Carefree Gourmet

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Freshly Baked Organic Bread

Ok, so if grandma recognizes it and it spoils, we know we are on the right track in our search for real food. But what about an innocent looking loaf of bread? Granny would recognize that! And it may indeed have a sell by date on the fasterner. But is it really bread like grandma would eat?

Ah, now we are into reading labels. And when I think of reading labels, I think of the commercial with the two small children reading the contents of the gallon of ice cream. One reads, cream, sugar, eggs, the other child attempts to read a litany of strange scientific words that none of us recognize but assume is ok to eat because we are sure the FDA is protecting us against strange concoctions brewed in the cellars of some mad scientist hoping to make a buck. (Ok, yeah, I like creative writing!)

But, again, what a great illustration of how to identify real food. Pollen suggests that we avoid foods with the the following:
1. Unfamiliar words
2. Unpronounceable words
3. More than 5 ingredients
4. Includes High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Ok, so I tried this out with selecting bread. You would be amazed at what gets included in a loaf of something as innocent and “recognizable” as bread! After being disgusted at what was being advertised as “bread” at my local grocery chain, I headed to the farmers market to read the ingredients on the baker’s loaves. Wow! Familiar words, pronounceable, a couple of ingredients (well, more than five on bread with goodies – like olives) and no high-fructose corn syrup. Oh yeah! And it had to be consumed in a couple of days… It started “sprouting” quickly. Now, I know it was food!

So go forth and read those labels! Find the few but the best! Tomorrow we discuss “health claims” on packaging!!

Grandma Making Real Bread

Yesterday, we covered eating only foods your grandmother and/or great-grandmother would recognize. And I subtly suggested that you take a journey through your kitchen and see what you would find…. Likely a great deal your granny wouldn’t recognize. But that’s OK! Eat it up and simply don’t replace it! Or dump it! Whatever sits best with you! (I did a little of both, dumped some odd looking things that had been in the pantry for years and decided other things I would simply eat up and not purchase again).

Here is the second key concept when searching for real food…. if it won’t rot… don’t eat it! Why? Everyone has heard the story of the fast food burger left out for weeks or months or years and it still looked the same. I don’t know if this story is really true, but it certainly is a great illustration of why you want to eat fresh foods and those without all the preservatives! Besides not knowing how old something is, preservatives and additives lie to your body. Since our body was not meant to digest them, we are unprepared to use our senses (like smell or even sight) to know if the foodlike substance is any good (for us, it might still taste ok… ewh! Food science has created foodlike products that appeal to our preferences for sweetness, fat and salt. These attributes are hard to find in natural foods, but way to easy and cheap in the processed food world. And for whatever reason, we aren’t satisfied after eating these foodlike substances… and we eat more.

So the lesson for the day is: if the food you are looking to eat never spoils… Don’t eat it!