Sadly, we live in a world where finding, preparing and eating real food is something few of us do. The good news is things are starting to change, albeit slowly for some but it is changing.
There is a program currently running on the Food Network that challenges families living in a small town to eat food that comes from within a 100 mile radius of their home. This process would generally ensure that you are eating real food unless you live near a Twinkie factory; the question is could you do it?
I personally try to eat as much real food as possible for many reasons; the most important being that I find real food that hasn't been processed and altered always tastes better. I love to cook so the extra time required to make this food is something my family and I enjoy immensely! Eating food that comes from within 100 miles of your home however might be a little more difficult that you think.
What surprised me about this challenge was the fact that even the most basic spices weren't allowed. To be honest I would have a tough time if a challenge of this type didn't included the following list of acceptable non local products. I would give myself decent odds on being able to complete this challenge which by the way ran for for 100 days.
I would need exceptions on the following in order to succeed:
- Spices - there are dry spices that are very hard to grow locally and unless you live near a salt lake or the ocean salt and even pepper can be tough to come by. Food doesn't taste right without salt and fresh cracked pepper!
- Olive oil - unless you live near the Mediterranean this is something most of us rely on for cooking and is something that I personally could not live without
- Alcohol - if you happen to be fortunate enough to live in a wine producing region, well you're lucky. For this alone I would not be able to stop my daily glass of wine routine.
I can only guess that I am missing about 10 items and they would come to mind in the first few days of doing this. The point to this show and this article is that more and more of us are thinking about eating real food. Eating only local food might not be for everyone, but focusing on buying local gives us many benefits. In most cases the food tastes better, is better for you and requires little to no shipping which is better for the environment.
So next time you want to make things more convenient and you decide to buy your child a pre made snack lunch ask yourself if yogurt in a tube is really setting the best example for your kids future eating habits. Food was never intended to come in tubes; yogurt comes from milk which comes from cows and goats. Keep these things in mind next time you're at the grocery store
