Not until having kids, that is. Suddenly what I put into their bodies takes on much more significance. Um, let me just add, though, that this does not mean that we haven't visited the Golden Arches with enough regularity that when my son alights his gaze upon said arched trademarked signage he yells, "nuggets!" from the back seat. Just sayin', we're on no pedestal here.
NOW, with the advent of the "everything you thought you knew about nutrition is wrong" coinciding with the "food as nutrients, not nourishment or enjoyment" clashing with food insanity like, KFC putting the pink ribbon on their buckets of chicken! (To quote Chris Rock here for a moment - "If you DON'T want to get fat, DON'T eat out of a bucket!" Sage words, Chris, sage words) It is no wonder America is overweight and so many people are miserable and unhealthy. Suddenly the simplicity of food, preparing it, serving it to your family and eating it is challenged by a thousand choices. Choice is good right? Is anyone else overwhelmed when they go to the grocery store? You've got to watch out that your bread is high fructose corn syrup free and that your milk isn't from cows treated with growth hormones and that the thin skinned fruits are organic and that your oatmeal will lower cholesterol! AUGH. Then there are the "healthy potato chips" and butter substitutes battling it out with margarine and then lowly old real butter saying, "hey remember me? I wasn't prepared in a laboratory!".
For our family, the obsession really began when we moved to Madison, Wisconsin. And it was here that I first gave a cold, hard look at the term "food science". Look it up, that is one scary concept. Food is no longer content to be something you put in your mouth that satiates you, but it is dissected into the sum of it's parts, broken down into what is best utilized by your body (as determined by the leading researchers at the time, because, as we all know, this has changed about 50 times since the notion of "food science" began). Here in Wisconsin, there is an abundance of local, farm grown foods, both organic and not, and easy accessibility to a variety of whole foods (read, not or minimally processed) one can obtain. In fact, I've only been to a "regular" grocery store twice in the 10 months we've lived here. I tend to shop at either the local market a block away (when I need something quick) and I go to the Co-Op. And to be honest, my grocery bill has gone DOWN. (In the spirit of full disclosure here, I have gone to Super Target on occasion and bought food, but usually just to buy specific items that are not available at the aforementioned places, and plus, I just like Target, okay?). I'm definitely not trying to be "look at me, look at me, I'm so eco-friendly", I'm just saying, I go to the closest place to my house (the Co-Op), they have lots and lots of local items you can buy (hey, who doesn't want to help the local guy, right? Keeps the money in town, all good things!) and I've actually started to enjoy cooking! Prior to this in my old life, I was very, "Open can, add meat to sauce, pour over rice/noodle, etc". Now, I tend to make my own sauces. Not that I'm this bastion of time or anything, I DO have two small children, but I have found with a bit of planning I can generally get a simple, nourishing and tasty meal on our table with about the same effort as if I had gone the pre-made route.
Mmmmm beets.
Where is this avoidance of pre-made delights stemming from? Well, partially from the easy access and deliciousness of all the local ingredients available to me, and also partly from learning more and more about just how corporate food and food science has become. And not good corporate. Like, stealing the souls of the farmers corporate. Like, raping the land by forcing corn and soybeans corporate. Michael Pollan and his books Food Rules, In Defense of Food, and The Omnivore's Dilemma, really opened this up for me. Food Rules, specifically is SO easy and makes so much sense, and yet, I was barely making an effort to even notice how my grocery choices were not only affecting the health of my family, but also the planet. As I began to become more aware of the choices I make at the grocery store, I also became more thoughtful about how our food choices might have been playing a larger and more silent role in our health. On some parenting forums I became introduced to the Feingold Diet Program. And not that we follow this, but it was certainly thought provoking enough for me to think, "well, heck, maybe 'red lake #20' could have an affect on my kid's brain, behavior, growth, etc.". Just as I am a huge supporter of breastfeeding infants because I believe that human breast milk is superior to any other infant food, why wouldn't I continue to give my family what I consider to be the best I can? Of course this doesn't mean I am churning my own butter here (remember, I did say we hit the drive through from time to time), but I think I have become a lot more conscious of how what we eat affects our lives. Isn't it possible to imagine that with the evolution as food as a science, and foods with all sorts of health claims, and ingredient lists the length of my Master's Thesis for something as simple as pesto sauce, that we might be causing the increase of allergies, diseases, behavior problems and even some psychiatric issues? Trust me, I am not making any claims here, I know nothing, but it kind of seems like the more complicated our lives get and the more we mess with things that turns out were just fine to begin with (hello, butter!?) that we might be causing more problems instead of fixing anything? I mean, for example, can't nuts just be nuts? Since when did nuts become the unknown soldiers against heart disease?
I'm clearly not the first person to question this, WAY far from it. Do a quick google search and you'll see that there are lots of people wondering why we have to mess with everything. Of course, the obvious answer is corporations make big bucks selling you a bucket of chicken with a pink ribbon on it telling you that they'll give some of the cash from that purchase to support breast cancer, and that oats with cholesterol fighting claims and cookies that are low fat (but crazy high in sugar) and this oil and that blend and all the added nutrients (like fish oil) to things like bread, just makes you think. What if you just got those nutrients from eating the thing that they come in naturally? And it's probably cheaper! Buy a carrot rich in vitamin A instead of buying something enriched with vitamin A. Right?
Oh, heck. I don't know. All I know is that it makes sense to me to scale it back a little. I like the way my refrigerator looks with greens poking out of the veggie crisper and cheese with simple black and white labels instead of some brightly colored mass marketed eye catcher. I realize that not everyone has a vast array of locally produced and reasonably priced organic foods (but wait! WalMart *gasp* is actually become a forerunner of available and affordable organic foods. My icy heart towards WalMart is beginning to thaw a bit...). I know that when we move back to Florida this summer, it will be harder to locate the vast array of local goodies that have spoiled me this past year (which, I know, sounds ironic, helloooo prolonged growing season, but this is my third time moving back to the big peninsula folks, I know of which I speak). BUT, you can find some things and support your local farmers (because farms are everywhere peeps- and I plan on finding ours!). Find some place near you where you can at least get some local eggs or meat or something by going to Local Harvest and putting in your zip code. It could be a fun place to take the kiddos and you'd be doing something good for your community as well as your family.
No comments:
Post a Comment