you are what you eat

you guys are FANTASTIC with your suggestions! i went to the supermarket during lunch today and bought:

• hummus and pita as suggested by jess and moo
• (organic) yogurt, as suggested by melissa,
• apples and grapes, and i'll bring in my peanut butter tomorrow for extra appley deliciousness,
• a block of cheddar, as also suggested by melissa

i'm totally bummed that i only got flibberty's suggestion of Whole Paycheck's (heh) lentil soup after i got back, because i tend to lurrrve me some Whole Foods chowlthough come to think of it, we don't have a WF around work, so i wouldn't have been able to get it on this outing anyway, so yay! soup next week, thanks to flibberty and jmc!

i'm afraid i am not yet enlightened enough to have a bag of veggies for lunch. while i know that intellectually this seems like a good idea, it just makes my heart cry when i think about doing it for real.

however, my trial lunch today of grapes, hummus, pita, cheddar, and yogurt was fantastic. and healthy! i'm getting more and more concerned about eating so much processed food, and so much stuff filled with corn syrup and fake compounds. so i got organic yogurt which used cane juice instead of corn syrup, and the most natural hummus i could find, where each ingredient was an actual food. there's a food writer / researcher named Marion Nestle who will only buy processed foods if they contain 5 or less ingredients. her theory, which makes excellent sense to me, is that:

"The more processed a food is, the more ingredients it is likely to have (to cover up the losses), and the lower its nutritional quality."

my poor mom has been instilling this message in me for 27 years, but i'm only now finding it important enough to actually change what i eat.

fyi, for any local DCish types who want a truly exquisite meal that embodies these basic principles: please hurry your butts over to Equinox. i ate there for the second time on sunday night, and holy lord. it is just as incredibly fantastic as it was the last time i went. the chef, Todd Gray, is extroardinary. he supports local, sustainable, organic foods and certified humane meats, which means his ingredients are just about as high quality as they come. the food is divine - complex, intense flavors without ever being heavy or overdone. due to my mom's job (professional restaurant reviewer!) i've been to some seriously good restaurants in my day, but equinox still rests comfortably in my top 3, no challenge. and. AND! the prices are INCREDIBLY reasonable. if you do go, definitely get at least the 3-course meal choice (if not the 5.. hee). and if you like wine, their wine pairing option is incredibly worth it. lovely wine selections, and very heavy pours. if, uh, you're worried about getting your money's worth. or just like wine a lot.

man, this post sure veered off course. to sum up: i think it's high time i started paying more attention to what i put into my body. too many easy foods - even "healthy" foods - are filled with fake ingredients and chemicals and basically stuff that food is not made of. i need to put more actual FOOD into my body, and less additive crap. the easiest way i can do that, i think, is to eat more pure food (meaning something that doesn't have an ingredient list. a banana does not have an ingredient list). five ingredients will be a hard mantra, but i'll start with "ingredients i can recognize, whenever possible" and work from there.

ps: alcohol doesn't count. i mean heck, wine is a pure food, right? just grapes! and.. other stuff! but i'm pretty sure the other stuff is TOTALLY FINE for me. LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU.