At the beginning of this journey I ranted about the cost of fresh food over processed food. Here I am a little over a month into this journey and I am still appalled at the high cost of Fresh, Unfettered, food! I still boggles my mind why fresh food that is taken to a factory, processed, filled with chemicals and canned cost WAY less then the food that is picked and sent to market. Take Green Beans for instance.... A 14 oz can of Green Beans costs .99 while you pay 2.99 a pound for fresh ones. So the green beans in a can are taking to a factory, washed, cut, "preserved" with salt and processed into cans, labeled and shipped to the store for .99 a can. FRESH picked green beans that are picked washed and sent to market cost $2.99 a pound. So for the same 14oz of beans fresh you are paying $2.67. How is that?
During my journey to healthfulness I have began to read more and more labels on the food that allow my family to consume. It is scary how many chemicals the food companies are feeding the american population with out us ever really paying attention. Are we willing to sacrifice convenience for our health? Have we been bamboozled by the food companies and the FDA? Are we really that busy? It is time for America to wake up and start demanding healthful foods. I read an article today about a small raw food company that is being forced to destroy food cause the FDA deemed it unsafe even though the food has not been actually tested for pathogens. Family Farm Ordered to Destroy Food I am not a huge believer in conspiracies. But I do believe that we, the american public, have been led down the path about the safeness of the foods we are consuming.
I am not a doctor( and I don't play on TV) but I do know this, I can see a difference in the attitudes and moods of my family and myself. The less chemicals, sugar and garbage that we eat the happier and more energetic we become. Just removing sugar, HFC and chemical artificial sweeteners from our diet has almost completely eliminated tantrums from our lives. The nightly nightmares that Sofia has had for 6 months have quit, she has no more stomach problems and is finally sleeping through the night almost every night. We all seem more alert and able to focus on the things we do. We have more energy and are able to get more done in a day.
Lately I have seen many commercials about the "safeness and healthfulness" of High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFC), which they are now calling "corn sugar". Yet there are studies out there that show that is very unsafe and not healthy. Why do we allow ourselves to be lead down the primrose path with these commercials? Drug companies, food companies, politicians have all figured out that the american public is gullible enough to believe the TV ads that they see during the thousands of hours of television that we watch. Have you watched Kids TV lately? They are bombarded with ad after ad for sugary cereals, candy, sugared beverages, and toys. Our young minds are being filled with the idea that these foods are healthy to eat. Is it any wonder that the obesity in this country is off the chart?
How do we, the american public, turn this around? Buying organic food is good but the cost is so high that during these tough economic times it is very difficult to do. Even if you buy fresh over processed it is expensive. Some how we have to reverse this and make it economical to buy fresh unprocessed foods. Each and everyone of us is capable of doing something. Everyone is capable of growing fresh fruit and veggies. Even if you don't have a plot of land. Even if you are living in an apartment. Almost all veggies and some fruits can be grown in pots, even bags of potting soil that you cut holes in and plant. It is sustainable, healthy and chemical free. If you have a small yard you can have a garden using the acclaimed square foot gardening method .
When I was growing up my mother was an avid gardener, canner, freezer, and all around homemaker. It was a lot of work and she managed to do it even when she was working full time. She made her own bread, jams, tomato sauce, and anything else you can imagine. When grandma was alive we got fresh milk and eggs. We grew up drinking raw milk and eating fresh churned butter. As a kid I used hate it. I swore that I would never do that when I was older... and for a long time I did not. I, like most people, lived on the convenience of the supermarket. I believe that the prepared foods that we have eaten for many years have led to my being overweight, among other things.
In the last month I have found myself moving away from the processed foods and to more healthy fresh foods; Growing, making and otherwise removing the chemicals from our diet. One day not too long ago I picked up a jar of mayo to read the label, WOW there are so many additives in store bought mayo that it will make your head spin. Mayo should really only be simple ingredients, eggs, oil, lemon juice and seasonings. It does need chemicals or sugar to make it. So why do they add all the crap to it? To increase the shelf life. Well I can make it at home and make it healthy. What about sausage? I was at the store looking for some sausage to buy. Did you know that almost all sausage has sugar and/or corn syrup added to it? I mean seriously why? It takes 5 minutes to grind up your own fresh pork and add a few seasonings to make sausage.
I think that if we all do a little to help change the food supply that we can make a huge difference for generations to come. I believe that if we start removing sugar, HFC, chemicals and preservatives from our national diet that we will see a drastic reduction in the murders, suicides and hate that have plagued this country for the last 40 years. It is time we stand up and demand that we have access to foods free of chemicals that is reasonably priced.
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