You be the judge and dictionary
I was reading Daisy’s blog the other day, and she was talking trash about processed food. Well, she was talking trash about it until it literally blew up in her face (karma?). Her post got my mind turning, because, well, I think she’s crazy. But for the record, this post is not about her, it’s about the crazy people who refuse to eat food because someone else made it easier on them.
Seriously. You’re doing it wrong.
I love me some processed foods. There I said it. I love homemade and homegrown and organic too, but if given the choice between making a sort of homemade tortilla soup with canned diced tomatoes and chiles and a chicken cooked by the lovely people at my grocery store (like I did tonight, it was delicious) or do it all from scratch, I’m pretty much always going to choose the former.
I can almost see some arguments about hormones. Almost. And I’m sure that I’ll change my tune later when I have kids and have to really worry about those hormones and all that crap, but for now, I worry about getting a semi-balanced diet, I worry about fitting into my clothes and paying my bills. And if that means my cheap apples are grown somewhere with chemicals, well, guess what, I’ll wash them with my really organic water.
Speaking of which, the label of “organic” is also doing. it. wrong.
I picked up a can of pumpkin from the grocery story and pointed out to Slappy that it was organic. Without missing a beat he replied, “well, I hope so.” It took me a second to realize what he was saying. And then it hit me. IT’S PUMPKIN. IT’S ORGANIC BY DEFINITION OF WHAT A PUMPKIN IS. How do you have inorganic pumpkin? I mean really.
Someone is going to have to explain to me why one section of the produce is organic and the rest is not. IT’S FRUIT. How is it not organic?
But more than that, if my blood pressure, cholesterol, and basically everything (*cough*except my brain*cough*) are perfectly fine, why shouldn’t I eat food that is already processed or partially cooked? Because really, that preservative laden Lean Pocket in my freezer is delicious. Why do I care that it can last for decades? Isn’t that the sign of a good product? Longevity? Come on now.
Maybe preservatives are the key to a long life? You don’t know. I could be right. I’m married to a doctor, you know.
In the end, I think that what matters most is that we make our own choices, the choices that are right for us. You might think I’m lazy for eating processed foods (you would be right). I might think you’re crazy for spending twice as much on “organic” fruit (I might be right). But if it’s that’s what’s right for me or for you, then what’s there to argue about?
You know, except the totally incorrect use of the word organic.
Because dude, just no.
19 Responses to “You be the judge and dictionary”
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Welcome! I'm Katie, a 27 year old, full-time graduate student who just happened to have brain surgery in November of 2007 to give my ginormous brain a little more space. This blog chronicles my daily life, from relentless headaches to falling over in public to being a doctor's wife. Sit down, get comfortable and stay for a while.
I’m totally with ya on this one. I told Daisy that too. I love eating things that come out of a package. Also – I ate McDonald’s 3 times last week. Whoopsies.
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I completely agree with you. Have you seen the show Semi-Homemade on Food Network? I love it… because honestly who wants to make things (parts of a recipe) that you can buy, that are just as yummy. Also not a fan of the organic movement because its expensive and honestly the produce in the local stores here that are organic look kinda… gross. lol
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It musta been the weekend for this. I just had this same conversation with someone yesterday. I think there are people out there that truly are sensitive to additives & specific chemicals, and I appreciate the fact that they now have the options for removing those things from their diet. But for me & my family, I’d rather buy locally-grown & help our local economy than buy the questionable “organic” grown by someone I don’t know.
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Katie Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 10:38 am
I totally get the need to not consume things that your body reacts to. I’m allergic to eggs and raw nuts, I think of it the same way. Those people are skipping the processed stuff because they have to. Not because they’re crazy.
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You crack me up.
I’m with ya to a degree. Being ADD, I can’t do freezer meals – they mess with my system. Some processed foods do too, like hot dogs, lunch meats and red Jell-o. Sucks. But I like sleeping at night and feeling sane.
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Katie Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 10:39 am
I can understand skipping those processed foods. The jello’s the only one that makes me really sad. But I supposed for sleep purposes, it might be worth it.
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You know I’m one of the crazy ones that believes that it is all BAD BAD BAD, but I still have my crap that I won’t give up. (Kraft macaroni & cheese, cough cough.) I pick my battles.
That said, you must go back to the last two comments on my post because, according to those people I’M DOING IT WRONG. One of them thinks I need to completely re-evaluate how I feed the dog, the other lectured me on how that rice was processed food. Which was kind of the point of the post, no?
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Katie Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 10:41 am
I thought you were doing it wrong all along.
You should definitely give the dog raw chicken. I’m sure there’d be no sanitation issues.
It’s a slippery slope to crazy.
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I with ya!! The only thing I buy organic is the milk for my daughter. But it’s not because of the “organic” nature but because of the expiration date. For some reason it does last longer than the other kind. And it doesn’t get that about to turn to cottage cheese in thirty seconds, nasty, stinky taste and smell that forces me to dump half of it down the drain. So I’m being more kind to my budget with this choice. But other than that…. bring on the EASY cheese!
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I compromise…organic-ly produced milk and real butter mixed into my kids’ Macaroni and Cheese. Next to the meticulously washed, locally grown apple.
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Basically, “organic” food is called organic so that they can charge you twice as much for something that tastes exactly the same.
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I do not eat organic food all the time but I try to eat it if I have the option. A lot of canned foods (like beans or tomatoes for example) have a ton of preservatives and ingredients that I can’t even pronounce. But the can of organic beans right next to it only contains beans, water and sea salt. I choose that one!
I do a lot of research on what I eat (which I get from my hubby)and read labels. I feed my dogs food that is a little more expensive because a lot of the common dog foods have filler and animal by-products that aren’t that great for dogs.
I would never judge someone who ate a ton of processed foods but I choose to eat more organic as long as I believe it is better for me. However, there are some organic products that seem like a waste of time (and money). Like fruit. I don’t get that. How is a banana not organic?
One thing I noticed though is that some organic foods last longer. Not sure why.
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Katie Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Doesn’t it seem a little ironic that some organic foods last longer than their processed counterparts? Sort of kills my longevity point, eh?
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Becs Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 11:32 am
Yeah, but it’s only for some items so I am not sure why there is a difference. The most recent one I discovered was spinach. We have been making a ton of recipes with spinach lately (my husband is a health food and workout freak and spinach is really good for you and blah blah blah) and the organic spinach lasts about a week to a week and a half and the regular spinach lasts like 3 days. Huh?
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Organic and nonprocessed are 2 different things. You can have organic food items (grown without chemicals & pesticides) that are as processed as hell–all that fake meat crap, frozen organic meals. You can have nonprocessed whole food that’s grown with chemicals and pesticides–produce, grains, etc..
I also think that buying the soup that your grocery just made today is way different from getting a can of soup with a million pesticides. That’s a convenience food, not necessarily a processed food. I consider processed food to be stuff that has an extremely long list of unpronounceable ingredients. I get plenty of convenience stuff (already made there, by them) from our local version of Whole Foods, but it’s still real food and not overly processed.
But Lean Pockets, Diet Coke, crap like that? That’s just poison! And it can’t be good for your headaches. I’m just sayin’.
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Katie Reply:
March 8th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
I actually asked my neurosurgeon, point blank, if diet coke could be a problem. He said that not only was it not a problem, but rather, it was something that could be used as a treatment. Obviously in moderation, but he said there was no harm in 1-2 diet cokes a day.
I didn’t ask about lean pockets.
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Katie, I read your blog often and enjoy it! I hate to admit it but I do buy a lot of processed food. Frozen pizza, mac and cheese, bottled pasta sauce, luchmeat. I have an awful stomach and I don’t eat much but fruit and bagels. And we grill a lot in the warm weather, I know a lot of people don’t like either. I cook it….they eat it. I hate to cook so the easier the better. Great topic, you got a lot of people riled up.
xoxomaureen
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OMG it’s your Lean Pockets!! They are causing your migraines!
I love me some Kraft Mac N Cheese and you don’t even know how happy it makes me to see people agree.
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Welll, I’m just going to have to disagree with you here, as Bob from Office Space would say. Processed food is just that, processed. There are quite a lot of chemicals in your average lean pocket, and the vast majority of them have not have longitudinal studies to measure their effects on human health. BPA is a good example of a chemical that had been in a wide variety of products that is just now proving to have deleterious effects on health. While I don’t always pay the premium for organic produce, I do try to buy the best quality that I can. I do think that what you eat has a big impact on how you feel, so I try to limit my intake of anything that comes in wrappers, boxes, or contains more than a few multi-syllabic chemical compounds. It’s worth giving a try, rather than dismissing out of hand.
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