my wife and i try to buy items that have the least amount of ingredients (peanut butter made from.. well peanuts and salt). it's not always possible, but i'm honing my skill at finding such elusive eats. when given the choice, we will always buy organic.

i recently read that 20 years ago americans spent 20% of their income on grocers. today it has shruck to 5%. i find this quite shocking.

New Doritos Flavor: Spicy Asphalt

mmm... sodium benzoate.

And yall we're worried about lead paint in chinese toys HA!

actually wasn't the calcium chloride in the tomato sauce?

the doritos just have color on them.

agh - you are correct larslarson, I read that wrong

sorry...it wasn't intended to be critical..just working on my
reading/comprehension for the next standardized test i
take.

and i'm a big fan of doritos

I also read labels constantly - and try to buy the most simple versions of everything.

Currently I'm trying to get high fructose corn syrup out of my life. Next to impossible, it is in everything! Bread, croutons, salad dressing, pretzels...

On a positive note, we just bought a half an organic hog from a local farmer! As of next weekend my freezer will be full of organic local bacon wahoo!!!

try getting wheat gluten out of your diet, lb. that's even harder.

unless of course your g-store has a "gluten free isle".

I'd love to own half a hog... that just sounds cool.

Did you buy the front half or the rear half? Or do they split it down the middle?

Good reason to eat fresh ingredients and stay away from processed foods…

We should all build a garden and raise chickens and goats and …!!! He He . funny as it may be but its probably the most advantageous way to get away from all the processed garbage food out there.

I can see the headlines now: the Freedom Tower gets terraced roof farms with goats, pigs and chickens.

ether, re: peanut butter - can't eat anything but the organic pared down stuff. i found most people are frightened by the oil but it tastes sooo much better than that nastiness i was forced to eat growing up.

That's what the girlfriend and I choose to eat in terms of PB as well. The difference is incredible. We go to a bulk food store to get it, as it's about 1/3 the cost and there's less packaging. In fact, we try to shop there BEFORE going grocery shopping most weeks.

My girlfriend has been vegetarian for the better part of a decade (about a third of her life) and is extremely conscious about what she consumes nearly all the time. We don't bother eachother about our respective diets, and we teach eachother stuff all the time, since we both approach the issue from different perspectives. We're looking to buy a small hobby farm in the near-ish future, and we'll raise chickens for eggs (and meat for me) and once again have a huge garden for veggies, as we did before our recent move.

It sounds funny, but if you can grow your own food, most stuff you eat after that tastes pretty terrible. We have yet to experience raising chickens (let alone slaughtering them) but we have some friends who've done just that, and I envy them for that. The food we buy in the supermarket is such crap, it's unbelievable. I mean, the quality is consistent and it looks nice, but there's very little nutritional value and the taste usually leaves a lot to be desired. I never knew this until we started growing our own.

i tried some organic peanut butter once and wasn't too impressed. it may have been that particular brand. there was something in the flavor and texture that I did not like one bit. Since then, it's Trader Joe's brand, salt and peanuts.... and the oil.. I love love the oil!

slantsix, that sounds incredible! Good for your two. I'd love nothing more than to have my own farm and raise/grow our own food. We have stayed at several B&B's who do just that. I hope to eventually do it but I fear it will be later rather than sooner.

i wanna brew my own beer.

now that sounds like a great plan. are we invited to opening keg night?

when i get a proper apt. in NYC we can have an archinect beer-off!

woohoo! I'm game...