Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Digestion.

NO, WAIT!  Don't go away yet!  I promise this is not another probiotic post talking about that kind of digestion.  Well, there might be some digestion involved but I'm not focusing on that.  Stick with me here.

You've probably seen them on the shelf:

Food, Inc.
The Omnivore's Dilemma.
Fast Food Nation.
Supersize Me.

These books and documentaries might as well consist of just eight simple words:

If you eat it, it will kill you.

Which is why I have completely avoided reading or watching any of them.  At all.  Until now, because Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was our From Left to Write book club choice this month.  I took that as a sign it was time to finally sink my teeth into a book about the food industry and give it a go.

{see what I did there? 'sink my teeth into it?'  I'm losing my mind, friends...}

I devoured the book, for a few chapters anyways.  The information itself is great.  Some of it is alarming.  And it occurred to me that if I were going to avoid having a complete emotional breakdown-- the type that leaves me rocking in a corner paralyzed with fear to put anything in the mouths of myself and my family-- I needed to stop.  Think.  Digest the information, and then move on.

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It's slow going.  I'm only about a fourth of the way into the book.  Digesting.  The book itself is fantastic, but again, if I read it all the way through and don't pause to make changes in our eating then it will be for naught.  And I'll be in that corner, paralyzed.  Hungry.

The truth is, I know something is wrong with our food.  As a second grade teacher, I had students who were hitting puberty at seven years old.  Children with diabetes.  The rates of ADHD, allergies, asthma, and autism are through the roof-- both due to better diagnosis and also possibly environmental factors.

Since I'm so terrified to open one the many books on this issue, I've turned to my friends and respected sources for researching changes in our eating lifestyle over the past few years.  It's been eye-opening, to say the least.  Of course, I'm just a little ol' blogger, and I'd never ask you to take my word for it.  Here are five things to think about, with links to the experts:

• Honey is honey is honey.  Except, when it isn't.  Drat.

• Did you know some of the corn we eat is legally considered a pesticide?  The corn itself is a pesticide, not just the other pesticides covering it.  I'm not making this up. {video}

• Not convinced?  Maybe a child can show us why food is so darn scary nowadays. {video}

• Meat glue and pink slime.  Anyone up for a burger?

• If you give a cow (designed to eat grass) some corn, it will get sick.  To prevent it from getting sick, it's fed antibiotics.  Once fed antibiotics, the cow turns into steak or ground beef and we eat it.  Which means we are ingesting antibiotics.  Which makes our bodies immune to them.  Which allows antibiotic-resistant strains of horrible things to grow, which is so frightening I don't even want to go there.  Cows are meant to eat grass, and if done the right way, you can avoid that whole mess.

Stop rocking in the corner.  We can take baby steps together.  Going full force all-organic and grass-fed and local and seasonal just isn't practical for my family.  Plus it's expensive.  And I'd basically be reduced to hunting and gathering in my own backyard.  Instead, here's what I've done this past year to begin tweaking how we eat in a way that fits our budget and lifestyle.

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Please know I'm not judging anyone who doesn't do these things.  I'm sharing this today because I've learned so much from my friends, and I'm thankful they shared their ideas with me!

• buy raw honey, which is not only very safe and actually honey but tastes amazing. You can get this many places, but we get ours locally from The Family Cow (mentioned below).

• buy organic versions of The Dirty Dozen. We save money by purchasing conventionally grown (and cheaper) produce on The Clean 15 list.

• buy produce in season and locally at the organic farm just a few miles away from us (when you can shake the hand of your farmer, it's a good thing).  I realize not everyone has an organic farm down the street, but I bet you'll be surprised at the local and/or organic produce you can find even in the city-- including Philadelphia.

• buy our beef from The Family Cow, a farm in Lancaster PA that has drop points every other week in our area.  Their beef is grass-fed and organic and practically had a name before being butchered.  It's more expensive, but the ground beef is actually pretty reasonable.  That also keeps us from eating too much red meat, which is better for us anyways.

• make my own seasoning mixes (for things like tacos and fish) and baking more things from scratch as opposed to using mixes.  Is that time consuming?  Yes, but it tastes so much better and I can pronounce all the ingredients!  The seasonings I whip up in batches, which only takes a few minutes.  We've gotten rid of Bisquick because pancakes and waffles from scratch are almost just as easy.  I'll confess to still using cake and brownie mixes from a box but it's on my list of things to change this year.

• pop our own popcorn, NOT in the microwave.  I've blogged about this before, but I've been addicted to microwave popcorn since it first came out.  After thinking about the chemicals involved in cooking it, I started popping it in a pan or air popper.  It's amazing how good it can taste when not covered in chemicals!

• drink milk from cows not treated with artificial hormones.  That goes back to the "I taught students in 2nd grade who had their periods" thing.

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With that in mind, I have quite a long way to go.  Here are my two "baby steps" I hope to accomplish over the next few months:

• continue to reduce the number of processed food products and mixes in our house (that means freezer cooking, which will take some time and planning).

• eating tomatoes from cans is #1 on the list of things experts won't eat.  Tomatoes in glass jars or cans with BPA free lining is next on my list of things to scout out and buy, no matter how much money that will cost.

My long-term plan is to supplement this with our own vegetable garden.  I'm too busy with Noodle and Bee to do it right now, but that will change at some point.  Also, I know I need to stop buying farm raised salmon.  But the wild salmon is so darn hard to prepare, with bones and such.  I'll get around to figuring it out someday, unless someone has a good trick for me on this one.

Just a typical day on my way home from the market.  Haha! 

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Deep breath.  It's overwhelming, right?  But by digesting, we can do this.  I promise.

Have you overhauled your fridge?  Any 'biggies' I'm missing here?  Does this information surprise you, or am I the last to know about it? 

Information on the book:  Could you live an entire year eating locally or the food from your garden? Barbara Kingsolver transplanted her family from the deserts of Arizona to the mountains of Virginia for their endeavor. Join From Left to Write on February 21 as we discuss Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  As a member of From Left to Write, I received a copy of the book. All opinions are my own. 

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