Clean Eating, With a Side of Fries

Lately I've found myself becoming much more vegetarian-minded. Earlier in the year I made the resolution to only eat meat about once a week, and try to have it be locally/sustainably sourced. I actually managed pretty well for the most part, lasting from the beginning of January through mid-May or so. Then summer arrived and I got admittedly lazy and wound up being more careless about what I was eating. It's not that I was eating junk all the time, I just stopped eating consciously.

The past few weeks I've made the effort to eat a lot less meat and animal products and making sure that the ones I do eat are free range, grass fed, and organic whenever possible. Even more recently I've been turning down meat in general, even if the above criteria are met, in favor of beans, quinoa, nuts (tons and tons of almond butter), and as much fresh fruit and vegetables as possible. The physical effects are obvious - I have more energy and run longer and faster - and mentally I'm more alert. I'm not sure if cutting out meat is solely to thank, but I do think that it's a result of eating cleaner. Avoiding packaged foods makes a huge difference, not only because it cuts down on the chemicals I'm eating but because it also requires me to think more about what I'm hungry for and how to prepare it. Cooking and baking also calms me down, so I gain another mental and emotional benefit.

This post stems from a conversation I had last night with a friend about his new internship. He's working at a local organization that's working on an initiative to provide greater access to healthy foods in corner stores in Philadelphia. Corner stores are notorious for the ubiquity of processed food and drink, and my friend's company is working on a business model that can convince these store owners to put healthy foods in their markets. While organic/sustainable/other buzz word products are the eventual goal, the initial aim is just to actually provide healthy options like produce in the store. This way the children who buy their breakfast at the corner store now - consisting of packaged donuts or a bag of chips - can in the future pick up an apple or yogurt instead and hopefully create a habit of healthy eating.

Personally, I think it's dismissive to say that people who struggle with obesity or who eat a lot of junk food are just "asking for it" or "lazy." Far fewer people today know how to cook than 50 years ago, largely thanks to the rise of the food industry, frozen dinners, and fast food. No one markets oranges or broccoli today - instead, it's Fanta and Doritos. The basic lack in education about how to prepare fresh foods, coupled with limited access to whole foods (the concept, not the store, especially in low income communities), is one of the key drivers to why obesity and its associated diseases like diabetes is skyrocketing in America. I realize I'm not saying anything especially groundbreaking, but I think it's a morbidly fascinating issue that's really come to light recently and is receiving a lot of positive attention through figures like Michael Pollan and Alice Waters and movies like Food, Inc.

There are two things I'll leave you with. The first is a discussion and article on the chef Jamie Oliver, who is filming a new reality TV show in Huntington, West Virginia - the "unhealthiest city in America." Read the opinion piece from Jezebel here and the full NYTimes' Magazine writeup on Jamie here. The second is that my personal exception to being mostly meatless will always, always be a cheeseburger and fries - the real kind, with grilled mushrooms & onions, Swiss, and A1. And bacon, if I'm really feeling it.