Finding Healthy Food

Yesterday I stood in a health food aisle on my quest to find healthy food, and the shelves contained a selection of food specifically set aside. There were rice crackers and breakfast bars and cereals and more. I picked up a product and had a look at the label. Hmmm, preservatives and additives, which I am trying to avoid. I was specifically looking at the gluten free products, but couldn't see any breads or wraps. I have decided I would like to try to eat only gluten free products to see if it makes a difference to my health, not because I have an intolerance. I asked for gluten free bread. That's in the bread section, the person I asked said. I sauntered over, and found one packet of rolls and a couple of packets of naan bread. The gluten free bread was sold out, or else they just didn't bother to keep the shelf stocked. The person said to me she can get some out of the freezer for me, but I said it was okay not to. I selected the naan bread, and happily ventured off home to have my bread with preservative free soup. As I was eating the bread, which tasted a bit like sawdust, I wondered about the ingredients. The first thing that caught my eye was disodium diphosphate. Argh, I had been trying to avoid that additive, as every time a child I know eats hotdogs containing the product she gets ill.

So there's health food and there's health food. Or perhaps that should be, just because something caters for one health requirement, in this case gluten intolerance, does not mean it is going to be preservative or additive free, and the additional substances may be more of a risk to one's health than gluten.

In my mind's eye I see the world with different streams, and we each live according to our own worlds. For example, there's the supermarket which contains food to satisfy everyone's diverse requirements, but people are selective in what they purchase, and some will only target the preservative and additive free foods, and see that as healthy, and other people may only be interested in foods with a low fat content.

Then I think, maybe I should stick to eating fruit and vegetables only, as a friend of mine is doing. But then, what pesticides have these been sprayed with? It's a bit of a win / lose situation in this current world we live in!