What? And kill everything that is vital in it? How is that better than processed food? Same result, just more expensive.

I couldn’t agree more that we would in general be better off if we trimmed processed foods from our diets. The yogurt example cited above is a good example, why strip a food of its nutrients only to add them back in? What’s interesting to me about your post is I hadn’t thought that heavily processed foods were essentially sterilized and the potential implications of this.

I truly believe that many of our health issues today are due to consuming foods comprised of ingredients we cannot spell, nor pronounce. Is it really the bacon or the butter or is it the nitrates and hormones being used? Chemicals – for taste (since all real tastes is lost during processing), scent, texture, preservatives – hormones, anitbiotics, the state of industrialized “meat farms”, vegetables grown by giant agro-chemical compaines contamiated with “upstream run-off”…I cannot help but believe that we are poisoning ourselves.

My grandfather ran a small grocery store and butchershop- I remember meat being cut fresh, the smell slightly sweet, never seeing a strawberry other than in may/june, tomatoes july& august (my favorite breakfast during that time was fresh baguette from the local bakery with a tomato from the vine and some fresh basil)m root vegetables in the fall and winter. Bacon was REAL and not in slices in plastic packages -and yes, we used the bacon fat as flavoring for other dishes. There was no obsession around carbs, fat, proteins…both sets of great-grandparents lived into their late 80’s/90’s and my grandparents the same. And I believe it is beacuse of their approach to food.

Don’t even get me started on the use of plastics/tupperware…I can’t begin to imagine what that is doing to us.

I just do my best to eat real food, whole foods, natural foods. I’m not too worried if my strawberries are small or only last a day or two (mostly because I will eat them) or not so pretty. I care that they actually have a taste and aren’t mutant giants. I can’t imagine how families in other areas of the US struggle to get healthy food on the table given today’s economic conditions, the hours at the office, etc.
We have to keep trying and understand that “variety and convenience” can be found in the simplest ways…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28641673/from/ET/

Sheesh.

In my own home and in the homes of those I know well, I’m not a germ freak. Plain old soap and water works well for me, and I only give the kitchen a good scrub with other cleansers when I’ve been working with raw meats.

I have noticed that my husband and I are rarely seriously ill, nor do we have any food allergies or sensitivities. We also both work in the health care settings, where, presumably, we come in contact with all kinds of creepy crawlies. Still, we rarely get more than a standard cold in the winter, and I chalk it up to be in contact with germs all the time. Exposure and building a healthy immunity (unless you have some immunity-compromising illness like cancer, HIV/AIDS, etc.) is really the way to go.

Do these fears have something to do with the demise of the public
water fountain?

It stuns me how many parents walk around with those little bottles of hand disinfectant, yet think nothing of shoving some highly processed food in their mouth. Worse, they do it to their children.

I volunteer 2x a month at a bbq for Marines at Camp Pendleton who have finished their 20km hike. There are crews of home bakers who bring in cookies, under the directive to not bake everything with nuts.

This week, the military announced peanut butter is going to be taken OUT of MRE’s. For those who don’t know, MRE’s are packages of food around 4,000 calories meant so sustain someone over a long period of time where they won’t have access to either food or water. Peanut butter was a major source of protein, fats, and sugar needed for the long haul. So now, they’ll substitute it with something else. Michael –maybe you need to get in on this.

So when I go to these bbq’s I can’t believe how many are allergic to nuts. But I still don’t get it. Weren’t these kids introduced to peanut butter at an early age? I mean –wasn’t everyone? I guess in the era I was raised, food was fixed for us and the breadth of what we had gave us a natural immunity to most things. WE’d pick fruit off trees, eat meat cut on wooden boards, and bread my Mom made. (Though I remember feigning an allergy to my mother’s overcooked zucchini).

And Michael –Gyms are gross. Just go buy some stuff and throw it in the garage like everyone else. And don’t forget to stretch –keep those muscles and joints limber. It’ll help when you’re a geezer. ;0)

I appreciate your thoughts on why kids are developing such severe allergies. I’ve had similar ideas, but couldn’t express them as well as you.

Amen to that, Tea. I do use bleach for a few things, but I keep it away from food.

I knew hysteria had set in when I read an article in Elle Magazine saying that we had to worry about the bacteria on the surface of our soap. I mean, it’s soap. Do we need special soap to clean the soap? How does that stay bacteria free?

A friend wipes down her kitchen counters continually with bleach wipes. I’m more worried about what the bleach might do to my food, than about what a little dirt might do to me.