For a Few Dollars More

One of the things I have definitely been trying to do over the last year or so is to pay more attention to what I'm buying at the grocery store. That really goes all around, as I'm trying to find as much as I can that's organic and/or low sodium, hopefully both. The latter is for my blood pressure, of course.

The organic food interest just seems to make sense. It's really become more important to me as our book club has remained committed to educating ourselves about food and sustainability issues by reading things like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and In Defense of Food, and my own earlier reading of the shock-and-awe Fast Food Nation. Good stuff.

My most recent pursuit of groceries-with-a-good-feeling is that I've really stepped it up in the last few months to have that commitment include purchasing the best quality, lowest-guilty-conscience meat at the market. I now automatically go to the section of the meat department that has the free range, grass fed, antibiotic free (or some combination thereof) stuff for my chicken, pork, and beef purchases.

It's a little bit more expensive, for sure, but I feel better about buying these things both for my own health (oh, the antibiotic thing both creeps me out and makes me mad) and for trying to assuage a bit of my former-vegetarian feelings of guilt. And, you know what? They're usually much better cuts of meat and they taste amazing!