You Are what You Eat

Since I hit the low weight in my ideal weight range for my height (any lower and I'd be underweight), I've been consciously trying NOT to eat low-calorie foods and limit portion sizes. For years, I've had a tendency to control my food intake and have lots of superstitions about it, and overcoming those tendencies and superstitions has been really hard. I felt like I was on the cusp of an eating disorder, and once an eating disorder takes over, being content and happy with the truly meaningful things in life becomes eclipsed by the disorder. Caspian has always found me to be too restrictive.

Last night after chacha technique, in a fit of self-indulgence, I brought home a box of Pop-tarts and triumphantly crowed about my tasty, processed acquisition - and he fervently exclaimed, "NO! UNHEALTHY! Why did you get those?!" I was taken aback. Huh? Delicious, delicious Pop-tarts! Nom! I looked my husband up and down with a jaundiced eye; tall, very slender, naturally athletic, a connoisseur of Bojangles', mint oreos and pizza. I got kind of self-righteous. The box of Pop-tarts was a victory! A trophy of my shucking of the overly-restrictive attitude and newfound ability to enjoy delicious bad stuff! I may have lost my temper a little bit, and after glaring at me and sticking his tongue out at me a couple times, he explained that he'd read a revealing article in the New York Times that discussed America's reliance upon processed foods and its effects upon our nation's health. My Pop-tart spree was simply badly timed.

He'd sent it to me in the morning, but since I was out in the field interviewing all day, I hadn't gotten around to reading it. I opened it up this morning, and it was quite convincing. You should read it. The author is the proponent of a book called Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, by Michael Pollan - which I immediately bought used on Amazon Marketplace.

Caspian and I should be focusing much more on developing our vestigial cooking skills. I seriously exist some days on Cheerios and granola bars, without a fruit or a veggie to be seen. I think we should completely rethink our approach to food and buying food, and dedicate more time to preparing fresh stuff ourselves. We're not picky or particularly gourmet, and can probably find all sorts of easy and delicious methods of preparing unprocessed food. I have a feeling that, with both of us being such busy peeps, we will be relying heavily on portable foods like nuts and dried fruits.

No more Cheez-its. No more oreos, no more cereal (gack!), no more Pop-tarts. We'll finish what we have in a last, futile sunk costs-based effort - and then things are going to get phased out!