Do You Know What You Are Eating?

Food is an experience.  Not too long ago, dining was an event.  The ingredients for each dish were carefully selected to match the importance of gathering together to share in the intimacies of mealtime.  Those ingredients didn’t travel very far from their origins either.  People knew where their food came from and what was in it.  Today we are a society of instant foods.  Technology has allowed us to demote our food experience from the most important part of life to an afterthought.  We are always in a hurry and being harried feeds the instant food giants. 

We have become a nation blind to what we are consuming and there are many issues with modern foods that are starting to come out of the shadows.  There is a need to discover the origin of what makes it to our tables.  It starts with the seed or the animal.  What has been altered within those whole entities? 

I hope you will experience a paradigm shift as you work to research the journey of your food.  Before you purchase animal products you have to know what that animal is fed, what medications is it given, has it been given steroids to increase its size, and what living conditions does the animal exist?  It sounds overwhelming to find out this information when all you want is a cheeseburger so you can get back to work on time.  However, these are important questions to ask because hidden in that cheeseburger are the evidences of what that animal’s environment was before it made its way to you.  Whatever it was fed, you are now feeding your body. 

We can ask similar questions about produce too.  What kind of seeds were used to grow our fruits and vegetables?  Are the seeds genetically modified?  Were pesticides used to ensure their survival?  What farming practices were used to ensure the soil stays rich and usable? 

I am not naïve to the challenges that face us all as we try to decipher all of the information out there.  Many of the reports on what is safe and what isn’t are conflicting.  Companies need to continue to sell their products at a profit so they downplay the issues of chemicals in our foods and food production practices.  The government has regulations in place to keep the public safe but often times those regulations don’t go far enough.  As consumers we are either too overwhelmed with all of the information or because of health problems,  become resolved to figure it all out.  There is a battle between food economics and food ethics being waged in our country as we all try to sort these issues out. 

You may say, there is too much to know.  This section is dedicated to defining terms associated with modern food production, listing what the most dangerous chemicals in our foods are and what foods they are in, and giving you sources that will help you shift into cleaner foods.  I hope you will use it as a reference to launch you on your path towards healthy food.