Have you ever noticed that so much of the food we eat in this country just doesn't taste that good?
I've been thinking about this the last few days, about how much I enjoy the (mostly healthy) food that I am eating these days. I don't recall really enjoying my food much when I was younger. I remember cramming Nacho Cheesier Doritos and Mountain Dew into my mouth. I remember craving them, and other things full of sugar and salt, but I don't remember really enjoying what I was eating.
I happened upon a website where an author said that one of her problems with nationalized health care is that so many people in this country eat so badly that she doesn't think that the rest of us should have to pay for the health care needs that result. Ignoring the fact that if obesity and Type II diabetes correlate with poverty we are going to be paying for it anyway, one way or another (because poverty also correlates with not having private health insurance and therefore using the emergency room as your health care, which is expensive for all of us), but it does seem to me that we have lost, in this country, the ability and desire to make and eat really good food.
My mom and I were talking about chocolate yesterday and I realized that I just don't LIKE Hershey's chocolate anymore, or really any American-made chocolate. I can taste the oil in it, and that makes it not real chocolate. Real chocolate does not contain vegetable oil. It was Rwanda that made me a chocolate snob, actually, with the Cote D'Or Noir de Noir that was available in huge bars at La Baguette (whatever they are calling it now).
I also prowled my house yesterday looking for something to snack on, something to overeat, and found that it was virtually impossible to stuff myself in the manner of Doritos with the food items in my house. I ate some walnuts, and some tea. And then I laughed at myself, because it would take a LOT of walnuts and tea to truly overeat, in that way that makes you feel bloated and miserable.
So basically, I've become a food snob. This is the basic summary of this blog post. Most processed foods now taste like @ss to me. Instead, I buy and savor foods with strong, pure flavors. Instead of buying snacks, I bake more than I ever imagined I would.
I'm not trying to say that people who buy Doritos and Mountain Dew and overeat them are bad people doing a bad thing. There are many people who do not have access or funds for unprocessed, delicious food. There are many people for whom food is an addiction. There are many people who don't like the same foods that I think are so wonderful (extra sharp cheddar cheese, 70% cacao dark chocolate, I'm looking at you). But it makes me sad to think that so many people are living the way I did for at least the first 23 years of my life, until Rwanda: eating calorie-filled, flavorless food just because it's there, not because they are truly enjoying it. For the change in my eating habits, I partially credit my Italian-Swiss friends in Rwanda for making truly simple, delicious food with the ingredients they could find there.
Is it just me or does everyone feel hungry and dissatisfied after eating a whole mess of food sweetened with high fructose corn syrup? I hate that stuff.
I am finally getting to a point where I don't feel obligated to eat things that I don't particularly like or need. I went to a restaurant with some friends and looked at the menu and realized that nothing looked particularly good and I wasn't at all hungry anyway. And I ordered nothing. It was incredibly freeing.
And then I made my own sweet potato fries. I had never had sweet potato fries until I moved to Gone West. The only time I'd seen sweet potatoes was in that disgusting-looking Thanksgiving dish with the marshmallows on top. But with a little black pepper and salt, tossed with olive oil and baked in my oven, they were so good that I abandoned the ketchup on the counter so I could enjoy them straight.
There is some really delicious, healthy food out there.
I've been thinking about this the last few days, about how much I enjoy the (mostly healthy) food that I am eating these days. I don't recall really enjoying my food much when I was younger. I remember cramming Nacho Cheesier Doritos and Mountain Dew into my mouth. I remember craving them, and other things full of sugar and salt, but I don't remember really enjoying what I was eating.
I happened upon a website where an author said that one of her problems with nationalized health care is that so many people in this country eat so badly that she doesn't think that the rest of us should have to pay for the health care needs that result. Ignoring the fact that if obesity and Type II diabetes correlate with poverty we are going to be paying for it anyway, one way or another (because poverty also correlates with not having private health insurance and therefore using the emergency room as your health care, which is expensive for all of us), but it does seem to me that we have lost, in this country, the ability and desire to make and eat really good food.
My mom and I were talking about chocolate yesterday and I realized that I just don't LIKE Hershey's chocolate anymore, or really any American-made chocolate. I can taste the oil in it, and that makes it not real chocolate. Real chocolate does not contain vegetable oil. It was Rwanda that made me a chocolate snob, actually, with the Cote D'Or Noir de Noir that was available in huge bars at La Baguette (whatever they are calling it now).
I also prowled my house yesterday looking for something to snack on, something to overeat, and found that it was virtually impossible to stuff myself in the manner of Doritos with the food items in my house. I ate some walnuts, and some tea. And then I laughed at myself, because it would take a LOT of walnuts and tea to truly overeat, in that way that makes you feel bloated and miserable.
So basically, I've become a food snob. This is the basic summary of this blog post. Most processed foods now taste like @ss to me. Instead, I buy and savor foods with strong, pure flavors. Instead of buying snacks, I bake more than I ever imagined I would.
I'm not trying to say that people who buy Doritos and Mountain Dew and overeat them are bad people doing a bad thing. There are many people who do not have access or funds for unprocessed, delicious food. There are many people for whom food is an addiction. There are many people who don't like the same foods that I think are so wonderful (extra sharp cheddar cheese, 70% cacao dark chocolate, I'm looking at you). But it makes me sad to think that so many people are living the way I did for at least the first 23 years of my life, until Rwanda: eating calorie-filled, flavorless food just because it's there, not because they are truly enjoying it. For the change in my eating habits, I partially credit my Italian-Swiss friends in Rwanda for making truly simple, delicious food with the ingredients they could find there.
Is it just me or does everyone feel hungry and dissatisfied after eating a whole mess of food sweetened with high fructose corn syrup? I hate that stuff.
I am finally getting to a point where I don't feel obligated to eat things that I don't particularly like or need. I went to a restaurant with some friends and looked at the menu and realized that nothing looked particularly good and I wasn't at all hungry anyway. And I ordered nothing. It was incredibly freeing.
And then I made my own sweet potato fries. I had never had sweet potato fries until I moved to Gone West. The only time I'd seen sweet potatoes was in that disgusting-looking Thanksgiving dish with the marshmallows on top. But with a little black pepper and salt, tossed with olive oil and baked in my oven, they were so good that I abandoned the ketchup on the counter so I could enjoy them straight.
There is some really delicious, healthy food out there.
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