Food, glorious food

I haven't been writing because I've been waaaaaay too busy at work (sigh) and when I haven't been working, I've been obsessing over food, because I am now reading Morgan Spurlock's Don't Eat This Book! I really dig Morgan, although he clearly needs an editor for his blog (that conversational tone that he employs so well can easily slip into run-on sentences; my red-pen fingers itch in response).

But the book is great. It's totally terrifying, and not exactly well-written, but it's great. It's made me extremely conscious of what I'm putting into my body (even more so than the anti-migraine food diary has done). This morning, I made coffee and automatically pulled out the Coffee-MateTM to whiten it up. Ingredients of that stuff: Water, Sugar, Corn Syrup Solids [i.e. sugar], Partially Hydrogenated Soybean And/Or Cottonseed Oil [i.e. trans fats], Dipotassium Phosphate, Sodium Caseinate (A Milk Derivative), Titanium Dioxide, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Polysorbate 60, Carrageenan [this is a natural thickener made from seaweed], Beta Carotene Color.
As soon as I put it in the coffee I was sorry - I felt like I could smell the chemicals in it, and when I took a sip, I could definitely taste the chemicals.

So the short answer to all this is, I'm taking a trip to the Whole Foods in Wynnewood this weekend, and buying up the place. Free-range chicken, lots of fresh veggies and fruit. Whole grains. I'd been thinking about whole grains even before the Spurlock book, because they're getting so much press as a result of the new Food Pyramid, but according to Don't Eat, the Food Pyramid is kind of a sham, too, what with it being put together by the FDA and heavily influenced by the Cattlemen's Association, The Dairy Council, etc. It's enough to make you not want to eat.

Of course, I do realize that there are a million theories on the internet about food, health, what's bad/good for you to put into your body, etc. And I know that Morgan Spurlock isn't a completely reliable source of information. But I do think that this was the wake-up call I needed to get off my ass and start thinking more about what I eat - I have been thinking and not doing.

To top it all off, today I'm going out to lunch, which should be interesting, considering my food phobias and the likely prevalence of fried foods at the restaurant. Yay!