Monday there was a post on Facebook titled “Who’s Fault Is It?” from an organic page I subscribe to. The author was questioning why more people don’t follow in her footsteps, eating 100% organic. She was wondering whose fault it is that so many children are allowed to eat "junk," concluding that is was mainly the parents.
I’m a newbie to choosing organic, so perhaps I haven’t climbed the ladder to the pedestal yet, but why is it so necessary place blame and judge people that don’t make the same choices we do? Instead of judging, we should try educating. I personally had no idea what was going on with our nation’s food system. I wasn’t completely in the dark, but I didn’t understand how corporate America had overrun the system and focused solely on profits opposed to the safety and well-being of consumers. I assumed the government protected me and my family. Do I sound naive?
I thought organic food was for panty-wastes. Seriously. I thought, hell, what’s a little pesticides? I grew up eating canned veggies, Kool-aid, and one of my mom’s go-to meals was peas with Spam. My philosophy was “It didn’t hurt me, why would it hurt my kids?” Another of my favorites was “Geez, practically everything causes cancer, so why bother?” I don’t think I was trying to justify not eating organic, because I really didn’t think of organic as a necessity. It was for yuppies or crunchy granola types!
But, then I saw a documentary, "Food Inc." that educated (and shocked) me. That documentary led me to read a book, "The Omnivores Dilemma," that led me to read another book, "Fast Food Nation," and several books later, here I am, choosing organic most of the time, because now I know better. Of course I’m not perfect, and I’m definitely not 100% organic, and honestly probably never will be, but my kids will get less pesticides and less HFCS and lead a healthier life regardless of the percentage.
Speaking of less HFCS, Honest Teas has some great deals on their kids line of drinks, Honest Kids. They’re low-sugar, fruit-flavored drinks that come in pouches (great for lunches) and now 64-oz. multi-serve bottles. And again, what can be cheaper than free? Head to their website for Buy One Get One Free coupons. They also offer a rewards program. Enter the code on your juice pouch and save up for a bike!!
Peas and Spam (for the adventurous (and nonorganic) readers)
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
2 cans of peas
2 can of Spam
Prepare cream of mushroom soup according to directions. Add peas. Cube Spam, add to soup and peas. Heat on stovetop until warm throughout.
A great quote comes to mind but wish I could think of how it goes. Something along the lines of we can only do as good as our greatest knowledge. Meaning if we dont know any better and are doing the best we know how with what we were given then that's all we can do.
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you! It is hard to know what's true, because as you say we have our pediatricians that don't really address organic, or the controversies of immunizations, etc. There are a gazillion food choices bombarding us at the grocery store, so it's difficult to know what's truly healthy...Thanks for the great comments!
ReplyDeleteSorry was cut short with my previous post, Come on start of school !!!LOL So what I was trying to say was sure we could point fingers and blame those who we think are responsible for children not eating healthy stuff but if we forget that we too may have been right where they are as far as the knowledge they have then we are just contributing to the problem. The Goverment, media and even pediatricians push so much of the stuff that in reality just really aren't great food choices and we place a lot of trust in our goverment and pediatricians and sad to say many place unwarranted trust in the media as well. I have found it isn't easy being the minority and have kinda been a closet organic for quite a while because of it but if we/I dont "gently" share what we/I know than we just have no room to point fingers. So I am learning how to share with more people in a non self righteous way because I want to be part of the solution to a healthier generation :)
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