Becoming Better Eaters

While I'm working on my new blog, that will premier soon I promise, I thought I'd give this very important rant about eating:
I have been reading about and listening to stories about the importance of organic and natural eating for a few years now and I thought I knew a lot, that is until I watched the documentary, Food, Inc.  This film is really about the corporation of food and how distanced we have become from what we eat.  There are several disturbing images regarding the meat packing industry but this is not a film that sets out to make vegetarians out of meat eaters, rather to make all “eaters” better “eaters.”  As a nation we are becoming sicker everyday; our children are lazier, more obese, and more of them than ever before have diabetes.  We have changed the way we eat over the last few decades and it is time to change it back.  We need to know what goes into our bodies and how it affects us, and we need to demand to know more. 
    I’m not sure if you are aware of the few celebrity chefs and trainers who have set out on this very mission, but I praise these people.  Jamie Oliver has made it his goal to bring healthy lunches back into school cafeterias.  Our children eating healthy?  What a novel idea.  I want you to think about how often you have gone to Wendy’s or any other fast food chain simply because it was faster and cheaper.  Once a week? Twice? Once a day? That is just too often.  Now, let me break this down for you:  a one pound box of pasta costs (on average) $1.29; a 14.5 oz. can of crushed tomatoes (with no salt added, nothing but pure crushed tomatoes, these are just as healthy as the fresh and since you are cooking the sauce, they are a time saver) costs $1.00; a head of garlic; $0.99 (and will last you beyond this one meal); salt and pepper (free since you most likely have this in your house); olive oil (you probably already have, and if not, buy a bottle and it will last you weeks).  At this point you have spent $3.98 to feed a family of four.  Add chicken and you are looking at another $5.00 (protein is the most expensive part of a meal).  You can now control the amount and quality of ingredients that go into your food, make with love, and connect with your entire family.  Had you gone to Wendy’s here is what you would be looking at: For the kids, say you only bought them the hamburgers: $2.00 (Equal to the box of pasta and canned tomatoes); for you and your spouse (if you get the medium combo meal) you are looking at, on average, $5.00 per person.  That’s $12.00!!!!  Versus the home cooked meal for $8.98.  Not to mention the time you missed out sitting at home with your family and the health risks that come from eating so much fat, sugar, and salt.  Do this 7 times a week, and you’ve spent $21 more on what you thought was the “cheaper” meal.  A little planning in the kitchen goes a very long way.
    I would love to urge everyone to go and buy organic only, but that is expensive.  Let’s start by buying food we can cook ourselves and setting the time (the pasta dish would have taken, at most, 20 minutes to make) to take care of our bodies, because we only get one and it deserves our respect.  The next step would be to be locally every chance you get so that you get to know the people that are responsible for your food.  Learn to love and respect the food you eat and it will do the same for you.
    Oh, and watch Food, Inc., or read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, it will change the way you view the corporation of food.