The Food We Eat

I have been thinking about food a lot lately. I think having a child and feeding that child real food really makes you think about what is potentially in that food. I think for one, it is a mothers protectiveness that makes you pause and think...but it's more than that, I think. Part of it is that their bodies are so tiny. You watch yourself feed them things and you really pause and think, what is in this? Preservatives? Pesticides? Hormones? Antibiotics? And what are they doing to my child's tiny body....

I have begun to do a lot of research about food, where food comes from, what is in it. Our generation and quite possibly our parents generation is likely to live fewer years than their parents - largely due to the food that we eat. Our diets are hugely weighted by corn. Almost everything has corn in it. And the corn is not regular corn like you would eat off the cob, it is an industrial un-edible corn that must be processed to become edible. Processed into corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, corn meal, animal feed...corn corn corn. Most of our meat is corn because rather than taking several years to raise a cow, it takes a mere few months with feed lots that load the cow with corn, keep the cow immobile and voila - produces a meat that is ready in record time, and fattier than ever. A steak of our grandparents generation had about 1oz of saturated fat, ours has 9. That's sick. And its pumped full of hormones and antibiotics and who knows what else. 70% of antibiotics consumed in the US are consumed by cattle. But then we consume the cattle....

The hard reality is, how to you not consume these foods? It is extremely hard to find meat that is hormone free, grass raised, antibiotic free, etc. And even if you do find it, it is EXPENSIVE. And often, one lb of ground beef of this sort will say it came from Australia, Chile, and the US. Just 1 lb of beef can contain cows from all over the world. Who is to say there wasn't something wrong with one of those cows...but you could never trace it. You would never know. Fruits and veggies are equally tough. Organics are expensive, they are shipped from all over the world, they are grown...who knows where and organic practices are, or are not followed...in many ways, it is an expensive exercise in trust.

When you move to the center isles in the store and buy anything packaged, you have totally fallen apart. You can pretty much guarantee there is at least 1 ingredient that you don't know or can't pronounce. We are conditioned to simply purchase our food, consume it and enjoy it - but when you stop and think about the fact that you are consuming things you can't pronounce and don't understand...it's scary.

Our generation spends far less on our food than any generation before. On average, we spend 16% of our incomes on food. This leaves plenty left over to buy all kinds of things - clothes, toys, our homes (which cost disproportionately more). Previous generations spend a large majority of their income on food or food related activities such as the production of their own food.

I have done food re-think's before. But I didn't have a miniature person who I was concerned about - both for his health and for mine and Nick's.

So what to do? Changing diet is hard. I did it when I was nursing Barrett and had to go Dairy free. Dairy is like corn, it is in EVERYTHING. But the thing is, if I had anything with dairy in it, my child would get sick and had blood come thru in his poo...it was a big motivator to be completely (and I mean, completely) dairy free for a year. So I need to look at a diet change in that way - that eating certain types of things will make my little guy sick (and me too).

So what will I do? Small changes.

I joined a local Meat CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture). Starting in July 2013, we will get monthly deliveries of meat including chicken, turkey and pork. They will be different cuts each time, but always 10 lbs. Sometimes we will get something like pork chops, 1 whole chicken, turkey sausage and a pork loin...each month will be different combos but always 10 lbs. There are 57 members of the CSA so the people (who have a farm in Molalla which is about 15 miles south of us) only raise enough meat for 57 people at 10lbs per month. All the meat is free range, grass or whatever they naturally eat fed and never get hormones or any other unnatural things. All the animals come from one place. So step 1 is to get meat and consume meat only from where I know. This means meat at restaurants will be out.

Just like giving up dairy (which is in everything and super hard), I am going to give up all things that contain high fructose corn syrup. Eventually this will move on to processed foods too, but I have to start small. While we eat mostly organics (or try to), we are probably only at around 60% so I will, in the future, work towards increasing this. I will also work on increasing the amount of food we produce here in our garden and try to make it a point to go to farmers markets (something I really haven't done much of). The steps will be small. The meat part starts in July 2013. The HFCS will start in the new year. Slowly, as I get used to these changes, I will make more. The goal is healthier food, food that is real, food I can pronounce, food that nourishes, and eventually, being more self sustaining and more supportive of local agriculture (like the CSA).

So here's to food changes in our house...and a healthier us.