(Untitled)

[annieover]

Instead of doing the very, very important work * that I have to finish today, I read the first 50 pages of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, book I was so sure I wanted to read that I purchased it used not once, but twice. (I couldn't remember if I already had the book.)  As I sat there eating my sugar free Jello with sugar free Cool

Comments

[gryphonwing]

Love that book. I read it either as part of my coursework in the sociology of food, or alongside - I can't remember. But I adore Kingsolver's writing in general; she's definitely one of my favorite authors. I go for thoughtful treatments of complicated situations, you know? Prodigal Summer might be my actual favorite book, although I'm actually really awful at the "favorites" thing. I put it in the same category with Leguin's The Telling, or her Four Ways to Forgiveness (and the Fifth Way, published later as a short story).

So I already knew I'd love Animal, Vegetable, Miracle... but then I had some of the same problems. I grew up mostly eating the healthy stuff, but have done a great job of making myself like the crap that disguises itself as food. I've had some luck with this... over time, if I cut down on really sugary things, I can taste the sweetness in other foods more easily. Some foods really do just plain taste better if they're locally grown - tomatoes are the best example. The ones in the store are almost always pale pink, refrigerated-flavor-killed, crappy tomatoes. And by appreciating the sources of my food instead of just the flavor and texture, I can genuinely like something more if I grew it myself or bought it from a local farmer, even if it wouldn't compare in immediate satisfaction to junk-fast-food.

It sort of works, not perfectly, but it's sort of a place to start. And that book's the one that got me interested in making yogurt, too. :)

Good luck with South Beach.

[jimbow8]

I am probably making excuses to an extent, but I do think it has gotten much harder since we were kids to find "good food." It's all become factory mass-produced and cheap.

[dimfuture]

Really? How has it become harder? When I was a kid, you couldn't find an organic produce section in any supermarket, much less rows of food from small, green companies who make their stuff in tiny batches.

My childhood had no shortage of scary processed foods, either... I remember "Frankenfurters," hot dogs stuffed with processed chili. Those things probably took five years off my life.

[annieover]

It's harder because at least when we were kids, Monsanto hadn't reengineered all the produce. I really resent how grape tomatoes have replaced cherry tomatoes at the supermarket. They don't taste nearly as good as the cherry tomatoes. Also, there were a lot more farm stands when I was a kid(at least here in Illinois) and those farm stands had a wide variety of food. Now the few that still exist carry basically the same produce that can be found in the supermarket. Also, organic produce usually has two to three times the price of the regular produce. And there was a lot less corn syrup and hydrogenated oil in the food 30 years ago.

But part of it is perception: we are a lot more aware that the produce is sprayed with crap than we were in the seventies. So produce "felt" safer even if it wasn't.

[dimfuture]

You make some good point. Of course, stuff like trans fats and corn syrup are largely on the way out now, or at least have become very unpopular. As always, medical science results in a lot of pendulum-swinging when it comes to nutrition.

[annieover]

I don't want to sound paranoid, but the corn industry is probably one of those things that is "too big to fail". The trans-fat may be on it's way out, but the corn industry is already fighting back with ads and articles* that claim high fructose corn syrup is "not really any different than sugar". That may be true, but the problem is that sugar is harder and more expensive to produce than HFCS, so it wasn't put into the foods in the quantities that it is now. For a while, MSG was the demon we were trying to get out of our food. It's not only still there, but now that are "special cases" where food manufacturers don't have to list it as an ingredient.

*Just as the egg industry, the beef industry, the cheese industry and the pork industry fought back when doctors began advising people to avoid high cholestorel foods.

[jimbow8]

I may be wrong but I would submit that...

The overall quality of food has steadily decreased. Yes, there were processed foods but not to the point that there are today. The reason that there are now rows dedicated to small, green companies is because they are an exception, whereas in the past (going back to our childhood and, morseo, beyond), most of the normal products you found in the supermarket were of higher quality and were from small(er), green(er)*, companies.

(This may just my mistaken memory/perspective.)

*"green" being a pretty recent designation.

[annieover]

I think we should keep in mind that there may be regional differences here in the supermarkets.

[dimfuture]

Yeah, I guess for me the difficulty comes in the abstract nature of what you're saying... "quality has steadily decreased." In what way? It tastes worse? Spoils faster? Too many pesticides? Not enough pesticides? Unsustainable growing practices? What are we talking about?

I'm not outright refuting your point, but my perspective is different, I suppose. As annieover said, supermarkets are different regionally -- the companies putting milk and cheese on the shelves here are the same ones as thirty years ago.

[annieover]

The last three or four avocadoes I've bought feel like they are ripe, but they taste like soap. I'm wondering if they are a new variety that "ships better".

[annieover]

I've only read her Poisonwood Bible so far, but parts of that novel have haunted me for years. How are you doing?