Ever since I began this crazy journey into veganism, my trips to the local supermarkets have been unsettling. It feels similar to having culture shock after you've been away for a few years working in a foreign country. Over the past nine days, I've grown accustomed to eating more whole foods and little to no processed foods. So now when I enter a regular supermarket, I about have a heart attack.
Instead of seeing food, I'm now seeing aisles upon aisles of unhealthy crap all around me. For example, right as I entered the supermarket today, a table of doughnuts and cakes was positioned strategically at the front door. Has this always been there and I'm just now noticing it? As I walked around the perimeter of the store, the bright colored packages were screaming their nasty Frankenfoods at me. Beefaroni! Twinkies! Tombstone Pizza! Ughh! What has become of me? I used to like this junk. Now I can't even dare to look at it.
Searching for healthy food that DOES exist at a regular supermarket has now become a chore, like finding a needle in a haystack. You start realizing how many meat and dairy products there really are at the store, and it's like walking into a house of horrors. Even aisles you think are safe, like the ones containing soup, are haunted by chicken or beef stock, so you're stuck getting tomato soup and that's it. My only places of salvation at the supermarket are now in the produce section and the bulk foods aisle. If you're a vegan, you live off of the bulk foods section. You can dispense anything from peanuts, to grits, to rolled oats, to spices, to even peanut butter. Today's big score was finding the dried mango barrel. Mmmmm... dried mango!
As a vegan-in-training, the most disturbing part for me about the supermarket experience happens at the end, when you're waiting in line to pay for your groceries. You look all around you, and the enormous people have piled their shopping carts to the hilt with junk food and garbage, while you're standing there with your tiny cloth bag containing a few cans of beans, a bag of pita bread and some fresh vegetables. If supermarkets are any indicator of the general health of Americans, then it's not looking too good for us.
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2 comments:
i love this post because you hit on something that is missing in a lot of people's lives: awareness. taking the approach to limit certain foods from your diet forces you to find replacement items that you once "took for granted" as being healthy. this practice takes time, energy, and dedication -- something that most people will not do. rather, they will complain about their waistline and continue to eat crappy food that is pre-packaged in a container that states it's "heart-healthy" instead of doing what's right: eating whole foods, drinking lots of water, and exercising.
you rock.
OMG honestly i was like omg i can't believe someone understand how i feel. I am like starving i was vegetarian for ever like 10 years, i thought i was doing good then i decided that all that cheese and bread and eggs was not so healthy for me, i even gained weight when i became vegetarian, so i started feb. 20th of this year to cut animal products but i went dead serious vegan, like no animal products, i read every label and damn!! i could not find anything. my stomach was like washed off with all the fruit and vegetables i ate the first week or so. then i would scream in the food isles when i actually found something w/soy or lactose free w/soy and stuff like that. I was so happy to find toffiti? or something like that it's ice cream w/no animal products and every day in lunch i spend 1 hour for the past 2 weeks walking the aisles discovering new things i can actually eat like : cereal the cocoa puffs crispy things and the crackers club and then i always get all sad when i find something but then it has milk protein and i have to stop myself. so yeah i get you, we need to communicate do you have myspace?
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