Food revolutions Part 1

Back when I was in university (both times) I was a careful eater. I lived in Ontario and was hooked in with environmental types and I had access to real food. Lots of organic stuff. I was a vegetarian and had time to make food. when rob and I were living together our food budget was $40/week.

Now, our food budget is $400/month and sometimes we go over. I buy a LOT of 50% off food like tortellini, sandwich meat, bread. All kind of opportunistic shopping to keep costs down.

And then recently I started getting weird headaches and body discomfort (not being vague on purpose, I just felt...off). It was from MSG in the campbell's soup I was eating. I cut that out and then found that I got the same reaction from some chili triscuits, which have the MSG clone ingredient maltodextrin (but no listing of MSG proper on the label).

At the same time, my life insurance agent told me (in conversation, not out of the blue like a helpful Tourette's injection) that she is allergic to all preservatives. Think about that! That means nothing in cans and jars, just about, that means never eating out and most meat and seafood - forget it. I was brushing my teeth thinking, what does she use to brush her teeth, surely toothpaste has preservatives? And then my co-worker told me about her rheumatoid arthritis and how "eating clean" makes a tangible difference in her joint pain. And she told me all about what she needs to avoid to eat clean and it's intense.

And then I started my food revolution. A full revolution, back to my roots of natural eating.

I have realized that I always said when we have money we'll spend it on good food. And by good food I mean organic food, local food, whole food. But that idea comes into direct conflict with my goals of economizing wherever we can, and also with the changes we've made to incorporate meat into our diet. I have found myself many, many times buying 30% off chicken thighs, or using a coupon on a sale bread and getting loaves for 75 cents. Doing this has stretched the budget a lot, and allowed us to have lots of food variety. But, ethically I'm against factory farmed meat. And health/environment-wise these choices don't line up with my supposed philosophy. There's so many choices out there that I find choosing a product difficult, do I go expensive and organic? Local and not-organic and expensive, cheap and spend the rest on RRSP?

Life is full of choices and I have come to realize that I have slipped into making choices that I actually don't support. I love saving money, I love a bargain but when it comes right down to it I care more about health and well-being. I care more about doing good with my money (following my own priorities and values). And with that comes compromise on other things I care about, like economizing and spending money on other things, and also at the expense of the routines I have built up around this from shopping weekly with my friend at the superstore to the meals we eat week in and week out.

I believe that foods steeped in preservatives make the body work harder and can contribute to problems. I worry about pesticides and BPA in cans and what it might be doing in my baby, my breastmilk and myself (and my husband). Overly processed foods are delicious but I don't know what I'm eating anymore, and I don't like the packaging and the expense of it.

My body has recently stopped tolerating MSG and MSG clones. It used to be fine, now it's not. What else am I making my body tolerate?

And I no longer live in Ontario. Local organic exists but it's not the same, or even close. But I have options and solutions and things are changing around here. And I'm going to track the costs and see how much it really costs to eat clean.

Next: how I decide what "clean food" means to me, what's in and what's out, and how I'm going to get it here in this Northern land-of-many-things,-but-not-really-fruit-and-non-root-veggies.