Wednesday, February 08, 2012
The Lunchman Cometh
I worked at a company many years ago where a Meals On Wheels lunch vehicle pulled into the parking lot each day at around noon. The driver would sound his horn, and the employees would cease working and make for the truck as if someone had shouted the words "free money." ...
I love how you write about shopping for food...it sounds like more of an adventure than a chore. I absolutely love Farmer's Markets...it is good for one's mood...all the colors and smells and possibilities for good cooking.
We began to really read ingredients when my youngest son was found to have multiple food allergies and sensitivities. He can't have peanuts, gluten, and dairy for example. Nowadays it is easier to figure things out as the ingredients and especially those known to cause allergies are usually specified in bold. But where it gets hard is when there is danger of cross-contamination of product lines. I get so excited when I find foods that don't have any allergy causing ingredients.
Do you have a Whole Foods near you? We really like this store for specialty foods, vitamins, and supplements.
The only thing is...eating healthy can be expensive. But you have shown us some ways to be frugal in addition to eating well.
Great post! You have inspired me once again.
MM
Good morning Merely Me!
Ugh, when I think about the things that I used to eat when I was 100lbs overweight, well it just makes me cringe.
In the more recent years since I had my obesity surgery, I have become educated on healthy eating. It was extremely eye-opening, even shocking, for me to learn where my food really came from and its effects on my health and my life. Documentary films such as "The Future of Food" and "Food Inc." set me on this path of enlightenment.
I do have Whole Foods near me but I prefer Trader Joe's and Wegman's as far as supermarkets go. Their prices seem better, and they do have a good selection of healthy foods from which to choose.
You are right about healthy foods costing more. Quality always costs more, and I'd rather splurge on something as meaningful as food that nurtures my body and prevents disease rather than splurge on some meaningless goods (take your pick -- designer handbags, yet another portable electronic device, even more toys for the kids when they already have a ton). We as a society have our priorities mixed up, at least as it appears to me.
Fortunately, I have found places to purchase food that aren't ridiculous. In the summertime, I join my local CSA (community supported agriculture). This is a local farm that grows vegetables, herbs, fruit organically. I purchase a share of that yield for about $525 and every week for 26 weeks I get fresh produce grown locally and picked when ripe rather than something grown halfway around the world and picked green and ripened with ethylene gasoline. I freeze and can a lot of it, and we still haven't eaten everything from last Summer. It makes sense every way that you look at it. And it is defiantely fun to go "shopping" at the farm on a Summer Saturday morning and chat with the people who planted, grew, and harvested my food.
Here's to your good eating!
MBL
P.S. I just want to add that I wrote a sharepost on the topic of processed foods several months ago. It hope that my sharepost "How America's Obesity Epidemic Began" will motivate some people to know the truth about what's in their food and where it comes from, and then start them on a path of healthy eating.