Millenium Chips

Have you noticed that when you eat Real Food you get a better sense of how long food should “keep”? It wasn’t that many years ago that I was actually choosing ultra-pasteurized reduced-fat milk because it would keep so much longer than simply pasteurized milk. For too long I failed to see the irony that my son wasn’t drinking milk at a very fast rate (he’d leave just about every glass of milk half empty or even ask for water instead) and the milk seemed to go “off” before it was used up. When we switched to grass-fed, whole raw milk, his milk consumption sky-rocketed, half-empty glasses became rare, and I made the connection that his consumption rate was connected to the quality and lack of processing of the milk. And while “shelf life” of the raw milk is still something to be aware of, when the raw milk naturally sours (cultures) at the end of the week, it is still healthy and consumable in a custard or a smoothie, unlike soured and rotten pasteurized milk.

More recently, we have gone “gluten-free”, but for the most part, that means we have ditched grains altogether rather than substitute commercial GF breads and cereals. On occasion I take a look at the GF bread section at one “natural food” store and I’m appalled at the lengthy list of food-additive ingredients used to create a GF bread. Most of these are stored in the cooler at the store (often still frozen) to extend freshness but at least one brand is out on the unchilled shelf with a stamped best-by date at least a year away! That “defeat” of nature is accomplished by packaging with (anti-oxidant) nitrogen-filled sealed bags and a sachet of desiccant inside. What’s “natural” about bread that can sit sealed on a shelf for over a year?