Tag Archive | Food Addiction

Subsidizing Processed Food=Subsidizing Food Addiction

Feb10

I read a great article this week by Mark Bittman, author of the Minimalist food column in the New York Times. The article, A Food Manifesto, appeared in my hometown newspaper, The St. Petersburg Times.

Mr. Bittman offered some suggestions that would, as he put it, “make the growing, preparation and consumption of food healthier, saner, more productive, less damaging and more enduring”.

Among the suggestions he offered, all of which I support wholeheartedly, was one to end government subsidies to processed food.

I immediately thought about how these foods contribute to obesity, poor eating habits and poor health in general, and food addictions.

So why does the government subsidize them and instead focusing on real food, one of the other suggestions listed in the article?

In backing the marketers of junk food, is the government not also supporting poor eating habits, food addictions, and obesity? It may  sound sinister, but you can’t have it both ways.

Maybe it’s time to educate ourselves on what goes on behind the scenes of our food supply. It might help connect the dots and make the big picture a whole lot clearer.

Anyone who has ever struggled with a food addiction or emotional eating problem, or is clinically obese, has Type II Diabetes or any of the other myriad ailments that processed foods promote knows just how serious this situation has become.

Even if Americans can’t agree on foreign policy, guns, or abortion, maybe we should unite on this one. Our food supply is one of our most precious resources and we need to speak out about it.

One Day Fast Can Calm Your Stress

Feb9

One of the things I have found to be a great help in curbing my food addictions and lowering my stress levels is fasting.

I don’t go overboard with it but there are times when things get so stressful that digesting food is just one more chore for my weary body to perform. So I give it a break.

On Fridays I drink Welch’s Grape Juice in any quantity I desire while consuming my usual 64 ounces to one gallon of water throughout the day.

At first, there might be a twinge of hunger, but usually not. If there is, the hunger soon passes as the grape juice and water fast calm my nerves and settle my stomach.

I have hypoglycemia so there are medical arguments why grape juice, which has a high sugar content, should not be consumed. However, Welch’s Grape Juice is a very pure food and perfect for a one-day fast.

For the past thirty years, I have practiced this stress-buster with great success and without incident.

Most significantly, my energy level throughout the day is remarkable. I feel great.

I do not crave foods because I do not get emotionally out of balance. Being able to free myself of preparing meals, digesting meals, and making food-related decisions allows me to relax and enjoy the day.

I may choose to have a light dinner around 6:00 p.m. as I usually get hungry by then, not having eaten any solid food since the night before.

In any case, I get to enjoy a calm day. I don’t worry about exercising, doing a lot of errands, getting involved in emotional situations, and self-stressing. I don’t think about food addictions. I just enjoy the day.

It’s a simple thing, and it works for me. Maybe it will work for you, too.

What if I Only Like Addictive Foods?

Feb8

Sometimes you need to know how things work before they can become important to you. Food and food addictions are like anything else.

There’s good stuff and bad stuff. A little education goes a long way.

Here is a quiet little video that tells you what food can actually do for your body. It doesn’t have to be an addictive junk food diet to taste good.

Don’t let the good stuff get away.

Gimme Some Real Food!

Feb7

Where does your food come from? Do you know?

Throughout most of my life, I have eaten foods whose origin was easily determined. We had gardens and raised chickens, and bought milk from farmers in the area. We had apricot and peach trees. We raised strawberries and got apples from neighbors who bartered with us.

We canned and pickled, and kept frozen meat in a locker downtown. The vegetables from our garden were so delicious you could eat them raw right off the vine or stalk. Everything was prepared from scratch, and amazingly enough, it seemed very convenient at the time.

I have growing concerns about the prevalence of processed foods in schools and the ready acceptance of convenience foods in today’s households.

The power Monsanto wields over our food supply with their GM crops and patents is alarming. What the FDA considers good, nutritious food is not necessarily what I care to eat. Last year I planted an organic garden. This year, I will plant a larger one.

Here in the Tampa Bay Area, it is difficult to find Cod, Scrod, and shrimp that do not come from the coast of China. The seafood has no taste except for whatever flavor sauces add to it. Even then, it is mushy and has the consistency of a wet rag.

Why would anyone think it preferable to transport fish—everyday fish, at that—around the world for consumption by people who have lakes and/or oceans within 500-1000 miles of them?

Do they not take into consideration the polluted waters from which these fish are harvested and the amount of time it takes to get them from the source to the table of the consumer?

Eighteen months ago, I could buy fresh frozen Atlantic Cod Loins and Alaskan Salmon at my local Sam’s Club. It was expensive but it came from native waters and always tasted fresh and flavorful when I baked it with only lemon juice and balsamic vinegar.

No sauces or other seasonings were necessary. The tender fish flaked easily and almost melted in my mouth.

Most everything they sell now is fried, processed, sauced up, and greasy. Supposedly, that’s what the public wants these days. Cheeses are added to the already high fat content, and at least half the shoppers I see on any given trip are fifty to one-hundred pounds overweight.

Salmon is farm-raised, Cod is breaded, Cod loins are not available anymore, and frozen Mahi-Mahi has developed an unpleasant back taste.

Even Grouper, our “state fish” rarely has any flavor without breading and sauces. We haven’t had Halibut steak in this area for fifteen years or more. It is becoming a chore to find a nice place to eat out, and I rarely order fish anymore.

It is frightening to think that we could one day become the society depicted in Wall-E, one of the most telling movies I have ever seen.

But we had better wake up soon or that may become the fate of half the people in our beloved United States.

Not everyone is a food addict or an emotional eater but the stress is mounting and the ranks of the morbidly obese are swelling in a way that we can no longer ignore.

It’s time to wake up and do what you can. Plant some herbs or a small garden, a tomato plant, some parsley–something.

Refuse to put that garbage in your bloating stomach. Chicken, hamburgers, potatoes–those aren’t junk foods. It’s what is done to it before you buy it, and sometimes after you get it home, that makes it junk food.

You’re in control of this one, so make your demands.

Enough of this junk. GIMME SOME REAL FOOD!!!!!