The Vitamin C diet continues. I was again grateful to be able to eat fruit, but as a comment stated earlier if you were to eat only 75% local, you would be able to have 25% for your fruit intake and create a cost cushion. I thought this was very insightful. It made me feel even better about the possibility of eating locally.
I again had a ham and Swiss sandwich. Today I barely noticed the sugar in the bread like I had yesterday; I was amazed at how quickly my taste buds could adapt to the fluffy, sugary bread. I also ate coffee yogurt (my favorite food) and carrots. While I was eating my baby carrots, I couldn't help but think about the farmers who grew them. How many pesticides were put on this crop, how many acres of carrots can a farmer grow, how do they grow them to be miniature (this doesn't seem natural to me)? I think completely differently about my food now, compared to before I started this project.
For a snack I ate a banana with peanut butter. My banana was from Chile. According to timeanddate.com it is 5579 miles from Santiago to Minneapolis. That's a lot of travel for me to eat one banana. If I were to drive a banana from here to Chile on $2.79 gasoline in a Toyota Camry, it would cost me $598.67. Of course this is not how bananas are shipped and someone would not just transport a single banana, but you get my point.
For dinner we ate my mom's specialty, Shepard's Pie. It is a mashed potato and ground beef dish. It was very good, but when I thought about it, we could have just as easily made this dish with locally grown food. Last week we bought both ground beef and lots of potatoes.
I have been thinking a lot about how eating locally does not have to be an all or nothing diet. Being more aware about where your food is from is a step towards eating locally grown food. Adding what food you can from local farmers helps the local economy and the environment. It does not need to be a 100% commitment to locally grown food, every effort counts.
You mention above how quickly your taste buds adjust. I had a similar experience yesterday when, after days of eating healthily, I ate at McDonalds. It was interesting how evident (to my now more refined taste buds) the presence of the excessive fat in the burger was. Interestingly, when one becomes acclimated to fatty foods it tastes good; conversely, when one becomes used to eating more healthily the sensation of the fattiness coating tongue and mouth is quite disgusting.
ReplyDeleteIdea for your blog: I wonder if you were to pose a 'question of the day' for readers if people would respond?