Discussion about this post

User's avatar
KDB's avatar

This is all so true and well written. I have to say though, as a mother who is at home and does all the things you listed, my job would be MUCH easier (or at least less mentally exhausting) if the food in our stores was not full of questionable ingredients.

I spend extra time every week at the grocery store hunting for the one brand of butter that isn’t full of seed oils. While making my own bread from scratch, I fret about how the flour was processed. When I give a kid an apple for a snack, I wonder if I am poisoning him if I don’t take the time to peel it. I won’t even start on how many hours I wasted trying to come up with answers to the vaccine question. I have a background in microbiology, so I am better positioned than many to find and understand the answers, but the only answer I find is “nobody knows because nobody has run the studies properly”.

When my family’s health is on the line, I find that enormously stressful and maddening. Especially when there are ingredients that ARE known to be harmful that I feel like I should be checking for on every label (I don’t but I should be). Why is this my job? Why are these things still in our food?

If RFK will get the studies done, and get garbage ingredients out of our grocery stores, this mother would be massively grateful. Homemaking is hard enough without having to become an expert in food science.

Expand full comment
Isa Ryan's avatar

This is exactly what I’ve been saying for years, as someone who grew up as a latchkey kid. When I discovered the “slow food” movement along with the fact that I had no idea how to cook or even grocery shop for myself, I abandoned the feminist ideals I was raised with right then and there. Today, I’m raising my two boys with my husband on our little homestead, and they prefer my homemade food over storebought or restaurant food. They’re often alarmed to see how their peers eat, and it’s sad how adults and kids alike in our area tend to eat such a highly processed diet. It’s hard to deny the effects, but something that is really striking to me is what a financial burden that lifestyle is, even with two working parents. My husband’s co-workers used to be baffled that he wasn’t broke all the time, and he’d tell them “my wife makes most of our meals at home. You’re eating out almost every meal. I’m spending a fraction on food.”

I’m so so glad to see more people are making the important connection between a well-tended, working kitchen, and tangible health and financial outcomes.

Expand full comment
79 more comments...

No posts