Jan 19, 2007 15:04
"Organic". You hear the word a lot these days as it pertains to food and grocery stores. Personally I had always found it irksome because most of what everyone eats is organic anyway. I dare you to show me a bag of spinach that ISN'T organic. If you can, I'm betting it's a plastic play-skool toy for 3 year olds.
But the organic fad seems to be sweeping the nation as people cry evil about trans fats and look for new ways to be healthier. It wouldn't be nearly so frustrating if people were actually trying to be healthy instead of latching on to the latest fad diets or trends portrayed by our media. Forgive me, I digress.
I stepped into a couple of organic markets just to take a look-see around at the sort of things they sold, being as how I am a recently diagnosed diabetic and am trying to eat better, why not? Everybody touts the virtues of organic markets so what could it hurt to check it out? I was sorely disappointed. After perusing the aisles and looking at a wide selection of items on the shelves, things such as "Organic Oatmeal" with no refined sugar... (but enough cane juice to send me into diabetic coma) or "Organic Chips"... (don't even get me started) to things like Soy milk substitutes.... (Anything other than unsweetened is a hellz no. You may as well drink whole milk.)
The long and the short of it is, unless you are deliberately going out of your way to spend extra money for a slab of beef that was supposedly butchered from a cow that was allowed to wander at pasture instead of bred in an industrial cattle ranch because it somehow makes you feel like a better person knowing that bessy got to know the pleasures of an open field before they cut her throat..... then there is no reason to buy "organic". The food isn't any healthier for you. It's just another tag line to slap on a box label to make a product seem more desirable. And I'm not buying it.
If you actually want to eat better, more veggies, lean meats. Moderate your starches and grains. Fad diets to any extreme will kill you if you adhere to them. Healthy, balanced diet. The place most people go wrong is just with portion control. And the food service industry hasn't really helped that much either. Would you like to supersize that?
And what the hell are they doing banning trans fat in new york? Never mind the constitutionality questions of wholesale telling people you can't have a donut for breakfast, that's a rant for another time, but how can you be outraged about trans fats when the soft drink industry sells poison by the 20 ounce bottle for 1.49 a pop and kids drink it like water without a second thought and then we wonder why more and more people are becoming obese? What about Gatorade? Sure, great for athletes on the run, burning up energy in competition, but as a recreational drink? Death in a bottle.
Okay. I'm done, otherwise I could go on all day. Time to hop in the shower and get ready for Much Ado tonight. Wheee!