Most of these qualities conjure up thoughts of foods that were ridiculously hard to clean the leavings off of the dishes that were used to prepare or to serve them. Grease, sauce, juice, all sorts of stuff that is pure torture to try & scrape off of the dishes come from foods that "stick."
It wasn't until a few months ago that I decided, if these foods get so crusty & difficult to remove from my dishes without a lot of effort going in to removing them, what in the world are these food items doing to my insides? Because of this (pretty scary) thought, I created a new rule for myself in which I will buy things that are easy to clean off of the plates, because the easier it washes away in lightly running water, the easier my body can pass through my system what it doesn't actually use.
One of the first things I replaced was pasta sauce. I used to buy Ragu sauce on BOGO on sale, and think it would last "forever" because the bottles were pretty big. The truth of the matter was, I ended up using quite a bit on my pastas - I'm not entirely sure why? perhaps because it is so thin - and it also stained more than one piece of Tupperware.
A few months ago, I discovered another item on sale at Publix: Bertolli's pasta sauces.
One of many flavor varieties offered by Bertolli.
I never typically purchased foods like this; I was brought up to "buy cheap, eat cheap." After all, those big Ragu bottles can make a heck of a lot more chili than one of these little bottles ever could. And besides which, I don't like chunky tomatoes in my pasta sauce. When I want sauce, I want it thin and just enough tomato flavor to add to the pasta flavor - then doused in parmesan cheese, of course. So after I bought this type of sauce, I lamented the fact that I'd purchased "chunky sauce" when my husband opened up a bottle to put it on his pasta; I decided I'd finish off the open Ragu in the fridge instead.
Naturally, the next time I made pasta, I hadn't yet had a chance to replenish the stock of Ragu, and so all I had available was the Bertolli stuff. I grudgingly poured the chunks over the top of my pasta, and picked around them (passing the tomatoes off on my husband) but I had to admit: the flavor was pretty good. Soon, I came to really enjoy the sauce, and now I won't even bother picking the chunks out.
On evening, after the dishes sat in the sink long enough for the sauce to have dried on the plates, I cringed at the thought of having to scrape the sauce off of the plates before putting them into the dishwasher. I ran the plates under the water, and surprisingly the sauce came up without even a fight; simply rinsing was enough to get rid of most of the sauce left behind on the plates. It was then that the thought of "sticky" foods occurred to me, and it was also then that I resolved to only purchase sauces like the Bertolli sauce that wouldn't be impossible to remove from my dishes, and thus my insides.
So far this concept seems to be holding up pretty well in regards to the foods I choose to eat. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to choose pre-packaged or bottled foods that are made with nothing but whole ingredients. For example, there are hardly any ingredients in the Bertolli sauces, except those necessary to make the sauce itself. Similarly, a dish like my vegetable stew has nothing unusual added to it - it's nothing but whole ingredients, no preservatives or anything - and this, too, will not stick to my dishes when rinsing them off.
I believe this is yet another "argument" for the ideas of whole foods being better foods for you. They don't necessarily have t be organic, per se, but should be as natural as possible without being chock-full of preservatives.
Just one more step toward a healthier lifestyle.
Naturally, the next time I made pasta, I hadn't yet had a chance to replenish the stock of Ragu, and so all I had available was the Bertolli stuff. I grudgingly poured the chunks over the top of my pasta, and picked around them (passing the tomatoes off on my husband) but I had to admit: the flavor was pretty good. Soon, I came to really enjoy the sauce, and now I won't even bother picking the chunks out.
On evening, after the dishes sat in the sink long enough for the sauce to have dried on the plates, I cringed at the thought of having to scrape the sauce off of the plates before putting them into the dishwasher. I ran the plates under the water, and surprisingly the sauce came up without even a fight; simply rinsing was enough to get rid of most of the sauce left behind on the plates. It was then that the thought of "sticky" foods occurred to me, and it was also then that I resolved to only purchase sauces like the Bertolli sauce that wouldn't be impossible to remove from my dishes, and thus my insides.
So far this concept seems to be holding up pretty well in regards to the foods I choose to eat. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to choose pre-packaged or bottled foods that are made with nothing but whole ingredients. For example, there are hardly any ingredients in the Bertolli sauces, except those necessary to make the sauce itself. Similarly, a dish like my vegetable stew has nothing unusual added to it - it's nothing but whole ingredients, no preservatives or anything - and this, too, will not stick to my dishes when rinsing them off.
I believe this is yet another "argument" for the ideas of whole foods being better foods for you. They don't necessarily have t be organic, per se, but should be as natural as possible without being chock-full of preservatives.
Just one more step toward a healthier lifestyle.
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