Food

I woke up this morning thinking about food. It is a common occurence suggested by the crackers that live on the headboard for when my stomach rumbles. This morning was not out of hunger, though, but because I could not stop thinking about Food, Inc., the documentary exposing the food industry and the practices of the giant cooperations that run it. Its a film everyone should watch. People said that about “An inconvenient truth” and its a debatable topic. Where your food comes from is not. There is no arguing that two pears at the grocery store cost more than the two burgers at the drive-through and buying fresh/local/healthy is far more expensive than buying processed foods, or realistically, restructured corn. The point of the film is for people to say “there’s something wrong here”.

I feel like I’ve been saying that for years, and while I may not even be close to having a model’s body I can safely assume that I eat more nutriously than most people I meet. This includes even my love, Eric, who really only likes his chicken fried, his steak rare, and his potato covered in cheese and butter. He’ll eat the lettuce in his salad but picks through the rainbow of other veggies in there, a white bread kind of guy. I bring home wheat bread and brown rice, and he asks for yellow rice (it’s not white, he claims). The juice is 100% although there is no way he will drink the stuff with the vegetables in it, and really the list goes on. I’m not trying to convert him because I’m a controlling nag, but because its better for him and I want him to help set the example for our kids. I don’t want a freezer full of frozen pizzas and ice cream, but of frozen fruits and veggies and ice. I want the garden to be as important to them outside as a swingset it, to know how lettuce and broccoli grows, to have that be as normal to my kids as a McDonalds bag is to everyone else’s.

I know what a lot of moms would say to me. Just wait, wait until you don’t have time or money to make a nutritous meal and the drive through is the only option. Some of these same moms still have time and money for Spongebob and Dora to give their kids, and my real hope is that I put the good stuff before the easy stuff. Am I being unrealistic by saying I’d rather they eat a homecooked meal and play with crayons rather than eat McDonald’s while watching Nickelodean?

Clearly the pregnancy makes me think, probably overthink. I reassure myself with assumption that every mother makes a plan of what kind of mom she will be, what rules to have, etc. This is really my only big thing – I feel that nutrition leads to better development, socially and academically. If we are what we eat then this generation is literally a group of chemically enhanced, hormone injected, genetically modified and overprocessed beings who have no idea about food.

In the meantime, our educational system continues to focus on the FCAT and Aderol instead of giving kids – who are people!!! – the real life skills. At this rate, as long as they have the means to get to a fast food place, they’ll never have to step foot in a kitchen. Even learning to use a knife, or realistically, a fork, is unneccessary.

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution needs to be mentioned at this point as well. His goal is to change the school lunch program in America where, for example, one elementary school was serving pizza for breakfast and chicken nuggets for lunch. All food went from freezer to fryer/oven in massive quantities. He took away french fries, but since his 7 vegetable pasta didn’t meet the required serving size for vegetables, fries were brought back. In case that was missed, French Fries COUNT AS A VEGETABLE. The astonishing part was when he asked kids to identify various foods. They couldn’t tell a potato from a tomato, had no clue what an eggplant was, and for the most part, could not tell the name of a single fruit or vegetable. This is an entire classroom of children. They were quick to identify hamburger, pizza, french fries – and things were not connecting when Jaime told them a potato makes french fries. Next he took a chicken and asked the kids what it was and if they’d eat it. Yes, of course. Then he took all the leftover parts – bones, neck, skin, fat, etc. – and asked kids if they would eat that. Of course not. He whirled it in a food processor until everything was a ground paste, added some corn meal and other filler to bind it all together, and asked the kids if they would eat that. No, still wouldn’t eat it. Just when Jaime thought he was getting through to the group of 8 year olds, he molded a glob of the chicken paste into a little nugget, breaded it, and fried it. ”Who would eat this now?” Jaime asked. Every kid raised his/her hand. And they did eat it. Put salad in front of these same children and watch what happens.

I feel more and more passionate about this on a daily basis. People are clueless about food. If it says “Healthy” or “Smart” in the title, it sells. What happened to real food? Real food doesn’t NEED to be fortified with vitamins just like cows that eat grass don’t carry e. coli and therefore the meat doesn’t need an ammonia bath before it gets to grocery store shelves. Its wrong and it angers me! It makes me angry that last night I was getting Publix subs. Eric: a whole sub on white with roast beef and extra mayo. Thats it. Me: a veggie sub on multigrain with mustard and every veggie they have. The lady making them commented about my sub about how I like veggies or something. “I don’t eat a lot of meat,” I told her. (While this is true, I actually longed for some turkey but deli meat is on the “Bad” list for pregnancy). “Well, thats good I suppose, but you have to eat meat.”
“I eat chicken,” I told her.
“Yeah but there’s no protein in chicken,” she said, and rather confidently.
I told her there was, made a comment about how red meat had iron which is good, and walked away thinking, “how do you NOT know chicken has protein in it?” And about the iron, spinach has iron in it, too, but then again, spinach has also been known to have e.coli.

Its things like this that make me understand why people give up so easily. Nothing is good for you and even produce is chemically ripened. It isn’t realistic in some areas, including mine, to eat things that have traveled only 100 miles to get to your plate. It is too big of an industry. Yesterday I stopped at a little produce stand really excited that there was a place on Saturdays where I could buy locally. But it wasn’t necessarily local product. The pineapples were from Costa Rica, the melons from Mexico. I spent $10 on cucs, peppers, mangoes, and tomotoes, about half of what I would have spent at Publix, and at least the money stays local. But I probably won’t stop there again. Why? Because a supermarket knows where its produce comes from, there’s a trail to trace it back to, and they have higher standards. Because part of the food industry is making me think that what is sold in the mega mart is going to be safer and better. Its not just our food that has been modified and altered and reconstructed. Its our thinking.

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