It's funny going to the grocery store.
Rick and I have been going to Sunflower Market for about two, three months now. After reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, we thought it'd be cleaner, healthier to shop for produce there.
As it turns out, for the most part, it has been. It's actually been cheaper, too.
Simultaneously, I have mixed feelings about going there. Here they are, mixed and matched, in no real order, but I'll make it look orderly:
1) I feel physically cleaner, more comfortable there. The food is just packaged and showcased so beautifully, so naturally. I love being surrounded by more fresh than frozen aisles. No real temptations besides nuts--you just feel good.
2) I like being around other people trying to be healthy. You feel close and connected, like they're saying, "Good for you! You're young, but learning how to eat good early." It's a good community of happy, healthy people.
3) I like looking into other people's grocery carts--full of wild rice, ground Ethiopian free trade coffee, rhubarb, serrano peppers. Sometimes, I can imagine the food just sitting on their counters, never being eaten, just as a decoration like daisies in a vase. "My, what a beautiful assortment of vegetables," a neighbor would remark.
3) But here's a con--the snooty, rich people trying to be healthy. Sometimes I make eye-contact with these people, and instead of feeling camaraderie, I feel competition. The funny thing about Colorado is that people are one-upping each other on how healthy and resourceful they can be constantly. I'm not saying this is bad, it's progressive and wonderful. But, taken to an extreme, it's just pure annoying.
Don't give me glances that say, "Oh, you bought that milk. Huh. So, you're that type of healthy person. I make my own milk on my cow farm. That's how healthy I am."
And if I'm hiking on a trail, and you're running 50 miles with fifty-thousand mini-waterbottles strapped across your waist, don't call me an amateur under your breath. Get a life, people. But I digress, we are still talking about grocery stores, right?
4) One thing I don't like about the healthier markets, is how expensive everything else is besides produce. A block of cheese for eight bucks. A tiny box of cereal for $6. A loaf of bread for $5. No thank you. But hey--that's why there's the big chain supermarket. It's an extra stop, but it saves money to shop at King Soopers for the rest.
5) At King Soopers, I feel like I'm more in my element. I'm surrounded by a wide spectrum of people--not just the overly health conscious upper middle class. King Soopers houses the homeless, the food stamped, the lower class, the middle class, the upper class, the black, the white, the Asian--everybody's invited. You don't feel so judged using your food stamps. And, might I add, they go through every time, unlike Sunflower Market. It's as if the cashier there is indirectly saying, "Poor people don't deserve free healthy food. Government cheese for you, baby. Next!"
And you don't feel so judged if you haven't bought cloth bags for your groceries yet. And I haven't. I've been meaning too. But I do need free plastic trash bags.
Rick and I have been going to Sunflower Market for about two, three months now. After reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, we thought it'd be cleaner, healthier to shop for produce there.
As it turns out, for the most part, it has been. It's actually been cheaper, too.
Simultaneously, I have mixed feelings about going there. Here they are, mixed and matched, in no real order, but I'll make it look orderly:
1) I feel physically cleaner, more comfortable there. The food is just packaged and showcased so beautifully, so naturally. I love being surrounded by more fresh than frozen aisles. No real temptations besides nuts--you just feel good.
2) I like being around other people trying to be healthy. You feel close and connected, like they're saying, "Good for you! You're young, but learning how to eat good early." It's a good community of happy, healthy people.
3) I like looking into other people's grocery carts--full of wild rice, ground Ethiopian free trade coffee, rhubarb, serrano peppers. Sometimes, I can imagine the food just sitting on their counters, never being eaten, just as a decoration like daisies in a vase. "My, what a beautiful assortment of vegetables," a neighbor would remark.
3) But here's a con--the snooty, rich people trying to be healthy. Sometimes I make eye-contact with these people, and instead of feeling camaraderie, I feel competition. The funny thing about Colorado is that people are one-upping each other on how healthy and resourceful they can be constantly. I'm not saying this is bad, it's progressive and wonderful. But, taken to an extreme, it's just pure annoying.
Don't give me glances that say, "Oh, you bought that milk. Huh. So, you're that type of healthy person. I make my own milk on my cow farm. That's how healthy I am."
And if I'm hiking on a trail, and you're running 50 miles with fifty-thousand mini-waterbottles strapped across your waist, don't call me an amateur under your breath. Get a life, people. But I digress, we are still talking about grocery stores, right?
4) One thing I don't like about the healthier markets, is how expensive everything else is besides produce. A block of cheese for eight bucks. A tiny box of cereal for $6. A loaf of bread for $5. No thank you. But hey--that's why there's the big chain supermarket. It's an extra stop, but it saves money to shop at King Soopers for the rest.
5) At King Soopers, I feel like I'm more in my element. I'm surrounded by a wide spectrum of people--not just the overly health conscious upper middle class. King Soopers houses the homeless, the food stamped, the lower class, the middle class, the upper class, the black, the white, the Asian--everybody's invited. You don't feel so judged using your food stamps. And, might I add, they go through every time, unlike Sunflower Market. It's as if the cashier there is indirectly saying, "Poor people don't deserve free healthy food. Government cheese for you, baby. Next!"
And you don't feel so judged if you haven't bought cloth bags for your groceries yet. And I haven't. I've been meaning too. But I do need free plastic trash bags.
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