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childhood obesity, ChildhoodObesity, Family, flour, Food, Gluten-free diet, grocery shopping, Grocery store, Health, healthy eating, Home, mom, new seasons market, Obesity, organic, Shopping, Starbucks, whole foods
Whole foods (Photo credit: parislemon)
Today was my grocery shopping day and my latest culinary adventures have landed me in the most beautiful places! New Seasons Market and Whole Foods are just the best. Just walking in the door makes me feel healthy. I don’t know if it’s the bright colors, the smell of essential oils, or the produce clerks with funky hair and tattoos, but something about it makes me feel good when the air inside hits my face as the automatic doors open.My feelings upon leaving however are quite the opposite - I feel like I have just been kicked in the stomach (or checkbook more specifically) and I find myself always questioning why we have to pay so much more to feed our families healthy, wonderful food?This is not in any way a complaint about the New Seasons or Whole Foods, but rather how we have gotten so far away from eating real food that in order to find the good stuff we have to pay big bucks.
{As a side note, I do know that both New Seasons and Whole Foods do amazing things for the community and they not only focus on the business piece, but the social piece, which is so needed and fabulous.}
In fact I felt so good shopping at New Seasons that I wrote the corporate office an email expressing how much I loved their store! That is huge for me considering I am the type of person who always says “I am going to write a letter!” And I would say 95% of the time that just doesn’t happen because I jump back on the train of life and it takes me to the next destination before I can even stop and write the letter at this one.
I digress… I know I know….
By no means is our family sitting in the top income bracket, in fact, the majority of our monthly expenses are spent on food and we have made several other cut backs in our budget to fit our lifestyle (which is still above our means… but that is for another day!).
Since reading several enlightening books on nutrition, I no longer feel like I can buy conventional produce, I have to go organic, and the gluten-free means we buy several different ingredients like xanthun gum, rice flour, sorghum flour, potato starch, etc… It’s not to say that most of these ingredients cannot be found in the traditional grocery stores, however New Seasons and Whole Foods, not only do they have these things, but they have a selection and variety, not to mention I love people watching in the store too!
Anywho, I always find myself thinking about the mother who is just trying to make ends meet. What does she do? She most likely cannot spend $185.00 (my total today!) per week on groceries. So does that mean that her children should have to eat pesticide laden fruit, or that they must live on processed foods that are known to be bad for our health? It just bums me out that so many families are unable to afford the simple luxuries like putting healthy, chemical free foods into their bodies. I imagine that there are a lot of people out there that just don’t know how terrible a lot of the stuff out there is also.
I am going to start to garden, for real. This is the next book on my list. I have to learn how to garden and grow veggies so that I can go back to drinking Starbucks a couple of times a week! A gal has got to have vices too, I am only human!
Is it selfish to say that I want to grow veggies so that I can go to Starbucks as opposed to being great for the environment or something like that? Part of being a good mom is to be selfish every once in a while- I think we need to be more selfish… that is part of the whole “letting ourselves go” thing.
I digress again…
This whole conversation (that I am having with myself) reminds me of just how strange things have gotten and makes me wonder what it was like to be eating years ago when food was simple, full of fat, and wholesome. Back when we didn’t have a childhood obesity crisis or the Biggest Loser (one of my favorite and most inspirational shows FYI). Maybe we did have child obesity and adult obesity and it just wasn’t out there? Why does it seem that this is a relatively new phenomenon?
Just thinking out loud…(or in cyberspace).
What are your thoughts about all this?
I see no problem having Starbucks as a motivation to garden.
My friend just reminded me… time to get the peas planted!
I often think about that too (the mom who has no choice but to buy the things she can afford). Especially with a daughter with a long list of allergies and in the best interest of the family we’ve all gone GF, preservative-free, and almost completely everything homemade. There are, of course, some things that help. Farmer’s market organic produce is cheaper than Whole foods. Our area has Fare For All where you can get organic and pesticide free produce and meets for an amount so reasonable you won’t believe it. (And there’s no income limit) Other major cities have similar programs. But I get it, it’s hard and the pricetag is ridiculous. I’ve found that the gluten free flours you can get in bulk, for better prices online.
I am so glad that I am not the only one who is in this position… it is so hard when there is no other choice but to make it work as in both of our cases. I am going to look into the Fare For All- I would think maybe Portland has something similar…?? I have been buying my flours in bulk from Amazon and that has helped
Thank you so much for the tips! I am hopeful that I can continue to feed my family the best and still have a little fun (Starbucks!) for me too!!
Bryan and I were just talking about that the other day as we were shopping at New Frontiers (remember that store? They moved to a really huge, super nice location). That’s the only health food store around here and it’s so frustrating how expensive everything is. I agree that it’s so ridiculous to have to be well off to eat well and treat your body the way that it should be treated. It’s especially hard now that I’m down to 4 days a week at work and Bryan is trying to jump-start his massage business. But as soon as we hit the big time (hee hee) I will eat ummm… 90% good for me stuff!
I so hear you (as I am eating girl scout cookies!!)! It will be so nice someday to get to shop at Whole Foods, buy all the healthy stuff for our bodies, and have extra to buy other fun stuff too! Ahhh…. Coach purses… Love.
Oooohhhh…..Coach purses. Drool.