So then, what's the problem. Life is paradise right? Well, essentially, except I went somewhere this weekend that really bothered me. While in Irvine, for a cycling race, we visited our fair-share of grocery stores. Because, as hungry and active college students, our minds think about two things: bikes and food. We went into the typical grocery stores, Albertsons and Whole Foods, which you take for what they are. They don't hide anything or pretend to be anything they're not. Albertsons is sterile and white and uninviting and Whole Foods is pretentious, yuppy, and healthy.
But then we went to one more: Henry's Farmers Market. Because registration for our individual time trial race was stationed in the parking lot of the strip mall, food shopping was unavoidable. However, we originally just went into the market to use the restroom and change into our kits. Upon first entering, I was so excited! Bulk bins, produce, produce, and produce! It looked like my ideal kind of market. I was stoked for lunch and thought this would be a healthy alternative to whatever else was around. In the hour leading up to my race, all I could think about was food (I was getting kind of hungry). While I raced, I thought about not keeling over and killing the race (I placed third). But after I finished, my thoughts immediately returned to, guess what, food!
Exhausted, hungry, and thirsty, my teammates and I ventured again into the market. This time, however, with one goal: buy lunch. As a fruit and veggies lover, I was immediately attracted to a giant display of strawberries (score!). Everything looked, as the name implied with farmers market, organic. However, I was sorely mistaken. The strawberries, although cheap, were not organic. They didn't even look fresh. I had to pick through to find some that looked descent. In fact, the organic produce section was small and depressing. So, against my better judgement I settled on the conventional strawberries. Turns out, it was a bad investment; they tasted like cardboard.
I then ventured around the rest of the store with the hopes of finding a good salad bar or at least some sort of prepared salad. No such luck. Almost everything was conventional. In fact, what really took the cake was the fact that the deli case had a broccoli salad made with (you guessed it) HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP! Really now, this is supposed to be fresh salad and you put HFCS in it! Are you joking me! My hopes for lunch were ruined! I couldn't believe it! What kind of store puts HFCS in deli case salads? Shame on Henry's Farmers Market.
So today, after our criterium, I was amazingly happy to step into the giant pretentious Whole Foods. No HFCS anywhere to be found. Not to mention that its salad bar was completely organic! So even though I'm still mad at Whole Foods for giving in to GMO's they're the best alternative as far as main stream market's go. Of course, I will pick coops and independents whenever possible, but it's not always an option.
I don't mean to preach, and I'm not going to start lecturing about the need to change the food system right now. However, I just really was depressed how misleading that supermarket was. Well done America, you are amazing at false-marketing. Anyway, the important thing is: be smart with your food choices. Know what you are buying because, remember, you are what you eat.
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