Ultra-Processed Phoods

"We don't know what it is, but after adding a bunch of industrially formulated edible substances synthesized from organic compounds, the consumer won't be able to resist." 

What is the difference between natural, minimally processed, and ultra-processed foods?

An example is illustrative of how one of these is not like the others.

Natural Food - Corn on the cob

Ingredients - corn

Minimally Processed Food - Frozen or canned corn

Ingredients - corn, water, salt

Ultra-Processed Food Phood- Flavoured Corn Tortilla Chips

Ingredients - Corn, Vegetable Oil (Corn, Canola, And/or Sunflower Oil), Maltodextrin, Salt, Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Whey, Monosodium Glutamate, Buttermilk, Romano Cheese (Part-skim Cow's Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Whey Protein Concentrate, Onion Powder, Corn Flour, Natural And Artificial Flavour, Dextrose, Tomato Powder, Lactose, Spices, Artificial Color (Yellow 6, Yellow 5, And Red 40), Lactic Acid, Citric Acid, Sugar, Garlic Powder, Skim Milk, Red And Green Bell Pepper Powder, Disodium Inosinate, And Disodium Guanylate. 

CONTAINS MILK INGREDIENTS.

Making what you eat yourself out of natural whole food ingredients is time and labour intensive. That is why more people don't do it more often.

However, eating ultra-processed phoods has its drawbacks, too, and they are much more dangerous then spending more time in the kitchen.

UPF are the result of industrial processes and include some nasty ingredients you otherwise would not find anywhere else except maybe a chemical factory.

Many of the ingredients in fake phoods can be harmful to your health. Very harmful in many cases.

These industrialized, hyperpalatable, ultra processed foods are the main source (60 - 70%) of calories eaten in places like the US, UK, and Canada.

Big Phood is using the strategies Big Tobacco perfected to hoodwink the public because in both cases they know their products are harmful.

Their use of misinformation and disinformation is rampant (who is going after them?), and their discrediting of science and researchers that produce data that runs counter to their lies is straight out the Disinformation Playbook.

 

"The results of independent science don’t always shine a favorable light on corporate products and practices. In response, some corporations manipulate science and scientists to distort the truth about the dangers of their products, using a set of tactics made famous decades ago by the tobacco industry. We call these tactics the Disinformation Playbook."

 - Union of Concerned Scientists

 

It is no coincidence that Big Tobacco once owned phood companies. What these companies also had in common with the tobacco pushers is that they both sold products meant to addict consumers.

They make products addictive in the phood industry by making them "hyperplatable".

Such extra-tasty UPFs are purposely tempting combinations of salts, fats, sugars and carbs that are so pleasing they trigger addictive responses in the diner/addict.

Remember "bet you can't eat just one"? It's not just a slogan for an addictive phood. It is also a promise, and a threat. 

Key Facts:

1. Tobacco-owned foods between 1988 and 2001 were up to 80% more likely to be hyperpalatable compared to those not owned by tobacco companies.
2. Despite tobacco companies divesting from the U.S. food system by the mid-2000s, over 57% of fat-and-sodium and 17% of carbohydrate-and-sodium hyperpalatable foods were still prevalent in 2018.
3. Hyperpalatable foods excessively stimulate our brain’s reward system, disrupting fullness signals, leading to overconsumption and related health issues.

Source: University of Kansas

These products are best avoided altogether, or used in strict moderation.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out there is collusion between Big Phood, Big Medicine, and Big Pharma.

Eating these phoods in excess could lead to poor health outcomes. The consumer/victim then turns to Big Medicine, which in turn will lead to doctors prescribing harm-aceutical products. It is the perfect trifecta of profit.

Everyone wins, except us, the people eating all this non-food phood.

In my house we have been eliminating industrial, chemical-laden phoods from our diet, and replacing them with healthful foods we make ourselves out of mostly organic, whole ingredients.

As a result, we have control over what we eat, and because of that, control over our health. 

I guess it is a luxury to be able to make almost everything we eat from scratch.

However, if we as a society don't have the time to eat healthful, homemade meals, we should question what it is we are doing that is more important than healthful eating.

After years of effort, Linda and I are almost 100% off the crappy stuff, and challenge the corporate pushers with our own slogan - 

"Bet you can't make us eat even one."

Ha! Don't even try. 

Take back control over your health and say NO to ultra-processed phoods.

Fake Fantastical Farce

Are food companies misleading the public? Duh. 

Any large entity trying to make a power or profit play these days is misleading someone. Because, apparently, it works.

Move over misinformation, and make room for misleading, misstatements, misspeaking, and other ploys that are just plain wrong, bad, and erroneous.

Yes, that is what it takes to push their crap, whether it is a corrupt company selling stuff, or goofy governments pushing their reality rejecting narratives.

Wherever you look, it's a fake fantastical farce. 

"Without truth there can be no science and no scholarship."

- Paul Craig Roberts

Essentially, besides all the soft wording used to describe these practices, they are plain and simple lying to us.

How to fight back?

Practice lifelong learning. 

Be suspicious. 

Exercise a healthy doubt regarding everything you see and hear.

Most importantly, definitely do your own research (we used to call that 'reading'), and 

think for yourself.

Billions And Billions Saved

Because of my interest in satirical art, I learned about William Hogarth, an English painter, printmaker, pictoral satirist, and social critic from the 1800s. He was possibly the original editorial cartoonist. 

If Hogarth started visual satire for the masses, the artist known as Mr. Fish (Dwayne Booth) has been working on perfecting it. 

When I saw Fish's "Billions and Billions Saved" artwork I thought of the most conventional thought experiment going - the "Killing Hitler" scenario.

In this mind mashup one theoretically averts all the horrors of WWII by going back in time and offing young Hilter before he and the Nazis had a chance to come to power.

When I saw the picture above, I thought that one might save more lives in a time travel thought experiment of "Strapping Ronald Into An Electric Chair" scenario.

Imagine, if you will, the theoretical time traveler offing him and his inventor, Ray Kroc. before the deadly duo had a chance to sell all that killer fake food. 

Hitler, or Ronald thought experiment? 

I wonder which would save more lives?

 

Food Is The Best Medicine

I tend to look first to simple solutions to any problem. Why overly complicate things if simple alternatives are found effective?

One simple solution they should have been informing us of in order to save lives since March 2020 is "lose weight, improve your diet, and get regular exercise". 

Instead they locked us down and actually succeeded in increasing things like alcohol abuse and obesity, two situations that will surely have a negative effect on health.

"There is, in fact, a close association between the severity of COVID-19 and the quality of one's diet.

Conclusions: A diet characterized by healthy plant-based foods was associated with lower risk and severity of COVID-19." 

 

https://gut.bmj.com/content/70/11/2096

 

After two years of saying that vaccines are "the only way out of the pandemic", it might be time to consider other proven alternatives.

Especially since we have never vaccinated ourselves out of a pandemic before. Historically, ending pandemics has been aided by improved hygiene and improved overall health and diet of the population.

Whether you have been vaxxed or not, losing weight, cutting alcohol consumption, improving your diet with wholesome foods, and getting regular exercise are going to do wonders for your health.

One has to wonder why they haven't been saying anything about this. And still aren't.

When one out of every five deaths across the globe is attributable to a poor diet, more than any other risk factor, it is time for the "health care industry" to acknowledge the importance of a wholesome diet, whether there is a pandemic or not.

Simple solutions can often be the most effective, and least potentially harmful, despite what the for-profit technocrats say.

Food remains the best medicine. It is that simple.

Better to be proactive and get your food at a farmacy, than eat phood till one requires the services of a pharmacy. 

 

Grow Your Own

Has there ever been a better or more important time to start a garden? 

Or plan to start a garden? 

Or to start collecting the things needed to garden?

Or organize growing space with a neighbour or community garden?

Or to tap into local resources on growing your own food, such as books, videos, and expertise in your area?

Or how about lobbing seed bombs (water balloons filled with seeds) into abandoned spaces like the Green Guerrillas did in New York city in 1974?

Has there ever been a better time to do ANYTHING at all to do with gardening and promoting growing your own food?

Not in my lifetime.

I was checking out The Ice Age Farmer the other day, and saw the following information regarding food prices.

"As a billionaire supermarket CEO says food prices will skyrocket +10% in the NEXT 60 DAYS, the NSA/FBI/CISA are warning of Cyberattacks on food production and municipal water/wastewater systems.  

Our food and water are under relentless attack across all vectors: financial, cyber, supply chain, fertilizer shortages, nat gas prices are conspiring to create a perfect storm within the systems that feed most people.  

Only those who seek to grow and raise their own food will be unaffected by the storm ahead.  

Get ready."

See more here.

We do not want to leave decisions regarding food of the future to be made by corporations and their politicians.

Dependence on that system is fraught with problems.

I am growing as much as I can myself before people that grow their own food find themselves labelled anti-fake food terrorists, and dealt with accordingly.

Happy gardening. Tending the soil and growing your own food is the simplest, most joyful thing a person can do.

It may soon be the most radical, too.

Calorie Confusion

Most Westerners would benefit from eating fewer calories, and eating better food.

What if health experts are as wrong about how many calories we need as they are about our food pyramid and the types of foods that are best for us? I suspect that we have been scammed so that we eat not only the wrong foods, but also eat more food than we need.

How many calories does a person need to be healthy? It depends on the individual, and it depends on who you ask.

"Health authorities around the world find it hard to agree on how many calories their citizens should ideally consume. The US government says the average man requires 2,700 calories per day and the average woman 2,200, while the NHS (National Health Service), UK, says it should be 2,500 and 2,000 respectively. 

The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) of the United Nations says the average adult should consume no less than 1,800 calories per day."

Below are the caloric values of the three main components of the food we eat:

1 gram of carbohydrates contains 4 calories
1 gram of protein contains 4 calories
1 gram of fat contains 9 calories.

A restricted caloric diet may slow aging and extend lifespan. It improves the health of a variety of species including yeast, earthworms, fish, rodents, dogs and rhesus monkeys. Why not humans too?

Scientists do not yet know if such results are applicable to us, but it is likely that eating fewer, better calories will yield health benefits.

Cut The Crap - Cook At Home

As home cooking has fallen into disfavour in recent decades, many people don't know how to cook.

I like to cook all my meals from scratch using wholesome vegetarian ingredients. Evidence is amassing that tells us this is the way to go for optimal health. Recently the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation said as much when it recommended we "cut the crap" and get back to home cooked meals.

Besides "avoid all highly processed foods", they had the following recommendations. 

• Cook from scratch at home as much as possible with whole ingredients.
• Teach children and young people how to cook, including through home economics classes in school.
• Pay attention to portion sizes.
• Eat a healthy, balanced diet with a variety of natural and whole foods.
• Eat fewer highly processed foods such as sugary drinks, sweets, salty snacks and processed meats with many ingredients, additives and preservatives.

Not so long ago these were simple common sense, but in a time when we are spending more of our food budget outside of the home and eating industrialized food, they are seen as radical ideas.

What happened to home cooked? I have one possible explanation. One of my neighbours remembers being embarrassed at bringing sandwiches made from home baked bread to school.

Wonderbread, which was new to the market at the time, was the more modern and fashionable choice in the 1950s school lunch room. It was "notoriously deficient in vitamin and mineral content" and had to be fortified according to government regulations introduced to combat disease.

Advertising that often appealed to children made it seem like home cooked food was inferior. Today cooking at home is only for celebrity chefs on TV and people that can't afford processed food and restaurant meals.

Wrong. I think we are ready for a fresh, home made, no crap food revolution. We are finally coming to understand that good food is our true medicine.  And the best medicine is made from your own two hands in your own kitchen with tasty, healthy ingredients.

Yum.

Processed Food - For Emergencies Only

While living in our van the thing we missed most was preparing fresh food.
It feels great to get cooking again.

While we were crossing the country we did not cook a single meal. We prepared many meals, but in the name of simplicity, convenience and being in emergency mode, none of them required heat.

Usually on a trip like this Linda and I would cook all our own meals, but this time was different. We have never travelled with Linda in a wheelchair before, and I have never been as physically affected by an injury as after my disk herniation back in May.

As a result our voyage was hard, but a bittersweet kind of hard. It was so exciting that adrenalin went a long way toward making it possible, but something had to go due to our physical limitations. One of those things was cooking.

But there were many cold dishes that we enjoyed:

• Refrigerator Oatmeal - prepared in a mason jar the night before.
• Cold Soya Burgers in buns - they are a little gross cold, but perfectly edible and filling.
• Refried beans and tortilla wraps - we made several burritos at a time so they were instantly ready when we got hungry. Complement with plain yogurt inside just before eating.
• Baked Beans with Dinner Rolls - the beans were eaten right out of the can by candle light. One spoon -  cheap, easy, romantic.
• Fresh Fruit - bananas, apples, nectarines.
• Sandwiches - cheese, peanut butter and jam.
• Breakfast cookies - before we left Nelson my beautiful mother baked us a giant bag of whole oat based cookies with nuts and raisins. They got us all the way to Ontario.
• Plain Yogurt - scoop right out of the container for instant protein.
• Cold Cereal - with milk prepared from powder.

We also had to rely more than we usually do on convenience foods, prepared foods, and fast food. Places with drive-through windows saved us because it was a challenge for me to walk inside to order.

Before long we began to tire of our new road diet, and developed an intense craving for fresh, wholesome and nutritious food. We missed our own home-cooked, whole food diet.

Our faux food fest reaffirmed everything we believe about processed stuff - it's convenient, but yucky. Processed food may give you calories, but it isn't really nutritious. It will keep you alive for a while, but  should be taken for emergencies only, and even then in moderation.

Learn How To Cook

You can avoid a lot of things like preservatives, GMOs, additives,
and ill health by cooking your own wholesome food at home.

Learning how to cook is a basic survival skill as well as an endless source of delight. Good food feeds more than just the stomach and it nourishes more than just the body - it can comfort the heart as well.

Considering the importance of diet in promoting health and well being, one of the best things you can do for yourself is learn to cook. Making food at home using wholesome ingredients is a great way to take control of what is going into your body (or your temple, if you prefer).

One word of warning - it is a lot of work. I cook for two so when I think of my mom back in the day cooking for a family of seven it boggles my mind. Thanks mom, for keeping most of us alive.

While I only cook for two, it often feels like I am always either preparing for cooking, cooking, or cleaning up from cooking. It seems like it is all about eating, and I guess it is. Hunger is a great motivator.

I can totally understand why someone with a regular work schedule, and/or children, would be tempted to eat out or use convenience foods.

But convenience foods are not so convenient when they make you sick.

While a growling tummy will be temporarily satisfied with fast, convenience, packaged and processed foods, continued use of such products can lead to unwanted complications like metabolic syndrome.

Research has shown that eating a Western diet heavy on refined grains, processed and red meat, fried food, eggs, and soda, and less fish, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, increases the risk of developing metabolic syndrome and other illnesses.

Learning to cook with whole foods can protect you from harmful ingredients in manufactured foods.

Over the years Linda and I have learned to cook many of our favourite dishes that we previously thought we could only get in restaurants or prepared foods.

Kitchen Gadget-itis

Cooking new dishes is a fun and creative activity that is immensely satisfying. We find that we prefer our cooking and baking than the more expensive stuff in restaurants and grocery stores because we can make it just the way we like it.

And don't get sucked in by the marketers - a lot of food can be prepared with a minimal amount of supplies and utensils. Beware of "kitchen gadget-itis" which is unnecessary, expensive and creates counter clutter.

Learning to cook is a life skill that will save you money, feed your stomach, nourish your body, and comfort your heart.

Good appetite!



"Learn how to cook! That's the way to save money. You don't save it buying hamburger helpers, and prepared foods; you save it by buying fresh foods in season or in large supply, when they are cheapest and usually best, and you prepare them from scratch at home. Why pay for someone else's work, when if you know how to do it, you can save all that money for yourself?" 

- Julia Child

Becoming GMO Free

A recent New York Times poll found that 93% of Americans favor labeling of GMO foods.

"Three-quarters of Americans expressed concern about genetically modified organisms in their food, with most of them worried about the effects on people’s health." 

- New York Times

Good food is medicine. Frankenfoods are poison, and should be labeled as such.

The pushers of GMO's are unleashing science fiction monstrosities that threaten to overthrow the farm and village alike. It is time to get out the torches and pitch forks, gather publicly and make our demand -

"We want food! REAL food!"

And we want fake food to carry warning labels.

Most villagers agree that food producers should tell us if there are genetically modified products in what they are trying to sell us. But the mad scientists don't want to reveal the monster they are creating and unleashing upon a reluctant world.


Corporations to Avoid

The following are some of the larger corporations that are actively fighting against GMO labelling. They don't really want you to know the truth about what you are eating when you consume their products.

It is estimated that 75-80% of processed food in Canada contains GMOs.




Abbott Nutrition

BASF

Bayer Corporation

Campbell Soup Company

Cargill, Inc.

ConAgra Foods, Inc.

Del Monte Foods Company

E. I. Du Pont

General Mills, Inc.

H. J. Heinz Company

Kellogg Company

Kraft Foods Inc.

Mars, Inc.

Monsanto Company

Nestlé

Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.

PepsiCo Inc.

Sara Lee Corporation

The Coca-Cola Company

The Dow Chemical Company

The Hershey Company

The J.M. Smucker Company

Unilever PLC

Wrigley Company


See the full list here.

Becoming GMO Free

Eat as much organic as you can. Certified organic products do not contain GMOs.

Support organic foods from small producers vs. organic brands owned by major food corporations who oppose GMO labelling.

Look for producers that openly oppose GMOs in their package labels and websites.

Buying organic foods from local farms and markets means a healthier environment and community.

Grow your own food as much as possible.

Stay away from fast food, packaged and processed foods - many contain GMO ingredients, although they are not listed on labels or in information.

Cook your own dishes using whole food ingredients.

Everyone that eats deserves to know what they are putting in their system. Demand improved food labelling so informed decision making is possible.

Food should be medicine, not poison.

Truth In Food Labelling Monday

While current food labels give some information, they could provide a LOT more.
See below for a proposed alternate label that has big food producers shaking in their loafers.

If you are the type that cares about what goes into your temple, and you take the time to check, you probably find current labelling standards to be lacking. Questions remain unanswered.

A lot of people that like to eat real food are pushing hard for accurate food labelling, especially since GMO 'foods' are increasingly being snuck into products without diners knowledge. 

Polls have shown that 90% of Americans want to know if their foods contain GMOs, but producers are stalling in this push for transparency.

And whether foods contain genetically modified organisms isn't the only thing they aren't telling us.

Is the product nutritious? How real, or natural, is it? What impact does the food's production have on social and environmental conditions? 

What is needed is a simple, read-at-a-glance food label that gives all this information so shoppers can make informed food decisions.

Below is one such label being proposed by people who think that you can't have too much information when it comes to making food choices that are better for your health, the health of your neighbours and the health of the environment.

GMO's: One More Reason Not To Eat Crap

Be informed - avoid GMO's.

It used to be that processed foods were foods that had been treated badly to improve their convenience factor. As if that weren't enough, now we can add Frankenfoods to the list of mistreatments wreaked upon things formerly known as real food.

The corporations that participate in this nutritional monster mash don't want you to know where they are hiding their food gremlins. In recent years they have been actively fighting any move toward GMO labelling.

If their products are as safe as they say they are, what is the problem? Monsanto wouldn't need to be legally absolved of future responsibility for health problems if the company weren't already aware such issues existed.

And if they truly don't know the consequences of what they are unleashing, they should take their products off the shelves until they do.

Thankfully the lovers of real food, the defenders of nature, and clear thinking skeptical types, are fighting back. The Frankenfood zombie must be slain, they say, before everything is irreversibly tainted.

50 countries, including Denmark, Norway, France, Germany and Italy have banned or restricted GMO's. Unfortunately, Canada and the US are GMO boosters and don't even require labelling. Again, what are they trying to hide?

Genetically engineered freaky foods are surreptitiously slipped into everything from Arrowroot Teething Biscuits to Zesta Saltines crackers, and everything in-between.

And just because you aren't a teething baby or you don't like crackers doesn't mean you are safe. Up to 80% of processed foods contain some GMO ingredients.

Find out more products that have GMO ingredients in the package, but not on the label, by following this link:

Foods with genetically engineered ingredients.

Although it is an incredibly long list, it can only be considered partial since new Frankenfoods are developed every year. Yuck!

How can we avoid ingesting scary cancer causing foods that are more comfortable in the laboratory than in the kitchen, or our stomachs? The following tips will help you steer clear, although remaining vigilant is recommended.

How To Avoid Frankenfoods

1. Grow your own food as much as you can. Choose heirloom varieties.
2. Eat an organic, whole food diet.
3. Eat vegetarian - avoid the newly developed Frankenfish (AquaBounty GMO salmon), as well as meat reared on GMO feed.
4. Don't eat prepared, processed or snack foods. Watch for those that contain soy, corn, or canola oil, all of which are commonly genetically modified.
5. Make your own food. When you make it yourself, you know for sure what is in it.

Get Cooking: The Joys of A Tidy Kitchen

Welcome to my Tiny Tidy Bakery (note: toaster oven in background now gone)

When I was learning to cook more meals from scratch I was looking for ways to ease the process of getting off convenience foods. I read that the prime reason people didn't cook more was because their kitchen was often a mess. The solution was simple - always keep your kitchen clean, tidy, and ready for cookery magic.

Freshly made baked salsa with tortilla chips

There is nothing that kills the desire to cook more than walking into an untidy kitchen. It is not hard to envision piles of dishes filling a sink, cluttered counter tops, and things out of place. Most kitchens I have been in actually looked like that. But this should be scrupulously avoided, because what you want to do is focus on cooking, not cleaning.

When we see a messy kitchen we yield to the temptation to consume less nutritious, more convenient, more expensive fare. Manufacturers and providers of frozen dinners, take out, order in, prepackaged, and fast foods all benefit from the chronically messy kitchens across the land. It is time for a Tidy Kitchen Movement.

I cook all meals from scratch in my tiny, tidy kitchen. Sometimes it seems like I spend most of every day preparing for, cooking, and cleaning up from meals. Good thing that I love cooking. I love it even more when I start with sparkling clean, orderly surroundings.



Keeping A Tidy Kitchen

• always have a tidied kitchen by the end of the day so you don't have to wake up to a mess
• clean as you go throughout the day so things don't add up to a huge, overwhelming cleaning job later - keep a sink of soapy water and wash things as they are used, then dry and put them away
• have a place for everything so things can be stowed out of the way when not in use
• change your attitude toward cleaning so you can look at it as a part of cooking which can be enjoyable in its own right. Look at it as an opportunity for quiet time, moving meditation, or karma yoga.
• keep counter tops clean - a wide expanse of clear counter space wants to be used
• have everything at your fingertips - you should be able to immediately access everything you need, which is why I like a smaller kitchen
• involve your family in the cooking... and the cleaning

Veggie stir fry

Do you want to take more control over what you are eating? Do you want to cook more often? Try the joys of a tidy kitchen. It is just as effective regardless of how big or small your kitchen. 

You will find that a constantly clean, orderly workspace invites you to joyfully practice your culinary alchemy. It makes transforming basic, healthy ingredients into delicious elixirs of longevity for the whole family easier, and much more enjoyable.  

A Little Inconvenience Is Good

Inconvenience Store

Sometimes I jokingly call our home the 'house of inconvenience'. We are in no hurry, so don't have the need for time-saving conveniences. We think that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly and mindfully.

Things are more difficult, but are also more meaningful. We are joyful, active participants in our increasingly self-reliant lifestyle. We enjoy the benefits of our thoughtful, inconvenient life.

Conveniences have been grossly oversold to the public. If life is so busy that I have to take the convenient route to compensate, perhaps what I need is a less busy life.

It's not natural to expect to be able to proceed through life with little effort or difficulty. Life is hard, and perhaps should be (within reason) for optimal human functioning. Humans, in our natural state, are curious and like a challenge - it keeps us interested and focused.

If you want the easy life, there will always be someone willing to sell you something that will, "make life better".

But there will also always be trade offs and unintended consequences. There is no shortage of examples of conveniences gone wild. 

-Keyless entry cars

"Touted as a convenience and car safety measure on over 150 new models, the key-less ignition has been linked to two carbon monoxide-related deaths in Florida and one in New York, where the feature led drivers to unknowingly leave their cars running overnight in attached garages as they were enveloped in the deadly gas." 

- Fast foods

"Fast food restaurants are extremely tactful and strategic in attracting customers. Their various forms of marketing practices draw consumers in, making them utilize a window for service, eat deep-fried foods, and receive large portions. The industry conducts a successful, yet health-harming business because they are preying on consumers’ needs for convenience."

-Synthetic clothes

"The micro fibres of easy wash, quick drying, low iron, synthetic clothes go down the drain and eventually end up in coastal marine habitats.

Marine biologists report that microplastic, comprised of fibres less than 1mm in length, is accumulating in marine habitats and shorelines throughout the world. They suggested that polyester and acrylic fibres from wastewater are a major source of this contamination. A single synthetic garmet, the study found, can yield more than 1,900 microfibers per wash."

Our conveniences have serious consequences.

Taking the perceived path of least effort degrades our quality of life. Every year conveniences are responsible for outright killing.

It would seem that a little inconvenience is good for you.

Why else would people go camping? Or bake their own bread? Or cook meals from scratch? Or ride their bike to work? Or paint an original rather than do a paint by number?

Food Security Monday

Conventionally grown faux foods contain
less nutrients than real ones grown organically

What Is Food Security?

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations defines food security as:

"a condition in which all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life."

Conventional industrial foods are bred and grown in conditions that increase profits, but decrease nutritional value. You may pay less for food produced on energy-intensive, fossil fuel based industrial farms, but you are also getting less. Less nutrients, but more harmful chemical residues.

From a food security perspective, industrial farms do not meet the goals of safe and nutritious food that meets our dietary needs for an active and healthy life. We have to approach what we eat with food security in mind.

We grow some of our own food. When buying food, we try to buy local and organic as much as we can. Considering the extra nutrients in organic food, the price doesn't seem as high compared to less expensive, less nutritious conventional foods.

You can do something today to increase your food security - join a community garden, plan a backyard garden plot, plant some containers with veggies, buy organic apples and potatoes from local producers, join a farm box program for local, fresh produce, join a food buying coop, grow some herbs indoors in a window, start some seeds... Get involved - it's fun.

$ave Up To 50% On Groceries

Beware the center aisles of the grocery store

I may not be buying much, but a person has to eat and there is no way around that. Since I am not tucked away on a little farm achieving food self-sufficiency, that means going to a grocery store, an increasingly painful process.

Shopping for food is getting more expensive all the time. I am not happy about setting new records at the till, despite shouting "BINGO" each time I do. To try to prevent this from occurring too often, I have a few strategies for controlling the food budget.

Price Per 100 Grams

One of my favourite strategies is to use price per unit of measurement in order to make direct comparisons. In Canada our produce is still priced per pound - despite adopting the metric system in the 1970's - but most other items show prices per 100 grams.

Showing the price per unit of measurement allows comparison across different package sizes for the best deal. In my store, the price/100g is shown on the shelf along with the total package price. By looking at the standard price, I have often found that larger sizes are not necessarily the best deal. Sometimes smaller packages cost less per 100g. And don't get sucked in by bulk.

Bulk Not Always Best

I used to think that the bulk section always provided the best deals. I was wrong. Armed with my price/100g, I can compare the price of bulk items to packaged ones on the shelf. Sometimes bulk items cost less, but sometimes they are much more expensive.

This can make a huge difference when it comes to expensive foods such as walnuts or almonds. Prices change frequently, so I take the time to check bulk prices versus packaged prices every time. The savings can amount to several dollars per kilo (2.2 lbs).

30% to 50% OFF

By far the most fun are the heavily discounted grocery items - anywhere from 30% to 50% off. The produce section of our store usually has a shelf of these half priced items. Often there is absolutely nothing wrong with the food, and a lot of it just has minor blemishes, or has been sitting for a while.

I have purchased giant bags of half price mushrooms, then processed them at home to make soup and pasta sauce which I freeze in jars. I love half price bananas. Ripe bananas can be peeled, put into baggies, and frozen whole. Take one or two out at a time to add to an orange to make an icy, yummy smoothie. Or thaw a few and make a banana bread.

Other grocery items are also frequently discounted 50% for reasons that don't affect the food inside. Why pay full price for breakfast cereal when the discount bin has identical boxes with a little cut in the cardboard (not in the inner package) for half the cost?

Sales Specials - Pantry Packers

Another way to save on food is to take advantage of sales. Many stores have a 3 month rotation schedule on sales so if, for example, peanut butter is on sale, I will buy enough for 3 months. This can lead to a well-stocked pantry, which is a beautiful thing at any time, but is especially precious during an emergency.

Not Buying Any Crappy Food

Often the best way is to save 100% on items by just not buying them. There are many items in a grocery store that barely pass for real food and should be avoided altogether. Your body does not need cookies, or chips, or pop, or candy, or...

The oft-spoken advice to "stick to the outside of the store" gives us a clue as to what aisles we should be avoiding. By shopping the perimeter of the store you will find whole foods and skip all the packaged, overpriced items found in the center aisles. You'll save money, and eat healthier too!

Leave a comment and tell us your favourite strategies for saving money on groceries. Until we get our gardens and local food production going, we are going to need them.

Bon Appetit!

Coping With Increasing Food Prices

Gardens are good for the pocketbook as well as the soul

Our major expense, like most people, is housing, followed by food. The cost of both are increasing, but food prices have recently hit highs not seen since the global food riots in 2008.

Will coffee prices increase by 45% in 2011? Oranges by 35%? Salmon by 30%? Time will tell, but expect more expensive food and energy moving forward. It makes living on a budget all the more challenging, but many wonderful responses are available.

 Responses To High Food Prices

Cook your own food more often. It is probably safe to say, with all our conveniences and a lack of time, that fewer of us cook than ever before. We are paying the price. Convenience foods are expensive, and their ingredients are questionable. Eating food you have joyfully prepared yourself will reduce your desire for industrial-strength food replacement products.

Change your food habits. You can save money on your food bill by cutting down on processed and luxury foods, such as coffee or pop and fast food. A switch from coffee to green tea will save money, and offer many health benefits. Replace fast food and processed snacks with homemade sandwiches, vegetables, nuts, and fruit.

Grow more of your own food. Growing fresh, nutritious foods from your own soil is one of the best ways to fight high prices. It is also good for exercise, fresh air, and connecting with the Earth. Community gardens are becoming more popular, but any bit of soil will do. Good bye grass, hello green onions. 

Buy local. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way to buy fresh food directly from a local farmer.
 
Eat less. Most of us eat more calories than we need, and a supervised, low-calorie diet may be better. Some species on a calorie restricted diet lived twice as long as those fed a regular diet in research studies. 

Try one or two vegetarian meals per week. Beans, lentils, tofu, and other plant-based proteins are inexpensive alternatives that lend themselves to a wide variety of healthy, tasty dishes.

Get In The Kitchen And Improve Your Health

"The relationship between a man and his food, is his relationship to the cosmos." - Wikipedia

 My tiny kitchen is the center of my home, and my favourite place to express creativity. It is where water, metal, heat, and simple ingredients come together to create food magic.

I love cooking, and I like having the time to do so at a leisurely and enjoyable pace. To do away with all conveniences, and enjoy the necessary steps in making real food from scratch.

I think of my kitchen as a laboratory, a place to experiment and make my medicine. Tasty, tasty, soul-satisfying medicine. When we eat real food, it prevents disease as well as helps us recover from illness. Vegetables and fruit are full of things that are certified good for you as shown by repeated studies.

Faux foods, on the other hand, are made in real laboratories by 'food' scientists. I don't eat these industrial food-like substances as they can make you ill, or kill you outright. This includes most fast foods, rich restaurant foods, and all highly processed foods. As Michael Pollan says, "If it is a plant, eat it. If was made in a plant, don't".

When home cooking was the norm we were thinner and healthier. Unfortunately, when life gets busy our diet is one of the first victims. From personal experience, it can be difficult to meet the demands of a full time job AND cook from scratch. We begin to compensate for our lack of time and energy by making do with convenient prepared foods and snacks. We rely on others to make food for us. We lose control.

The result of losing control? Sickness, disease, and dependence. The chronic obesity problem we are experiencing in North America right now. Break free of unhealthy foods, give yourself some time, and get back in the kitchen. After a while you will begin to develop rules and routines to streamline the process.

Some of  the rules and routines that have helped me are:

1. Always keep a clean kitchen so that you are never deterred from cooking by a mountain of dishes in the sink, or a counter top too cluttered for food preparation. A clean kitchen is a kitchen that is always ready to go. Cooking should feel like fun.
2. Make more than you need, then put your freezer to work. For me frozen foods that I have made myself are my "fast foods" that are easy and convenient for those times when I don't feel like cooking.
3. When you go out bring food with you. I always travel with food from home so that I am not tempted by fast and processed foods if I get hungry. Nuts and raisins, a piece of fruit, a sandwich, cut vegetables, and other quick snacks will save you money and pounds.

Good food is good health. We should give it more thought, and more time. And when all is done, share your meal with a friend. Conviviality and healthfulness at its best.

No Mischief Monday

"See, now's the time of the meal when you start getting the McStomach ache. You start getting the McTummy. You get the McGurgles in there. You get the McBrick, then you get the McStomach ache. Right now I've got some McGas that's rockin'. My arms... I feel like I've got some McSweats goin'. My arms got the McTwitches going in here from all the sugar that's going in my body right now. I'm feeling a little McCrazy." - Morgan Spurlock in Super Size Me