Food: Should Your Children be Eating It?

A little less than two weekends ago I came across an essay called 'Unhappy Meals' in the NYT Sunday Magazine. (It is no longer available for free at the NYT website, but now you can find it here.) It is very long but worth reading; if you are illiterate there is a basic summary at the end.

When it comes to food I'm generally semi-healthy, at least compared to the national average: I rarely buy snacks, I try to eat balanced meals, I look at the 'nutritional info' of just about everything I buy. Sure, there are days which a frozen pizza or can of Chunky Soup is the majority of my dinner, (not to mention the constant heavy consumption of alcohol), but by and large I don't do too badly. There is room for improvement, more fresh veggies would be welcome, and I consume too many processed foods. The aforementioned article kind of scared me, however. I mean, I may eat my lunch sandwiches on 100% Whole Grain Bread, but it is bread that has about 50 ingredients I can't pronounce and has been made in a factory by bread-making robots as opposed to by a jolly baker with a mustache.

I've always thought that it is increasingly difficult to eat healthily, or to be healthier in general, a) the poorer you are, and b) the lazier you are. While my salary isn't giant by any means, I don't have whiny kids to support, and generally can buy what I want (though I am always looking for sales; I don't think I've ever purchased meat that wasn't on sale). As far a laziness goes, well, obviously some of that is in play. Some of it is laziness in cooking, though usually I try to make a game effort. More of the laziness should be attributed to my shopping habits, which are rather infrequent. There isn't a grocery store (besides Aldi's) within walking distance, which means there isn't a shopping trip consisting of picking up a few things for dinner, there are only infrequent shopping trips to the Dominick's nearly two miles away consisting of filling a shopping cart to the top and spending $100-$175 dollars (depending on alcohol purchases). When our food supply begins to dwindle, or at least the exciting things we bought at the store are gone, and we are left with some frozen meat in the freezer and whatever else has been sitting in cupboards for the last six months things get a bit harder, and I'd like to think that, if the Aldi's was replaced by a locally grown produce market, I'd be eating a lot healthier.

Anyway, in order to waste everyone's time, I've decided to document my eating habits for the next week. I will be honest, and I'll try not to let my full disclosure influence any of my food or alcohol enjoyment (though I may hesitate when drinking vermouth straight from the bottle at 2 am). I'll try to include everything except water (which I usually drink about 24-40 oz of a day during the work week, and usually slightly less on weekends) because it is not worth mentioning. I'm not going to be overly precise, but still as accurate as possible.

Because I have a good memory, and in order to get this week over with a day earlier, I'll begin by listing yesterday's consumption. I've included 'Drink' with Food, but kept Alcohol separate. I'm not sure why.

So, here goes:

Wednesday, Feb. 7
Food:
Two servings of peaches & cream instant oatmeal
One cup green tea
Two individually wrapped packs of Keebler club crackers and cheese
One smoked turkey lunchmeat sandwich with Miracle Whip Light on 100% Whole grain bread
One low fat Strawberry-Banana Yogurt
One kiwi
One apple
One handful of dried apricots
Approx. 4 oz Low Sodium V8
About a dozen sesame-flavored crackers topped liberally with Brie cheese
One Falafel sandwich (spicy) from Sultan’s Market
One Large Bowl of Lentil Soup from Sultan’s Market

Alcohol:
Two sidecars (brandy, triple sec, and lime juice)