Nutritional Recession Depression

Before I start: I have 18 more days left until Easter! Which is the end of Lent. Which means that I have stuck out 22 days of no sugar and no caffeine. YAY ME! *happy dance* Since my initial symptoms (headache, irritability, etc.) have gone away, there hasn't been much to say about my Lenten sacrifice...which is why I've been so quiet. Why bore you unnecessarily?

I'm also noticing more weight loss. It wasn't as apparent at first, and I still have a belly lip (but it's a lot smaller than it was), but I am slimming down. Oh yeah...I can pass the Skin Test with no shame!

(The Skin Test is basically appearing naked, with the lights on, in front of a new carnal partner. If you feel ashamed of your naked body, have a strong urge to turn the lights off, and/or dive under the covers...then you've failed the Skin Test.)

But I digress.

The main point of this blog entry is to talk about grocery shopping in today's economical recession. I don't know about you, but the past couple of times I've gone grocery shopping, I've gotten depressed. It's not like I didn't have the money to go shopping, but it was the price AND quality of food! Since I've been on my Lenten fast, I've been increasing the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables in my diet. One would think that doing so wouldn't be a problem, especially where I live (there are quite a few local farmers and some farmers markets around). But apparently, it's not profitable for grocery stores (especially chain ones) to actually sell produce at a reasonable price.

I could maybe understand this phenomenon occurring at places like Whole Foods and other organic-friendly spots like that...they are usually sky-high on a good day. However, since the recession officially hit and chain grocery stores have upped their prices, there is really no difference in shopping at those stores vs. Whole Foods and similar stores. So I go to Fresh Market and Whole Foods because hey, if I'm going to pay that much for food, it may as well be the best quality possible.

Sadly, I've noticed that Whole Foods and, sometimes, even Fresh Market have been missing the mark on certain produce lately. Case in point: I like to eat a medley of yellow squash and zucchini. Zucchini is usually in good condition, but the yellow squash looks like it's been dumped from the shipping crates onto the ground a few times. I have never seen so many brown spots and craters on yellow squash in my life! This was at Fresh Market, Whole Foods, AND Kroger and Food Lion. And it's not just the yellow squash: I was in Whole Foods today and the green peppers had met a similar fate. What is the deal? Are times that hard for the produce?

Speaking of hard times...I thought that corn on the cob was in season? Maybe not, since it seems rather exorbitant. Or maybe it's just the sweet white corn that I prefer ($4.99 for four ears at Fresh Market, and the same price for five smaller ears at Whole Foods). Honeydew melons are TINY...I've seen children's bowling balls that were bigger. $6.00 each. Watermelons? Just the little single-serve ones...for $5.99 each. Cucumbers? Depending on where you go, they range from $1.49 each to 2/$4.00. Cucumbers, y'all. And this is just regular fruits and vegetables! Tack on an extra dollar or two if you must have organically grown.

Now let's address this price issue a bit more. It is less expensive for stores to buy and sell local produce, since the markup won't have to include the cost of gas, packing/shipping, etc. I'm in North Carolina; lots of gardens around here, and farmers. I know; I see them at farmers markets, and all of them don't grow tobacco. So why do most of the produce have labels that show they are from out of state or--more frequently--out of the country? Why do stores need to buy bell peppers from Mexico? We can't grow bell peppers here in the United States, being that it will still be less expensive to buy USA-grown produce vs. foreign-grown produce? I understand that some produce has to be imported due to the particular crop (like bananas and pineapples, for which the USA doesn't have the proper climate and soil), but bell peppers (red, green, yellow, orange)? Corn? Potatoes? Apples? I KNOW we grow those domestically, and even within the state.

($4.99 for four ears of white corn. Seriously?)

Even frozen vegetables are sky-high...and the store brands at that! You will pay relatively dearly if you want a name brand such as Green Giant or Bird's-Eye. Sometimes, there isn't much difference in price between store and name brand...which kind of defeats the purpose of a store brand.

I am beginning to understand more and more why people turn to sodium- and preservative-laden items, simply because they are less expensive. When you have a large family to feed, sometimes you do what you gotta do. I just walked around the stores for almost a hour, just looking at shelves, getting more and more saddened as I saw how my dollar would truly holler just to provide myself proper nutrition. If I had a garden, I'd be sho'nuff growing my own stuff, just to try and stay ahead of the game. And I am actually making a lot of the stuff I used to buy, like tomato sauce and hummus...it's less expensive. Gotta try to save whenever and wherever I can, so I can afford those name brands that I just will not skimp on (like Heinz ketchup and Gulden mustard).

I think I'll go back to spaghetti and hot dogs.

Thanks for stopping by.