Day 40 - Organizing the Pantry

We decided to do a year without processed foods last spring, so we had time to plan for it and plant a garden, and late in the summer I cannned like a maniac.

Well, it's February now, and while I remember the salsas and tomatoes, I no longer remembered exactly what I had canned. So, I finally dug out one can of each itemand moved them from what we have dubbed the "dwarf closet," which is a half-door affair accessed via the downstairs bathroom, and moved them into the regular pantry. A good move all around, I think, as it tends to give people a start when one emerges from the bathroom with food.

While doing so, I remembered I had actually purchased corn syrup last year when helping a friend with her Appalachian Trail hike, and I wasn't surprised to find that it contained high fructose corn syrup. I actually thought that was what "corn syrup" might be. What does surprise me is everything else in it. All along I had pictured this stuff as the mysterious "high fructose corn syrup" that permeates most of our food. Guess not.

Since this project started, I have been amazed by how little I had previously thought about the foods I ate. We are issued one body at birth, and unless you are Shirley MacLaine, it's the only one you're going to get and it needs to last 80-90 years. Sure, a knee or hip can be replaced, but the thing in its entirety is the only one we're going to be given, and if it fails, the consequences are quite dire indeed. So, with such high stakes, why hadn't I previously thought more about what I was eating? Sure, by almost any definition I have always been a "healthy" eater--eating fruits and vegetables, lean meats, no fried foods--all that sort of thing. But when "lite" foods began appearing, I started buying many of them without really considering that the ingredient list had jumped from 5 items to 39 polysyllabic ones. I've always considered myself health conscious, but the idea of getting foods with fewer calories was enough to keep me from asking questions. Which, I assume, was exactly the point of the advertisement and "fewer calories" banners printed on the boxes/bags/whatever.