Discovering Real Food

I credit having to go gluten free for making me aware of what is in my food and how it is produced. Man, I had no idea. Even growing up in farm country, I didn't think about it a whole lot.

I ate well growing up. Mom was a pretty good cook, and we ate about like your average American family in the 90s. I didn't usually think too hard about where the food came from, as long as it was there, it tasted ok, and I could scarf it down before band practice (or wherever else I was rushing to back in those days). There were a lot of Subway pizza subs...

Since I've been forced to scrutinize every ding dang detail of every bite of food that enters my mouth, I've realized how much CRAP I've eaten in my lifetime. America is fat?! No way! I've actually lost most of my taste for processed, preserved foods.

I made a GF rice mix yesterday that contained MSG precursors in the ingredients- disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate. I didn't see that when I bought it, it said GF so I grabbed. Anyway, the rice could have tasted decent, but it tasted so much like flavor enhancer that it was hard to tell what the original flavor was supposed to be. Ick.

It seems like the less I eat processed food, the more undesirable it gets. Funny how I used to crave things that repulse me now, even foods that would have been GF. Fast food of any sort makes me feel like I have metabolic syndrome just by looking at it. No thanks.

It's like I've finally realized that real food has nutrients. It tastes good in its own element, without having to doctor it up and save it for later with soy lecithin, methylparaben, or PGPR.

This also means I need to relearn how to cook. Yikes.

That said, I have to admit that I did have to stop by the store on my way home yesterday to buy a chocolate bar. Overly sweet, overly creamy milk chocolate. And I've eaten a lot of it. Not the most appropriate timing for such a post...

I need to go brush my teeth now.