I am an overweight, health conscience individual. In fact, sometimes I wonder if I'm overweight b/c of all of the information that has filled my brain over the last 10 years... Don't eat fat. Eat fat, but good fat. Watch calories. Calories from grown food are different than calories from processed food~ eat as many agricultural calories as you'd like. Butter. No, wait, marjorine. Nope, butter. Olive oil's best. Nope, sunflower or safflower oil is~ unless you have a nut allergy. Eat plenty of veggies, but don't go to the store everyday b/c that will cost you an arm and a leg! Buy frozen veggies. No, don't! They go thru a heating and cooling process that kills all of their vitamins. But, it doen't matter anyways, b/c ur gonna kill 'em once they hit the stove top burner. Never eat store bought orange juice for the same reason: pasterization. Don't eat wheat! Eat whole wheat. But, wheat turns into sugar. Eat Right For Your Blood Type. That diet makes no sense. No chips. Baked chips are better. But, yet the food nutrition stats on the back say otherwise. Tea! That's great for u... unless you decide to purchase non-organic. Tea's still shipped from all over the world, some parts of which they still are legally allowed to use DDTs. Sugar. No, Splenda. No, honey. No! Only Stevia!!! (Which is what I choose, mostly... then, honey... Sugar is a last resort, except for in cooking. The other things just don't bake right!) Eggs. Free range. Organic. Not just "organic", they need to be free range, too. Cage free just means that they let them out once a day for a minute or two or that they keep the chickes in a tightly enclosed pen, which they still can't move around. Support local farmers. Grow your own food! High fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated... everything! Oh, and by the way, your children are going to HATE all of the food you're switching to!
Then, IF you're able to achieve a sensible list of items to keep in your home, you have the guilt that comes along with buying packages of things that you don't know what's in them. And even worse, the guilt that comes along with not knowing how an animal is treated before they've slaughtered it for your table! I'm a firm believer that there are certain animals God has allowed to be utilized for food. I, however, am even more certain that God DOES NOT approve of the terrible conditions these animals are forced to endure their entire lives! Calves being ripped away from their mothers and fed a mixture of pigs blood and corn meal just so that the farmers can actively partake in the mass production of dairy milk! Lame, sickly and weak... Mad cow, swine flu, ecoli... there are reasons for these diseases coming in contact with us that has nothing to do with "the circle of life"! Being bled by having their throat slit while still alive isn't a good idea. Then, we decide to eat these mistreated animals. Tell yourself what you want abt the fact that they're bred to be slaughtered, no matter the method, and that it doesn't affect you... that you cook out all of the impurities. (Scoff!!) Whatever! If you ever wonder why you feel tired or depressed or unusually emotional.... take a look at the animals that you've eaten and the factual hormones that shoot through there bodies their life and assume that you won't feel the way your "now food" once did...
What's wrong with free range animals, happily fulfilling their lot in life, and when the time is right, instintanious annihilation? A quick jolt of electricity or a shot to the head. Though it still saddens me, animals in the wild annihilate one another in the most grotesque ways, BUT they are "complete" and "whole" mammals, reptiles, amphibians, etc. until that time comes. THAT to me is the "circle of life". Right?
SIGH..... Anyways, now having vomitted that all out onto my plate (and yours), there are so many battles to pick. How can you decide what to eat? If you're like me, you have a grandmother that came from a very large family that had to have a farm to sustain them and butchered their own animals and had their own smoke house to cure the meat in and grew all of their own crops that were canned by the hundreds in quart jars on a daily basis. AND, they were much more healthier than we are.
Oh, and don't forget the fish! Farm raised or wild-caught. Well, DEFINITELY wild, that is unless another kunker oil boat decides to regurgitate all of it's black gold throughout our ENTIRE seasides!
Then, you have the "organic" or "non-organic" war. I've read a million books (well, a little over exaggerated, but you know what I mean) that have been written by ppl that swear you should ONLY, EVER EAT ORGANIC. Of course, they have their wealth from books and talk shows. Easy for them, right? Is it really organic if it comes from 1500 miles away or over seas? It's still picked too soon and rushed. Now, don't get me wrong... if the price is right, I will def choose the organic over the NOT any day, no matter if it's mushier or smaller... Most of the time, I'm pleased, to be honest. But, there was a study done with 100 lactaiding woman. In 85% of those women the scientists found jet fuel emmissions in their breast milk. So, even the healthiest of healthy is contaminated. Pollution is everywhere!
And am I the only one that's completely addicted to these cooking shows that show cuisines from all over the world that utilize their own fresh produce within a 15 mile radius?
All in all, I guess I just have to start by simply making 1 change at a time. First, of all, my family has cut WAY back on the fast food. Soon to completely eliminate. Which has been saving us a fortune! Well... maybe not, but pretty darn close! More home made meals at home, which you'd think would enable me to lose weight, but I'm such a d@r* good cook!
