4 days ago
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Fake Food
Today I fed the kids fake food for lunch because I'm tired of sandwiches and am totally exhausted - it's been a long week. I busted out the box of Mac and Cheese with florescent orange "cheese" and processed, refined sorry excuses for noodles. To make the "cheese" you add butter and milk. I added a fake butter too - the "I can't believe" kind.
We don't have a lot of prepackaged foods around here. I do keep some for those days where I need a break. Mostly we try to make things from scratch though. But I saw a show on Oprah not too long ago about becoming a vegan. It was very interesting to me - not that I want to become a vegan though. The show really promoted the idea that people should look at where their food comes from carefully. People should be aware of the animal products in our food and how those products are processed and packaged and shipped - plus all the resources that go into making your food. They mentioned this one kind of butter that is a vegan butter but supposedly you can't tell the difference.
So I purchased the butter(pictured above) - to give it a try. They were right, I can't tell the difference. It is lactose free, soy free, gluten free, non GMO, and vegan.
But then I compared the labels and realized that the healthy stuff had WAY more calories and fat per serving than the fake stuff. I am confused. What the hell are you supposed to do now?? No, really, I'm confused.
The show also talked about having a conscience about the conditions the animals we eat are subjected to. In other words - don't buy animal products where the animals have been mistreated. Not mistreated by the FDA standards - but mistreated by common sense standards. So I purchased fairly inexpensive cage free veggie fed eggs. Look at the happy hens piling up the cages that they aren't forced to live in. The package makes me want to support the rebellious hens by purchasing their happy eggs. Power to the hens!!
Once I got it home I realized that the eggs were from California. Oh crap. I have violated another rule. I'm supposed to buy local products when available. The local cage free happy eggs in the store were close to $5 a dozen. And this is a Texas licensee. Damn. I really can't win here.
Ooooh. A happy cow. Look at her leaping with joy. She is apparently from a happy dairy too. I do buy the organic milk but not for all the right reasons. We buy it because the shelf life is 3-4 times longer than the non-happy cow milk. I got tired of throwing out milk. Now we buy this milk so that I don't end up throwing it out because it wasn't consumed fast enough.
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One thing I have learned in all my classes is that even though it may have more calories or fat, if the ingredients are real AND there are only 5-8 of them, it's better for you. All the food that is supposedly "low fat" and crap has more processed stuff that is super bad for you, like turkey bacon and "fat free" milk.
ReplyDeleteI think the difference is not so much based on fat/calories as how the oils are processed. The Smart Balance is made with expeller-pressed oils, which means the oil was literally pressed out of the soybeans and whatnot. The oils in margarine are generally put through a chemical process. So it's really what's more important to you: eating less fat, or eating something that has not been chemically processed. There also isn't anything really wrong with butter though, yes it does have more fat, but if you limit your intake it shouldn't really make much of a difference.
ReplyDeleteYes, you read so much about healthy fats and oils. I'm getting where I prefer olive oil over butter on things now. Even on my baked potatoes! Healthy eating is very confusing. And I totally agree that you have to break down and eat the "fake" stuff every once in awhile. It's all about survival.
ReplyDeleteIt *is* complicated to eat right. Like your prior commenters said, I just try to keep it real. Real food, that is. Real life sometimes demands dinner in a box! Have you read Michael Pollan's books? Good stuff.
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