Kate:

Okay, so I was watching Oprah again.  (Sometimes it’s hard to admit that because she can be a bit ridiculous.)  However, I was interested in hearing what Michael Pollan had to say.  Oprah had seen Food, Inc. and was talking about how we need to think about what happens to our food before it gets to our tables.

I’ve had The Omnivore’s Dilemma for a few months and have known about it for a few years, though I still haven’t gotten around to reading it.  Now I’ve put it at the top of my to-read pile.  I have, for the last six years or so, eaten more consciously.  It started when I moved to Chicago and a friend made some soup from scratch.  Stupidly, I didn’t realize that it was so easy to make soup.  In my family, we had always eaten canned soup.  These days I eat more homemade foods than ever before in my life.  All of my baked goods are from scratch, and when I eat boxed cake or cookies from a roll at a friend’s house, it just doesn’t taste as good.  Making cookies from scratch is not that hard, and the flavor wins out every time.  And don’t get me started on my love for farmers’ markets!

Now I’m thinking of taking my meat consumption a little more seriously.  I don’t eat a lot of meat at home since it requires a lot of forethought in meal planning.  Thawing takes time!  However, I’m going to start eating antibiotic free meats and milk.  Because of the minimal role meat plays in my diet, I don’t think the increase in expense is going to cripple me.

Another part of Oprah’s program was spent talking to Alicia Silverstone about her new book, The Kind Diet, in which she writes about her vegan lifestyle.  A friend of mine is vegan, and I cannot fathom living like that, but I don’t think being primarily vegetarian is out of the realm of possibility.  I’ll have to get her book from the library and peruse it.  It apparently doesn’t exclusively advocate veganism, just eating better.

As I’ve said before, I’m not on a diet.  This is a permanent change.  I think it would be irresponsible of me not to explore how the way my food is raised affects my body when I consume it.