Thursday, August 13, 2009

In Which I Out Myself as the Food Crazy of the Group. . .

One thing my diet and my writing have in common is that I’m sort of obsessed with both of them. A few years ago, I became interested in food and health and how they were connected. This started after I learned my oldest son had some food allergies and I had to start carefully reading the labels on everything. When he was younger, he was extremely allergic to milk, so I had to check every single food I bought to make sure it didn’t have milk in it. It sounds simple enough, but I soon learned that milk could be called a dozen other things on labels such as casein or whey (milk proteins) or lactose (milk sugar).

All the label reading got me looking up ingredients on the internet to make sure they weren’t milk related and learning a lot about what some of the other ingredients actually are in food. Then after a few members of my family got cancer, I started reading some books on food and illness – how food can both cause and prevent disease. The end result: I’ve become a little obsessed with organic/all natural foods and fruits and vegetables. And I really believe that old adage, that you are what you eat.

Knowing about my food obsession, and having become obsessed herself, my sister, a few years ago, bought me a book for my birthday called The Organic Cook’s Bible by Jeff Cox. It basically goes through every single ingredient/fruit/vegetable and tells you why the food is better for you if it’s organically grown and sometimes harmful for you if it’s not. Let me just say that after reading that book I will never eat certain non-organic/non-US grown fruits/vegetables again. Seriously, I’m actually terrified of some of them.

So my kids have never seen the inside of a McDonald’s or eaten a real hamburger or a real hot dog. I’m pretty sure they don’t know what soda is. But they do like spinach and hummus and broccoli. One of the first words my oldest son learned how to read was the word “organic” because he saw it on nearly everything in our refrigerator, and I drive out of my way to go to Trader Joes and Whole Foods every week rather than just drive five minutes to the traditional supermarket.

It’s not that I never eat anything bad for me or not organic. I think anything is fine in moderation. And I do like to go out to eat. But on a day to day basis I am an organic salad/organic chicken/organic fruit kind of girl. When I’m writing, none of this really changes, except I do like to drink coffee or green tea, organic, of course!

7 comments:

~*Jessica Rabbit*~ said...

"I’m pretty sure they don’t know what soda is."

For the love of all that's coke products!Nooooooo.*Falls to knees & sobbs* but why is all the coke gone?LOL.

Okay so you taught me something tonight.
1)You are what me and my friend Hotsy like to call an Insomniac and whenever we get into chat on our beloved book swapping site we say 'insomniac's attack!'

2) I didn't know Milk had more then one name,I just figured milk was...well milk.Who knew it had code names?

3) There is a health food bible,I did not know this...probably because I am the poster child for junk food-a-holics.

4) I really can't stop procrastina-ting.I am ashamed...not really,just a little.

Alright!I am off...I hope.Ohhh fun fact for you did you know paint ball shells were made out of the same things to make cough syrup & gummy bears?I know!If the paint wasn't in them they might be tastey...maybe.Probably not.Crap I'm doing it again,I'm off for real this time.LOL.

Maureen Lipinski said...

And to think, you appear so normal on the outside.

:)

You are a stronger woman than I for not taking your kids to McDonald's!

~*Jessica Rabbit*~ said...

I couldn't imagine a world without mc fluries and large salty fries.

Rachel Cantor said...

Glad u liked the book, Jill! There are lots of good books out there you should try the recipes in the book Hungry for Health by Susan silberstein. It makes eating organic foods taste great:-)

Jillian Cantor said...

In my defense, I do eat french fries -- just not very often :-)

~*Jessica Rabbit*~ said...

Well french fries are healthy for you...they're vegies. :p

Lesley Livingston said...

"the Food Crazy"... hee hee...

Hey - who knew milk could be so darn sneaky??