Due to some friends and family being suddenly (or just perhaps just more vocally) aware of what they're eating, I've become more aware of it. I've read warnings and informational blogs, watched videos, and done more reading. I find it interesting, but I'm by no means studied on the subject.
At first, I was very skeptical. Partly because I was raised that way. We ate hot pockets and TV dinners and hotdogs and ramen noodle soup. (Not most of the time or anything; they were just present in the house and there was rarelyanything against them. In fact, I liked quite a few of them quite a lot.)
Eventually, I decided that it was something I had to make up my own mind about and started taking things a bit more seriously. Since I'm now the one buying the groceries, I'm the one responsible for whether or not we're eating healthy or not. Nothing like the weight of responsibility to force you to look into something.
My problem with this whole topic is not an unfamiliar one. The problem is that whoever I listen to, I'm listening to someone and really know nothing myself. It's all, "I heard" or "I read." It's never, "I know because I've seen, because I've done the math, because I know the chemistry." This is a problem because different people say different things; who do I trust? Some people say, "Don't eat butter; it's fattening and bad." Other people say, "No, no, BUTTER is fine; it has good fats; it's margarine you shouldn't eat."
So is butter bad or good? Are the extra calories in one thing that has good fat worth eating it? Or do you eat the fewer calories and bad fat?
Seriously.
And then there's the thing about microwaves. I've heard multiple times that they're bad, bad, bad and should never be used for anything. They change the molecular structure of your food and it takes all the nutrients out. (No one ever mentions where exactly the nutrients go. . . They dissipate I guess?? Do we breath them later then?) Microwaves are apparently extraordinarily powerful; if only like in "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" we could get a microwave to change non-food into food, rather than the other way around.
But here's my question. . . . Microwaves do not change the taste or aroma of the food, so how much is it actually doing to the food? If I microwave something for ten seconds, does only part of it change and the rest is okay? When it's really hot, is that how I know that it's now nutrient-free? I have a difficult time thinking that one second in the microwave and the food is no longer food. Presto change-o! Why? Well, that sounds an awful lot like magic, and a lot less like technology.
Change takes time. Even powerful radiation takes time. People don't contract radiation poisoning immediately if they enter a contaminated area. They have to be exposed for a certain amount of time, depending on their circumstances. The longer the time and the higher the radiation, the more severe the case. But what is that time with a microwave? (And you'd probably have to know for each power of microwave. For instance, ours is only 700 watts; we can't microwave a lot of things because they require 1200 or 1500.)
I'm not a health nut. I like icecream in specific and desserts in general way too much to be a health nut, not to mention Chinese food. . . . (Orange chicken - Mmmmmmmmm.) But that doesn't mean I don't want to be healthy. In fact, I think I have one up on a lot of people because I've always loved fruits and since hitting my late teens have developed a taste for a variety of vegetables.
However, I see a lot of gaps in the arguments that are made against certain things. They seem to be all or none. "That food is evil1 NEVER partake! NEVER drink soda; if it's regular it uses corn syrup; if it's diet, it uses Aspartame." Really? I can't ever drink a glass of Root Beer? Or even on a lesser side, which one is better of the two? If I need some caffeine because I'm going to be driving and there was no way around it, what's better to buy, the diet pepsi? or the regular?
These are the things I'm more interested in, but they seem to be the things that no one is addressing. Instead, it seems to come in the extremes of never and always.
And it makes me wonder. Is it worth looking for the answers? Is it worth spending the extra money for organic milk? (It's double the price. . . That's not a small change, especially on a tight budget.) Does it really matter if I eat butter or margarine, since really I don't eat it that much anyway? Honestly, if it were just me, I wouldn't change it because I eat so little of the stuff. But Zack eats it, too.
I know people who'd say no, don't worry about it. And I know people who'd say yes. The problem is, I'm not sure which one I am. And the people I know who'd say "no" have a lot of health problems that the people who say "yes" say their way can help with. . . . I don't want to be on daily doses of drugs when I'm forty. I really don't. If eating differently can keep me off medication? That's something I'm very interested in.
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2 comments:
Butter is good for you. It fixes cavities. Eat lots of butter for good teeth. I read an interesting book this summer on what to eat and not and there was some convincing stuff in there, but it of course contradicted a lormt of other stuff. Either way, he made good points about butter, like it heals cavities.
Good thoughts Jenn, glad you're looking into all this stuff and thinking critically. About the microwave and it messing with food, my understanding is this: You know when you have xrays done, they cover as much of your body as possible to shield it from the xrays? They do that because exposure to xrays can rewrite your DNA, which can lead to cancer and all kinds of nasty stuff. That's what I learned in my Biology class. So, it seems that microwaves do the same thing to your food, rewriting it's "DNA" into forms that make it harder for your body to process and also altering food to the point that it can be carcinogenic (cancer-causing). There's a lot of back and forth about whether organic milk is worth the price. The most nutritious milk is actually raw, unpasteurized and non-homogenized, so if you could find some of that for sale that would be the best route to take. Raw milk has lots of good bacteria (like in yogurt), enzymes, and delicate nutrients that are completely killed when the milk is heated. They try to add some of the nutrients back in afterwards, but it's not the same, and pasteurized milk is very hard for the body to process. The organic milk in the store is pasteurized and homogenized, so it's only advantage is that it is free of growth hormones or other things that would make the milk toxic. I think Wal Mart brand of milk is now hormone free, so if you have to buy regular milk, not sure organic is worth the extra money. If your library has it, I'd suggest reading through "Real Food: What to Eat & Why." It discusses milk, butter, vegetables, meats, and all sorts of foods and what makes them good for and how what state they are in makes a huge difference. Read it with a grain of salt, because the author comes from an evolutionary stand point, but what she has to say and the research she has put into it are worth reading and considering. Another book I'd suggest reading is "Nourishing Traditions." All the research, observations, and then most of the conclusions drawn seem to be both logical and full of common sense. And yes, as Dave said, butter is very good for you, surprisingly enough! :-) But... butter from raw milk is the only form that's truly very nutritious. Anyway... I could keep talking about all this forever because it's what I've been researching for awhile now.
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