into a glass bowl so I can use the glass in the microwave. It makes sense to me, but it still might be a little crazy.
Wait, there’s more.
I have decided to completely avoid trans fatty acids (hydrogenated oils), and high fructose corn syrup, and other over-processed foods. I don’t care what the agro-businesses have to say about how it’s natural, it tastes like shit!And just because something starts out as natural (although according to king corn, you can’t actually eat the corn that they use to make high-fructose corn syrup) doesn’t mean it can’t be poisonous. arsenic: natural, mercury: natural.
For a long time I have been avoiding purchasing these types of items, but I’ve taken it a step further. I am avoiding all foods that I can’t read their label or buy as a whole food and make myself. This means when my co-worker has a birthday, I will not eat the cake unless it’s homemade (not Betty Crocker), or from a bakery that I know does not use these ingredients. You do have to be careful because a lot of bakeries use high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. They’ll buy premixed cake powders. They don’t taste nearly as good.
This started a while ago when I became more interested in being healthy. I exercise just about every day and we cook at home most nights. Then I watched King Corn and it really hit me how horrible these chemicals are for the environment and my own health. The acres of corn are ruining our natural resources and stripping the ground of nutrients forever. One of the problems is that people want cheap food, but should food really be cheap? The more we use this cheap method, the worse off we will be. The same person who bargain shops their food, turns around and buys several meals out a week. Why not cook better stuff at home, and eat out only on special occasions?
Who has the time to cook at home, we say. But, who doesn’t have the time? Think about it as a time investment. 5 hours a week now buys you many, many hours that wold be spent being sick later. What are we cutting out of our lives when we cook more? A few TV programs? Will they matter in 5 years?
Other problems are that we don’t want to spend money on food and we want what we want, when we want it. Maybe we should skip the new cell phone, the new outfit, the hair cut, and spend our money on food. Agro-business is making money because we are all bargain hunting food. And they are making money because no one is noticing quality anymore. They tell us that the shiny red apple tastes good. But, they’re actually mealy and gross. We want a strawberry in December, so they make it so. But why do we want that damn pale tasteless strawberry? Is it really necessary? What do you do with it anyway that makes it so important?
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