Take Time to Eat Healthy

This is a link to a nice article on how one man tries to cross America shopping at only Mom-and-Pop stores, restaurants, and gas stations.

http://zenhabits.net/2008/08/is-our-addiction-to-saving-money-destroying-the-real-america/

That led me to thinking about how my ideals have changed since I became a vegetarian. Actually my ideals began changing way back in my early teens when I realized my beliefs were not the same as most of my family and friends, but I actually did something with my beliefs when my family and I became vegetarians.

I started really thinking about where my food comes from - not just the fact that I didn't want to contribute to the horrible conditions of cattle and chickens and pigs barely surviving in overcrowded pens and cages, but also that most of the big companies cut costs wherever they can, including not taking care of their employees. Unhealthy additives are added to just about every packaged food to keep it on the shelf longer. And even when there are decent studies showing how one additive or another is harmful, companies ignore them or try to discredit them so they don't have to change how they do business. Big companies don't care about the health of their customers, their employees or Mother Earth, they only care about their bottom line.

Which has led me to very slowly (I couldn't very well do it all at once - too much of a shock to the family) find ways to create meals and snacks from fresh sources rather than buy pre-packaged food. For example, I found a wonderful vegan chocolate cake recipe that tastes just as good as any chocolate cake I've made and tastes much better than the Hostess Chocolate Cupcakes I used to love. And I know each ingredient that went into the cake. I've also started baking breads, making my own hummus, pita breads, guacamole, chili, and all sorts of things that I used to just buy pre-packaged. Another thing I've discovered is that not only is my home-made food healthier, it tastes better, and it's much less expensive. The only way in which one could say something negative is that it takes more time to create and prepare meals. But then if we all took a little more time to think about what we eat, Americans wouldn't be the unhealthiest people in the industrial world.