Let's talk about convenience.
We reach for prepared foods and fast food because they're convenient. They don't take a lot of time and effort to go from purchase to table. And we're busy, so it makes sense to save ourselves some time and effort. I'm just not sure that it's always a good idea when it comes to food and nutrition. We need to measure our choices.
Prepared foods and fast food are high in non-nutritive ingredients, like sugar, soy, fillers, chemicals, and artificial colors and flavors. Food companies want to keep profits high, so they do that by keeping quality low. Cheap ingredients, conventionally farmed meat and produce, non-food ingredients that have been created for the purpose of making processed foods attractive.
As I've been moving through the Green Wilderness, I've stopped along the way to learn how what we put into and on our bodies affect our health, energy, and longevity. The truth is that some of what we eat isn't nourishing us much at all. I've been learning through information and through experience. Some of the information I know, and once ignored because it's not convenient, and other information I'm learning for the first time. It's the learning through experience that's been the most powerful.
I've completely eliminated most processed foods from my diet, and what I choose I'm picky about. I'm worth my own pickiness. I'm reading labels, choosing healthier packaging (like glass where possible), choosing quality over cost (there's cost to lower quality; it's just a different cost), and choosing foods that are not processed, where possible. I haven't started to make my own almond butter, for example, but I can see that there may come a time when I might.
I am noticing that when I choose something processed, it's completely about convenience.
Here are a few examples - I let someone else take the coconut meat out of the coconut, which I buy at Whole Foods in the produce department. I let someone else peel the garlic cloves when I make a recipe that requires a lot of garlic. I get this at a local produce market. I don't grow all my herbs and spices, so I source them from Penzey's and from local farm markets from organic farms in season. I buy Sir Kensington's Avocado Oil Mayo, rather than making my own. I buy shelled nuts. I buy a few other pantry staples like oils and vinegars and coconut milk.
The rest of what I eat I try to buy fresh, local, and in season.
I was having a conversation today with someone who is looking for almond butter that contains only almonds and salt. She was having a hard time finding a brand that has salt. I like Artisana (one ingredient - almonds, packaged in glass). She did not want to add the extra step of adding her own salt, serving by serving. She'd hit her line and was already challenged by the inevitable stirring because of the separation of the oil. One more step was one step too many for her. I recommended Trader Joe's, which has a good, inexpensive almond butter that comes in both salted and unsalted varieties. There's no Trader Joe's near her home, so that did not work for her. I did an internet search and found that Walmart carries an almond butter made with two ingredients, almonds and salt. Never in a million years would I have expected that from Walmart, but I've also heard that they've been wading into the healthy foods arena. It works for her.
I share this story because we have different tolerances for change in our habits. Everything is about our choices. What we choose shapes our life. We also need to be patient with ourselves when making changes. Moving in stages, step by step, is the gentlest way of creating lasting change. I'm half way through this 13-week process I started in May. I've made some changes I would not have thought possible. I am sticking to them, and I am a little surprised by that. I love that I am surprising myself.
Katherine Cartwright has been blogging since 2012, and each year brings new wonders. She asks big questions of the small things in life.
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