Woke up and drank a glass of filtered water. I usually do this while looking out the window and sitting on the couch.
Made a smoothie - almonds/flax-seed/banana/strawberries. Drank a glass of that. I often drink that while checking email and the weather before going to work.
Ate a blood orange there and drank water. Ate a prepared vegan burrito while teaching - I don't notice the flavor that much and I felt heavier and not-hungry. Those burritos are 500 calories and a lot of that is palm fat, which sits heavy in the stomach.
Didn't eat more at lunch because I was going swimming later in the day and didn't want to have more food sloshing in my belly. I did drink another 3 glasses or so of filtered water from my steel canister. When I got home after swimming I made a quick couple open faced sandwiches with arugula, vegan mayonnaise, organic whole grain bread, and tofu. I ate that quickly because I was hungry and I needed to prepare some food for my friend Heather to take to work with her for her overnight shift.
I walked her to the train and then ended up taking the subway to our community garden to make sure the little sprouts didn't die for lack of water. Talked to a couple people there so when I got home I was real hungry again. Made a salad of arugula, lettuce, tomatos, and a pasture-raised egg, with some flax-seed oil and white wine vinegar. I ate that while sitting on the couch by myself and looking out the window. I felt good doing that, since it was healthy food and I was in no hurry and didn't have to be interacting with anyone or with electronics. I had a glass of water a half hour later.
Later I ate a couple sandwiches of vegan sausage, mayonaise, tomatos, and arugula while sitting at the computer. For about a year or more I was good about paying attention to my food and not reading or web browsing while eating, but I have backslid in the last year. The food was good but I mostly was unaware of it while I plotted strategy for reforming the coop building where I live.
Around 9:30pm I had another glass of the morning's smoothie.
Around 10pm I made a dessert of some of the chocoloate birthday cake I'd made for Heather plus some pasture-raised goat milk yogurt, plus some bilberry jam. That tasted pretty good and I felt full but not stuffed.
This morning when I woke up I had my glass of water and made a smoothie - same almond, flax, banana, water blend but this time frozen acai, acerola, and wild blueberries as the flavor. And after I'd filled my steel canister with some filtered water and threw an orange in my backpack I was on my way to work.
All of the above food was from the Park Slope Food Coop and 98% of it is organic. I'm still vegetarian after all these years but not vegan at home, since this winter, after 16 year of being vegan. I am now willing to buy eggs and yogurt at the food coop as long as the animals are allowed to run around in a pasture and aren't given hormones and unnecessary antibiotics, etc. I still eat vegan for most of the day, and when I'm at restaurants because of habit and because I don't want to buy or consume the products of cruelty to animals.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Family Eating Versus Dominant Corporate Eating Versus My Eating
I grew up in a white upper-middle class family in a town in SW Florida. Upper class in the sense of having more income than 90% of Americans and 98% of the world, but middle class class since my father still had to work, we were regularly made fearful of bankruptcy, and we were "normal" Americans - played baseball and watched TV rather than polo and vacations to Zurich.
Our family's foodways seem typical of dominant corporate white food culture. We ate a lot of fast food from McDonalds and Wendy's and Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. For a while my grandparents even tried to supplement their retirement as owners of a Burger Queen franchise. Since you don't see those around anymore you can guess how that turned out for them. When we ate at home it tended to be fast too. I must have eaten several thousand sandwiches of sliced ham or roast beef from the supermarket, some mayonaisse, and a little salt, or maybe an egg salad sandwich - same ingredients but boiled egg instead of meat. I remember feeling like people who made bologna sandwiches from brand name bologna were poorer than us. I also ate a lot of ice cream, yogurt, and cereal. I don't remember us making food for each other, even though there were 5 kids.
My mother cooked once every week or two - usually boiled white spaghetti, browned meat with bottled pasta sauce dumped over it. Sometimes similar ingredients but instead of red sauce and white sauce and some onion - which made it stroganoff. My father cooked once or twice a month - but pretty much never in the kitchen - he would use the grill outside to broil steaks, hamburgers, or hot dogs as befits a man. We generally ate on our own - sitting on the couch watching TV shows like Star Trek or MacGyver. The occasional "family dinner" around the dinner table I remember as having lasted too long when they lasted more than 10 minutes and often leading to arguments.
I remember one effort my mom made for a couple weeks - she bought a wok and tried to get us to eat stir-fries and eat together regularly at the table. We hated it and she gave it up pretty quickly.
Today I eat differently from corporate dominant white culture. I often make food for my partner and eat together. I've been vegetarian for 18 years. We buy our food from a food coop which carries a lot of organic and local food. I eat more fruits (4-5 servings a day) and vegetables (4-5 servings a day). We drink a smoothie in the morning and usually eat a salad in the evening along with our other meals.
I can still see some vestiges of my old habits - I still eat sandwiches quite a bit, generally cook single pot meals rather than elaborate multi-course meals, and don't enjoy sitting at a table.
Our family's foodways seem typical of dominant corporate white food culture. We ate a lot of fast food from McDonalds and Wendy's and Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. For a while my grandparents even tried to supplement their retirement as owners of a Burger Queen franchise. Since you don't see those around anymore you can guess how that turned out for them. When we ate at home it tended to be fast too. I must have eaten several thousand sandwiches of sliced ham or roast beef from the supermarket, some mayonaisse, and a little salt, or maybe an egg salad sandwich - same ingredients but boiled egg instead of meat. I remember feeling like people who made bologna sandwiches from brand name bologna were poorer than us. I also ate a lot of ice cream, yogurt, and cereal. I don't remember us making food for each other, even though there were 5 kids.
My mother cooked once every week or two - usually boiled white spaghetti, browned meat with bottled pasta sauce dumped over it. Sometimes similar ingredients but instead of red sauce and white sauce and some onion - which made it stroganoff. My father cooked once or twice a month - but pretty much never in the kitchen - he would use the grill outside to broil steaks, hamburgers, or hot dogs as befits a man. We generally ate on our own - sitting on the couch watching TV shows like Star Trek or MacGyver. The occasional "family dinner" around the dinner table I remember as having lasted too long when they lasted more than 10 minutes and often leading to arguments.
I remember one effort my mom made for a couple weeks - she bought a wok and tried to get us to eat stir-fries and eat together regularly at the table. We hated it and she gave it up pretty quickly.
Today I eat differently from corporate dominant white culture. I often make food for my partner and eat together. I've been vegetarian for 18 years. We buy our food from a food coop which carries a lot of organic and local food. I eat more fruits (4-5 servings a day) and vegetables (4-5 servings a day). We drink a smoothie in the morning and usually eat a salad in the evening along with our other meals.
I can still see some vestiges of my old habits - I still eat sandwiches quite a bit, generally cook single pot meals rather than elaborate multi-course meals, and don't enjoy sitting at a table.
Internet Research 1
What are some of the obvious food choices people could make that would help them live better more meaningful lives? How many people would benefit from these changes?
- Rates of Obesity: Approximately 28% as a nation - with a particularly appalling animated map here.
- Death by Red Meat - According to the NYT - approximately 1,500,000 suffer death each year as a result of high red meat consumption.
- Vegetarians Live Longer - According to an article from an Australian Newspaper long-term vegetarians live, on average, almost 4 years longer than people who were vegetarian for a short time.
Refrigerator Assignment
Door - Top Shelf:Refrigerator List:
Organic Bilberry Jam
Organic Flax Seeds
Organic Flax Seed Oil
Wild 'Sustainable' Palm Hearts
Organic Vegan Apple Sausage
Organic Italian Tomato Paste
Natural Red Wine
Vitamin B12 - Liquid
Organic Fair Trade Dark Chocolate
Organic Avocado
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