Day 15

12. Get out of the supermarket whenever you can.
13. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.

First, let me say that I was shocked - shocked to discover how accurate Pollan's advice to stay out of the middle of supermarkets is. I figured this would be more of a guideline: generally won't find anything in the middle of the supermarket you're going to want to eat, but, you know, there's some stuff.

Nope, there's really not. On my first trip to the grocery store after beginning this project, I was amazed to find myself flying through the middle aisles - nope, nothing I can eat on this aisle; nothing I can't eat on this one either... moving on... It turned out that the only places I lingered at all were at the produce, meat and dairy sections, and, at the local co-op, the section of fruit, nuts and grains sold in bulk - all of which were on the peripheries.

Amazing.

And yes, that means that I've been to the supermarket. Way more than I've been to any farmers' markets, I'm ashamed to say.

Getting out of the supermarket has proven surprisingly difficult, although in hindsight it probably shouldn't have, given how much trouble I tend to have getting into the supermarket in the first place.

In New York, I used to do my grocery shopping at midnight. Really. There was a 24-hour grocery store across the street from the restaurant where I got off work I'd stop in for milk or coffee for the next morning, and anything else I happened to be running low on. This system does not work here in New Mexico, not the least of reasons being grocery stores in the normal world are apparently not open at midnight.

I haven't really gotten a new system down, so I've become one of those people who peer into the fridge and think, Let's see, I've got an old tortilla and a half an onion... can I make a meal out of this?

Mmm, fresh local chiles. Why can't I get to this? So close, yet so far away...

Compounding the matter is the fact that the Albuquerque Growers' Market does not occur during the winter months. I've found a few farmers' market alternatives, none which are particularly convenient. There are a few Albuquerque area winter markets:

The Los Ranchos Market:
City Hall, 6718 Rio Grande Blvd. NW
10-12 on the second Saturday of every month

The Corrales Growers' Market:
500 Jones Rd. & Corrales Rd.
11-1 on the first Sunday of every month

But because of the hours and location, the most convenient winter farmers' market is Santa Fe Farmers' Market which happens every single Saturday and Sunday and appears to have a pretty wide selection including - OMG OMG - locally farmed chicken which I have thus far been able to find nowhere in Albuquerque (thought I still have a few more places to try).

What's more, market is at the Santa Fe Railyards, literally right off the train from Albuquerque.

Still, life takes over, weekends - which are meant to be kept free exactly for things like this - inevitably fill up, and here I am, over two weeks into the project and have not yet made it up to Santa Fe for the market. Nor will I next weekend, either.

Here is a win, though: I've signed up for Skarsgard Farms' CSA. I've been visiting their website like a deranged stalker since moving to Albuquerque, debating whether or not to sign up; whether the produce will be too much for me to eat on my own.

But you know what? FORGET IT. It's local(ish), it's organic, and it's delivered to my door. If a few apples end up rotting, so be it.

(And speaking of CSAs, my favorite little restaurant, Farm & Table, will be starting their own CSA from their farm come next growing season. One of the many reasons I love working there.)

I have to admit, it saddens me a little that the only New Mexico farm that is part of the Skarsgard Farms CSA is Skarsgard Farms itself. The other participants are from California, Colarado, and even a farm in Mexico. I mean, it's still good: they're all small, organic farms and collectives and, really, they're not that far away, but still. They're not New Mexico; they're pretty far away.

This is a moment where I have to step back and really take to heart that old adage: Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. I do that a lot. I'm an all or nothing girl. I think "Aggh! This apple is from an organic farm in California! Why can't I get an apple grown any closer than that? Forget it, it's all a waste of time. I'll just buy my apples from wherever."

And that's not fair. An apple grown on an organic farm two states away is better than one pumped full of pesticides and flown in all the way from South America.

It's baby steps.

Day 14

10. Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not.
11. Avoid foods you see advertised on television.

Rule 11 has proved to be a pretty easy rule to follow. I don't think I eat anything I see advertised on television and, come to think of it, I don't really watch television (Hulu and Netflix are my poison). Still, I did a quick scan of the refrigerator just to be on the safe side. The only offenders, as far as I can remember of commercials, were cream cheese and milk.

But milk doesn't count... right? I realize this is the second post in a row where I've invoked an exception for milk but they both seem valid. Am I in total denial here? I know I love my dairy, but I don't think I'm just making excuses. Michael Pollan doesn't want me to be a vegan... does he?

Anyway, other than that, Rule 11 hasn't proved much of a sticking point. Rule 10, on the other hand, is a sad, sad rule. A good rule. A necessary rule. But a sad rule. Because with it, I must say goodbye to one of my favorite foods, one that has been my delicious companion since age thirteen. My best and most beloved discovery in my days as a vegetarian:

Morningstar Farms' veggie buffalo wings. These things are so delicious, I kept eating them long after I renounced vegetarianism; I still eat them today. And, lamentably, consider them a "healthy" alternative to regular buffalo wings. I never even considered how highly processed food has got to be to get vegetables to look, feel, and taste like meat.

Still, even without taking that into consideration, I think deep down, I knew I was fooling myself.

I should have stopped eating them up back in high school when I found out they were made with GMOs. (At least they're honest about it: says so right in their FAQs.) But I just didn't want to give them up. Like so many other times, I figured the list of ingredients I disapproved of was beyond my control. Instead, my mom and I wrote a letter to the company registering our discontent and requesting that they discontinue their use of genetically modified products and I closed the book on that.

It's funny, I used to eat these with delight in high school (and even college), taking pleasure in my moral high-ground because they were made without the needless deaths of animals. Now, when I consider the damage the mega-industrialization of food does to the people, animals and plants it touches, I think the less cruel choice is to just eat the damn chicken meat. Provided, of course, that the chickens come from small, humane farms and not huge, industrial factories.

Image found at www.veganoutreach.org

Doesn't that look yummy? Happy hump day, everybody!

Day 13

8. Avoid food products that make health claims.
9. Avoid food products with the wordoid “lite” or the terms “low fat” or “nonfat” in their names.

I get these rules, for the most part. As Pollan points out, "only the big manufacturers have the wherewithal to secure FDA-approved health claims for their products, and then trumpet them to the world. Generally it's the products of modern food science that makes the boldest claims." Sure. That checks out to me.

Which is not to say that I haven't been tempted. Many a time I've walked down the cereal aisle, picked up a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and thought, "Look! It says 'made from whole grain' right on the box. It's totally healthy! JUST BUY IT!"

At moments like these I have to take a step back and think to myself, "Leigh. Look at it. It's Cinnamon. Toast. Crunch. That's all you need to know. Put it back on the shelf and step away from the processed sugar-bomb."

("But... but... 'heart-healthy'...")

These sugary, addictive spoonfuls are totally the Devil's food.

I'm also mostly okay with the no no-fat rule, because, as Pollan points out, "Removing fat from foods doesn't necessarily make them non-fattening." I've been hip to the whole swapping-sugar-for-fat trick for longer than I've been able to shop for myself.

"Mommy, mommy," said little Leigh, "It says low-fat - it's good for you! Why can't we buy it?"

"Because, sweetie, that just means it has more sugar."

So I'm down with the low-fat/no-fat moratorium, with the obvious exception of, you know, dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt. I mean, that just goes without saying - you're not going to make me drink whole-fat milk and eat whole-fat yogurt, are you Michael Pollan? Because that would be awful. And what's the harm of buying cheese made with 2% milk? That just seems healthy to me.

Except, actually, Pollan calls out yogurt specifically. "Check out the label on low- and nonfat yogurts," he says. "They typically contain more sugar per ounce than soda."

This is utterly devastating news, as I really, really love Stonyfield Farms' nonfat vanilla yogurt.

I was also kind of surprised to read Pollan's indictment of yogurt. Why didn't I notice that? I thought to myself. I'm usually so good about not getting conned by high-sugar "health foods." So I checked out the Stonyfield Farms labels again: their nonfat French Vanilla yogurt indeed has 25 grams of sugar, which, admittedly, is a lot a lot of sugar. But it is still less than eight ounces of soda. (side note: holy sh*t! An eight oz. Coke has 27 grams of sugar!?!? I think I got diabetes just from reading that label). And it is also less than the 29.9 grams the full-fat version of Stonyfield's French Vanilla contains, along with a whopping 230 calories, compared to the 140 calories in the nonfat version.

What the hell, MP? Am I missing something? It seems clear to me that the nonfat version is the better choice.

But you know what? Whatever. These are your rules, it's your book. And my plan was to follow your rules, not make up my own rules about which ones of yours make sense. And I know that may seem blisteringly pedantic, and in real-life I probably would have said to myself, "Psh, forget that," but for the purposes of this project, we're gonna go with it.

Besides, 25 grams of sugar is still a lot of sugar, no matter what you're comparing it with.

But here is where I will make an exception: when it comes to plain yogurt, skim milk, and other dairy products where sugar is obviously not being added, I'm still going to pick the low- or nonfat option. I just can't think of a reason not to. And it's better this way: now I'm compelled to buy nonfat plain yogurt and sweeten it myself with honey, thus following another rule (Number 37 - Sweeten and salt your food yourself) in the process. A win-win.

Day 12 - Probably Asked Questions

The blog is about to celebrate its one-week-iversary, so I thought I'd take a moment to talk a little more about what I'm doing and why. Here are a few PAQ's - Probably Asked Questions about the project. They're not Frequently Asked Questions, as nobody's really asked me questions about the project, let alone asked them frequently, but if anyone were to frequently ask questions about it, this is my guess as to what they would probably be.

FOOD RULES FOR REALS PAQ'S

1. What are the Food Rules?

Food Rules is a book written by food writer Michael Pollan and illustrated by Maira Kalman, who, I believe, must have visited New Mexico at some point.

An illustration from Food Rules.

A photo of our local fast food chain, Blake's Lotaburger.

Food Rules gives simple, practical advice on how to get away from the Western diet, which Pollan defines as a diet "consisting of lots of processed foods and meat, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of refined grains, lots of everything except vegetables, fruits, and whole grains."

Pollan has written several books about what the Western diet is, how it gets to your plate, and why it's no good. It's a complicated, messy, and frustratingly ubiquitous affair. Food Rules condenses all of these ideas down into 83 simple guidelines that separate the good from the bad and the processed from the whole. The rules run the gamut from, "Don't ingest foods in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap," to "Place a bouquet of flowers on the table and everything will taste twice as good."

I plan to follow Pollan's Food Rules to the letter for the next six weeks. That means no chemicals, no preservatives, no food with more than five ingredients, no food made in plants, among a slew of other things to avoid.

2. Isn't that a bit extreme?

Yes. That's kind of the point. Because I believe our dependence on preservatives, artificial flavors and colors, and scientifically modified additives - that is, what Pollan calls "edible food-like substances," is extreme. I believe the fact that we can eat whole meals, go for whole weeks or months without having to think about where our food came from, except the box or can in front of us, is extreme.

Extreme times call for extreme measures (or something like that). It's worth the time and effort to understand food and how it comes to our table on a deeper level. And it's utterly necessary, for ourselves and for the future stewardship of the planet, to learn how to consume in a way that is considerate, mindful and balanced.

3. Why?

Pollan goes on to say that the modern Western diet is "an extraordinary achievement for a civilization. [We have] developed the the one diet that regularly makes its people sick." Obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and more than a third of all cancers can be linked to this type of diet.

But it's not just our health that suffers from the Western diet, its the health of the planet. The soil in huge swaths of this country's farmland is being stripped bare by monoculture caused by the over-production and over-processing of corn and soybeans. Pesticides are polluting our ground, soil, and sky. Fossil fuels burned to transport produce halfway around the world and into our local supermarkets are contributing to global warming and climate change.

The diet is, in essence, a total disaster.

I've wanted to give up processed food for a long time, and when I found Pollan's book, it was the perfect opportunity to give it a try.

4. Is that why you're doing this?

Yes. I'm also doing this now, specifically, for these six weeks, because it's Lent. I think that sacrifice - whatever way you observe it, be it keeping Kosher or observing Ramandan, or practicing Zen asceticism - is an important practice. It teaches us to be more conscious and aware inhabitants of the word; more understanding of the things we have to give up or go without and the sorrows we have to endure in the simple business of living, more attentive to the needs of others rather than just our own, and more joyous and grateful of the beauty the the world has to offer.

Observing Pollan's Food Rules is a perfect example of the spirituality of sacrifice. In giving up processed food, I hope to forge a stronger connection to the food on my plate and the role that food plays in the greater scheme of things. Consumption is a necessary but destructive act, and must be balanced by the loving act of creation - we forget that, I think, in contemporary society. We take, and we forget to give.

4. Oh no - so is this some kind of religious thing?

NO. God no. (No pun intended.) I'm a spiritual person, so I can't guarantee that I won't occasionally meander into spiritual musings, but this is not some kind of weird, fundamentalist thing. It's not about my personal religion (which, by the way, is none of your business) or how it should be yours.

It's just a girl who's trying to be a more observant, compassionate person.

5. What happens when it's over?

I don't know. I've been told that it takes six weeks to break a habit, which is part of why I like Lent - it's exactly six weeks. In an ideal world, I would observe these Food Rules forever and ever, but in reality, well, I really love bacon cheeseburgers - a product which I've learned would be completely impossible without the industrialization of food production.

Some years my sacrifice during Lent has led to a whole new lifestyle I would have never believed myself capable of: before I gave up dairy one year, I drank a glass of milk with every meal and smothered everything I ate in cheese. Now I never use milk except in coffee, and limit myself quite comfortably to a conservative serving of cheese or yogurt a day.

Other years, I'm not so successful: I've given up TV several times in the hopes of reducing my dependence on it, but I'm still known to indulge in frighteningly intense TV marathons that have practically made my eyes bleed.

It's hard to say, but I'm hoping for the best, because this is for me, the earth, and our future.

Day 10

7. Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.

"Soy lecithin" is not something a third-grader can pronounce.

This is a problem because "soy lecithin (an emulsifier)" is listed as an ingredient in every form of chocolate I've encountered thus far.

This perplexes me. I mean, it's chocolate, right? How can it ALL be processed? Didn't, like, the Mayans eat chocolate?

I have to be missing something.

On one hand, maybe soy lecithin just sounds scary and is actually something totally normal and food-like. After all, yesterday I thought that sodium bicarbonate was a terrible preservative until my friend pointed out to me that it's actually baking soda. (I was thinking of sodium benzoate.)

On the other hand, even if you had a really precocious third-grader who could nail "lecithin" in a spelling bee, it still breaks several other rules. I wouldn't keep it in my pantry (Rule 3) and I really don't think my great-grandmother would recognize it as food (Rule 2).

Or... maybe she would? My grandma apparently would do both.

"Yeah," said my mom, after I expressed my chocolate-based concerns. "Lecithin is natural. I think your grandma uses it for toffee."

Promising, but I was still skeptical. My grandma cooks a lot; she could just be an anomaly. It was time for the ultimate dispute-settler: Wikipedia.

Wikipedia says:

Lecithin is a generic term to designate any group of yellow-brownish fatty substances occurring in animal and plant tissues...

Lecithin was first isolated in 1846 by the French chemist and pharmacist Theodore Gobley; in 1850 he

Oooo-kay. We can stop there.

"Why?" my mom said. "'Animal and plant tissues.' All natural!"

"Yeah, but corn is all natural too, before they turn it into high fructose corn syrup and all kinds of other processed stuff we don't need to eat. Plus, I don't know which rule this falls under, but I'm pretty sure I'm NOT supposed to eat anything that was discovered by a chemist and needs to be isolated."

And, actually, now that I think about it, didn't I see some documentary on the Food Network about how Hershey developed a way to preserve chocolate in a solid candy form that brought chocolate to the masses? And it was, like, this impressive scientific achievement?* Yeah, that sounds right. Oh no. This looks bad for chocolate.

Oh, farewell beloved chocolate. I will miss you these six weeks. But worry not! After this is over, it is ON. Unlike ketchup, or crackers, chocolate is not something I can live without.

We all have our limits. Chocolate is mine.

*So apparently yes, Hershey did create a process that preserves milk chocolate, probably by partially lypolizing the milk, which sounds pretty bad. At least, so sayeth Wikipedia. Although apparently Swiss confectionist Daniel Peter figured out how to make chocolate solid before Hershey, through a process about which the only thing I can discover is that it involves cocoa powder, cocoa liquor and condensed milk, which sounds pretty normal. I don't know... maybe some chocolate is okay? I'm so confused.

This is the point where I want to embrace my inner investigative journalist and get to the bottom of this, but I have a job and a life. I don't have time to research the complete history of foods I want to eat. And, honestly, I don't think I should have to. So, I guess to be safe, chocolate is just out.

Day 9

6. Avoid food products that have more than 5 ingredients.

Related to yesterday, while raiding my refrigerator and pantry, I happened across these crackers.

While they don't contain high fructose corn syrup, and they don't list a sweetner among the top three ingredients, they do have way more than five ingredients. And some of them sound way more like science experiments than actual food.

The thing is, prior to this experiment, I would have put these guys on the Good List. I'm always pretty conscious of eating healthily, and I would have certainly rated these crackers among the acceptable, healthy things I could put in my body: they're low enough in calories, they're not fried in grease, they've got some whole grain in them.

It's not that I wouldn't have noticed the modified corn starch, invert syrup, sodium bicarbonate and monocalcium phosphate. Aversion to words like that has been drilled into me since childhood. It's just that I would have accepted it. Boxed foods come with words on the side that make you sad, and there's nothing you can do about it. And crackers come in boxes, so if you wanna eat crackers...

This is what it's about: I thought I didn't have a choice. Now, following the Food Rules, these crackers fall so far outside the bounds of what I can eat it's unbelievable. So I avoid them. And I haven't missed them.

Since I've gotten over my initial shock, I've been eating well. There are plenty of good, fresh options for meals and snacks that have nothing to do with these crackers. Even if my standards were considerably less rigid than they are for this project, there's no reason to seek out this box or others like it.

I know I spent a fair bit of time yesterday complaining about how little choice I have about how certain foods are processed, and that's true, and it still makes me angry. But I also discovered yesterday how complacent I've been, without even realizing it.

I do have a choice. I have more of a choice than I thought I did. If I'm just a little more aware and a little conscientious, I don't have to accept the little boxes I am given.

Day 8

4. Avoid food products that contain high-fructose corn syrup.
5. Avoid food products that have some form of sugar (or sweetener listed among) the top three ingredients.

For my ninth birthday party, I had begged my parents for Crystal Pepsi. Remember Crystal Pepsi? I was obsessed with it. It tasted like Pepsi! But it was totally clear! Amazing! I was dying to try it, but my parents, health nuts even in the 80's before it became du jour, forbade it. They made an exception for my special day, though, and I could not wait. The first thing I did when my first guest, a sweet mousy girl named Shannon, arrived was foist a tall glass of Crystal Pepsi upon her.

"Does this have sugar in it?" she asked. "My mom says I'm not allowed to have sugar. It makes me too hyper."

"I don't know," I said. "Let's check." We read the ingredients together; I didn't understand a full two-thirds of them, but none of them were sugar. "Good to go," I said, and handed her her glass.

Needless to say, she went bananas.

That was the moment when I learned that lots of labels say "high fructose corn syrup" when they mean to say "sugar." It eventually became filed under the list of the villianous, unpronouncable ingredients, like potassium sulfate and sodium bicarbonate, that my mom constantly denounced but that still popped up in most everything, so I came to understand as unavoidable evils, like cancer, or homework.

It wasn't until I read the Omnivore's Dilemma in college that I got an idea of just how disruptive the ubiquitousness of high fructose corn syrup is both to the environment and to our health.

And, even my mom, the devoted health nut, had a whole slew of offenders lurking in her refrigerator.

Lots of these items, like the chocolate syrup and the Oreo-bits were bought for special occasions and then squirreled away for years, I'd be willing to guess, until I brought them to light for this photo.

Others, though, are everyday items, and it appears as though the worst offenders are the condiments. Ketchup, barbecue sauce, pickles, etc. I actually remember the day I bought those sweet pickles. I searched the entire store thrice over, and could not believe that I could not buy a single jar of pickles that didn't contain high fructose corn syrup.

How cruel, as condiments are just about the hardest to replace with homemade or at least person-made equivalents. In fact, that's probably exactly why condiments are the last bastion of high fructose corn syrup in our refrigerator. There's no simple alternative.

Case in point: I got super-excited to share a family recipe for homemade barbecue sauce that is utterly delicious, until I realized that the first ingredient is ketchup. Womp-womp.

This isn't necessarily a problem for this project - worst comes to worst, I can live without ketchup for six weeks. But what if I want to get away from the processed over-sweetened goop they sell in the supermarket post-Lent? Well, you can buy these newfangled "all natural" versions of ketchup they sell now, but they still break the other two of the three rules listed today, and about a million other rules as well. And you can certainly try your hand at homemade ketchup, but it only keeps for about a month, and I use ketchup maybe once every two months. Also, to be blunt, it looks like a real bitch to make.

What does one do here? I'm a big believer in voting with my money, and I'm a little irked that there's no way for me to cast my vote here, even if I wanted to. Part of me, the rational part of me, says, Ya know, you can't win them all. You don't even eat ketchup that much, so when you do, just buy the crap in the bottle.

But then the other part of me, the part that thought this project was a good idea in the first place, says, Don't let the man win!!!

What do you think? What would you do? Would you stick to your guns, no matter how it might affect your ketchup consumption? Or would you accept the fact that as long as the food industry exists as we know it, long lists of "edible foodlike substances" will eventually worm their way into our lives - an inevitable evil, like I once believed?