Some Monday morning musings:

This thread got me poking around for more information about some of the foods I use. I'm a gardener, I have lots of veggies, but I don't grow grains, rice, corn, etc. I don't have meat or dairy production and I don't raise poultry for meat or eggs. I live on a creek but since it runs through an urban area, I wouldn't eat anything out of it (thought it at least has a lot of diversity).

I have weighed the information on some products and thought I was making a healthy choice, only to realize later that I needed to look beyond what was essentially hype. Case in point: grape seed oil. I thought it was healthy and good for frying, but it is in fact rarely cold pressed, it's usually chemically processed, and it is high in Omega-6. When exposed to the high heat of frying, it undergoes some unhealthy transformation. I bought a bottle recently, thinking using a little in my misto oil sprayer wouldn't be bad, but I'll get rid of it instead. I just read the article linked, and remember a recent conversation on a radio program by my organic gardening guru. They recommend macadamia oil instead.

Here is a well-cited article about the differences between Omega-3 and Omega-6 oils.

I am eating a lot less meat than I used to. I drink whole organic milk and use butter instead of margarine that I grew up on. The oil I use most is olive oil that I buy in 3-litre bottles from a Middle Eastern grocery. Their oil isn't commingled from all around the Mediterranean, it comes from one country at a time, often labelled as the product of a specific town. Much better than "oil from Tunisia, Italy, Greece, Spain, and Turkey." You know that can't turn out well.

I eat a lot of beans and rice, and go in cycles as far as eating pasta. A vegetarian diet with a lot of fruits and vegetables isn't easy - too many adulterated products are out there. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and the genetically modified plants like grains mean you have to choose your grain products carefully.

I do eat meat, but more often than not it is an ingredient in a complex dish, it isn't a slab of meat on a plate. I eat wild caught salmon, but since this is more expensive than farm raised, I don't eat as much as I would like. There are other choices - canned fish such as salmon and mackerel and sardines - that can provide healthy omega-3 and protein, and canned fish is quite cost effective. If I ever figure out how my mother made the salmon croquettes she fed us when I was a kid, I'll be in heaven. Moist on the inside, crispy on the outside, and made from inexpensive canned salmon.

SRS