I am sorry I have not finished my blog until now. I had three wisdom teeth removed on the last day of my experiment and it knocked me off my feet for a couple days.
My last day of the Target diet included many soft foods: apple sauce, yogurt, mac and cheese, and mashed potatoes. It was a good, but very light day of food. To be honest it was nice not to have to eat local after this surgery!
So to finish my conclusion... My three favorite things about eating locally.
I loved eating fresh food. While I did eat some packaged food during my local week, my main source of nutrients were fresh vegetables, grass fed meat, and cheese from Wisconsin. It felt good psychologically and physically to be eating food I was sure was healthy.
I felt really good about helping the local economy. There is no doubt in my mind that when Plymouth begins its farmer's market that my family will buy our produce from there. This way farmers close to home will be able to benefit from our purchases and we will benefit from their produce.
Even though I'm not a huge environmentalist, I can assure you that it felt great to be helping the earth by eating locally grown food. When I was able to put into perspective what it means to have food shipped around the world for a simple dinner, I felt more passionate about eating locally.
How this project will translate into daily life...
I do not think that my family will turn to full fledged eating locally, but now that we do know which brands are local, we will purchase those. We will also purchase our produce from the farmers' market in the summer. We are now a hundred times more knowledgeable about what eating locally means and how to go through with it, thus we will be more inclined to eat locally grown food.
As I have been talking about in my blog we will most likely end up with a mix of locally grown food and food from our normal grocery store. We will not end up canning all summer (though we may try some canning) and most likely will not purchase solely locally grown food through the winter. I am more motivated to work harder in our tiny garden and grow what we can. We are looking into a CSA (thanks for your comment JTH) to provide us with vegetables and meat.
Thanks to all who have followed and supported me through this journey!
April 14, 2010
April 10, 2010
Day Thirteen
Today was a very important day. I took my ACT! In order to eat a filling and lasting breakfast, I ate two scrambled eggs, peanut butter on toast, a banana, and coffee. It kept me full until about half way through. My brain was working extra hard, so it is not surprising I would get so hungry.
For lunch I ate butternut squash soup and crackers. Tomorrow is my last day and I am getting quite excited to be done with my Target diet. Though not as restricting as the local diet, it is still difficult to eat food from only one place.
Tonight I attended a wedding and was unable to eat Target food for dinner. It was very good food though!
I wanted to begin my conclusions on the project. Today I want to look at the negative effects of eating locally and tomorrow I will focus on the positive.
It was initially more expensive (as Nyla said in her comment, it could be cheaper in the long run due to less medical bills). None the less, I think for someone who was tight on money, it would be hard for them to fork out the cash for locally grown food.
It was time consuming. For someone with a busy schedule, it would take a lot of energy to prepare meals in advance and focus on recipes accommodating what is in season. It also takes longer to cook meals.
It was difficult to find local food. Eating locally has not hit the Midwest. While those ahead of the curve, like Seward Co-op, labeled every produce item, the average grocery store seems to have no concept of eating locally grown food. This made it extremely difficult (and time consuming) to find local food.
These are my three biggest complaints about eating locally grown food. Tomorrow I will discuss my favorite things about eating locally.
For lunch I ate butternut squash soup and crackers. Tomorrow is my last day and I am getting quite excited to be done with my Target diet. Though not as restricting as the local diet, it is still difficult to eat food from only one place.
Tonight I attended a wedding and was unable to eat Target food for dinner. It was very good food though!
I wanted to begin my conclusions on the project. Today I want to look at the negative effects of eating locally and tomorrow I will focus on the positive.
It was initially more expensive (as Nyla said in her comment, it could be cheaper in the long run due to less medical bills). None the less, I think for someone who was tight on money, it would be hard for them to fork out the cash for locally grown food.
It was time consuming. For someone with a busy schedule, it would take a lot of energy to prepare meals in advance and focus on recipes accommodating what is in season. It also takes longer to cook meals.
It was difficult to find local food. Eating locally has not hit the Midwest. While those ahead of the curve, like Seward Co-op, labeled every produce item, the average grocery store seems to have no concept of eating locally grown food. This made it extremely difficult (and time consuming) to find local food.
These are my three biggest complaints about eating locally grown food. Tomorrow I will discuss my favorite things about eating locally.
Day Twelve
These two weeks have flown by! I had to double check to be sure it really was day twelve.
Today was a much better day of eating Target food. I woke up and had hot oatmeal with pecans and raisins. I drank milk and ate a banana.
I have begun to realize the draw I feel to eat out. Because I was off of school today, my mom offered to take me out to Noodles and Company for lunch. I was thrilled until I realized I was still on the Target diet. Instead I ate a tuna and cheese melt for lunch. It was good, but I was dying to eat out.
If I had eaten at Noodles, I would have eaten Pesto Cavatappi. This dish has 760 calories, over 50% of your saturated fat, and 30% of your sodium. According to Supersize me, the average American eats out 2 times a week. According to Weight Watchers the average American eats out 6 times a week.
Whichever is true, eating out is unhealthy. By choosing to eat locally, you eliminate almost all eating out. I have decided I was wrong in saying eating locally is mainly for the environment. Eating local is for yourself- your health and well-being. Fresh ingredients, lean meat, and grass fed animals (1), all contribute to a healthier diet.
Eating locally contributes to a healthier environment and a healthier you. Both of which are very important :)
At work I ate five delicious, bright red strawberries. (My favorite part of the Target diet- fruit from all over the world.) For dinner I ate left over Shepard's pie with peas and milk. It was a satisfying dinner without any work besides popping the plate in the microwave.
1. According to King Corn, grass fed beef has about 2 grams of saturated fat whereas corn fed beef has 9 grams.
Today was a much better day of eating Target food. I woke up and had hot oatmeal with pecans and raisins. I drank milk and ate a banana.
I have begun to realize the draw I feel to eat out. Because I was off of school today, my mom offered to take me out to Noodles and Company for lunch. I was thrilled until I realized I was still on the Target diet. Instead I ate a tuna and cheese melt for lunch. It was good, but I was dying to eat out.
If I had eaten at Noodles, I would have eaten Pesto Cavatappi. This dish has 760 calories, over 50% of your saturated fat, and 30% of your sodium. According to Supersize me, the average American eats out 2 times a week. According to Weight Watchers the average American eats out 6 times a week.
Whichever is true, eating out is unhealthy. By choosing to eat locally, you eliminate almost all eating out. I have decided I was wrong in saying eating locally is mainly for the environment. Eating local is for yourself- your health and well-being. Fresh ingredients, lean meat, and grass fed animals (1), all contribute to a healthier diet.
Eating locally contributes to a healthier environment and a healthier you. Both of which are very important :)
At work I ate five delicious, bright red strawberries. (My favorite part of the Target diet- fruit from all over the world.) For dinner I ate left over Shepard's pie with peas and milk. It was a satisfying dinner without any work besides popping the plate in the microwave.
1. According to King Corn, grass fed beef has about 2 grams of saturated fat whereas corn fed beef has 9 grams.
April 9, 2010
Day Eleven
Hello everyone, check out a blog post I was invited to write at http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/! A thrilling opportunity for this growing project!
Today was not a good day of eating Target food. For lunch I had buffalo flavored macaroni and cheese. I am not sure why I thought this would be good, but somehow it was appealing in the aisle at Target. Let's just say it was not tasty. I ate half and put the rest down the garbage disposal.
For dinner I was in a hurry so stopped at Target to buy a quick dinner. After perusing the aisles, I was at a loss so I grabbed a Lunchable. I also got chocolate milk and an apple. The cheese was rubbery, the meat was slimy, and the crackers were oily. I used to love Lunchables! I guess my taste buds have matured.
It is interesting, I thought that I would love the Target diet. But as my sister-in-law predicted, my body and taste buds have reacted differently. The convenience is great, the variety is great, but I can no longer say that the taste or nutrition is great.
My family and I have been discussing one down side of eating locally. As the world has found its way to a global economy, ethnic food has become available for almost everyone. I was just reading that McDonalds has stores in 125 countries. American food is available worldwide, but it cuts both ways. In today's globalized world, Americans are now able to eat many ethnic food choices and we become aware and respectful of other countries' cultures and food choices.
Since I was a child my family has been eating Indian food because my dad was born there. When my sister visited India this year, she was comfortable eating curries, dahl and other unusual foods. Being used to Indian food since childhood made her respectful and considerate of this ethnic food. By eating only locally grown food, people may lose respect for the diversity in food.
Today was not a good day of eating Target food. For lunch I had buffalo flavored macaroni and cheese. I am not sure why I thought this would be good, but somehow it was appealing in the aisle at Target. Let's just say it was not tasty. I ate half and put the rest down the garbage disposal.
For dinner I was in a hurry so stopped at Target to buy a quick dinner. After perusing the aisles, I was at a loss so I grabbed a Lunchable. I also got chocolate milk and an apple. The cheese was rubbery, the meat was slimy, and the crackers were oily. I used to love Lunchables! I guess my taste buds have matured.
It is interesting, I thought that I would love the Target diet. But as my sister-in-law predicted, my body and taste buds have reacted differently. The convenience is great, the variety is great, but I can no longer say that the taste or nutrition is great.
My family and I have been discussing one down side of eating locally. As the world has found its way to a global economy, ethnic food has become available for almost everyone. I was just reading that McDonalds has stores in 125 countries. American food is available worldwide, but it cuts both ways. In today's globalized world, Americans are now able to eat many ethnic food choices and we become aware and respectful of other countries' cultures and food choices.
Since I was a child my family has been eating Indian food because my dad was born there. When my sister visited India this year, she was comfortable eating curries, dahl and other unusual foods. Being used to Indian food since childhood made her respectful and considerate of this ethnic food. By eating only locally grown food, people may lose respect for the diversity in food.
April 7, 2010
Day Ten
Day three of eating Target food. Today my dad and I went grocery shopping. I had been eating leftover food we had from Target and it was time to restock. As we were walking through the aisles I began noticing how much junk food Target sells. Part of eating locally is eating fresh food and I couldn't help but look at the Little Debbies next to the bread, the two rows of chips and cookies, a whole row for sugary drinks. I saw in a new light what Target was promoting; it was striking. No wonder America has a problem with obesity; we can point one finger at our grocery stores (another at ourselves).
Today for lunch I ate pita bread with hummus. I also ate an apple. I feel like I ate something else, but have forgotten... or maybe that's why I was so hungry later? Anyway, after school I ate half a raisin cookie and some jelly beans.
I learned some important clarification while doing research today. There is a difference between locally milled and locally grown. I had written a question regarding this in an earlier post. I did not know whether or not all ingredients would have been grown locally if an item had been manufactured locally. I think that means my sun-butter and licorice and other packaged items did not necessarily include locally grown ingredients. It was very disappointing to discover, but the person did mention that some people who eat locally grown food include locally milled items in their diet as well.
For dinner I ate pizza. At Seward Co-op I had seen a local pizza for $13.00. At Target we got a pizza for $3.33. It was tasty, cheap, and manufactured in Bloomington. I was very surprised. But now that I know there is a difference between locally grown and locally milled, I am not so impressed.
To the right I have included my receipt from Target. Click to enlarge.
April 6, 2010
Day Nine
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.
Day Eight
The first day a piece of fruit has touched my lips in a week. I was so excited the first thing I did when I woke up was to raid the fruit drawer of the refridgerator. I have to say, Target grapes are not too bad! It did diminish the flavor when I began thinking about how far these grapes must have traveled to get to my house. These have come from somewhere it is warm enough in late March/early April to grow grapes. While it was depressing, I couldn't help but think about how Vitamin C deficient my body must be right now. That made me feel better about eating them.
For lunch I ate a ham and swiss cheese sandwich, but with mayo, something that was not available on my eating locally diet. I was surprised at the taste of the bread for some reason. Compared to my local bread, this bread tasted foamy and sweet. It made me think of King Corn and I wondered if there was corn syrup in my bread (there wasn't, just straight sugar). With my lunch I ate broccoli and cauliflower and I drank orange juice from Florida.
My lunch tasted great, but I couldn't get my mind off eating locally. I felt a little guilty eating food from so far away.
When I got home I ate chocolate eggs from Easter. These were also from some far away land and were definitely not a healthy choice. For dinner we ate (yikes!) Chinese food... not from Target! But, my parents did not want to waste food and they were leftovers needed to be eaten. My dad told me that most Chinese restaurants will ship in all their food frozen from one place in the country so they can just cook it up. Urban legend or truth? Anyway, it made me think again about eating locally. If I am planning to eat a local diet, no more Plymouth Garden for me. And for that matter no more fast food, school lunch, or restaurant dining (unless they advertise locally grown food).
One thing I love about this Target diet is that I can bake! It did not seem possible to bake with a locally grown diet. It may be that I simply could not find the right ingredients, but some basics were hard to find locally grown. I made a devil's food cake for dessert tonight. It was very fun to make and tasted good.
For lunch I ate a ham and swiss cheese sandwich, but with mayo, something that was not available on my eating locally diet. I was surprised at the taste of the bread for some reason. Compared to my local bread, this bread tasted foamy and sweet. It made me think of King Corn and I wondered if there was corn syrup in my bread (there wasn't, just straight sugar). With my lunch I ate broccoli and cauliflower and I drank orange juice from Florida.
My lunch tasted great, but I couldn't get my mind off eating locally. I felt a little guilty eating food from so far away.
When I got home I ate chocolate eggs from Easter. These were also from some far away land and were definitely not a healthy choice. For dinner we ate (yikes!) Chinese food... not from Target! But, my parents did not want to waste food and they were leftovers needed to be eaten. My dad told me that most Chinese restaurants will ship in all their food frozen from one place in the country so they can just cook it up. Urban legend or truth? Anyway, it made me think again about eating locally. If I am planning to eat a local diet, no more Plymouth Garden for me. And for that matter no more fast food, school lunch, or restaurant dining (unless they advertise locally grown food).
One thing I love about this Target diet is that I can bake! It did not seem possible to bake with a locally grown diet. It may be that I simply could not find the right ingredients, but some basics were hard to find locally grown. I made a devil's food cake for dessert tonight. It was very fun to make and tasted good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)