Paris, and the neurosis of me and food

[Jennifer Reynolds]

I have just had the most amazing trip to Paris! This is just one of over 400 photos we brought back. My husband and I spent 9 days in Paris, with a short trip over to Brussels, Belgium and The Netherlands for a business meeting. We had a great time, saw alot of amazing things, and are now home to rest up. :-) Nothing like walking 10 miles a day on cobblestone to wear yourself out!

I know I've been a bit slow on posting blog posts. I aplogize. I just sometimes get into the groove, and post often, and sometimes it just isn't coming to me. Ya know? I will try to do better, especially when I see new people visiting. I don't want them to feel abandoned.

While I was away, I had a conversation with someone about what makes me buy produce at the market: is it because it looks pretty, or is it because it's organic, or what? I tried to be diplomatic, as this was my husband's client, but also honest. I do like when the produce looks pretty, but it has to be organic or locally grown most of the time for me to purchase it. That means alot more $ to buy said produce. And my husband sometimes gets frustrated with me for spending it. But I know that it's better for my family, and with our cancer experience I found doing things I can control made me feel better about my future, and that of my family's. Do you have the same feeling? I mean, I know that organic isn't all I think it should be sometimes (some companies use it and really should be saying "natural" or something like that.) But I don't want all the pesticides and growth hormones and whatever other crap farmers have been using to grow out of this world large and perfectly round tomatoes, etc. I want a normal size, abnormally shaped tomato that's been grown without all the junk some use to ward off pests and mold, etc. Is that so wrong?

After this discussion, I got to thinking: Is it solely because of my cancer that I now feel the need to spend hoards of my money on "organically grown" things, and organic meats, and am wary of anything that says "natural" on the label? Would I have started on this path eventually anyway? Is it more a matter of the awareness being brought to this issues by people like Michael Pollan, and the movie "Food, Inc."? (Which, by the way, if you haven't seen this film, you need to run out and find it!)

What do you think? Are you equally as neurotic about what food you buy for your family? (Well, I can't imagine many are as neurotic as me, but you get the jist.) What do you think about "organics"? Are they the wave of the future, or just a passing fad?