The Week Before Christmas: No Processed Foods Stirring (aka My Week Without GMOs or Processed Foods)

getting ready for the oven

After a long weekend of baking Christmas cookies for the neighbors and kids' teachers - which including much sampling, taste-testing, and blatant pigging out - I've decided to forgo processes foods and GMO's the week before Christmas.

What kind of madness is this? Earlier today I was watching a video on NaturalNews.tv regarding GMO's or genetically modified organisms, something I've known about a long time which is why I avoid soy and corn and get mad when any green colleagues I know get excited about printing with soy.

The host of this video, Anthony Gucciardi, spoke several times about the many reasons to not eat processed foods. At this point you are preaching to the choir, me. Yes I know about GMO's, processed foods, high-fructose corn syrup (one of my first posts is on that!) and how to truly eat healthy. But I'm not perfect, or better yet, maybe I'm lazy.

enjoying my garden in Chicago

I've been a vegetarian (ovo-lacto) for over 15 years. A good portion of my food is organic. If this was 100 years ago I'm sure I'd eat meat. Having a background in Wildlife Biology I don't necessarily believe eating meat or being an omnivore is wrong - especially from an evolutionary stand point. However  today our processed, manufactured, factory farmed food is no good for people or planet - but I digress.

After watching the video I was tweeting and came across fellow author Robb Skidmore (The Pursuit of Cool) who was excited about reading 'The China Study' and the benefits of a plant based diet.

morning home made juice

We tweeted a bit about eating a plant based diet...and then I got to thinking. What am I doing!? I am a vegetarian, I juice every morning - Why am I still eating processed foods!? (Really I know the answer has to do with having 3 kids, working, not being the only shopper in the house - if it enters into my house I will eat it - etc. etc.). Enough with the excuses and laziness. If only for a week I will not eat processed foods!

What will I eat? Good question. I'm hoping no one calls me out on olive oil, but I don't know how to avoid it. I will eat any and all fruits, vegetables, and nuts. I will eat eggs, quinoa, and rice. That's about it. (wait! can I add tea to that list too?)

The question of what 'processed' means, I don't have time to research all that so I will go by my own criteria...I will even give up my coveted dark chocolate covered almonds from Trader Joe's because I think chocolate is crossing the line for this experiment.

So I will blog, tweet, post, FB, etc. about what happens. I will even pull out the scale. Will I lose my mind and eat the dog? I hope not. It's the Christmas season after all and I don't think the kids would forgive me.

Anyway, I'm always up for an experiment. Live is an adventure! So I will see what a week without processed foods brings.

Alexandra Gnoske is a nature lover, writer, and environmental expert.