Well, last night I read a disturbing article that puts my happy thoughts in a twist. I know that we as a family are doing better than before and we are cutting down on the junk, but it seems someone is always trying to sneak in the junk where we least expect and have a hard time trying to find it!
The article was the top 7 things you should just not eat. We just about eat them all. I will see if I can remember them all. Microwave popcorn. What would we do with out it in our house? There would be many snackless days and even in Weight Watchers they say that the unbuttered kind is a good low cal snack. There is something in the lining of the paper bag that makes the popcorn 'toxic' when popped. What rotten luck. Stove or air popped is the best alternative. Fine with me, I can add the perfect amount of butter that way! I wish I could find a popper like we had when we were kids, I think I remember that we loved that thing, I shall go and look that one up tonight.
Apples. The deal here is that you should just go with organic because apples get sprayed with so much crap. I get it, but apples are 99 cents a pound and organic ones run closer to $2. I know, I know, think the price of health. People wonder why lower income families eat at McDonald's, well it is because you can get a entire cheeseburger for $1 and if you went into a grocery store you could only get a pound of pesticide apples for that price (if they are on sale) and what would fill you up better? I am learning you get what you pay for works on food as well, but it is hard because you don't see the effects right away. For instance, if you buy cheap toilet paper, you know it. If you buy generic tampons, the difference is massive, but I don't think the difference between and apple and an organic apple are immediately recognized.
Next on the list is the potato. These too should be purchased organically because of the chemicals that leach or are sprayed onto the ground just get soaked up by the potatoes.
Farmed salmon. I would think farmed salmon would be the wiser choice because you are using something that is sustainable and not helping with over fishing, but what they feed salmon in fisheries makes them not so good to eat and they have a lot less vitamins and goodness to give us when we eat them.
Corn fed beef. Now here is a shocker. Not that many years ago there was a huge campaign (especially in Iowa) to state that corn fed beef was so much better than grass fed beef and that you could taste the difference. Well the deal here is that grass is what God meant the cows to eat and that is what feeds their muscles the best. By giving them food they are not meant to consume it makes the meat less beneficial to us. Grass fed beef is ultra expensive!! I can't wait until I can raise a few cows of my own.
Canned tomatoes are something we eat a lot of and it is on the no eat list. Shucks! Since tomatoes have so much acid in them the cans they put them in have a special coating inside that the tomatoes soak in while they are in the can. This makes the tomatoes themselves not so healthy to eat.
Lastly, milk produced with artificial hormones. This is pretty self explanatory and we don't drink much milk at all. We have almost completely switched to Almond Milk.
As for my new food, we really like to purchase the organic plain yogurt from Kalona Organics in the big tub. I open it and scrap the cream off the top. Then I put my hand sifter over a container. I place a piece of cheese cloth (about 4 layers thick) over the strainer and dump the yogurt on top. Let the yogurt set at least overnight and you have sour cream!! Let it stand a day and a half or two and you get more of a cream cheese type mixture. We then use it for the base of our ranch dip for veggies and I added a packet of Fiesta Ranch dip to it the other day and it was good!! I used it to put on my bean dip and it was awesome!! One layer refried beans (warm or cold), then fiesta ranch dip, then lettuce, cheese, and olives, onions or chives, whatever you top it with. Eat with corn chips!!
As for our bread situation my husband couldn't wait until I baked my next loaf, so he did go down town and get one loaf, but I think one loaf in 3 weeks is a pretty good record so far. Want to know what I will be doing tomorrow then? Baking bread and cinnamon rolls!!! Courtesy of Annika!!
Thank you all!
Remember - no matter what path you are on, there are others out there on a different one. It's soooooooo easy to get distracted! I often say (as someone who has done the food thing to death) that the more you know, the more paralyzed you get (which means you end up making poor choices since you feel like you're unable to make the perfect choices anyway). Just do what you can, one step at a time!
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