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October #Unprocessed

September 29, 2015 — 2 Comments

October Unprocessed

This is the sixth year of the October Unprocessed challenge, but the first time I have heard of it. This is an excellent idea for eaters of all stripes. Everyone can benefit from learning more about our food and how it is made. Diet is a hot topic, and many are the suggestions for improving it. I think the least complicated plan is the best. For folks who think fast food is the only way to eat this change might pose a bigger problem, but for my household this is not much of a stretch. At first I believed it meant I would use nothing prepackaged, but the definition used is not that tight. For this purpose unprocessed means something an ordinary cook could prepare with normal ingredients in a normal kitchen. It does not exclude foods prepared with minimum alteration. I can still be in the group while using my boxed tomatoes and jars of olives or pickles.

What will have to be banished for October?

Fake meat-by far the costliest and least healthy of my junk foods
Chips-unless I whip some up with freshly fried or baked tortillas
Store bought bread-I can make all the bread we eat easily
Bottled juices- fresh is better and much healthier for the planet

I am not opposed to buying help with food preparation as long as the product is not altered or preserved. I sometimes use baking mixes and some frozen pastry products, but for the month I will make my own pastry because it is much more cost-effective. It can be also be made in appropriate small batches for the two of us. Fall is an easy time to create fruit crisps, crumbles, and cobblers with the harvest. Fruit and cheese plates make lovely desserts without any fuss or bother.

I like all the support offered including dining options in popular chain restaurants. The sponsors and leaders are prepared to inform, uplift, and encourage anyone who wants to try to improve their eating habits. Rather than “going on a diet” this program is aimed at awareness and alternatives to the status quo. I am enthusiastically on board. I will finish off my beet and plantain chips with gusto before Thursday. What do you think, gentle reader? I think it is worth the effort.

bell peppers, unprocessed

Mark Bittman on Food in America

February 5, 2013

Mark Bittman is a foodist supreme and an omnivore. He and Anthony Bordain are my food persona idols. Although they both do eat all manner of animal products, they do it in awareness. In this TED talk Bittman details the history of eating and agriculture in America that has brought us to this point. I am about his age so I relate totally to the diet he describes on his childhood table. Like him, I was inspired my mother’s God awful cooking to learn to cook early in life. Unlike him, I became a vegetarian at the age of 19. In 1970 in North Carolina I can assure you that vegetarianism was completely foreign as a concept. My diet was not yet healthy, but it was mostly homemade. I was a baker of biscuits and bread. I was lucky that my roommate had mother who sent us really tasty canned produce from her garden in South Carolina. Over time I met vegetarians for health (from northern California, of course) and improved the ingredients I used. I garden and enjoy cooking and eating produce now, but my learning curve has taken place in a time when all agriculture has become progressively less healthy. I hope you will have time to listen to Bittman’s excellent talk, but if you need a summary here it is:

Animals are responsible for 20% of the air pollution and much of the lifestyle disease in America
Eating plants is known to be healthier than eating animals
Agribusiness and the USDA are not our friends
It is simple to change one’s own diet and thereby make the most important contribution