Is it worth it? No.

I have felt so bad for the past 2 days. My stomach hurts. I am all bloated feeling. I got a couple zits on my face now. I struggle with a low grade headache. Jogging today was like carrying around an extra 100 lb sack of lead weights. I feel bad all around because of what I ate 2 days ago.

I went to a giant industrial food, drink and entertainment emporium located in Nashville 2 days ago. This is a place I would not normally go to, but it is where one of my friends wanted to go for a going away party. This place has arcade games, soda, mixed drinks, beer, and a very extensive menu of trans-fatty, corn syrupy-sugary, monosodium glutamate-salty American fare in huge portions. I didn't eat much before going, I ate a small amount of seared tuna and salad greens for lunch, so I could indulge in this American fare. I ended up eating spinach dip with tortilla chips, fries and fried buffalo wings with diet cokes to wash it all down. All the food was made in industrial production plants with a bunch of additives. This food is designed to be addictive, and appealing in away to make people crave the food.

The deal is, my taste buds and mind has been conditioned to crave the flavor of these industrial made products. According the Michael Pollan, the USA food industry made it so lots Americans would love (crave) the taste and texture of these American favorites. The food industry has figure out how to make food more appealing, and make foods that just slide down quickly, so you will eat more before you realize how full you are. The chicken wings I ate have a fatty, slight crunchy outside for that pleasing texture, but the flesh of wing meat was grown to be soft and needing only one or two chews before it is a texture to be swallowed. The spinach dip was cheesy and fatty and liquidy enough that it too could just be swallowed without necessarily registering anything but the salty taste and oily texture. I want those wings, and hot dips of the American industrial food makers as much as a smoker wants a cigarette or an alcoholic wants a drink. When confronted with these industrial made products, I will take them and eat them like there is no tomorrow. David Kessler writes about the industrial food industry making food so irresistible that he, myself and many people just cannot resist these foods if put in front of them.

Contrary to the American industrial foods, is how I ideal would like to eat at home. I strive to have good wholesome foods at home, but I am not always successful because I love those American foods, chips, dip, wings, chocolate cream filled cookies, and lots of white pasta. But, I do strive to have a locally grown ingredient in everything I make. That means there usually a locally grown veggie in every dish made in my home. I like Michael Pollan's idea of eating junk food is ok, as long as you make them. French fries and potato chips are a pain in the but to make, so I won't make them. Popcorn in my house is made the old fashioned way in a heavy bottom pot on the stove top. Butter on my popcorn is butter I churned from cream (from grass fed cows) in my house.

Like an addict (which I am) to these American industrial made foods, I generally stay away from them. I steer clear of chain restaurants, and this industrial food emporium on a regular basis. Because I usually steer clear of these industrial restaurants, my body doesn't know how to handle edible industrial products filled with additives, fat, salt and corn syrup. I must remember how I felt for the past 48 hours because I feel and felt aweful from head to toe, and do all that I can to steer clear of this type of food.