The after amaranth day, and our food position

Baby S gobbled up a lot of gooey amaranth yesterday, and today she emptied it several times today. It was very grainy just as it was before it was cooked! Poor baby now has a bull's eye red diaper rash. I'm going to have to look into things before giving her too much. Ah, man, I also gave her some today... so I guess in a few days she should be better again. In the meantime, I'll be giving her some fruits and organic corn puffs.

I think that eating a balanced diet rich in fiber and micronutrients is one of the keys to a healthy life-style. We don't often eat out, and I love cooking in my new kitchen, but sometimes what we eat is just not very wholesome even though we're not eating meat. So, we're trying to transition to eating mainly organic foods, no GMO (genetically modified organisms) foods, and local foods. This is not an overnight task. If you go to Greenpeace's website (I think it's www.greenpeace.org) you can find a list of products that are GMO and are not. I have so many GMOs in my kitchen that I'm not quite sure what I should do about it.

Why do I have so many foods with GMOs? Mainly because the government does not require companies to indicate on their products that they contain GMOs. Another reason is because of our ignorance of GMOs. I thought that scientists created GMOs to help plants survive plagues and resist pests. Actually, it sounds pretty good since if a plant can withstand pests and other harmful enemies there wouldn't be a need for pesticides (and I'll get to this one later - maybe in another post since I'm getting sleepy). Oh, but I was misinformed.

We really don't know the harmful effects of GMOs. In fact, I've read that scientists have extracted genes from bacteria, undersea animals and injected them into plants. You can find out more about GMOs here: http://www.reneeloux.com/gmo/q_a.html, or you can look up "GMO risks" using a search engine. So, now things sound a little weird. It sounds a bit like Xmen, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other mutant comics literally INSIDE my cereal. Not so funny, though, when it's all around you.

So, what foods are genetically modified in my kitchen? Well, almost everything that contains non organic corn, canola, cotton (yes, think of all the kitchen towels and aprons!) and soy. of course there are other foods too that are probably GM foods like potatoes. Well, a few weeks ago I stocked up on a dozen cans of corn niblets (product of Canada), and before that I had purchased a bag full of TVP (texturized vegetable protein consisting mostly of soy), Maseca corn masa (for making tortillas and tamales), frozen corn niblets, cornmeal, canola oil, salad dressings, mayonnaise, potatoes, rice, bun (it has cornmeal)... shall I continue?

What should I do now that I know that there are tonnes of GMO in my kitchen? Should I throw them away? But that is wasteful! Give it to the food bank? What? So that others can eat the GMOs? Well, I guess the only thing reasonable is to finish what we have as we try buying certified organic versions of what we eat. We've made it this far igorantly eating GMOs, we may as well finish what we have in the kitchen.

Of course this still does not answer what I would do for eating outside of my home or about take out. Well, I think we just have to be reasonable. If I go visit someone else or a restaurant, I'm just going to try to enjoy my time with my company.

I'll continue about our food situation next time, touching upon GMOs and pesticides (which affect so much more than just our food).