3. Processed food is a No-No
By the 1950s, the United States was no longer full of desperately struggling families; the war was over, men were coming home from overseas, moms were getting busier and busier, and food production was headed for massive change, namely: convenience.
The TV dinner emerged in the early 50s, more and more canned foods were becoming available (including canned cheeseburgers, and let us not forget our beloved Spam), not to mention housewives were experimenting with some really bizarre foods; Jell-O with weenies! Ambrosia salad! An abundance of marshmallows where marshmallows do not belong! (At http://www.masterstech-home.com you could try "Lemonade Fried Chicken" or "Checkerboard Square Clam Crunch," which falls under the gag-inducing terror-category of "seafood cereals main dish"). Fast food joints were emerging and you and your family could order and eat right in your car! (Some places had big tubes that blew in air-conditioning, so even if the car you drove in didn't have a/c, you did at the drive-in! Note: I have seen footage of such a thing on The Food Network, but am having trouble finding evidence, let alone a picture. Believe me, folks!)
Hey! Why not make a tuna casserole with a powdered-biscuit mix ring around it?
It goes great with 6 vodka gimlets and a carton of Lucky Strikes!
So now processed food is everywhere. It's positively inescapable! Look at the box of saltine crackers in your pantry. Listed are 4 types of oil --canola, corn, palm, and soybean, respectively-- and that cracker hanging from your lip is made with "one or more" of them. (The oils are actually bought in bulk by companies and whichever is cheapest will be used without a need for change of packaging. Hence, the "one or more".) Enriched flour is listed first, and as good as it sounds for it to be enriched, it wouldn't need enrichin' if it weren't bleached. (And maybe soon we'll get into why us Americans need our flour, rice, etc. bleached into oblivion, stay tuned!) Not to mention, if the crackers in your pantry are from Wal-Mart, like mine are :(, the wheat used to make the flour is probably from heavily subsidized farmers who are forced to use pesticides and possibly genetically modified materials.
These things are simply not meant to be put into your body. Your body does not like them. My point is, the ingredients are processed before your crackers are even made by big machines and people who probably aren't paid enough!
So don't do it. If if comes in a box, it's processed. If you must eat something in a box (because, let's face it, not all of us can only eat fresh fruit and vegetables, even though if we did all of our health problems would virtually disappear), make sure it's organic, or at the very, very least says "all-natural" on it somewhere. Read the ingredients and make sure you recognize them. It's as simple as taking control over what goes into your body, which not only shows your body love (sometimes I really have to say, "Hey Body! I love you! Look at this yummy salad that's gonna fill you up!") but it's also a political statement, and it probably sounds silly coming from someone who owns a restaurant (and unfortunately, it ain't one of them all-natural, heavily organic places), but we all need to take a stand to how food is being produced right now. (And believe me, I have many goals of not only changing the food and products being used in my restaurant, but in my community.) They'll listen, because they want to get our money somehow. And I know stuff that's organic tends to be more on the pricey side, but it's worth it. The more you buy it, the likelihood of it getting a little more affordable goes up, and with the USDA stamp on it, you can feel reasonably safe knowing the quality and standards of its production will stay the same (or hopefully get better). In all honesty, you should be spending most of your energy on yourself, making your life better, and that in turn will inspire and enrich the lives of people around you. And by that I mean (and I have to live up to this too), making a genuine effort to buy the best food you can for yourself and your family. It's the greatest investment you can make for your health, and being in good health will change every other aspect of your life for the better.
And god, think of Oreos! Or chips!
Preservatives! Additives! Genetically modified lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!
So don't do it. If if comes in a box, it's processed. If you must eat something in a box (because, let's face it, not all of us can only eat fresh fruit and vegetables, even though if we did all of our health problems would virtually disappear), make sure it's organic, or at the very, very least says "all-natural" on it somewhere. Read the ingredients and make sure you recognize them. It's as simple as taking control over what goes into your body, which not only shows your body love (sometimes I really have to say, "Hey Body! I love you! Look at this yummy salad that's gonna fill you up!") but it's also a political statement, and it probably sounds silly coming from someone who owns a restaurant (and unfortunately, it ain't one of them all-natural, heavily organic places), but we all need to take a stand to how food is being produced right now. (And believe me, I have many goals of not only changing the food and products being used in my restaurant, but in my community.) They'll listen, because they want to get our money somehow. And I know stuff that's organic tends to be more on the pricey side, but it's worth it. The more you buy it, the likelihood of it getting a little more affordable goes up, and with the USDA stamp on it, you can feel reasonably safe knowing the quality and standards of its production will stay the same (or hopefully get better). In all honesty, you should be spending most of your energy on yourself, making your life better, and that in turn will inspire and enrich the lives of people around you. And by that I mean (and I have to live up to this too), making a genuine effort to buy the best food you can for yourself and your family. It's the greatest investment you can make for your health, and being in good health will change every other aspect of your life for the better.
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