I am inordinately proud of the fact that I made popcorn in a cast-iron skillet tonight. Not that it was hard, but this last year I have been trying to remove the processed food from our diets, all the way down to the commercial canned tomatoes (some cans are lined with plastic that contains BPA, which meant I canned endless quarts of tomatoes and marinara last fall). Maybe it's not necessary. But can you really argue that the chemicals, preservatives and words you can't pronounce and don't understand are GOOD for you?
I'm not a fanatic. We aren't vegetarian, we eat fast food sometimes. But the best-tasting food is REAL food, with minimal ingredients, eaten "close to the ground". And in my efforts to teach my son to eat real food, not to ruin his palate with processed sugar, salt and chemicals, I made all his baby food. Yes, it was alot of effort, but now he loves fruit and vegetables. In the grocery store, he asks, "Does this have big words?" when he wants something. "Big words" is his first question, not whether he can have it, because he knows if the answer is yes, it's going back on the shelf.
That sounds really strict, but I feel I'm protecting him, not depriving him. And what does it hurt?
