shopping

Ingredients are the cornerstone of cooking - if these building blocks are high quality, you exponentially increase your chances of producing delicious meals that benefit the body, the environment, and the economy (yours and the larger-scale versions).

But what constitutes a high quality ingredient? Cooking from scratch demands the use of whole, close to the source ingredients and as few processed food products as possible. Having said that, I will admit that there are times when I reach for a can of beans rather than cooking dry ones or use a carton of chicken broth rather than making it myself. You may need to have a few "emergency" ingredients on hand, and for that reason, you should learn to identify high quality ingredients from lower quality ones.

learn to read labels

Having taken only one course in nutrition during culinary school, I don't pretend to be an expert on the subject, particularly not for people who need to adhere to a special diet for health reasons (diabetes, high blood pressure, gluten intolerance, food sensitivities or allergies, etc.). If you fall into one of these groups or a similar one, you should certainly obtain the advice of your healthcare provider, whether you subscribe to conventional or alternative styles. If you don't fall into these categories, the following advice will probably get you through most questions about nutrition facts labels and ingredient lists.

Nutrition facts labels and ingredient lists often appear to be written in a foreign language if not a form of secret code; however, it's definitely worthwhile to acquaint yourself with some basics.

GrowingGreat, a nonprofit school garden and nutrition education organization founded in Manhattan Beach, CA, teaches children these basics in a very accessible fashion. The major points of the ingredient list lesson can be summarized as follows:

• Normally, the shorter the list, the less processed the food;
• You should be able to recognize and pronounce all the ingredients in the list;
• You should avoid "red flags:" added sugars (particularly those produced in a chemistry lab), hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats, and artificial flavors and/or colors.

As far as the nutrition facts label is concerned, unless you are seriously into nutrition (or what Michael Pollan calls "nutritionism"), you can get by on some simple math:

• Be aware of how many servings there are per package: the total calories given are per serving;
• Calories from fat should be no more than 33% of total calories: divide the calories per serving by 3, and be sure the calories from fat don't exceed this number;
• Saturated fat grams should be no more than 33% of total fat grams per serving: divide the total fat grams by 3, and be sure the saturated fat grams don't exceed this number;
• If you want to check the reliability of the label (particularly for the sometimes suspect imported foods), make sure that the calories from carbohydrates, proteins and fats add up: multiply total fat grams by 9; multiply total carbohydrate grams by 4; multiply total protein grams by 4; add those three products together, and you should have a number very close to the total calories per serving. If your number is way off and your math is correct, be suspicious that the label was slapped on there haphazardly in order to allow the food to be sold in the US.

shop for [real] food

Michael Pollan makes a clear distinction between food and food products. I'm a huge fan of his In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, and I find his advice on shopping for real food bears repeating. If your goal is to cook whole ingredients from sustainable, organic, local, and ethical sources, you can't beat these simple guidelines (found on pp. 147-61 of the book):

• don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food;
• avoid food products containing ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, more than five in number, and/or include high fructose corn syrup;
• avoid food products that make health claims;
• shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle;
• get out of the supermarket whenever possible: "shake the hand that feeds you."

To these I would add some comments of my own:

• In today's world, very few people shop for, cook and eat strictly sustainable, organic, local and ethical foods. It's probably wise to take Barbara Kingsolver's advice in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life to heart and allow yourself a luxury item (coffee? chocolate? stinky cheese? wine? bananas?). But even then (and especially because you have saved so much eschewing the processed food!) why not look for fair trade, organic versions?
• In times of economic downturn, shoppers are always looking to save money. Many people swear by clipping coupons, but I don't recall the last time I saw a coupon for fresh produce, whole grains, or legumes: I find that coupons simply encourage shoppers to stock up on highly processed foods that they would (and should!) never buy at full price - if you don't need that bag of cookies for $2.99, you probably don't need them at $1.99.
• The same can be said of "twofers" - if you don't need 1 box of the cookies for $1.99, you don't need 2 boxes for $2.99: you just spent $1 more that you were not intending to spend to begin with! 

The truth of the matter is that if we get back into the kitchen and learn to cook again, we can save a lot of money, improve our health, and contribute to saving the environment.

shop locally

Trying to shop locally is made infinitely easier by Local Harvest, a site where you can explore YOUR local resources: search by zip code for farms (some include you-pick options), farmers' markets, CSAs, restaurants, and grocery stores/co-ops.

Close to home, I've purchased 10-week shares in Two Creeks Organics, picked blueberries at Dexter Blueberry Farm, and purchased a variety of beef, pork, lamb, poultry, and fish from Natural Local Food Express, McLaughlin Farms, and Back Forty Acres. I also regularly shop the Westside Farmers' Market and have made occasional visits to the Ann Arbor Farmers' Market.

Of course there are things we don't get at these more-or-less farm-to-table sources, and for these items I usually go to Trader Joe's, Arbor Farms or Plum Market. Besides having panic attacks due to the over-the-top number of choices at conventional groceries, I prefer to buy milk, orange juice, bread, etc. where the staff is happy and knowledgeable, where I don't have to contend with crowds of shoppers intent on filling their baskets and holding up checkout lanes with tons of processed food. (In fact, I so rarely go to conventional stores that it's a shock to see racks of tabloids: WHAT?!? They're STILL covering Brangelina? Isn't there more important news to read?) Having said that, however, I do want to give a shout-out to those conventional stores where you can now find local produce labeled as such and heavily promoted - Meijer is one of them.

Comments

[Alexandra Baker]

I sooo... agree with your comments about coupon clipping and "twofers"!