Comments on: What is wrong with food?

By: fruit machine fan

fruit machine fan — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:10:11 +0000

hey cheers for that… very informative – i’ve added your blog to my netvibes account – thanks

By: Sage

Sage — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:09:45 +0000

Tiffany,

I also live in NY. Brewster, in Putnam County. I got my book group to read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle because I thought it addressed the lack of a real food culture in America so well. It inspired me to plant a garden (I’ve done it before, but am still amateur). So I have lots of zucchini and broccoli and beans. Didn’t eat the Swiss chard, though.

Anyway, this is a great topic. I have had health problems since my 15 year old was in utero, so I have had to seek out ways to improve. I participated in a CSA farm here in NY. I loved it. We also have a farmer’s market (if only they wouldn’t smoke over the organic produce!).

It is great to hear that so many are also trying to feed their families real food.

By: Krista

Krista — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:41:43 +0000

See on Saturdays Justine! LOL I’ll be the pregnant one in sunglasses.

By: Johnna

Johnna — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:01:45 +0000

This post is making me so happy. I’m just happy to be hanging out with my fellow foodies here. And glad I’m living in Northern California, where getting quality fresh ingredients for the family meals is cheaper and easier. In Utah it is more expensive and difficult that I found it to be in Indiana, Ohio, or Michigan.

I would like to point out, in Melissa’s defense, that carrots are not a substitute for crackers when it comes to children snacking. When kids are hungry, like mine are when they come home from school, they need some kind of grain product along with the fruit or vegetable. Frex, we’d do apples with crackers, or apples with cheese. Otherwise, there aren’t enough calories in the snack.

Then there’s the whole crackers vs. chips debate. Lay’s potato chips contain potato, sunflower oil, and salt. But they’re so greasy/overfull of calories that I would rather give my children transfat crackers in the daily lunch.

By: Justine

Justine — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:00:51 +0000

Krista, YOU JUST MADE MY DAY! Volkers bread every Saturday!?!? I had no idea they were down here, and I thought I had to consign myself to getting their bread once a year at the Utah Chocolate Show.

I will so see you there Saturday.

By: Krista

Krista — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:56:22 +0000

Oh Maddison!! My husband, despite being German through and through, absolutely loves the junk food here. His favorite treats are Kozy Shack rice pudding and McDonalds hamburgers.

By: Krista

Krista — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:52:41 +0000

I really miss Germany and all the cheap, beautiful bio-dynamic produce that was sold at our local Tegut (a grocery store). Oh, and all that wonderful cheese and bread!!! Demeter, Alnatura, and Herzenberger. Even Aldi mart had good (inexpensive!) Emmentaler and Gouda cheese. Sigh. I have been going through sticker shock since I returned to the states.

Yet I have been surviving since moving back to the states. We are basically chemical free. I refuse to buy organic produce that looks like it has sat on the shelves for three years though. More important to me than organic produce is using the right fats and oils and avoiding refined, high glycemic, and processed sugars in all their forms. I also do not eat gluten which eliminates a lot of starches from my diet.

In Germany I began to love millet an quinoa and I eat them often.

My favorite places for healthy food in Utah County:

Good Earth in Orem
Real Foods of Orem (you can buy raw milk there)
Ginger’s Garden Cafe (Dr. Christopher store) in Springville
Provo Farmer’s Market (pricey but one of the only places around here that I have been able to find Volker’s bread).

Thanks for the link to Utah Valley produce Wendy. I will definitely check it out. We are still pretty new to Utah county so I still do not know all the right places to eat or find good quality food.

IMO it is easy to find healthy food in the states-but it is also WAY too expensive!!! Still, I look at the extra investment in food as a form of preventative medicine for my family.

By: Maddison

Maddison — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:51:48 +0000

Totally agree! I grew up in America and thus had primarily an American diet. Luckily for me, my mother was quite the culinary expert so she often made food from scratch and I thus developed a love for “real” foods. But, I did have my McDonald’s and Twinkies and soda as well. Then I married an Englishman. First of all, he’s never even TASTED soda in his life! Hard to imagine, huh? So because of his upbringing on “real” foods, we wouldn’t dream of buying white bread, Kraft anything, soda (of course), or any other now-traditional American foods. We live on modest means so we don’t really go out much; we make most all of our breads and grow a majority of our veggies (this is mostly due to cost but also because they taste better!)
So, I know what you’re saying. Once you eat European, you can’t eat American the same ever again!

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:05:02 +0000

I’m having processed food shame.

We do a fair amount from scratch, but the budget’s too tight for as chem-free as I’d like to go, and in this frantic time and season, a cake mix is usually what the relatives get for their birthday cakes.

Cheri’s http://www.utahvalleyproduce.com is awesome. I’ve canned some good stuff from them.

By: ddrplant

ddrplant — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:40:59 +0000

I dunno, I lived in England as a teen and didn’t find the food to be much more natural or fresh than here, but I wasn’t the one doing the shopping and cooking back then and England could be different than the rest of Europe in that way too.

I don’t buy organic. I can’t justify the cost and like others have mentioned the jury is still out. I can’t afford to shop at the natural food stores either. So, I’ll just keep buying the fruits and veggies that are cheaper or on sale (does that translate to in season?) and washing them.