Eating to Live!

Doing the math

It’s getting more and more expensive to live these days, especially with the increase in all these costs coupled with the decrease in jobs. It’s no wonder people are leaving the area to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

I recently read an online article on MSNBC.com that looked into the ways people are adjusting to rising food prices. According to the article, families with children are opting to give their children soda (or in our neck of the woods, "pop") because it is so much cheaper than milk. This comment bothered me a bit because I would have thought that the alternative to milk, when funds are low, would be water.

I can’t say I was the model mother who fed her children healthy foods 100 percent of the time, but when I needed to stretch a dollar, even the cost of sugary soft drinks wasn’t an option over milk. When there was no milk in the house, we drank water. No one died of dehydration.

Choosing healthy foods over processed non-foods shouldn’t have to be an option when feeding our families. While our government screams about the obesity problem in the country they are offering tax incentives to the very corporations who bring us cheap but edible products that are poor imitations of real food. Not only that, we have to have a degree in mathematics and the brain of Sherlock Holmes in order to decipher food labels that are obviously misleading.

Let’s face it. Food corporations don’t care if we are walking around with 100 extra pounds on our frames. In fact, they are probably pretty happy about it because it means we are eating more of stuff they are selling.

Here’s an example.

While shopping for peanut butter one day, the label marked “reduced fat” caught my eye. First I wondered why they would even try to reduce the fat in peanut butter mainly because the fats in nuts are healthy fats that give us Omega-3 oils, which have been shown to lower bad cholesterol (LDL) while raising good cholesterol (HDL). These healthy fats are needed to help our bodies perform many functions, including boosting our immune systems and lubricating our arteries, not to mention coating our brains and feeding those cells that help keep us alert.

Oddly enough, when I compared the labels on the reduced fat and the regular peanut butter, some subtle, but important differences began to appear. First of all, most food companies, when taking something out of a product to make it appear better for us, will add something back in to improve the flavor. In the case of the peanut butter, the oils were replaced with – can you guess? -- partially hydrogenated oils and sugar. There was virtually no difference in calories. So if you are worried about gaining weight from the “fat” in peanut butter, simply eat smaller portions or cut out added fats somewhere else, but don’t substitute it for an inferior product that won’t get you any further ahead.

Simply put…eat the real food not the over-processed substitutes. Real food doesn't have to be any more expensive in the long run. Try to buy in bulk and freeze overages for another meal. Cut back other places instead if you find your food budget expanding more than your wallet. Plant a garden if you have the space. But don’t compromise your health, or your family’s health, by substituting soft drinks for milk. That’s just wrong.

The weekend was busy at home cleaning and cooking, but by Monday, I was ready to come back to work for a rest. Sunday was a fun day; however, as I managed to bake up another batch of homemade wheat and oat bread. I’m thinking of adding walnuts to the next batch. This recipe makes six loaves or, in my case, three loaves and a tray of rolls.

Although I had eggs with my husband for my weekend breakfasts, by Tuesday I was craving oatmeal, especially those early mornings are still pretty cold. Once again, I added the banana (still haven’t given them up), walnuts and cinnamon (we will be discussing cinnamon in a later blog). Tuesday lunch at my desk was Amy’s rice macaroni and cheese bowl in which I added a handful of frozen peas and a two-ounce can of tuna. Dinner was with my literary club at a local restaurant. It was our final meeting of the season and we won’t be meeting again until October. My dinner choices were an appetizer of balsamic bruschetta, a salad and country fried steak with country gravy and mashed potatoes. This is usually a pretty good dish, but on this night the steak was overcooked and the potatoes were only mildly warm. I guess we all have our off-days.