The components of great flavor start with great ingredients. And just like a painting, when you have too many colors on the canvas, it all just blurs into a solid mess of gray. Also, when the quality of the ingredients is poor, then so is the taste. So let’s dig a little deeper into this.
So let me start by saying I’m not a nutritionist, and quite frankly, I don’t watch calorie counts either. However, my wife has gotten me into the habit of reading the ingredients on the labels of the products we buy, and it’s pretty fascinating to see some of the garbage that goes into our food. As an example, as you stroll by your local grocery store’s bakery section past all those gorgeous-looking cookies and pies, flip over a box and have a read–if you can. They are loaded with all kinds of preservatives and those unpronounceable ingredients that we have grown to take for granted. The same goes for those rows and rows of packaged bread. It’s rather depressing to have to try and read through the ingredients list.
Inflammatory Foods
Some years ago, we decided as a family to avoid those foods containing ‘inflammatory’ ingredients, meaning those foods which can cause inflammation in your body. I can thank my lovely wife for this mantra (and lord knows, women are MUCH smarter than men 🙂 )
Some of these inflammatory foods include:
- Sugar.
- Saturated Fats.
- Trans Fats.
- Omega 6 Fatty Acids.
- Refined Carbohydrates.
- MSG.
- Artificial Food Coloring.
So let’s just pick a few random examples. How about a loaf of bread promoted as healthy:
Ingredients:
Ingredients: Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Sugar, Wheat Gluten, Bulgur Wheat, Cellulose Fiber, Flaxseed, Cornmeal, Oats, Brown Rice, Black & White Sesame Seeds, Soybean Oil, Yeast, Salt, Preservatives (Calcium Propionate, Sorbic Acid), Datem, Monoglycerides, Grain Vinegar, Poppy Seeds, Soy, Calcium Sulfate, Reb A (Stevia Leaf Sweetener), Soy Lecithin, Whey.
Yes. Most ingredients are pronounceable, but do you really need all that extra garbage going into your intake valves? As a modern society, distance has become irrelevant in the food supply chain, but has lead to the need to preserve our food. This idea is nothing new, and there are countless Netflix documentaries highlighting this fact.
The solution
The answer is simple–buy local or make your own. There are ALWAYS local bakeries deserving of your business. Here in northwest Connecticut we have some fantastic local and regional bakeries, and I am such a huge fan of Milite’s bakery. I can find their bread in many of the local grocery stores I frequent, all baked with few and simple ingredients:
The taste and texture is nothing short of AMAZING. The drawback without all those preservatives is that the bread grows stale and moldy pretty quickly. The solution? Eat it quickly! Problem solved. This forces you to get out and spur your local economy, so the net effect is you keep these wonderful local businesses–in business. You are also avoiding all those extra processed and engineered ingredients, allowing for a simpler and healthier diet.
