Yuck, Yuck, Yuck

Ok. So I've talked before about processed foods. Today, I want to focus specifically on one of them, one that--for no particular reason other than personal caprice--is possibly my most-hated example of the entire genre.

I'm talking, of course, about margarine.

Seriously? This is not even close to appetizing.

Gross!

"Federal agents descended on Kraft’s offices near Chicago and confronted Mr. Watson. He admitted his role in a bribery scheme that has laid bare a startling vein of corruption in the food industry. And because the scheme also involved millions of pounds of tomato products with high levels of mold or other defects, the case has raised serious questions about how well food manufacturers safeguard the quality of their ingredients."

If you haven't yet made the switch away from processed foods, I urge you to read this article in the New York Times and reconsider.

Mr. Scrimp and I do believe that, by and large, our food is well monitored and safe. We do eat some processed foods now and then, and Mr. Scrimp has yet to totally break his Taco Bell habit.

Still, I have to be honest and say that this is going to make it easier to break myself of those last few food habits that I haven't changed yet. I want to grow tomatoes this summer and can my own so that I can eat pasta sauces and soups without wondering exactly what I'm eating. I am angry and I am sick and tired of not knowing where my food is really coming from and how.

The peace of mind that comes with knowing that everything I eat and feed to my family is safe and fresh is well worth the extra effort and minimal expense involved.

via Accidental Hedonist

Unpackaged, London

So I got a link today to an article about a small grocery shop in London that doesn't sell packaged food. Just about everything they have is sold in bulk, and customers are responsible for bringing their own packaging, eliminating waste and long-term plastic storage of food. This is brilliant, and I desperately want a store like this to open here in Ohio so that I can shop there.

In the world of my daydreams, someday shopping will universally go back to this--recognizable food, sans plastic or styrofoam, that you can buy in exactly the increments you need, no more, no less, from a small store.

Totally apart from whether hardcore environmentalists have got it right, it seems to me that this is just a more desireable way to live, and it's what really lies behind the Scrimpalicious ethos. I have no problem with home-processed, dried, frozen, or otherwise stored food, but it's time to do away with all of this fake, processed stuff, wrapped in plastic, sterilized, and totally disconnected from its source.

You can read the full article about Unpackaged and see more photos at the Inhabitat website.

On Food

I am a big fan and proponent of eating healthy food. It's part of why I started this blog, in fact. Food is, to me, one of the most important facets of our lifestyle. But I realized today that, apart from posting recipes, I've done very little talking about food and what we feel it ought to be.

Put very simply, it's this--we don't eat "health food," we don't eat processed food, we do our best to eat local and/or organic, and we try not to eat a lot of fat or sugar. We've been doing that for six and a half months now, and we've both lost weight. More importantly, though, we have more energy, fewer aches and pains, I sleep better (I used to have terrible problems with insomnia), and we both feel just generally better.

I spent about two hours walking around the grocery store today. It normally only takes me about 30 minutes to get all my shopping done, but Mr. Scrimp was at work, and I didn't have a list with me, so I took the time to browse and really enjoy myself.

Normally I shop with a list, but even when I don't, I try to be guided by a few simple and easy-to-remember rules:

• Don't buy pre-made food. It will almost always be better if you buy the separate ingredients and make it yourself, even though it will be more time consuming. You will also have the benefit of knowing exactly what you're eating, all the time.
• Don't buy food with ingredients you can't pronounce or find at the grocery store. Chemical additives in food are a relatively new addition, and are mainly present (or have been up until recently) in American diets. There aren't enough data yet to solidly lay the blame for the terrible health of Americans on chemical food additives yet, as far as I know, but the circumstantial evidence continues to mount up, especially as highly processed food begins to make its way into Europe and previously healthy countries experience similar spikes in their rates of certain health problems. I am simply tired of putting things into my body that have only been eaten by humans for the last 20-40 years. It strikes me as folly.
• Don't buy foods that are artificially low-fat, fat-free, or "lite". This is especially true of things like "fat free half & half" or "fat free sour cream". Half & half is half milk, half cream. Sour cream is, well, sour cream. By their very nature, those products have fat in them. What that means is that in order to make them fat-free, they have to be so chemically tweaked and altered that what you're really eating or drinking is asoup of seaweed, starches, sugars, thickened skim milk, chemicals, and sugar, sugar, sugar. Fat is one of the things that makes food taste good. Sugars are one of the others. Diet food products might be low in fat, but they almost always have huge amounts of added sugars and sodium to make up for it--otherwise you'd be able to taste all the chemicals you're eating. 
• Don't buy imitation foods. This is sort of an addendum to the last rule--margarine, tofurkey, American "cheese product", and all those other bizarre foods are terrible for you. They are unhealthy. They are heavily processed. They are full of sugar and chemicals that are probably someday going to turn out to be toxic. And they don't even taste good. 
• Don't buy canned when you can get fresh or dried. There's evidence coming out that food stored long-term in aluminum cans gets chemicals leached into it. I was actually advised away from canned foods and beverages by my doctor a few years ago because most of the cans are lined with soft plastics in order to keep the food from developing a metallic taste, and the plastics can leach into food over time. Instead of canned beans, buy dried. Instead of canned tomatoes, buy fresh. Or at least buy foods canned in glass, or frozen.
  

 It's been long enough now that Mr. Scrimp and I can both tell the difference. Maybe not every day, but when we have occasion to eat processed foods or foods that contain a lot of chemical additives, it takes him about 30 minutes and me about 2 hours to start to really feel unwell as a result.

During some of my Christmas vacation, we didn't have time to go grocery shopping and so ended up eating a lot of pre-made, restaurant, or even fast-food for a few days. By the end of it, I felt terrible.

"Did I used to feel like this all the time?" I asked Mr. Scrimp, staring in the mirror at my puffy eyes and wan face as I downed a couple of Advil to kill the headache that I couldn't seem to get rid of. "Why did it take me so long to stop?"

He shrugged. "We were just so used to it that we didn't notice anymore, I guess."

You might read this and think, "You know, that's true for you, but I feel fine eating processed food. I don't feel like it's affecting my health or my sense of well-being. I've lost weight on my lite-foods diet and I think it tastes delicious."

I challenge you to cut those foods out completely for two months (it takes about that long to get over the food cravings and feeling constantly hungry), and then tell me you don't feel better.

Maybe you're just so used to it that you just don't notice how you really feel.

Food for Thought

Well, I'm happy to announce that after 24 hours of intense antibiotics and a day in bed being tended by the saintly Mr. Scrimp, I'm starting to feel human again. The blog will be moving to a new domain this weekend so posting may (or may not) still be fairly light.

It's been a week or two since I talked much about the Scrimp household's food choices. We try very hard to eat as little processed food as possible. This saves money in the long run, and it is far, far healthier.

Found this article yesterday. Even if you still eat processed food, this is worth considering. Small changes in your eating habits can lead to big differences. It's been about six months since Mr. Scrimp and I started making a real effort to avoid processed food and we both feel much, much healthier and generally all-around better.

News articles about things like this are often sensationalized, so take it with a grain of salt--but it's very true that food is less nutritious than it used to be, and modern farming and food storage practices are part of that. My doctor long ago recommended against storing food in plastic, or in aluminum cans, which are lined with soft plastics to keep the aluminum taste out of the food, because of chemicals that can leach from the plastic into the food. 


The 7 Foods Experts Won't Eat - Yahoo News (via Fark)

Hummus

Well, it's Monday. The weekend always ends too soon. We had a party over the weekend for the husband's birthday, so this week's recipe will be for the hummus that I made.

I have a lot of goals for my life. One of those goals is to stop eating processed food, if not completely, then at least no more than once or twice a week. Obviously, "processed food" is a pretty big catch-all term, so I check food labels and don't (as a rule) buy things that have ingredients I can't pronounce or find at the grocery store.

Eating this way often costs us a little extra, but not always. This hummus is a good example of when it isn't--grocery store hummus is unreasonably expensive, given how cheap and easy it is to make.

Hummus Recipe (makes approximately 1 1/2 cups)

Ingredients:

• 1 can chickpeas
• 1/4 cup tahini*
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• Garlic cloves to taste (guideline: 2-4 cloves)
• Lemon juice to taste (guideline: juice from 1 lemon)
  
• Salt to taste

  Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Pulse until smooth. Taste, and tweak seasonings to your preference. Voila! Delicious hummus in ten minutes or less. I keep it in a small pyrex bowl with a lid and it lasts for about 6 hours before it mysteriously disappears (longer if my husband isn't home).

Drizzle with olive oil before serving for an extra bit of tastiness.


*If you can't find or can't afford tahini, try substituting smooth peanut butter. There will be a slight peanut taste to the hummus, but it will still be delicious. Sometimes I even prefer it that way.