Guilt-free eating

I want to eat right, by which I mean all the usual things -- proper doses of fruits, veggies, non-processed foods, healthy fats, protein, etc. -- but also right in an ethical sense. I don't want my food choices to make the world anymore fucked up than it already is. This, it turns out, is not easy to do.

Take salmon. It contains those healthy fatty oils that nutritionists love to tout and it tastes good and I can cook it in less than 30 minutes, so I try to eat it once a week. But much salmon also contains mercury, so much so that the FDA warns pregnant women and children away from it. Scary. On top of that, commercial fisheries often over-harvest salmon, disrupting underwater ecosystems that may be invisible but are very much crucial to our planet's, and therefore our own, health. So I downloaded the Monterey Bay Acquarium's Seafood Watch pocket guide to help me make responsible choices in my fish-consumption. What I discovered, however, was that to get the fish recommended often required visiting several different grocery stores (not easy for a car-free hippy like myself), or heading to ones like Whole Foods, which is aptly nicknamed "whole paycheck."

Needless to say, I have not succeeded in being an ethical salmon-eather. I am, however, spending a lot more time on a new blog launched by my friend Bonnie Powell, along with some of her friends. Called The Ethicurean, it's a blog about eating right in all the right ways. As its inaugural post explains: "We want to be as informed as possible about our food purchasing decisions, because we believe that voting with our wallets — and our stomachs — is an effective way to create change." Refreshingly, this does not translate into strident veganism. Bonnie is, in fact, an ex-vegetarian and proud of it. It's a great blog and a worthy cause. Check it out!

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