Holistic Shopping

Before I rediscovered real food, I developed a sophisticated and time-consuming method of shopping. I used to read labels. I would look for ingredients that I had in my own kitchen, avoiding food with ingredients that I wouldn’t use when I cooked at home. Artificial colors or flavors, chemical preservatives, industrial oils, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, pectin, carrageenan, soy flour, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, cellulose (AKA wood pulp). 

I could go on, but you get the idea. I learned that there are ingredients that don’t need to be listed on the label, like MSG. Sometimes even organic products with the words, “no MSG” on the label actually contain MSG! 

So how useful is that label anyway?

There are about 50 different names for sugar, and one or more of them could be on a label that I was so careful to read. Often sugar is present but not recognized because not everyone knows all the many aliases under which it is listed.

Over the years, more and more messages appeared on labels such as “twice the vitamin C”, or “half the fat”. And how many different kinds of bread are there now? Whole wheat, oat bran, low sodium, gluten-free, 9-grain, 12-grain, honey wheat, vegan — each with a unique ingredients list.

Processed foods have been taken apart, isolated, rearranged, and squeezed into funky shapes, but let’s face it. Once taken apart, food just can’t be put back together again. I call it Humpty-Dumpty food. 

Nutrients and enzymes are destroyed by heat and pressure during processing. Some vitamins and minerals may be added back but, once processed, they're often still missing, enzymes, co-factors, and bioactive compounds that make it possible to be absorbed and assimilated.

On meat labels, I had to watch out for hormones, antibiotics, nitrates, and nitrites. I had to look for100% grass-fed beef and pastured chicken. I was surprised to learn that “cage-free” and “free-range” chickens were raised in houses.

All of this investigating required a lot of squinting due to the diminutive font on many of the labels. I call this method of shopping “reductionist shopping”. 

I thought there had to be a more holistic approach to finding real food in its original, unprocessed state.

To be a holistic shopper, I first employed the strategy of shopping the perimeter and avoiding the center aisles where the Humpty-Dumpty food is. 

This worked for a while, and I found a reprieve from label mania.

As I learned more about organic and other certification programs, I was no longer comfortable with the standards. This made me aware that I was still a couple of steps removed from the source of my food — the people who raised it. 

Have you ever tried to go to the original source of eggs or ground beef from the supermarket? Some places won’t let you through the door. I decided to source food from farms (like Polyface) where I was welcome to visit, look around, and ask questions.

With this type of holistic shopping, I can eliminate the ingredients I want to avoid without reading a single label. There are some exceptions but, for the most part, all I need to know from the label is which farm produced the food. Now I trust Polyface Farm labels. Holistic shopping. How convenient. 

Join me, won't you? Shop Polyface.

Susan