cheese

My friend Adam is always teasing me about my impractical “healthy” eating habits. Every time he would come to my home he would inevitably find in the refrigerator something low-fat or fat free. From his exaggerated reactions to these items, you would have thought that I had insulted his very being. (Perhaps I did. :) ) Naturally, the teasing worsened when Lent rolled around and I decided to give up processed foods. The two allowances I made were whole grain bread (I wasn’t about to start paying $5 for a loaf) and milk (I go through about a gallon a week--at least). Other than that, most everything I ate was whole, natural, unrefined, and made from scratch. Talk about difficult and time consuming. Sometimes it would take me so long to figure out what I could actually eat that I wasn’t hungry by the time I had come up with food options. It was trying, to say the least, but it got me thinking about the way that our society views and consumes food. I also started reading labels and figuring out exactly what I am putting into my body. It’s pretty shocking to see what types of ingredients we are consuming without even blinking an eye.

The other day, I was in a rush to get some grocery shopping done and mistakenly picked up some low fat mozzarella cheese. I wanted to make a Caprese Salad with some tomatoes that I had picked up from the Farmer’s Market. When I got home, I realized my folly but wasn’t about to waste my $6 purchase. I made my beautiful, little salad, cut my first piece and took a bite. It was disgusting. The tomato and basil were divine, but that cheese did NOT hit the spot. I started to laugh because I thought of Adam and could hear him saying something to the effect of “See! I told you so!”

I find it interesting that I am in more in agreement with Adam at this point in relation to “fat free” or “low fat” foods. They don’t taste very good and they don’t use real ingredients. I much prefer a little bit of real butter or cream as opposed to something chemically engineered. Lent has come and gone and I have definitely not been as regimented as I was before, but I am still reading labels, still studying up on food and nutrition, and still watching what I am actually putting into my mouth. Now I’m not going to get into the debate between Organic vs. Conventional Foods here, rather, I just wanted to say, Adam, in this instance, you were right...despite the fact that you love processed Kraft Singles.