When I used to look at a product, I tried to find a balance between what was cheapest and what I knew to taste better. The nutrition of a product has always been in my mind, I guess mostly because I grew up with a mother who was very organic-food focused, even owning an organic foods store at one point, making me wonder why it needed so many additives or numbers.
Why should a biscuit or bread really need Emulsifiers anyway? Why does it need soy flour? Why does it need all these numbers? I can make bread at home with flour, yeast, salt, sugar/honey and water. I can make biscuits with flour, butter, eggs, sugar, baking powder and maybe some vanilla extract.
Why would I want to eat all these additives when I could make something myself that would be far more pure?
But even though I knew it wasn't right to eat all these chemicals, I rarely said no to them when I wanted the junk they hid in. I am still a huge chocolate fan. I still love Coca-cola. I love salt and vinegar potato chips, and chose to ignore all the numbers on the back of the packet, to let me continue eating them.
It wasn't until I did my New Zealand Grown fortnight that I really had a break from all those numbers, additives, preservatives and unnecessary soy additions.
It made me really think about the foods I was putting into my body. The voices of all those who have told me the troubles of additives and chemicals used not only now in the forming of foods, but also in the growing of foods, are now loud in my mind, standing right in front of me, telling me. "Claire, Stop eating this crap."
Last week I did my first shop where nearly all of my vegetables/fruit were organic. I believe the only thing I got that wasn't was onions... And somehow, because I didn't buy any junk food, I still spent just as much as I used to spend at the supermarket.
I am now shopping with more awareness of what I will actually eat throughout the week instead of what I feel like eating when I'm right there in the supermarket, which in turn is saving me money and meaning I am throwing less food away.
I used to always have a full fridge of produce, which would slowly decay and only half of it would really get eaten. I was a wasteful shopper. It is shameful the amount of food I used to throw into my compost bin every fortnight when I would clean out the fridge of rotten food for the next load fresh from the supermarket.
Bread was a big problem as well. We always had at least half a loaf of mouldy bread to be thrown out every fortnight. So, In order to try and clean up our eating act, I have started baking our own bread.
I brought a 5kg bag of NZ Grown organic white flour from the organic Wholefoods store in Grey Lynn, for just under $30. It sounds like a lot of money, and my SO was a little horrified. But when you think about how much bread costs in the supermarket, it actually works out to be more cost effective.
Well, for us anyway. We would typically buy "High end" bread I suppose. Vogels or the like.
I did a rough calculation of how much flour is needed in a loaf of bread and how many loaves you should then get out of a 5kg bag and it was about 8-10.
Even if I can just get 8 loaves out of a $30 bag of flour, that's still only $3.75 for a loaf of organic, additive free bread. All I am seeing is pro's with this. Are there really any cons?
The time factor might seem annoying to some, but I personally really enjoy baking so it's no problem for me.
Buying organic also makes me respect food more and stops me from mindless eating. Instead of buying a cheap 500g block of chocolate and eating half of it within hours of purchasing, I can successfully have a 250g block of organic fairtrade chocolate sit in my cupboard for a full fortnight, only eating (and savouring, enjoying, relishing) the occasional square every few days when I feel like something sweet.
I used to have a very unhealthy relationship with food. I was forever either eating far too much (and of all the wrong things), or not enough. I saw it as a battle. I saw it as something difficult.
When I buy organic, I'm seeing it in a totally different light. By eating organic, I'm eating more whole-foods and instead of seeing food as a product to binge or restrict, I am seeing it as nourishing.
Organic food does just that, it nourishes and fuels the body without poisoning it with artificial products made by the food industry just so that their food could stay on shelves for longer.
Ever think that maybe if not even mould will touch it, that we shouldn't either? Something to think about.
Love your bodies, is all I can really say. Respect your bodies. Only put good things into it, and you'll get more good things out of it. (And no, not just nicer poop, I mean energy levels, better moods, etc.)
And by respecting your bodies by only putting in Organic foods, you're being kinder to the planet by reducing the amount of chemicals we pour onto it every year!
It's a win win my lovely readers!
So give cutting out chemicals in your daily life a go!
"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity."
– Amelia Earhart
– Amelia Earhart
No comments:
Post a Comment