Well…we all know where the road paved with good intentions goes, right?
DING! Is that chocolate cake in the oven? (Gluten-free, of course!)
Who, me? Easily distracted? Naaaaaaaaaaaah…wait, was that a shiny squirrel?
Meanwhile, I digress.
A year or so ago I read FOOD RULES by Michael Pollan, which I found to include some very interesting information. I thought at the time, “Gee, it would be fun to write #winewellnesswednesday posts about some of these topics!” I did a couple and then…well…y’know. Distractions!
Hey! Who drank my coffee??
So! Back on track with thoughts on FOOD RULES. :)
Having done rules 12, 52, and 53 a while back, I thought I’d go all the way back and look at rule 1: Eat food. This seems simple enough, right? Hold that thought! Have you ever looked at the ingredients in many of the things that are presented as food? Other rules in the book address topics such as not buying foods that are advertised, and shopping the margins of the store, as well as not buying anything with ingredient a third grader couldn’t pronounce. Seriously! There’s an ANIMANIACS cartoon that addressed this really well, listing off all of the ingredients in a couple of treats and many of them simply don’t sound like food. Highly processed items are presented as food and honestly, while some of them are delicious, they’re not actually quality items that we should be eating. How many different derivatives of corn or soy do we really need in our diets, anyway?
We did a compare and contrast once of the ingredient list of two different kinds of ice cream. (Because really. Ice cream! It should be simple and as long as the lactose doesn’t bother me, it’s one of my favorite things!) One of the brands had more than 25 ingredients listed, and many of them were either unpronounceable or sounded unpalatable. The other brand? It had five ingredients. Five! I think you can guess what ice cream we usually buy now!
Real food. It’s even better if you know where it comes from. Local is awesome, even though it isn’t always possible. (There aren’t any orange trees near us, for example.) Real food that you’ve cooked yourself is even awesomer. (YES I KNOW. Not a word. I like it anyway.)
What real food have you enjoyed recently? Cheers! Here’s to your health!