HOnest Food

Ok so for 9 years I had always bought peanut butter at Walmart. I was used to the low price of the great value brand.  No eyebrows raised, I believed it was peanut butter no questions asked. One sunny day I went to trader Joes and my roving eyes caught a sight. It was a jar, with some brown pasty stuff and oil on top. Hmmmmmm. What was this I had to take a look. So I picked it up and looo and behold it said trader Joes peanut butter. Whatttt? Peanut butter. Why the liquid oil at room temperature on top of the brown pasty stuff. I read the ingredients. It said peanut and salt.... So my mind started racing. Whats going on here. Why is this different from the one I am accustomed to???? So I bought a jar and took it home and decided to do a side by side comparison.

When I got home I looked at the gv brand. The ingredients included peanut salt, sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil.... REALLY? HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE oil.  Why would someone take something as wholesome and nutritious as the peanut and HYDROGENATE IT. Seriously. Converting an unsaturated fat to saturated fat. BUT WHYYYYYYYYYY. Then whats the point of adding sugar to it? After this experience, I became an avid food label reader.

Yesterday at clinicals, my coursemates decided that we pool money together and buy some food. Even though I was armed with my salad, apple, trader joes peanut butter and apple sauce, I decided to indulge them. And then they said it was $30 per plate. Thirty whattt. Please what am I eating? GOLD........ I swallowed the lump in my throat and paid the money. When the food came it was a spread of different sauces and dips and grilled chicken breast and beef and salads and chopped cucumber salad and a flat bread.

I was determined to eat $30 worth of the food so I proceeded with a flat bread, piled the salad up on it, and then beef (as I don't like chicken breast) and then I wrapped it. As soon as I took a bite, I understood why the food cost so much. It was wholesome. The cucumbers tasted like they had just been harvested. The beef was the best cut. Tender and juicy. During the meal, my coursemate mentioned that all the food was organic. So finally it made sense. I was paying for the wholesomeness and thus $30 did not seem so bad for this meal.

See there is a lot of dishonesty in our world today AND IN OUR FOOD.  Pink slime, fillers, difficult to pronounce chemicals and the list goes on. Have you ever wondered how Mac Donalds is able to sell a cheese burger for $1?? My guess is that if the beef is real and wholesome, then it could not be $1.   Last Sunday I went to Costco and saw a sample of some stuff. So I decided to try it and oh it was so delicious. It was an intense medley of dried fruits, nuts and berries. Believe me the flavor was absolutely wonderful. And then I looked at the package, it said all natural, wholesome. I quickly grabbed a pack. I was going to enjoy this miracle. But the foodist in me decided to read the ingredient list. Chief of which was sugar and then other difficult to pronounce ingredients. I quickly returned the bag to its rightful place because this deception does not belong in my body.

Seasoning bullion is ingrained in Nigerian cusine. I don't know where we learnt this from but there is almost no Nigerian home where "maggi" as we affectionately call it is not resident. It goes into every dish. But what exactly is maggi? And why do we insist that our food is not tasty and flavorful enough without this chemical compound. Honestly I don't know when maggi came into  Nigerian cuisine and why we have embraced it with such fervor.  But I do know that it is deceitful because we use it to get the umami taste that our assorted meats, fish and spices should give us. My guess that maggi is a response to poverty and urban life. You see in the rural areas meat is fresh and absolutely tasty. Fresh herbs and other things make food so so delicious. However, these are missing in urban areas and so we resort to maggi to achieve this goal.

I once had an apple that stayed in my car for 6 weeks and yet did not spoil. Now this is a modern day miracle because fruits and vegetable are fragile and should spoil if not consumed within a time frame. It was a curious site. Now the apple was wrinkled no doubt but still edible. Later I learnt that most fruits and vegetables in the United States are coated with a waxy substance (which is a derivative of petroleum) in order to inhibit oxidation that causes spoilage. So the apple is not honest. And we no not what the wax does in ourbodies. I bought a box of tomatoes in downtown los angeles and the carton stated the tomatoes had the same compound.

So there it is deception everywhere. Now its a broken world and there is no absolute truth. We can only aim to be persons of truth and integrity and constantly and consistently work towards it.Its a process. Wont happen in one day. Now I pledge my alligience to honesty, integrity and righteousness and regards food. I will do everything within my power to ensure that I eat truthful food. But you know that many things I cant control. But what I can, I will because it will all ensure that I am healthy.

Ok. So. The conclusion of the matter is that I will never buy store brand peanut butter. QED.