Why I Choose the Foods I Do

Breakfast and lunch this morning were pretty typical, and I don’t want to bore you with pictures of another turkey sandwich so I thought I’d talk about my food choices and goals.  Since this is a HUGE topic, I’m going to split it up into a few posts.

A few years ago while getting my degree I worked in a food production plant.  I got to see first hand what goes on when our food is mass produced, and at least at this plant it wasn’t pretty.  I acknowledge that this is a small representative of a massive industry, but what I saw was legitimately terrifying.  The truth is that every industry can be corrupt, but when it’s in the food industry our health is directly impacted. 

After my experiences at the food plant, I made the decision to avoid processed food.  Unfortunately, I can’t cut processed food completely out of my diet unless I start grinding my own flour and making my own cheese (more power to the people who do, but that is not for me), but I consciously try to avoid foods I can make myself like alfredo sauce.  This way I get to control whose hands touch my food as well as what ingredients go into making that food. 

Sure, glycerol monostearate could be perfectly safe, but with new research coming out every day telling us that additives are potentially dangerous, I’d rather not take my chances.  Since toxins can be stored in your body fat it seems to me that those products could reach toxic levels if you aren’t careful.  It’s just not a risk I’m willing to take.  Just today I read a discussion on how artificial food colorings affect adhd.  Maybe it doesn’t, and the placebo effect is taking place, but avoiding artificial products doesn’t hurt me any, so why not?  This is the stance I take on a lot of things.  If it doesn’t do any good, I’m not out too much, but if these products are harmful that’s one less toxic thing I come into contact with every day.

I’m taking steps to avoid artificial products.  Obviously, I’m not going to cut food out of my diet completely, but if there is a reasonable alternative I’ll take it.  I’m making changes for life, and if I start restricting myself I won’t be able to stick with it.

Whether you chose to eat organics, local food, raw, or none of the above, it is your choice.

Tomorrow there’ll be another post on this.  Stay tuned.

– Me