nearly two years ago - just before the impending holiday season - my husband and i caught the documentary 'super size me' on television. we watched in awe as morgan spurlock subjected himself daily to the calorie and fat packed diet that was his experiment. but the profile that exposed the average contents of a child's lunch box, and subsequently what was available to them in the cafeterias at school, is what shocked us the most. we decided at that moment that we were done. done with fast food, done with simply choosing the best bargain at the grocer, done with the bliss of the unknown - the unknown being what we were putting into our bodies - and more importantly, our children's.
i became, and still am, a compulsive label reader. the first victim to be kicked squarely in the pants and directly out of our pantry was high fructose corn syrup {HFCS}. for those of you who know what this genetically modified sweetener is capable of, you will know this is a good way to start. but this is also where it ended. we had expelled HFCS from our lives - and it is a challenge, i assure you; it is in everything from ketchup and bread to granola bars and iced tea. but, we felt that particular challenge was met and life went on.
after a few months however, on busy days in particular - i found myself steering into the drive-thrus of places i had cursed just months before. i think i was becoming a little lazy, pretending not to pay attention. but over the last few months my husband and i have been doing a great deal of reading not only about the problems with the average american diet in general, but it's environmental impact on the world at large as well. and we have been making better choices because of it. we have always purchased organic milk, fruit and vegetables as well as cage-free eggs {after reading an expose about the average chicken farm i was mortified} - but it is becoming greater than that - words and phrases such as slow food, back to the earth and carbon footprint suddenly resonate very deeply. i find myself endlessly inspired by women like heidi swanson, author of All Natural Cooking - her outlook and guidance through the road map of natural ingredients is a resource that should be in every cook's library.
and... we have stopped eating meat. the reasons seemed to come to a head all at once. firstly, i ate about a half of a cow on memorial day {okay, not that much - but it was a really, really big hamburger} and that night i read the chapter in this book about extracting the morrow from cow bones - finally, i have been reading and re-reading this beautiful post by nicole. and suddenly i realized - for so many reasons, some above and some not listed, i really don't want meat in my diet any longer. i am not saying that i will never eat a hamburger again, but it feels right for our family at this moment.
and this brings me to my final thought - we do everything we can to better ourselves and our environment in the process. but is there a line and when {or should} we ever cross it? this thought came to me while ordering breakfast at my favorite greasy spoon, "i wonder if they use cage-free eggs?" i realized that i could simply ask - but did i want to know the answer? does every choice we make - no matter how seemingly insignificant, contribute {or possibly take from} the greater cause here? what choices have you made that impact your diet and the earth, do you allow yourself to toe that proverbial line? when does responsibility truly challenge resonability?
would love to hear your thoughts...
xoox~jla
p.s. nicole has inspired me to start planting veggies - i am getting ready to bury my hands in the earth! thank you friend ~xoox
