October Unprocessed: Week One

One week into my month-long attempt to avoid processed foods, and I have a confession to make: This is way harder than I thought it would be. I was under the impression that my diet was already very low in processed foods. I cook for myself, we subscribe to a CSA, we buy simple, artisan breads and natural peanut butter and fresh pasta without additives. But just a few days into October Unprocessed, I was already seeing how insidious processed food really is, and how easily it manages to sneak into my diet.

I tried to be vigilant at the supermarket on Saturday, while picking up our weekly supplies. We usually shop at Whole Foods, so I thought finding unprocessed (or honestly, in my definition of the thing, very minimally processed) foods would be easy. And it was, but there were several times I had to stop myself from simply reaching for a product I would normally buy without a second thought. Luckily, our staples generally do fit my working definition: fewer than five ingredients, all of them things I know and understand.

Sunday night, though, I experienced my first processed food sneak attack. Sean and I went out in the afternoon for a beer, and decided that we weren’t really in the mood to cook. Pizza was calling our names, and Round Table was the loudest caller. I didn’t even think of it until mid-slice: I have no idea what’s in Round Table’s pizza dough, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t fit my unprocessed definition. It was tasty, but I discovered my processed food weak spot number one: take out.

Weak spot number two? The kitchen table in our office. People always bring in treats and put them out to share, and lately, after several of my colleagues’ trips to Hawaii, we’ve been seeing some very tempting chocolates with macadamia nuts. I didn’t even think of it before I helped myself. Now, chocolate isn’t officially off my list or anything, but I’m pretty sure that Hawaiian Host isn’t making artisanal, small batch, minimally processed, organic chocolates. This is some processed chocolate if I’ve ever seen it. So, I’ll need to learn to think twice about what my co-workers share.

Tuesday, I went out for lunch and bought a falafel wrap from the Mediterranean place down the street. Most of their foods are made from scratch, in house, including the falafel themselves, the tasty, crunchy pickled vegetables, and the tahini sauce. But I’m pretty sure the lavash they use to wrap it all up in an edible bundle comes from a big ol’ processed food behemoth restaurant chain. Doh. So, lunches out, they are tricky. I’m lucky enough to live in the Bay Area, where restaurants are aware that people here like natural foods, so it’s easier to find good, real, whole foods. If I remember to think about it.

Finally, I realized that there are a few things in my cupboards that I use without thought, like chicken stock. Yup, my trusty brand of Trader Joe’s low sodium chicken broth is chock full of things I’m supposed to be avoiding. Wasa crackers, one of my favorite after work snacks? They are close to fitting my definition, but only if I squint and shake my head a bit. I baked some cookies I had stored in the freezer, and while they were made from scratch, and do fall into my Michael Pollan-esque definition of unprocessed, if you’re being guided by a more rigorous definition this October, they don’t quite fit the bill, what with my Trader Joe’s chocolate chunks that surely don’t meet the strict definition of unprocessed.

I’m not getting too down on myself, or this whole experience, though. This week has been all about awareness. I didn’t even think about the things I would need to think about. Going ahead, I know now that I have to be that much more vigilant, and I realize what I think the whole exercise is meant to make one realize: Processed foods are everywhere around us, and are hard to escape even when we’re trying.