The Clean Plate Club
~by Sheila Garcia
I come from a poor background. I was raised in a tiny two-bedroom apartment with eight people. And our pantries weren’t full – not even with the ‘staples’. So when we had a plate of food put in front of us, we were expected to eat everything on it, even if we didn’t like it. (The start of the huge obesity movement, perhaps?) If we REALLY didn’t like it, but ate it, we were told we were members of the Clean Plate Club – and what an honor! I mean, really! If you ate your liver and onions, you HAD to be a named champion SOMEHOW!
These days the Clean Plate Club has a different meaning altogether – especially now that it’s trendy to be organic, all-natural, GMO-free, gluten-free, metal-free, and whatever other frees you can think of. We are now an educated society that doesn’t take the word healthy for granted just because it says so on the label. We want honest foods, clean-and-chemical-free foods.
We, as consumers, are more sophisticated than ever. But buyers BEWARE!!
Even the most discerning consumers don’t realize that when it comes to food labels, food corporations hide the truth about their food by using deceptive code words. There are a lot of manufactured foods you wouldn’t buy if the entire truth was on the label, so routine deception occurs to keep you in the dark and keep you buying.
Keep it up, you Clean Plate Clubbers! You have a right to know what goes into your food products and what you and your friends and families ingest. Keep yourselves INFORMED. It is the biggest and best tool to use when it comes to being part of this clean-eating culture.
It will take your health, your life – and the legacy you build – to a whole new level……and maybe, just MAYBE, you can recruit more members of this Clean Plate Club we are part of!