Franken Foods


Peace Family,

Last month, I'd say nearly 6 weeks ago, I went to the farmer's market and purchased some produce. The reason I went to the farmer's market is because assumed that the food was of higher quality than grocery store food. That was a false assumption.

I have noticed that when you shop for food at different places you get different qualities of food. One of my concerns is with genetically modified foods or GMO's. This food is not required to be labeled as a GMO. So you never know if your eating it or not. Since this food is designed to last longer than other produce in the store and resist pests in the field, I assume GMO's will food will have an inordinately shelf life. So I will occasionally get food and leave it on the counter to see how long it will last. I try to use a control group with garden food; but I can't always obtain garden controls.

The interesting thing is, food will last a crazy amount of time from places like Wal-Mart, Kroger or the such, the food lasts forever! I mean months! I put an orange on the table and it sat there for 10 months before it looked like I shouldn't eat it. That's crazy. Apples, lemons, limes, all last forever on the counter all free in the air. No mold or anything. When they go 'bad' its because they get rock hard and not because they mold. That doesn't seem right to me.

Anywho, back to my tale ... I assumed that the farmer's market food was better than grocery store food. I bought some grapes form the farmer's market. It is so hard to find grapes with seeds in them. The only place I could find them is at a local stand that closes at 4 pm. I can only go there on Saturdays. Not convenient. Plus they only have food that's in season. I wasn't trying to make an experiment of the grapes. I put them in the fridge and just forgot about them. I found them this weekend and those grapes were still plump and still tasted like grapes. After 6 weeks they should have been shriveled up like raisins! Pooh Pooh on the farmer's market!

All this has got me thinking... I try so hard to make healthy food choices for me and my family. But if the food is not good, how healthy can we be? I intend to live a long healthy life, but the world is fighting against me. And they are going to win, because they are bigger and badder. But I must find a corner to comfortably co-exist; a balance that allows me to eat in this world without getting sick.

Also it makes me wonder if all my efforts are all for naught. Is it even worth it to try? Why not feed my family off the value menu form one of the lovely fast food establishments. If I'm going down, I might as well enjoy the trip.

I don't want this to sound like a bitch session. Alls I'm saying is I need a plan.


Peace

Comments

Unknown said…
Peace :) Stopping by your blog for the first time ever and saw this post, had to comment. I feel you in finding the best, least altered produce for your nutritional needs. I too am scared that I can get things like citrus fruits at Walmart year round but when we were kids (I'm 32) you could only get fresh fruit when it was in season. Look at the stickers and see where these foods are coming from(mostly Canada, Mexico, and South America). If you stick with in-season fruits and vegetables you are far more likely to be eating food that is #1 grown locally and #2 less hosed down with preserving chemicals.
Just my 2 cents.
Peace and keep sharing your knowledge...
October 25, 2010 at 6:05 PM
A.J.A. said…
This is an issue I have been considering for months and even years, as my attitudes keep changing. Once I thought that it was most important to get organic produce, but when I see in the grocery store that most of the organic produce comes from clear across the country, I have started to opt for locally grown food instead. We keep a garden in summer, and we supplement what we grow with what we buy at the farm stand. I figure at some point it makes sense to worry less about food being organic if it is losing all of the nutrients while it is being trucked across the country to your grocery store. That is why we buy local food that is fresh. We do grow our own vegetables without chemical pesticide or fertilizer. To add to that, we make our own bread, keep chickens for eggs, and I make our yogurt from organic milk. I like to try to choose things we eat a lot of and make them at home without all of the mystery garbage in them.

You keep an interesting blog- I just found it yesterday.
November 4, 2010 at 10:49 AM
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