A wild hair

Sometimes I get on a kick. A wild hair. I go off on a tangent. I get obsessed.

Yesterday my sweet husband gave me some baby-free time to go to a craft store, buy a gift I had been looking for, rummage through gorgeous fabrics and then--because I got a crazy idea in my head--make two curtains for Evelyn's room without using my sewing machine. (Hello, fusible web tape!). He is a kind husband.

Now Evelyn has curtains and my world is much better.

But then today my friend Deirdre sends me a link about all-natural, homemade deodorant. And I start reading the recipe, realizing that I have all the ingredients on hand already, and remembering that my goal for last year was to "Go Green." I read a little more about the deodorant, which leads me to a few blog posts about do-it-yourself shampoo (or no-poo, as some people call it, because you aren't using shampoo really at all), which then leads me to a recipe for homemade graham crackers, which reminds me that I want to cut out high-fructose corn syrup (or, as I call it, high-fructose death syrup). So thanks, Deirdre, for leading me to realize that I should be making all my own crackers and cookies and breads and sprouted grains and raw milk yogurt.

But in all seriousness, high-fructose corn/death syrup is pretty bad. Those commercials sponsored by the HFCS industry that say "it's made from corn, and has the same nutritional make-up as sugar, and is fine in moderation" is probably completely true. In fact, I'll give them that: It is fine in moderation. The problem is you can't eat it in moderation. It is in EVERYTHING. Cereal. Cookies. Ice cream. Soda. Oatmeal. Crackers. Pancake mix. BBQ sauce. Salad dressing. Croutons. Bagels. Jelly Beans. Ketchup. Yogurt. Waffles. Canned fruit. Mac 'n' cheese. Fish stick. EVERYTHING.

But do you see a pattern? That is all processed food. Middle-of-the-grocery-store food. The kind of stuff we should be limiting in our diets anyway. Except that is is so hard to make everything yourself, especially when you are 1.) a mother, 2.) a full-time employee, 3.) lazy, and/or 4.) human. It is particularly hard when you are all four things combined. Whole foods are best, but not always practical.

But much like my one-month vegetarianism experiment (which I liked and have been thinking about trying again...) I am going to try a "let's not buy anything with HFCS on the label" experiment. I think I might be surprised by what contains the ingredient, what doesn't, and what brands I have to switch to. Like Rice Krispies have HFCS, but Cheerios don't. Surprising.

I realize that I can't throw out all the food I have in my kitchen right now, nor can I know when I eat in a restaurant if their food has HFCS (hint: it does), but I can limit what I buy in the store and read all the labels.

So today, April 19th, begins my "No More HFCS in My Pantry" crusade. Anyone else want to join?

(There is a fairly unbiased, scientificly researched article on the subject available from TLC, if you are interested. If you want to read the biased opinions, just Google "Is HFCS killing me?!?" or something to that effect.)