Try Something New This Weekend

I've been reading "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan and learning a lot about our food system.  With the majority of crops consisting of only corn and soy on most farms now (as opposed to healthy mix less than a century ago), our food and food's food (i.e. feed for cattle) have a lot of these products in them.  Since these are the crops subsidized, farmers are more willing to grow what the government will pay them for, so here we are.  Pick up almost any packaged food item and corn or soy (or both) are likely to be on the list.

We need a diversity of foods to support our complex body's need for vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients; standard farming practices focus more on crop yield than quality.  So, you get a lot of two crops grown and harvested faster than they would in nature meaning less time in the soil to fully obtain a healthy dose of nutrients.  It may not matter anyway since most of this soil only has the bare minimum to make the crops grow.  So, the end result is a crop with 10 to 50 percent less nutrients than it had before the industrial agriculture business came on the scene.

This is not appealing to me and I will become even more skeptical of the foods I purchase in or out of a package.  Today I am going to the store and will look for something new to try that was grown organically (meaning no pesticides and in nutrient-rich soil) to see what I can find.

Next time you are at the store, shop around and see what you can find.  We all need to change up the foods we consume to receive a variety of nutrients.  If a food looks different and you're unsure of what to do with it, just buy it and then look up a recipe online. You might find a new favorite!

Check out WHFoods.com for a great list to start with.