Food Rules: The Edible Experiment, Week Fourteen

Journal Entry
Week Fourteen
December 9, 2010

Rule: "Eat Food that will Eventually Rot"

Wow, it is a strange feeling to know that I am entering my final journal entry for this semester’s Food Rules project. Does this mean that I will stop following Food Rules altogether? Of course not! Pollan has influenced me in such a positive way, and this project by FAR has been one of my absolute favorite aspects of this entire semester!

This week I found myself taking my Organic Salad mix out of the fridge and picking out the leaves that looked as they were going bad. There were plenty that were still crisp and fresh, but you always get those few in the bunch that start turning sooner than others. And ew, who wants to eat that? Although, I guess according to Pollan, despite the “grossness” of picking out the wilty brownish leaves, I’m doing the right thing by eating food that will eventually rot! So that made me feel better. I didn’t like to waste what I did throw out, but, unfortunately I couldn’t eat it in time. The still-crisp lettuce I had on my turkey sandwich today was delicious, though!

A friend of mine has been following a rigorous diet of 5 – 6 small meals a day eating unprocessed foods and a balanced proportion of protein, fruits, and veggies. She texted me yesterday wanting “carbs.” This struck a chord with me, because first of all, I think diets are restricting that that while you must practice discipline and self-restraint when eating, depriving your body of certain foods such as “carbs” (like the Atkins diet, etc) is not healthy. Your body was designed to eat these types of foods and needs them to be healthy. I expressed my concern and she rephrased her sentence to say “I want bread.” Well, that was weird because while she could have potatoes and oatmeal and other whole grains, she couldn’t eat bread because it was “processed.” I glibly told her to bake. (hey, Pollan would agree) but again I don’t think restricting foods as essential as bread is a good idea; and I don’t think Pollan would disagree with that. Was it Darrell who posted something mid-semester saying that although it took some searching, he did manage to find a bread that followed the Food Rules? Anyway, this little blurb about bread is an aside, but I do think it shows how Food Rules has kind of just infiltrated my life when it comes to eating, haha.

Also, I do plan to compile the blog posts of ideas we came up with for Pollan and send them to him.

Its been a great semester y’all! Thanks for all of your sharing and input and have a blessed Merry Christmas! (or whatever other Holiday you celebrate! :)