Whole Milk Sounds Almost Sinful – In Defense of Food #9
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Public confession time again: While I was reading last night, I got to a paragraph that specifically called out “Go-Gurt Portable Yogurt Tubes” for containing “a dozen other things that aren’t remotely yogurtlike,” including HFCS. I looked over at hubby because I had just given one of those things to my kiddo, and she was still eating it! She loves those things. I had thought we had checked those for bad stuff! He checked the box and, sure enough – they contain HFCS (and God knows what else). I think it’s back to Yo-Baby yogurt for Baby Girl. Maybe I can freeze some with fruit.
Chapter 2 of section 3 is about “Eating Food” as opposed to eating “food products.” He gives us some rules to follow, a few of which I had read elsewhere, but in such a way that I don’t think it will be hard to remember them. Here are a few:
- “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.”
- “Don’t eat anything incapable of rotting.”
- “Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup.
I remember my great grandmothers. My Reyna’s mom used to bake her own bread and tortillas, dry fruit, and do all sorts of other things. She also cooked with lard (and you would have eaten it too – she was a very good cook). Great-Grandpa Ricardo used to have a garden, but he also used to take me to the grocery store and buy me candy. We are getting ready to plant a garden – I’m very nervous and excited about this. We have a bread maker – it’s not the same thing as the delicious bread that Grandma Zoraida used to make (I still remember both the smell and the taste, and I think I was five when she passed), but it’s a start, and I can also do a better job of checking labels.
As for the money concern I had when I posted yesterday – Pollan has this to say: “Yes, shopping this way takes more money and effort, but as soon as you begin to treat that expenditure not just as shopping but also as a kind of vote–a vote for health in the largest sense–food no longer seems like the smartest place to economize.” I wish he hadn’t said this, because it makes me feel as though this book is written only for people who have the luxury of choosing where to economize, instead of having to cut corners across the board. As I mentioned before, I don’t like clubs that don’t let everyone in (no – I didn’t join a sorority in college, and I wasn’t a Girl Scout either, even though I briefly wanted to be). Most of his tips actually seem like they won’t break the bank, but I wish he had acknowledged that some families might have to skimp a little, and maybe give advice about where to do so.*
One thing I am now concerned about – whole milk. He makes some scary claims about low fat milk, mainly that it contains “oxidized cholesterol, which scientist believe is much worse for your arteries than ordinary cholesterol.” I JUST decided to move my daughter to low fat milk, which is what we drink, because her doctor said we can choose now that she is two. Great job, Mama. I have not fact checked this (nor have I fact checked anything in this book), but I think we’re all going to be drinking whole milk around here as soon as we finish our gallon of 2%. It feels wrong to drink whole milk though – I guess I’ve bought into the low-fat craziness after all.
*I know this is off topic, so I’m footnoting it: I recently bought all-natural toothpaste for myself and my daughter (hubby has his own that he likes). Each tube cost over $6 each, and the only reason I bought them was because I had a buy one-get one free coupon. It was still a splurge that not everyone can make – I know toothpaste is not food, but after reading Master Your Metabolism, I realize that everything that comes into contact with our bodies matters (especially toothpaste, which two-year-olds are guaranteed to swallow).
Scroll down for other posts about In Defense of Food:
Other posts about In Defense of Food:
Review
Post 1: In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan
Post 2: Breakfast Cereal is not a Food?
Post 3: Chocolate Science
Post 4: “Hourly Yogurt Enemas?!”
Post 5: Hunting and Gathering
Post 6: Look Mom – No Cavities!
Post 7: Mainlining Glucose or “I’m Not an Addict!”
Post 8: Food is Religious and Political
Post 9: Whole Milk Sounds Almost Sinful
Post 10: I Don’t Like the Salad, Mommy
Post 11: Let’s Plant a Garden
