Quick, Johnny spit it Out – If You Can’t Pronounce it, Don’t Put it in Your Mouth

It’s hard to remember when the taste of our food was so satisfying that we didn’t need to overeat.

As a ten year old child, I lived in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California.  Back then there were a lot of small farms in this community near the Hansen Dam. When it was harvest time for the strawberries, all the children in the area were allowed to help pick the strawberries. We had permission to eat as many as we could while picking but we were careful to gather the biggest and best for the baskets. I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember the wonderful, sweet delicious taste of those juicy, sun ripened strawberries. Those strawberries were full of real flavor that needed no additives.

Another time that I can remember real flavor was when my late husband and I were long haul truck drivers. We often traveled through Ohio. There was a truck stop across the street from a market.  When we stopped for fuel we would go to the market to replenish our supplies. It was there that I first tasted a real beefsteak tomato. It was big! The taste was sweet and tart, and when i took a bite it was a firm and juicy bite. It also looked good without any help.

When first beginning to manipulate our foods, the scientific community, with the best of intentions started to genetically alter them in order to feed a hungry world. They tried to produce more, make them look prettier and grow faster and cost less to produce. All these endeavors were successful but you can’t fool with Mother Nature. She gave all that was asked, but in return we lost nutrients and taste. One thing that is a real puzzle is that customers will still buy the prettier produce knowing it is tasteless. Why?

Trying to compensate for the lack of nutrition, chemical fertilizers are used but these chemicals are not quite complete. Trying to compensate for the lack of taste, ingredients are added for flavor. The result is these ingredients may trigger cravings and may become addictive.

For years we were told that margarine was better for us than the saturated fat of butter. In reality, to make margarine, a nutritious vegetable oil is whipped until there is no life nor nutrients left leaving us with a product consisting mostly of trans fats. This process gives the product a very long shelf life. There are many products manufactured to have a very long shelf life. Imagine what chemicals we consume when we eat a product that is still edible after a few years that normally is bad after a few months.

Our foods have been whipped and beaten. They are pulled apart then glued together with a kind of food glue. They have been stripped and processed so they can’t be recognized. Then they are shaped, scented and colored to resemble something we might find appetizing. All of this has successfully polluted our food supply.

It has been discovered and reported over and over that some of these processes are harmful and shorten our lives. Just look at the rise in diabetes and obesity. Unfortunately this path taken by the growers and the manufacturers and big money conglomerates is so lucrative that they can’t turn back. The knowledge that our present food system is bad for us, even harmful, doesn’t change anything. We as consumers are caught between a rock and a hard place because we can’t pay the price for food that has not been doctored. But we do pay a very dear price by suffering a multitude of ailments caused by improper nutrition. I am only relating what I have seen and heard many times on our TV evening news broadcasts.

A small part of what we can do to help ourselves is called cooking from scratch. It’s not as hard as you may think. If you follow me on face book you will find many helpful cooking hints.

Look for stories and cooking tips and more in my cookbook Easy See Easy Cook ~ Recipe Favorites in Large Print.

You can find this cookbook for sale at the following locations in Tucson, Arizona:

CardSmart ~ 9431 E 22nd St. and 3130 E. Ft. Lowell

Mostly Books ~ 6208 E. Speedway Blvd in Tucson, Arizona

In Boise Idaho

Look for Jerry’s business, “Treasure Valley Sew & Vac” at The Boise Flea Mart. You will find many treasures for sale there including my cookbook.

Or on line when you visit bigeyedcooks.com

Sherry Pope, Author of Easy See Easy Cook, a specialty cookbook designed for people with vision difficulties. For information about the cookbook and the author please visit bigeyedcooks.com