Walter and I have been shopping at farmers markets, natural grocers, and Costco since moving to Austin. I had not realized how long it had been since we had been to a regular chain store that is not "natural". Last night we had the task of buying dessert for a Project Runway viewing party. Not a hard request, at least we thought. We hit Randalls, a Safeway chain here in Austin. It was on the way and we figured it would be easy to find something. Oh were we surprised!
Quick backstory before I go further. For those who have not kept up with the blog, and maybe to those who need it all spelled out, Walter and I are attempting to eat better. Thanks to education from Whole Foods, Carly the Nutritionist, the crazy but fabulous Gillian McKeith, the movies Food Inc. and King Corn, we have become much more selective on what we buy. If we have a choice on the preparation of food, we avoid: hydrogenated anything, corn syrups (including high fructose corn syrup), artificial sweeteners, and pretty much anything we cannot pronounce. We have been successful especially since we read labels to determine what we will buy. We are not organic freaks, but we do believe in moderation of all things and avoiding the chemical foods that are being thrown at us. We have loss of control at times, but 95% of the time when we buy it at the store is fall under our list.
Back to the dessert. We decided to check out the cakes. OH DEAR GOD the ingredients scared the crap out of us. Sugars I am fine with, even the refined ones, but adding corn syrup and bleached flour that is "enriched"(basically meaning all the good nutrients were stripped out of it) AND hydrogenated oils and stuff, that is ridiculous! So we moved to the thought of fruit and yogurt with some granola. Always a nice treat, but the cost of the fruit was outrageous and if I wanted to spend that much on dessert for 6 I would have just hit Whole Foods (which looking back would have been the best solution to start with. Who knew! I guess I was blinded, or just spoiled). We went to the freezer section next to check it out. After aimless wandering, Walter finally had the brilliant idea of Root Beer Floats. YUMMM! So off to the ice cream aisle.
Milk, cream, sugar, WHAT...CORN SYRUP? If it has sugar in it, why do you need corn syrup too? After looking at 4 different vanillas, we finally found one that fit into our eating/buying standards. Off to get some root beer. This was something I knew would post a challenge, but I did not know how much. After searching soda after soda and finding every root beer there, finally we found Hansen's all natural sodas. I knew these were good because we sell them at Whole Foods. Root beer! Finally! Wait...it is "diet". Skim skim skim. SUCRALOCE! ICK! Still bad, so we settled on Cherry Cream Soda Floats.
Success on the dessert, now forward to today. After a long day of work and Ikea shopping, I thought I would run and get some stuff for hamburgers., YUMMM! So I headed back to Randalls. I figured while I was there I would pick up some fresh veggies and stuff too. OH DEAR GOD the search began again! Thankfully there was ground turkey breast, on sale too. I did not see any veggies that really tickled my fancy other than some broccoli crowns at 99 cents a pound. I needed some buns for the burgers and decided on the least of many evils; the one with only 15 ingredients (all of which I was familiar with) rather than the many with 20+ ingredients one of which was, yes, corn syrup. I found some organic yogurt, some Italian "boxed" tomatoes (Pomi. Delicious and all natural if you want a simple good "sauce" for your pasta), some Half and Half (the one WITHOUT high fructose corn syrup and about 5 other unnecessary ingredients. Really people, it is half and half. The name says it all!) and my attempt to buy ice cream was a bust unless I wanted the one, lone vanilla I had purchased the night before or spend about $7 for a pint of a really fancy gelato (which I get cheeper at Whole Foods). I walked around in awe and started watching people grabbing body killing shit off the shelves. No wonder we are so obese. No wonder we have the health problems that we do. How can we care so little about our lives to be so uneducated about what we are eating? Do people not read the ingredients anymore?
I am no fanatic about anything. Again, balance and moderation, but being there, watching these people made me start to feel like a fanatic and I literally felt sad.
Please, friends, family, you unknown readers out there, PLEASE become educated about what you are ingesting! Please do something about it. Please spend the extra fifty cents for the better half and half (that was a cost difference between the nasty one and the one I bought). Please share your education. I admit, I don't work out regularly, but in the past year of living in Austin I have lost 30 pounds. In the past year and 1/2 since I have become more educated about food, I have lost 55 pounds...all just by what I eat! If we all put the demand for better, non-processed, healthier food out there, they will listen! When they listen and it becomes more the norm it will become more affordable; and speaking of costs...is it worth saving the money now to only fork it out to doctors and hospitals later? Think about it.
Anyhow, that is my thought and my pain tonight. Good night
.
Images are in order of a year and 1/2 ago, a year ago, 9 month ago and 3 months ago.
2 comments:
And this is why I run into you at work several times a week.
WF 4-EVA! ♡
I enjoyed reading that post as I drank my diet coke ;-) Why didn't you just take fruit or make a fruit tart? Or make a cake from scratch? That way you know what is in it: sugar, flour, baking soda, oil....just like in the old Slovene days. Fresh ingredients and doin' it yourself...the only way.
Post a Comment