I have long been disgusted with the marketing techniques that take a simple thing like bread and ruin it. I mean, can they just take plain wheat, salt, yeast, oil and honey and make bread? No, they have to take perfectly good wheat flour and take out the essential oil, (because leaving it in would mean that it couldn't sit on a shelf for six months) and they take out the bran, (because it makes the bread an unsightly tan color, but it also happens to be essential to the human body for at least a dozen reasons) they take out ALL the vital nutrients that occur naturally in the wheat kernel (because they hate us?, I don't know) they put back into the flour 13 or so artificially produced vitamins (which happen to be petroleum based. Hmm, I wonder who's making money on that one). Oh, and while they are at it, they add some aluminum. Yes, you heard right. They put aluminum into the flour as it goes into the machinery that processes the flour, why?, so that the flour won't stick to the machinery! (Unfortunately it doesn't prevent the bread from sticking to you.) After this they add gobs of gluten, (that's another word for glue) , BHT, high fructose corn syrup, mono and diglycerides, exthoxylated mono and diglycerides, sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium iodate, calcium dioxide, datem, calcium sulfate, vinegar, ammonium sulfate, dicalcium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, calcium propionate, and formeldehyde to name a few.
So, they've essentially ruined bread for me. Occasionally, when we are out of town and need something to eat, we will stop at a grocery store. There on the shelves is the bread. The whole isle has a sort of dead smell to it, but we press on because we are hungry. There in the back we might find a loaf of bread that has less than twenty five ingredients that looks almost real and we pick it up in hopes of making a sandwich. Then we look at the price. Wow! We nearly faint. They want twice as much money for this bread than for any other loaf on the shelf! Why? Because they left out all those extra ingredients? Because they didn't use as many pesticides on the wheat? Because they didn't take out all the good nutrients before they made the bread? Yea, I guess that sounds like a lot of extra work, so they have to charge all that extra money. Hey, what's wrong with this picture?
The bread industry isn't the only one playing this game. You find this amazing principle at work in cosmetics, milk, fresh vegetables, shampoo, and toilet paper among others. The less they do to it, the more they charge for it. It sounds to me like we have to pay them extra to leave well enough alone. If we don't pay them extra, then they will just go ahead and process the food extra, add dangerous extra ingredients, use dangerous pesticides, take out essential nutrients and have the most fun doing it. But if we are willing to pay them double the price, they will leave it alone. Am I crazy or does this just not make sense. And if it doesn't make sense, then WHY ARE WE PUTTING UP WITH IT!
We cannot put up with this. We have to rebel. We have to eat things that no one has touched, like a home-grown tomato, potato, or zucchini. I know that sounds rash, but it's the only way. We have to teach them that they can't do this to us. We won't stand for this kind of bullying. We have rights! Right? So, grow your own, eat it, and stick your tongue out at them and say, “So there! We are not going to take this any more.” Then you can hold your head high for a while, until they outlaw growing your own food, (which, by the way, is on the political table right now). But until something crazy like that happens, I'm going to make as much bread as I can, grow and eat as many vegetables and fruit as I can and come what may, I'll be as happy and healthy as good food can make you. (I do love good food.)
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