What is wrong with the food we eat?

[Gary350]

If you did not see the TV show few nights ago then read the book called. In Defense of Food.

I can not explain it as good at the TV show or the book (In Defense of Food) but EAT all the Green plants and beans you can. Eat real food, grow a garden. Do not eat any processed food. Do not eat in any fast food restaurants. Do not eat artificial sweeteners. Vegetables and grain have lots of stuff your body can not digest so that stuff just takes up space in your stomach and intestines. If 50% of what you eat can not be digested that is 50% less that can be stored as fat. The none digestible filler keeps you from getting hungry. The problem with processed food is, all the none digestible filler has been removed. Sugar and caffeine make you hungry. Artificial sweeteners confuse your body so it is all stored as fat. Stop eating butter, cheese, fried food, and high fat foods. You need to be tested to see if your intestines have good bacteria or bad bacteria. Even the meat we eat and milk we drink is bad for us because cows no longer eat green plants like grass, stock yards feed cows grain, minerals and vitamins. Cooking vegetables killed enzymes your stomach and intestines need. Eat lots of garden tomatoes. The none digestible filler can reduce our risk of colon cancer 100 times. Buy whole grain flour, make your own bread.

Grow a garden and raise your own cows, pigs and chickens. Not likely many people will do that. City code in the town we live in has made some amazing changes, now we can raise chickens, cows, pigs, eggs, in town. A year ago you would get arrested for raising farm animals in town.

A group of town people are in the process of starting a town food co-op group. We need local farmers to supply the farmers market people that want to be part of the group with food. We need farmers with Red cows like Jersey cows to bring as much milk, butter, cream, 100s of gallons to every farmers market, we need farmers to supply eggs, we need butter, pork, chickens, whole grain flour, bread and lots of home grown garden vegetables. We want to eliminate the need to buy grocery store foor for all the people that want to join the group and eat healthy food. This will only work if farmers supply food on a large scale and keep their prices low, you can no longer expect to sell home grown food 3 timers higher than the grocery store for this to work. Farmers need to take orders in advance like, 200 gallon of milk for every farmers market for 150 customers 2 times every week, 200 dozen eggs each farmers market, etc.

[HoneyBerry]

I think that you and I would get along. I've been on the health food track for some time now. Sometimes I feel lonely in my small world of organic fruits and vegetables. I didn't really have a choice. Processed food was making me feel sick and lethargic. I cannot imagine ever going back to processed food.

[Allyn]

Good advice. It's how we've been living for a few years now -- everything made from scratch (I even make my own condiments) and if I have to buy it in the supermarket, it can't have any ingredients in it that I have to pause and sound out by syllable. Keep everything local and fresh.

[imafan26]

Sounds like a paleo diet. Natural foods in their original unprocessed foods have always been the best. Adding chemicals has been to make it possible for processed foods to be transported, stored, and to give them a more appealing color. Processed foods has never been good for anybody but they have been convenient and made more appetizing than real natural food. It is a good thing for more people to choose to eat healthy and locally available fresh produce. I know I have become spoiled after eating cucumbers, corn, aparagus, and fresh herbs right from the garden, the stuff at the store is so limp and shrivelled up by comparison. I remember my mom thought something was wrong with the cukes I gave her because she did not know that cucumber had spines.

There are places where people buy shares in a cow or get csa boxes from farms. It helps the farmer to get income guaranteed and to get paid up front. People also share the risks. CSA boxes can be interesting, you never know what you are going to get. I would not really want to raise my own farm animals. Three cats are hard enough to keep up with.

[rainbowgardener]

I agree with imafan - I think CSA is the answer to a lot of problems! CSA = Community Supported Agriculture. It is where individuals buy a share of everything a local farm produces. I have been a member of two different ones and will be looking for one to join in my new location.

Each week through the season, you get a box of produce of what the farm is harvesting that week, fresh picked. Sometimes you have to go to the farm to get it, but many CSA's have an in town drop off point they bring stuff to. It is fresh picked, often the day you get it, local, seasonal.

It solves many problems for the farmer - they get the money for the season up front, they don't have to spend their time sitting at a farmer's market trying to sell stuff, they don't come home with a bunch of left over stuff that didn't sell (what is harvested is just divided into how many shares they have and sent out) etc.

For the consumer, besides fresh picked, local organic food, in my experience anyway the CSA produce is WAY cheaper than farmer's market. You usually have to be able to put the $$ up, up front, but if you can do that, what you get for the season would probably cost you at least three times as much if you bought it individually at farmer's market. And many CSA's offer even further discount if you put in work hours. I loved the work hours. Puts me out in the fresh air, doing stuff I love to do, and makes me part of producing my own food (I hoed this corn!) and you can see how everything is done. You know your organic food is truly organic because you have seen it every step of the way.

There are CSA's all over these days. The CSA finder tells me there are 21 of them around me!

http://www.localharvest.org/search.jsp? ... &zip=30736

To me it is an ideal way to connect the farmer and the consumer in the city.

[rainbowgardener]

So, I inspired myself to start looking. I went through three pages of listings. Narrowed it down to four choices that seemed friendly, provided enough information, have convenient drop off points, are organic. On a per week basis prices ranged from $17 - 20/ wk and none had work requirements (they didn't say whether they had work possibilities). Some of them you can get eggs, chicken, other special items for extra money. Different farms have shorter or longer season. They all start in May, but season may go to Aug, Oct, or Nov.

Yup, $20 per week! In my past experience that was for enough produce each week to challenge me to keep up with it, and sometimes more than the two of us could use, so I froze some or whatever. And through the season I did not buy ANY other fresh produce. That is half share prices. For a larger family, you can get a full share, twice as much veggies for twice the price.

Not every one would see it that way, but to me an added benefit is that you are eating with the season, spring crops in spring, summer crops in summer.... It does mean, if you stick to only eating from the CSA, you can't get sweet corn in May, but when the corn comes in you sure do love it and you can have a whole bunch!

[Taiji]

I'm fortunate in that our family moved to Michigan when I was about 14. I had an uncle there who totally converted our family to a healthy diet and lifestyle. Until then, we lived on white bread, pancakes, (topped with phony syrup), canned soups, canned hash, canned tamales, (yuck!) etc. We then moved out of the city and began organic gardening on a small farm. Subscribed to Organic Gardening and Prevention magazines of course!
I bought a Champion juicer which is now 40 yrs old and still going. I used to get my organic carrots from a farmer there, now I get them from Costco; they sell organic carrots. Organic healthy food and lifestyle now has become so much more mainstream, which is a wonderful thing! Around here, we have quite an array of health stores and farmer's markets with good produce.
One person whom I admire, Jack Lalanne, always used to say: "If man makes it, don't eat it"!

[imafan26]

I live in a suburb so there are still a few grandfathered farms in between the residential areas which by the way was converted ag land. I used to go to the egg farm for eggs. If you want lot of eggs you can buy the check eggs as long as you use them right away and they sold chicken manure. ( I stopped using manure because the pH in my soil was 7.4.) and when they are culling, they would sell the hens. They also had some other vegetables for sale that was grown by the high school ag farm.
There are a couple of Ag parks where you can go directly to the farm and buy fresh produce directly from the farm. If it is on the farm and ready they will even go out and harvest it for you. The farm I work at also sells live tilapia and catfish. I go to the sod farm for grass. I just have to order it a day in advance but they don't cut it until I get there so it is fresh and rolled.

I would get better quality and when I needed it.

[jal_ut]

Gary, re your opening comments: a lot of hype! In many cases a person making food choices a religion and preaching out doomsday predictions for those who don't comply.

From what I see in the grocery store, in the food department, I will say, yes it is food and it will sustain a healthy life style, If the buyer will go for a variety of things so that the body gets its vitamins and minerals as well as calories.

[rainbowgardener]

I don't worry overly, I don't think grocery store food is poison. But I do think anything I can grow myself is fresher, tastier, has more nutritional value (because not grown in depleted soils) and is healthier for me and for the environment (not shipped half-way around the world to get to me).

[Susan W]

We all need to choose our own path on the groceries/eating. There are way too many factors to try to simplify it. Minor factors such as geographic location, urban/rural, including small space-apartment, large lot or acreage, time, number in household, budget.

I don't grow much in veggies, but am at a farmers market most weeks as a vendor. I try to bring home the unsold or 'dents' etc at end of market. The CSA sounds great for some. I am a bit picky about what I eat, even veggies, and wouldn't eat half of what's offered.

As for meat, another issue. I do eat in modest amounts meat, including chicken, beef, pork. When the kids were growing up we'd laugh about having 'recognizable meat' at least 1/wk. Most of the times stretched. I am sure we were healthier for it! Issue now is price in store and price at market (local grown). When a chicken or meat 4 -5 times store, I need to hold back my wallet.

In general, I think we do read the labels on food, and when the list gets long and words one can't pronounce, maybe not the best choice for the grocery cart. We all have our down falls and sweet spots, and just get over it! If I eat that homegrown tomato can I have a candy bar?!

Overall, get real with yourself, your eating habits (we can all improve on that!), what you grow, can make (I do bread), farmers markets, and the groceries.

[sweetiepie]

For me, raising a garden, having farm animals are a skill set that increases my freedom of independence. I do these things for my family and me so that we do not have to rely on others but maybe be able to help others.

I love learning new skill sets such as today I was making bars of soap. (I make my own lye with wood ash from our cook stove, the lard I rendered from the beef or pork I grew.) After my bars of soap are set I then make laundry soap in powder form and then turn it into liquid form. It is all a very long process. But it makes me feel closer to my roots.

It is all a bonus that it tastes better and is better for me.

I tend to have a hard time believing that some agency knows my body and what I need better than me, so I usually ignore it. As I age I find certain vegetables cause me more stomach upset. I believe we need to do what we feel is right for ourselves.

[mauser]

From my experience how much you exercise is more important than what you are eating. Getting to the gym, running, or swimming every day can be chore with a 8 month old but I try.

As far as diet just watch your portion size, salt, and sugar intake and you will usually be fine. Eating organic has always felt like a marketing scheme to me. Just my 2cents.

[jal_ut]

" Eating organic has always felt like a marketing scheme to me. "

Organic? I refuse to use that term in reference to food. It is so much political BS!

[rainbowgardener]

and yet, jal-ut, you have said you grow at least mostly organic yourself and don't use poisons. I've seen you recommend DE for pest control and regularly talking about compost and adding organic matter to your soil. That seems to be the heart of organic gardening and farming....