Milk 101

Never mind about the recipe. Sorry. I mean, I could post the recipe for lasagna... or you could just get it off the back of the lasagna noodle box. *wink* We're eating more spinach salad with Valdosta. Many months ago, Sahale Snacks were on sale - a really good sale, so I stocked up on them. Then I forgot I had them. Then I rediscovered them.... and also discovered that they're all about to expire...

*sigh*

So we're trying to eat as much spinach salad with Valdosta, olive oil and balsamic vinegar as we can. I don't really care for any of the other Sahale Snacks, but the Valdosta is simply awesome.

We made a big WinCo grocery run ($62.86), but there are some drawbacks to WinCo. First of all, they don't carry everything I want, like dishwasher detergent tablets. We also noticed that a lot of the food there is really close to expiration - much closer than you'd find at other slightly more expensive grocery stores. As I watched some of the other families checking out with their shopping carts loaded to the brim, I couldn't help but wonder if they realized that some of their food was going to expire before they ate all of it (unless they were going to freeze a lot of it.) I've kind of noticed, though, that a lot of people don't pay very close attention to expiration dates. I can think of several times, at several different people's houses where I was offered expired food. Once, I was given string cheese that was several months expired.

I get kind of icked out by poor food safety and sanitation. Granted, a lot of "infractions" aren't going to kill anyone. In fact, most of the time no one is even going to get sick (although I think that cheese might have gotten me sick.) It's still not good for you, though. People consume a lot of rancid food without realizing it. I also knew a gal who would thaw meat by putting it on the counter in the morning and using it for her evening meal. I never wanted to have dinner over there because I just couldn't eat the meat that I knew was sitting out all day.

Oh, the other drawback to WinCo is that not everything is cheaper there. Pip is lactose intolerant, so we have to get him the more expensive lactose-free milk. Fred Meyer seems to have their generic lactose-free milk on perma-sale. It's always cheaper there. My soy milk is cheaper at Fred Meyer, too.

We're kind of a picky family when it comes to milk. There are just so many downsides to soy (in spite of what the soy industry's well-funded marketing efforts would have us all believe)... okay, so there are benefits to soy, but there are a lot of downsides too, such as soy's mineral-binding ability and its calcium-absorption-blocking-ability, not to mention the links to breast cancer, and the high amounts of plant hormones (a baby who consumes all soy baby formula is consuming the equivalent in plant hormones as consuming a birth control pill each day)...just to name a few things. My soy formula fed kid had cavities by the time he was two years old and my breast fed kid has perfect strong teeth. My cavity kid also ate a lot of refined sugar in his early years, too, though. The dentist did say, though, that his teeth didn't appear to have formed as strongly as they should have, likely from a lack of calcium. He also has a discoloration on one of his little teeth.

Anyway, in spite of the problems with soy, I drink it myself because after breastfeeding two children, I am disturbed by the idea of drinking an animal's breast milk. It's just weird to me, now. And Pete won't drink anything other than whole milk because of how milk proteins are denatured when the fat content is altered. So we have to have at least three different kinds of milks in the house at all times. Puck happens to be allergic to milk (which is different from Pip's lactose intolerance) so, in theory, he shouldn't be drinking milk at all, but he's asymptomatic so we let it slide.

If anyone cares, lactose is milk sugar, and if you're lactose intolerant, that means that you don't have enough of the lactase enzyme in your gut to digest the lactose... hence, you are "lactose intolerant." To be allergic to milk means that your body has an allergic reaction to the milk protein. It's two totally and completely different things, and yet it shocks me how many people I run into who think that people who are lactose intolerant are "allergic to milk." Many babies start out allergic to milk and actually grow out of the allergy (or at least grow out of the symptoms). Interestingly, the reverse is true of lactose intolerance. As we age, we all become more and more lactose intolerant because we have less and less lactase in our guts as we get older. Perhaps that's another reason for adults to consume the evil soy milk. *shrug* There are folks out there who advocate that humans be completely milk free, but there is no way that I am going to eat enough kale or sardines to get the calcium I need. Sorry, milk is easy. Perhaps the ease will kill me in the long run. *shrug*

I spent $19.50 on the things at Fred Meyer that I didn't (or couldn't) get at WinCo. Pete bought some artificial, re-usable ice cubes from The Container Store so we could save money on ice for $4.99. I had to fill up on gas: $54.20. Total spent overall is: $581.62. As of yesterday, Kay has spent $276.16. How is this woman eating steaks for dinner and still beating me? It must be the cats and the kids. I know she's due to fill up on gas soon... she drove all the way out to the coast this past weekend.