Food Nazi

One of many pleasant side effects of hanging out at the Moondance Ranch was discussing their addiction to information about foods and products put into their bodies and their kid's bodies. We share this love of information and got to finally sit and bitch for a couple hours about the horrors of soda and Yellow No. 5. It was liberating.

Lately, besides our love of organic and vegetarianism lifestyles, we've started to take things one step further. We are now learning more about the things in the products used to store or cook our food not just the food itself. And let me just warn you, it's a little scary.

I won't go into a big diatribe about plastics or teflon or even the microwave because you all know how to Google at this point. I'll just tell you that I had no idea until theMan showed me some research. Now it freaks me out. For all those times I put leftovers in the microwave at work, I cringe.

So we are trying to replace all our plastics in our kitchen with glass or stainless steel. By saving sauce jars or jelly jars, we've gathered quite a collection at low prices. We've got our stainless steel water bottles on order and I've begun replacing most of my cooking utensils for wood or stainless steel. All that's left to do is throw out the remaining Tupperware and exchange my beloved Pampered Chef mixing bowls for some snazzy steel ones.

When we started this I looked at my kitchen like Chernobyl. In reality, it wasn't all that bad and it's been pretty cheap to replace things. I found out that even my cutting board is helping the planet in some ways! I have a bamboo one that is supposeably stronger than oak or maple, absorbs less liquids, and bamboo is easily replenished because it grows fast and cheaply!

To get you started if you are interested, Jo at Leery Polyp has written several fabulous posts on plastics at her blog. Two of note: Plastics not Fantastics post (to help with ideas on how to switch products) and this one which got me started in thinking this way.

If you read this and roll your eyes, don't look at it as having to completely freak out and stop everything. While theMan is going whole hog, I've been a little slower by making small changes here and there. So if you're a whole she-bang all at once person (and I commend you for your dedication! theMan constantly amazes me) or like me, a little at a time...I think anything you can do can help your health and the planet at large.

What used to feel like a hopeless situation has turned into my little way of repaying the planet for letting me stay here for a few years.

P.S. I finished the marathon thingie at 59.43 by speed walking 3.5 miles. Not too bad considering I was in jeans. It also convinced me to do the Breast Cancer Walk next year with the Wife Liberation Front. Get your pink on girlies!