Virtual Book Club

AUGHH!!! I only have 3 more days to finish this book. This is the LONGEST it has ever taken me to read a book. I usually shy away from non-fiction because it doesn’t hold my interest. This holds my interest, but I’m just not finding the time to read.

The second part of the book (and I’m not even through with it) brings to light a good point. My friend at work and I have had numerous conversations on it. Is buying organic actually better for you and for the enviroment? Or, is buying local better even though pesticides may have been used? It’s a good question. One the one hand, organic produce may be better for your body in the long run due to the fact that it isn’t treated with numerous pesticides and fertilizers. However, how much fossil fuel is being used to ship that produce to your local grocery store or Whole Foods? What is the carbon footprint of that peice of fruit you are eating. The author tells the story of the “organic dinner” he and his family enjoyed. The asparagus came from Argentina, the blackberries from Mexico, the salad from a refrigerated processing plant in Arizona, etc. How much fuel was used to ship the asparagus on an airplane to the states? How much fuel was used to truck the blackberries from Mexico? How much fuel was used to cool the refrigerated warehouse and ship the salad from Arizona? Somehow, when you add all those things together, organic doesn’t seem to be any better than normal food. And what about “processed organic food”? Like the Amy’s Frozen Meals I love (Tofu scramble FTW!) for an example. Guess what’s in it as some sort of additive….. CORN!!! Oh yeah, look on the ingredient list of many processed organic foods. You’ll see guar, xanthum gum… all corn. And yes, it may be organic corn, but it is all part of the machine from the first chapter. It’s all about the corn. Not only that, but according to the author:

The food industry burns nearly a fifth of all the petroleum consumed in the United States (about as much as automobiles do). Today it takes between seven and ten calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food energy to an American plate. And while it is true that organic farmers don’t spread fertilizers, made from natural gas or spray pesticides made from petroleum, industrial organic farmers often wind up burning more diesel fuel than their conventional counterparts… All told, growing food organically uses about a third less fossil fuel than growing it conventionally…. though that savings dissappears if the compost is not produced on site or nearby.

And people wonder why the price of oil is so high. It’s not just our cars that are burning it. We are basically EATING it!!

So, what is better? Buying organic produce in your local Whole Foods that was grown across the country, or buying some produce from the local farmer?

Got my copy of “Moose” today but I am going to wait for September to start reading it.  Have you gotten yours yet?

I’m not sure what bothered me the most about the first part of The Ominvore’s Dilemma. The fact that we are consuming corn without knowing it, or the fact that the goverment has practically asked the American farmers to bend over, grab their ankles, and take it up the you-know-what.

I do know that I was a little repulsed reading Part 1. To think of all the corn that gets processed into practically everything we eat and use. Who decided all this? Who decided that we were going to make corn this all-encompasing ingredient? I would have liked to have chimed in on that decision. So as I’m reading, I’m thinking “That’s it. I don’t care how much it costs I will only shop at Whole Foods from now on and buy organic.” But even THAT doesn’t get you away from corn. Malodextrin, corn starch, xantham gum… I’ve seen all of those on the ingredient lists of organic food. ESPECIALLY xantham gum. I think it’s a binder. Anyway, it creeps me out a bit. Not that I’m opposed to corn. In fact, I LOVE corn. But I am beginning to be uncomfortable with processed food. This quote killed me though. It’s a quote from a food additive manufacturer back in the 70’s and it reads:

Natural foods “are a ‘wild mixture of substances created by plants and animals for completely non-food purposes - their survival and reproduction.’ These dubious substances ‘came to be consumed by humans at their own risk.’”

WTF? So an apple is to be consumed at risk? What, pray tell, did people do before scientists started making food for us? Sure, lifespan was a little shorter, but is that such a bad thing. I mean, do you really want to live until 120 years old because of all the preservatives we consume? Maybe the raw foodists are on to something.

One thing I do know… I will never never never buy meat from the grocery store again. I will trek to Whole Foods and buy organic meat. I don’t buy a lot of it anyways (pretty much follow a vegetarian diet) but there are times that my husband wants a steak, or we are enterataining and cook burgers. I knew feedlots were not pretty, but to really read what goes on and the amount of disease and such these cows have. UGH… Excuse me while I go throw up a bit. I really don’t like the thought of slaughterhouses either, but if I have to buy it and consume it (or have my loved ones consume it) it will not be corn fed.

Nor will my kids ever eat chicken nuggets again. If you want to know, read the book. *shudder*

I have finally been able to start reading The Ominvore’s Dilemma, and I have to say, I’m a little creeped out. I am just about done with the first chapter and this corn stuff scares me. I guess it’s something I knew, but didn’t really think about. I don’t know if I’ve actually pondered what I will do about this in my own eating yet, but it is a little creepy to think that we are slowly turning into ears of corn. We’ll be like freaking Veggie Tales running all over the place. Or those corn puppets from the muppets that would attack the Swedish Chef.

Anyway, I haven’t gotten very far yet, but it’s pretty interesting so far.

~~~ Eryn

Just a reminder, 3FC chicks, next book is “Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp.”   Add this to your list of September goals: join a book club! read a book! discuss book!

Buy it for September book club.  Or get it from the library.  Or borrow it from a friend.  But come on and read it so we can have stimulating high brow literary discussions and bond over our experience.  Seriously.

http://www.stephanieklein.com/books.html

Let me start by saying, this is the slowest I have ever been in finishing a book, hands down.  I am a power reader.  In my defense, I did read two other books while reading this one (Breaking Dawn because it came out and, hello, had to read it immediately or else I’d have nothing to talk to my 15 year old about, and Certain Girls, for another book club.)

I am going to bed now and no time for a long post, but I have to say one of the things that I come away with from Omnivore’s Dilemma is a true desire to change my habits around processed food.  And I’ve been making headway in the direction.  I am really lucky to live in the Pacific Northwest, where we have some really nice grocery options, I have a farmer’s market less than a mile from home, so it’s doable.

But how do I reconcile my deep and abiding love for Diet Coke with the elimination of processed foods from my diet?  I drink two diet cokes per day.  I don’t drink coffee so that’s it for my caffeine intake.  Well, I do drink an occasional Starbucks, but I don’t drink coffee daily I guess is more accurate.  I know that diet coke is bad for me.  Maybe that makes me love it more, like the diet coke is wearing a leather jacket and stud earring and giving my mom a “bad feeling.”  Diet Coke is like my Judd Nelson circa Breakfast Club.  I want it, bad.

Even if I had to drink it straight out of the lab beaker or test tube that it is created it, because it’s 100% synthetic and is in no way related to any natural substance… I still want it.

So this is going to be a hard habit to break, and I’m not ready to do it.  I don’t want to do it.  Does that make me a hypocrite when I get on my little no more processed food soapbox at home?  Dilemmas, dilemmas.

ALSO, COME ON CHICKS, GET THE SEPTEMBER BOOK… “MOOSE” BY STEPHANIE KLINE.  It’s going to be a great read and I’d love to have people to talk to about it instead of me just kind of talking to myself, though I do like hearing myself talk, I’ll admit : )

I put down “Omnivore’s Dilemma” to read “Breaking Dawn,” (all done now!) and when I went to resume O.D., whoopsie, DH is now reading it.  But I swear I am going to finish it!

DH is now obsessed with what we are eating, which is an interesting shift, because his interest in shopping/cooking/eating food is limited to what is put on the plate in front of him and what time it lands there.  If we really gets onboard with this, it will make these kinds of lifestyle changes much easier!

Anyone interested in “Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp” for a September read?

Here is an excerpt…

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93137799