The Guilty Table: Of Sustainable Living & Rotisserie Chickens

For what seems like quite a while now, I have been trying to commit to a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle, one in which I consider the food miles exhausted in bringing my meal to my plate and the overall nutritional quality of a meal. A consideration of this is recognizing that the closer to home a product is prepared the better it is for the environment. Wegmans Food Markets is a local chain which has, over the past ten or so years, exploded into a regional one, expanding throughout New York state and into other states in the North East. As much as it can be, Wegmans prides itself on being "local." They also are fond of promoting the healthy foods they stock on their shelves in the interest of improving the overall well-being of their community of customers.

Though Wegmans is the source for much of what I eat, it is not the focus of this series of dietary reflections; as the one who ultimately spends his dollars and eats the food, I am the one who is responsible.

Despite the local nature of this store, I have recently begun to question the local-ish foods I purchase at my neighborhood grocery, and place in my stomach. In particular, those products I purchase with a great degree of regularity: coffee, granola, fruits, vegetables and chicken... rotisserie chicken.

Sometimes after eating, I have a sense of shame or embarrassment regarding what had been previously consumed. This is often the result of having ingested a meal I consciously know as being somehow being either unhealthy relative to how it was prepared, or "un-right," such as being from Brazil when a more local option was available. On an intellectual level, I think I have a general sense of what is healthy and "right", but often I am "blinded" by what I perceive as "hunger" and throw that knowledge to the wind. So much, for courage of conviction...

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!