Organic Food | Teen Ink

Organic Food MAG

By Anonymous

      Growing up I never got to have chocolate milk or soda. While other kids brought grape jelly sandwiches on Wonder bread, I had whole-grain bread with turkey, cheese, lettuce and Dijon mustard.

These days, I make more of my own food decisions and I choose to eat healthy: salads if I can, juice, and organic food. Despite this, I cannot help feeling a little abnormal about how I grew up. Granted, I am not sorry that the idea of healthy eating was instilled in me at an early age. I know many who say they are trying to lose weight yet choose fries, soda and a bag of candy for lunch, which makes me shake my head and want to rip something apart (a common reaction to ignorance).

But during my teenage years, I find myself irrationally floating toward Gushers, Fruit Rollups, and sometimes - out of morbid curiosity - Spam. I think it’s an odd type of pent-up childhood junk-food deprivation trauma. Having been denied all these processed, more-chemical-than-natural foods, I seem to be trying to compensate with cravings that hit at the oddest of times.

The first semester freshman year I was in algebra, the class that interested me the least. While zoning out, a craving hit me between the eyes like a drunken bat strapped to a lead propeller blade. Breakfast sausages, I thought. I must have breakfast sausages! By the time the bell finally rang, I was so limp from deprivation that my friend drew a sausage and had me follow it out of the classroom.

I made a frantic call to my mother, begging her to pick up sausages on her way home. The next day, I carried a Ziploc bag of said sausages with me the entire school day, just in case.

Thankfully, such a craving has not hit again and, except for going through a Spaghetti-O’s phase, I’ve been basically process-free, and like it that way.

My healthy eating habits are one of my greatest strengths, and that’s not going to change. I may have felt weird sitting in the cafeteria eating whole grain as a kid but now, when the national media is screaming about childhood obesity, I can take a bite of my organic tofu salad, and smile.



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This article has 7 comments.


BIGGERBOI69 said...
on Mar. 23 2018 at 4:23 pm
BIGGERBOI69,
0 articles 0 photos 4 comments
organic expensive

BIGGERBOI69 said...
on Mar. 23 2018 at 4:22 pm
BIGGERBOI69,
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GMOs are good

i love this so much!

rheame said...
on Aug. 24 2013 at 9:06 am
rheame, Anand, Other
0 articles 0 photos 64 comments

Favorite Quote:
turn a mess into a lesson<br /> <br /> a test into testimony<br /> <br /> a trial into triumph<br /> and a victim into champion

wow, just wow! i think i need to learn a lesson from you .though i am nnot obese,i think i need toget healthier  

on Dec. 19 2012 at 3:52 pm
AlwaysAntlers SILVER, Kingsport, Tennessee
5 articles 0 photos 72 comments

Favorite Quote:
&ldquo;Don&#039;t forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.&rdquo;<br /> ― Charles de Lint, (from his book,The Blue Girl)

"a craving hit me between the eyes like a drunken bat strapped to a lead propeller blade." Lol, loved your comparison! It surprised some laughter out of me. I'm the kind of person who loves eating junk food and sugary drinks, but i have a good sense of where to stop, and exercise often. I admire your eating habits, that would take some stregth for me. Great job!

on Nov. 12 2012 at 12:38 am
shapeshifter56 GOLD, Cave Creek, Arizona
14 articles 0 photos 136 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Instead of waiting for the storm to pass, learn to dance in the rain.&quot;<br /> --Unknown Author

Oops. I meant "processed" not "prossed". Definitely got a little excited there lol.

on Nov. 12 2012 at 12:36 am
shapeshifter56 GOLD, Cave Creek, Arizona
14 articles 0 photos 136 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Instead of waiting for the storm to pass, learn to dance in the rain.&quot;<br /> --Unknown Author

Oh my gosh! I know exactly how that feels! My mom has always been way into healthy eating! So, I know all about organic, non-prossed, chemical free eating! One of my sisters was found to be allergic to gluten when I was in first grade, and that was a real eye-opener for my family. Many different foods and ingredients were eschewed from our diet, and so I totally know what you mean about eating differently than everybody else! And I can definitely relate to that whole "junk-food deprivation trauma" thing you mentioned. When I got to middle school, my dad helped convince my mom that I was old enough to try new foods outside of our home. And boy did I go crazy! I ate so much junk food! But in the end, I realized I liked healthy eating so much better. Eating all that junk food made me more tired, and I also got sick easier. Nowadays, I'm even more strict on my diet than the rest of my family! I went vegan, and I love it because it has eliminated lot's of unhealthy foods out of my diet. Haha, anyways sorry for the rambling. I got pretty excited seeing that I'm not the only one who has grown up on strange food and ended up preferring it to "normal food". Great article! Keep up the amazing work!