Thursday, March 17, 2011

Fresh Food Fixation

I'm not sure if the overall culture surrounding food is shifting or if I'm just shifting in who I spend time with and therefore my views of food are shifting. As I evaluate my eating habits, I'm realizing that I'm becoming more and more of a granola person.  (A granola person is not someone who eats granola or a hippie...I neither eat granola nor am I a hippie.  A granola person is someone who is very health conscious and tends to eat mostly natural foods...click the link for a fuller definition). In some ways, I was always sort of a granola person. My food allergies forced me to not rely on processed foods, so I did spend most of my life eating "real food" or "whole food". 
Usually our fridge is full of fresh, locally grown, organic vegetables.  (I say usually because it was Tuesday evening when I wrote this and we get new vegetables on Wednesdays...)  Many (most) of the prepared foods that I do buy are vegan, though I am not vegan or even vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination...I like meat way too much.  Things end up being vegan just because I can't have cow dairy or eggs.  The goat cheese sitting in my fridge is raw.  I'm not completely sure what that means, but I think it means it hasn't been processed as much as regular cheese.  The salad dressing I put on my pasta tonight was organic and vegan. 
However, I think I may have crossed a line the day that I had a smoothie made out of homemade soy yoghurt, home-canned peaches, and organically grown clover sprouts.  At least I didn't make the soy milk to make the yoghurt...
I'm not sure how I feel about this fixation with fresh food.  I mean, it feels good to eat it.  I'm sure my body is happier that it is not getting overly processed food, but is there a line?  Is there  line somewhere between trying to eat healthy and being fanatical about it?  Are processed foods all that bad? Are there certain foods that just shouldn't be eaten (aside from outright allergies) or are all foods okay in moderation?  I read about good sugars and bad sugars...is there really a difference?
I'm not really sure what I think.  I just like food a lot and food that doesn't make me sick and might even be good for me is even better.

No comments: