What the Heck is Natural Falvouring?

I suppose a lot of people will be writing about Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last night. I don’t think I will bother. It can be summed up pretty easy. The United States are in a lot of financial trouble. It could be solved if the politicians worried about the country rather than worried about their political careers and getting cheers from the audience. The country could also be run well if the people who wanted to run it were multi-millionaires that find every reason in the book not to pay full taxes. Think about it. Mitt Romney made over $40 million dollars and paid only 14% in taxes. Most people making between $42 000 and $85 000 pay 22%. And that is just Federal taxes, I didn’t include Provincial.

But anyway…..

If this Dukan/Dooku diet has taught me anything, it has been that I really enjoy fresh, non-canned foods. I was looking over some pasta recipes last night and the cook book actually suggested using a canned pasta sauce. I was pretty shocked that a recipe book would suggest it. I haven’t looked closer but I am going to assume that the company that makes the canned sauce is the one who financed the book. If that is true, they did it quite surreptitiously.  Their name isn’t on the book. If they didn’t support it, then the person who wrote the book sucks.

But I am still looking at making my own sauces from scratch. I know it takes a lot longer and it will probably result in more than one really bad dish, but I am a little tired of the crazy ingredients I find in a lot of canned food. If I don’t know what something means, I don’t think I should eat it. If Calcium Chloride is a first ingredient, that’s pretty scary. I know it is pretty harmless but if I don’t need to eat it, why eat it?

One of my favourite ingredients listed in a lot of food is “Natural Flavour”. That makes me question what the heck I am eating.

So in my quest to eat healthy and eat well at the same time, I have decided to skip the “on-the-shelf” foods and make most of my foods myself. It means that I will make some bad tasting food (example: I thought cumin as a sole spice on chicken could taste good. Result? It did not. It tasted like feet. Cumin is good, but not alone.) This weekend I plan to make a pasta dish (using store bought pasta…homemade pasta is next) and I will make a sauce from scratch. I may try a few different ones. If they are good, I may post a recipe or a picture. If they are not good, I will say how good the pizza was from Pepi’s.

I think food can be very tasty while being very healthy at the same time. I am hoping that I can come up with some good at home dishes that achieve both of those goals. Let’s see what happens.

It makes me think of the Food Network and the food we see served on all of the shows. Rarely will you see some healthy foods made on Top Chef, Chopped, or whatever show. However, most of the chefs and the people eating the foods are in shape, look healthy and couldn’t possibly eat like that all the time. Is it disingenuous for them to act like they could eat this food all the time? Or would people be bored when someone serves up a boneless skinless chicken breast with a herb seasoning and no oil or butter? Paula Deen has Type 2 diabetes and her food acts likes shes a 14 year-old boy. Clearly the menus she creates has caused a toll on her body and health.

I am not sure if they have some sort of obligation to say, “This food is good tonight but tomorrow it is egg-white omelets and vegetables.”

Maybe I have a good cooking show idea! “Cooking with Count Dooku” or “Dooku Does Dukan” or “Drew Does Dooku, Dude!”

I may be on to something! I may want to refrain from mentioning the Dukan diet. I could get sued or the diet craze could die out or it could be revealed that the diet is not healthy and people are collapsing all over the world. That could hurt my ratings.

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