For the last two days, our church was having a huge, two-day event that left little time for self-care and preparation. I'd managed my green smoothies in the morning and a well-prepared dinner in the evening. The middle of the day was a little shaky. (Note to self: create a strategy for days like these.)
I went straight from one church to the other. I did stop to get gas for my car. (another lesson). The meal was potluck, set up in another room. I did not have any idea what I would find there. I'm trying to remember how I felt when I walked into the space and picked up my plate. The first thing I saw was chicken wings. Four kinds, all with either sugar or dairy or which had used an off-the-shelf grocery item. With all the sugar and chemicals in most of these products, I simply stay away from them. The second item was steamed shrimp. There were cut lemons on the platter.
That was a big yes.
Chicken nuggets, pigs in a blanket, veggies with dip. Yes! to the veggies, no to the dip. An array of coleslaw and other salads like that. I turned away before I came to the desserts.
I was thrilled to have found the perfect combination at a church dinner. The last couple of days at my church, there had been bake sale items and lunch for those at working on the project, hot dogs the first day, meatball sandwiches the second. All lovingly offered and all big no's for me. But it was fine, since I brought a green smoothie with me and was able to eat when I got home.
I wrote about convenience the other day. We often reach for what is convenient rather than for what is good for us. Most of us don't really think about what we see at the grocery store and whether it is good for us. Most of us think that because it is for sale at a food store, because it is available, because there is an FDA monitoring the food industry, that what is at the store will not hurt us. Most of us think that because there is a food pyramid approved by the government in concert with the medical field, that those recommendations are good. But, good for whom?
It's important to remember that doctors generally do not study nutrition in school, and the few that do, take an elective for a semester. I hear this may be changing, but I also hear that sodas laden with artificial sweeteners and conventionally-farmed and produced foods are served to hospital patients.
It's important to remember that how we eat today is vastly different from how humans have eaten since there were humans, and even vastly different from how our grandparents ate, and from how we ate as children. My mother prepared whole, fresh foods for dinner every evening. Meals at restaurants were rare; fast food was not widely available. It might have been something we ate on the road when we went on vacation. There was plenty of space in our nutritional landscape to clear what was not healthy for us. Unfortunately, we also had sugared cereal with milk most mornings for breakfast, and while the milk was probably not as bad as conventionally-farmed milk is today, it still was a food designed for little cows, not little humans. Lunch was normally a sandwich made from white bread, cheese, bologna, or peanut butter and jelly. Some fruit. Some store-bought cookies. We reached for convenience for breakfast and lunch because it was easy.
I wonder what might be possible for us if we set aside convenience for mindfulness in how we choose and consume what we put in and on our bodies. Do we stop to read labels? To understand what is in our food and how our choices affect our bodies?
The Green Wilderness is a daily writing practice that opens a landscape of discovery into my own human experience.
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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