My brain is starting to hurt from all the information that I've been reading, blogs I've been checking out and websites with ideas from everything from food issues to making your own cleaning products and other articles concerning who you can and cannot trust concerning all these issues. Can you trust this company, this food provider or this government agency? I am on brain overload.....I had to sit down and eat a totally processed, possibly GMO laden, excess packaged Little Debbie snack cake to calm myself. And it was good and I'm not ashamed.
I find all the information I read and check out is good information, but harder to put into action. Everyday living doesn't always live up to ideals. I wish I could eat totally organic, local, homegrown, homemade and with less packaging. But it is time consuming and more expensive. And I'm sorry, I will probably never be able to cut every speck of junk food out of my diet, never again eat a convenience food or fast food again.
Then there is the whole GMO debacle and without labeling it's almost impossible to tell what products are GMO. We know that more than 90% of corn is genetically modified along with soybeans and canola. That means that even if you make something homemade, if you have to use corn, vegetable or canola oil, you are consuming GMO's. If you buy packaged foods, which will usually have some of one of these oils in them, you're consuming GMO's, that includes soy sauce and the myriad of other products that have soy in them.
A lot of other products are GMO's or made with GMO products and/or additives. It's hard to keep it all straight. Buying or growing heritage fruits and vegetables usually ensures that they have not been genetically modified. The lettuce, bok choy and tomato plants that I planted this year are from heritage seeds. I guess the only way to know for sure that all the fruits and vegetables that you eat are not GMO's would be to grow them yourself or buy all certified organic.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Once you start paying more attention to everything that you buy and eat, you wonder about every ingredient. Then there is the whole question of high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. Sometimes, for me anyway, it starts to become overwhelming and makes me want to break out the bag of Cheetos.
I've decided not to be so hard on myself, plus the fact that I cannot afford to always buy the things I want to buy, especially since I am feeding a 19 yr. old son who can eat continuously, 24 hrs. a day. What I can do is to make slow and steady changes and buy what I can afford and grow what I can in my small yard.
For now I will continue to buy my eggs from a local farmer along with local honey. Honey in the stores have lots of additives. Most weeks I buy local, hormone free milk that comes in glass bottles, but not every week. I will only buy sausage from the farmers' market, it has no nitrates in it only all natural spices. I cook a lot and like to make things from scratch. I usually make cookies and cakes from scratch, but every now and then I might buy a cake mix. Almost all the soup I eat is made from scratch (except the emergency can of tomato soup in the cupboard). When I can I try to also buy meat from the farmers' market that is local, raised humanely and on pasture. Otherwise, it's from the grocery store. I make biscuits, cornbread, pizza dough and pudding from scratch.
The journey continues, I will do my best and make an effort to eat sustainably, but when I can't, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. And those days when I come home from work, tired and don't feel like cooking and I throw a frozen pizza in the oven or eat boxed macaroni and cheese, I will be fine with it. As Scarlett O'Hara said in Gone With The Wind......"after all, tomorrow IS another day".
Kathy
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