Eating well vs. eating right

I have new books to read: 'Omnivores Dilemma' and 'Food Rules' - I am on the waiting list at the library for these as of five minutes ago. Michael Pollan, their author, will be speaking in Boston later this month - but tickets are sold out (damn). I need to learn more about this concept of eating well vs. eating right. There is a brief article on it and I want to learn more.

Here is one quote: "You don’t have to eat organic to eat healthily. Eating real food, whether it’s organic or not, is going to do a lot for your health. Any apple is good for you. The pesticides are probably a problem, but the benefits of fresh fruits and vegetables outweigh them as far as we know. And there are ways to minimize pesticide exposure by washing and peeling."

And another: "Eating real food, eating meals together with family and friends, cooking, paying attention to where your food comes from..." 

I can do this part. We don't eat processed food. Well not really. I sometimes make bread but not always. I do buy lunch meat for my husband's lunches but they are usually turkey, ham, or roast beef. No salami (unless he sneaks it), definitely no bologna or preprocessed crap. My husband had a cold last month and wanted soup for dinner. I bought chicken and made him soup. He asked me why I didn't just get a can and open it but that's not me. We don't have cans of soup in the pantry, we have containers of frozen home made soup in the freezer. We also have cans of beans and things like that. I don't buy prepared food, I buy ingredients.

I do have problems with parts of this. I like eating apples with their peels and am too lazy to peel them before I eat them so maybe I am getting some pesticides. But I did get a bushel of organic apples this fall that we are (finally) almost done eating. I look at the fish counter, and try to remember which I am supposed to buy farm raised and which wild. I get confused so I usually try to stick with local and wild because that means they came off a boat in Boston harbor as opposed to off a plane at the airport.

I think I am doing some of this right but I am sure there is more. We do eat vegetables and fruit often. My husband complains when I make a sandwich using 'cardboard' bread - the stuff with fiber and whole grain. On Saturday night, I roasted a chicken, made butternut squash and turnips, salad, and sauteed leeks for dinner. I thought that was healthy. Last night, we had left over chicken. Tonight we will have left over everything again, and tomorrow, and Wednesday. We did lapse our salad every night rule for about a month. I got lazy and I had a cold but we are back on track.

So as part of being healthy and taking care of myself, I want to eat well not just eat right.

[Sorry another boring post.]