Pajiba

Nice review!

We have been following these rules since about January this year. The kids have been very happy, the wife and I have been happy, and we have had some wonderful meals out of it. We avoid processed food wherever possible, eat only whole wheat pasta and bread, increased our vegetarian dishes, and limited our meats. Also eaten as much fresh produce as possible and edrastically cut back on carbonated beverages. My wife was a Coca-Cola addict (although she only had 1-2 a day) but after reading all of these books woke up one day and decided she didn't like or want Coke any more. In fact, Coke started tasting bad to her. If that's not a profocund psychological change I don't know what is.

You CAN do this, but it takes forsight. Our grocery bills have actually gone down. She plans our meals a week in advance and then Sunday is spent doing prep for most of the week's meals. We both work full time so you have to make some adjustments. It's time consuming but ultimately rewarding.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding. I went for my annual physical in April and the doc told me my blood work was the best he has seen from me. So that is encouraging enough right there to stick with it.

We tried eating Hamburger Helper Beef Strogonof a couple months ago and all of us concluded it was vile and tasted of chemicals. This had been one of the kids' favorite meals. It's amazing how quickly your tastes adapt.

I find making my own food to be the most rewarding use of my time. (I just gobbled a homemade muffin with home-canned peach/cherry jam.) We also garden and raise our own meat birds.

When we go to the supermarket, I'm always astounded at how much money people pay for crappy food. We get a trunk full of ingredients for less money than most folks pay for a few bags of factory made "food."

We started with a few easy rules (no transfat, no high fructose corn syrup) and have gradually grown our cooking abilities. I haven't had store bought bread in over a year. Or meat purchased at a supermarket.

It's certainly work, but it's the most rewarding work I've ever done.

I've been meaning to read Michael Pollan, and it seems like this would be a good book to start with. But right now, I'm going to have a lavender scone.

Tyler - It's amazing how quickly your tastes adapt.

I know, RIGHT? I think it's really a reinforcing cycle. The more good food we eat, the more we want to eat good food, so the work involved in preparing it is enjoyable and doesn't seem like work.

We do the Sunday thing too. We call it "Culinary Arts Day," and we don't get out of our pajamas.

I try to eat, if not food I've made myself, at least food that some other human has made (I eat a lot of sammiches), and not as much prepackaged crap. So I could do better. But I'm doing OK. From my last doctor visit, my blood pressure is fine, a surprise to me because high blood pressure kinda runs in my family.

It's not that hard to not eat crap. When I do eat crap, it's because I'm too lazy to cook or too impatient to wait for someone else to make something decent.

One change I have tried to keep consistent on is sodium intake. I have no problem with salt, but processed foods have too goddam much of it, by far. Cutting down on the salt has not been a problem for me. I don't even miss it. Not sure how I ate it before. I'll eat something loaded with sodium sometimes, but seriously, mostly I like to taste my food, not the seasoning.

I cut out soft drinks about 5 years ago. I don't really miss them anymore, I drink water with meals.

If you like Michael Pollan's books, I also recommend Jane Goodall's Harvest For Hope.

We're pretty good - not exceptional - about this stuff. Our kids' nanny does most of our cooking and she's pretty light on the processed foods. No HFCS or anything like that (unless, of course, there's HFCS in Mr. Softee cones, which my daughter is obsessed with). When my husband or I make dinner on the weekends, it's about as "from scratch" as one can get (i.e. we don't make our own pasta, but we do make our own marinara sauce). If we have the time, we do local produce. We have two small kids and jobs that keep us there late, so devoting half of a precious weekend day to cooking just isn't happening. That being said, wel'l make quiche, meatloaf, soup, etc. - anything that's pretty low-maintenance, takes minimal prep, and can get accomplished during the kids' naps.

I like Pollan - I think he's pragmatic and well aware of the horrifying limitations most poor people face in having access to good food. He's very non-judgmental and really gets how it's extremely difficult for some people to buy locally, avoid processed foods, etc.

*The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention.