Junk Food Junkie to Health Nutty
Let’s face it people. We eat like crap. 80% of the food sold in grocery stores has little or no nutritional value.
Somewhere along the line we were fed the line that when it comes to food, availability and convenience trumps all else.
“You don’t have time to cook. Let us do it for you.” Never mind the fact that we can’t afford to be competitive AND feed you good food.
So, instead of a eating a chicken who lived a happy life hunting worms and sunning himself outside, companies have stacked them 40 high in a barn where they live their whole life in a cage that barely allows them to turn around. Where unless you are the top chicken you are getting $hit on, and you are fed chemicals to keep you from dying, because lets face it, getting $hit on your entire life, isn’t healthy.
What it is, is cheap.
As my long time readers know. It was a chicken that changed my life. When Jamie Oliver demonstrated how chicken nuggets are made, I vowed then and there that I needed to know where my food came from, how it was prepared, and if at all possible, who prepared it.
And I’ve done pretty good.
I’m not perfect.
I realized things needed to change, and I changed them.
Not in the pantry raid, food dump method we’ve all seen on tv. I made one small change at a time. It’s been nearly two years since the nugget incident. I’m still not perfect.
It started with the nugget. I refused to buy them anymore. I started with buying tenders and breasts. I am now, two years later, to the point where I buy only mostly whole chickens.
Two years ago, my pantry was stocked with sugar cereal. Today, there is a partial bag of Rice Krispies that were bought for Rice Krispie treats because, come on, those are delicious.
This past March I stopped keeping soda in the house.
Which is HUGE.
I still drink a lot more than I’d like to, but it is not a convenient thing for me to do, and it gives me the opportunity to make better beverage choices.
I’ve switched to grass fed beef. I buy maple syrup. I replaced corn oil with coconut oil. I buy organic fruit when it looks good. I make my own enchilada sauce. The honey in our house is wild.
These choices were small, easy, healthy.
This week, I messed with the holy grail. I am not prone to all or nothing thinking, but I WILL NEVER BUY CHOCOLATE AGAIN.
That’s right. You will NEVER find another Hershey product in my house. I found cacao.
Cacao is not cocoa. In fact, I cry that they share the same letters.
If you have a Hershey bar, or next time you are waiting in line at the grocery store, read the ingredient list. You’ll notice something called PGPR.
I’m fuzzy on food theology, but God did not make PGPR. Chocolate processors did.
When you hear about the “benefits” of chocolate, it does not mean PGPR. PGPR is the crap that chocolatiers came up with to keep the product cheap. They keep it cheap by selling the beneficial bits to make-up companies and replacing it with some sciencey sludge that is good enough.
While I have made 50 changes to my diet that makes it healthier, I have so much more to go.
You don’t have to quit cold turkey. You don’t have to learn how to grow your own sprouts today. What you can do is take a look in your own pantry. Find a food that you know isn’t good. Find a healthier alternative. When that choice becomes comfortable, make another one. Over the course of a couple of years you will change your life.
Is eating healthier more work? Yes. I have to shop multiple times a week because the food goes bad, I cannot just throw a pile of whole food into the microwave and get a meal out of it in 90 seconds. Is it more expensive? Yes. But if I have $5 and have to choose between a fast food meal and a bin of berries, I’m going for the berries. Does it encompass all my dietary needs? No, but it certainly is a lot healthier than fast food.
Don’t think you have to make all the right choices today. Work on making better ones today than you did yesterday. Abolish the “all or nothing” attitude.
Unless it’s cacao.
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