A previous post shared three new “muscles” needed to better withstand the environmental pressure exerted by our Convenience Eating Culture. But these three “muscles” weren’t always a part of my toolbox.

In fact, there was a time in the 70s and 80s when I was excited to see ads like the one below. I was serving as a VISTA volunteer and then attending law school, so my food budgets were pretty limited. Hence I eagerly clipped and used coupons like these. Lots of yummy food for not much money!

Can you believe that in the 70s and 80s, health wasn’t a concern? It was assumed that food in grocery stores and restaurants was perfectly good. After all, wasn’t the government making sure our food was safe and healthy?

That wasn’t such a silly notion prior to the 70s and 80s, because food was just food. But at right about that time, the food supply was being industrialized so more could be produced faster and the resulting loss of quality was masked with artificial colors, additives, flavors, etc.

Eventually, it was no long prudent to have blind faith in the quality, especially the healthfulness, of foods on grocery store shelves and in restaurants.

Yesterday, when I saw this flier in my mail, it made me realize how differently I “see” food now. Where once I was just focused on getting a lot for a little, now:

1. I am keenly aware of how we have been inundated and overwhelmed with unhealthful food products by the industrialized food system;
2. I know that these food products are not my friends and their makers have no interest in my health (which actually makes me a little angry!); and
3. When I see an ad like this, I don’t see nourishing food but rather industrially produced food-like products that aren’t really suitable for human nutrition.

Eventually, as I developed these “muscles,” I was able to withstand the pressure exerted by hyper-pallatable, cheap, heavily advertised, uber-tempting processed foods–including the cinnamon pastries at the coffee shop mentioned in the previous post!