One of the reasons I started a vegetable garden was to have access to fresh healthy foods. I try to eat a lot of produce already. In fact, I subscribe to Veggie Van, a weekly CSA type service where I pay a flat rate and get local fruits and vegetables for a low price. I love my Veggie Van! (Gratuitous shout out over.) I thought that having my own garden could help me even further in the pursuit of a diet full of whole foods.
Recently I started reading Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss. It talks about how the processed food industry has used those three ingredients and a mix of marketing to get us hooked on convenience foods. I’m not too far in but I’ve found it very interesting reading so far. One thing that really stood out to me is that I’ve heard that you should eat like your grandparents ate meaning more natural and whole foods and less of the processed stuff. Convenience foods started getting popular in the mid-1950s when women were entering the workforce more and couldn’t spend all day in the kitchen. It turns out eating processed foods is how our grandparents ate! Not all of them of course, but more than I originally thought.
Another thing that has motivated me to limit my intake of processed foods (which is extremely difficult since I certainly love my sugar and desserts) is a challenge that a couple of my coworkers have taken on. Chasity and Chelsea are going the entire month of June without eating sugar, bread, dairy, fast food or processed foods. While I know I could never give up bread, dairy or sugar, watching them go through the challenge has inspired me. They’ve been coming up with creative new recipes to make up for what they’ve taken out of their diet for the month. Since they started, I’ve found myself cutting back on breads and desserts. I would really like to make an effort to make desserts from scratch but I’m not quite there yet.
So all in all I’ve got several sources of motivation to eat more whole foods. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not giving up sweets or processed foods entirely; I’m just trying to eat a little less.