I love going to grocery stores. When it comes to shopping, I not a shoe store kind of gal. I much prefer grocery and office supply stores.
But my affection is getting tested these days. Used to be I could go on in, breeze on through and head on out. I might spend 20-30 minutes in the market, depending on whether I had to stock up on cat food.
These days, however, I might as well have my own cot and closet.
This Budwig protocol I'm on is quite demanding when it comes to what you can and can't eat. While, overall, it's not too taxing -- fruits, veggies and whole grains are king. But being a girl of this generation, I don't want to cook everything myself. I like making bread -- on occasion. I don't want it to take up all my time.
So I've taken to reading a lot of labels, picking out the hidden sugars and oils we aren't supposed to have. There are simple rules:
1. Nothing that was listed under chemistry on the SATs. No methyl ethyl dextrose or anything else that ends in ose or thyl or things like that.
2. No sugar. And that means nothing masquerading as sugar such as cane juice, even organic cane juice, or fructose or whatever. Nothing manufactures, although honey and stevia are fine.
3. No wheat flour or oat flour or any kind of flour unless it comes from sprouted grains. I'm not sure why, frankly, but something with the sprouting makes it more digestible, I guess.
4. No oil other than flax seed oil.
Sounds simple, right. But you would be amazed how much stuff has hidden oils and sugars, even organic stuff.
I spent almost two hours at Whole Foods Market in Sacramento Sunday (and gee wouldn't we like one here, right folks?) I read label after label after label.
What treasures did I find? I found some stuff produced by this company called Go Raw. It's granola is a great snack -- it's just sprouted buckwheat, sprouted flax seeds, organic raisins and organice dates. It's really good. I also found some snacks bars with similar ingredients. I found organic apple sauce that just has apples in it, pomegranate nectar, cereal, etc.
It wasn't quite the treasure trove I'd hoped for. I mean, can't someone make brownies out of flax seeds? Anyone? But it was worth the visit for the granola alone.
The Budwig diet certainly isn't as convenient as, say, McDonald's. But I suppose that whole staying alive thing outweighs the inconvenience.
Humph.
I guess I'll just have to get my jollies at Office Max now.
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