Learning what’s in my food…

Dear Readers,

Another thing occupying my brain waves lately has been a higher interest in what goes into my body. I have to admit, that I’ve been interested in it for a while, it only takes watching the news a few times about diseases in our salads to make you start to wonder why that happens. But it all really started hitting home after watching the Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead documentary.

What We’re Missing Out On

When we eat processed foods, we’re missing out on vitamins and minerals that get cooked straight out of the food. I’ve always enjoyed a good home-cooked meal because I can see exactly what goes into my meals, but this goes to a whole new level for me now. How much of your dinner is actually a fruit, vegetable or grain? Are you supplementing with vitamins, and if you think that you’re eating enough vegetables, double check how you’re preparing them. If you’re steaming your broccoli and then covering it in artificial cheese just to get it down your trap, you’re missing the point.

What We’re Getting Pumped Full Of

Take a look at your cereal, your pancake mix, your boxed dinners. Turn the box so that you’re no longer looking at the delicious view of the finished product to that little annoying black and white nutrition label. Yes, we avoid it because it tells us things that we don’t want to know. But what I want you to look at is right below, the ingredients. Take one of your favorite items – mine was cereal – and see how many of them ingredients you actually knew. I don’t mean ‘knew’ as in you’ve heard of it, I mean ‘knew’ as in you’ve cooked with it or you know how it’s made. I was shocked to see all the things that are going into my body that are some cultured chemical to make things taste better or stay fresher longer.

Why It Matters

I suppose it depends on the person. I can’t give you some great testimonial on why it’s great to eat only organic, or only food that you know how to make, because I haven’t done it long enough myself to ‘feel’ a difference in my body. But in my brain, I feel happier knowing that I made my own cereal, that I knew everything that went in my homemade pancakes, and that I’m trying to be better to my body with fruits, vegetables and grains that give my body what it needs.

I keep devouring  - no pun intended – food information and food videos. I find it amazing how detached we’ve become from our own food sources. If there were a massive gas shortage, and grocery stores stopped getting deliveries, how many of you know how to make the basics that your family uses? Butter, Milk, Eggs, canned vegetables, canned fruits, bread, biscuits? I’m alarmed at what I see, are you?