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MYOB in the Grocery Store?

I am having so much trouble minding my own business when waiting on line in the grocery. The crap that people are buying is scary. It especially bothers me when they are buying pseudo health food (wheat bread loaded with HFCS). Even in the aisles…I am trying not to scream out my unsolicited opinion!!!! Anyone else???? :))))

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  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    hear you loud and clear! organic potato chips? organic chocolate milk? plus, they’re very expensive.

    but they have to get there on their own…

    i’ve had some lovely conversations with people who comment on all the greens in my bag though. they want to know how this or that tastes and how to prepare it. i think i’ve affected more people’s diets by BEING raw, rather than by telling people i am (definitely tried both ;) ).

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    Oh man I feel you. I think that people just can’t leave their “beloved” cooked food. It’s what they use as a drug to avoid reality. gosh I just don’t understand why people think that they can live in such bad health and bad food all the time!! It’s just maddening!! But maybe if you brought some extremely fancy dessert that is beautiful (Raw of course), they would ask waht it is, and you could tell them that it’s a raw cake or whatever you brought in. Might get them interested a little bit. You know, one of my mother’s obese clients got breast cancer, so my mother told her NO CAKE NO BREAD NO CHEESE NO DAIRY NO EGGS NO MEAT. EAT RAW. She kind of listened, kind of didn’t, but she really wanted to live. So then 6 months later she died. I’m like yeah, I I doubt she followed the diet. Man people just love their chicken. Sheesh*

  • worleyhimself2worleyhimself2 Raw Newbie

    i just write them down a few links to go to. especially when they buy “health” “natural” food. like horizons organic milk. those people definetly get some real health sites. like naturalsnews or mercola. something that they can somewhat relate to not thebestdayever. that comes with time. i always go behind some one in checkout that i know i can give links to or i think i could start up a conversation with with all the produce and only produce i buy.

    ill say hey i think you like this site.

    i found that people dont like to be lectured one bit. they’ll put their defenses up right away.

    you have to inspire people. lead by example. keeps words to a minimum. theyll ask you because they are dieing too, because they want to change but dont know how. but if you tell them how they wont listen. dont start a health discussion let them. just sit back people will come to you.

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    you can’t tell people anything! They don’t want to listen. I have pretty much given up on the rest of the world. Friends and family are another thing though. But I don’t have any dellusions that I am going to change them. They have to change on their own.

    i don’t bother looking in other peoples carts at the grocery store. it blows my mind the garbage that people think is food. Even junk advertised on TV as being ‘healthy’ just makes me mental! There are these ‘healthy choices’ bagged lunches for kids, for lazy moms. They contain, a dead bird , bagelwich, of wrap, SWEETENED dried fruit, and juice from CONCENTRATE. Excuse me? Why is this healthy? Why must the dried fruit be sweetened? Correct me if i am wrong, but doesn’t drying fruit kinda condense the sugars and it become pretty darn sweet on its own? And dead, pasturized juice from CONCENTRATE? Give me a friggfen break here.

    There is another one for Uncle Bens. It’s an entree in a platic bag pretty much. Dead bird, dead veggfis, and dead rice. If you are in a hurry, (to get to the grave) you just pop it into the microwave and it’s ready in minutes. Voila, cancer! SUPID! I always say, ‘people are killing themselves for convenience!’

    OMG, I have to mention, this may have been the last time i bothered looking at what someone was placing on the converor at the checkout. Pig was on sale, and this person must have had 5 or 6 roasts they were buying. GROSS!!! Of course it was accompanied by white bread, white rice hotdogs… OMG I can’t go on!

    Thands for the rant! Hope you enjoyed it!

  • BluedolfinBluedolfin Raw Newbie
    Luna blu~ You wrote

    ...bagged lunches for kids, for lazy moms.

    I can hear your frustration… please have compassion for the mother/parent you describe as “lazy” and be conscious of this type of characterization. There is way to much of people bashing each other over differences of POV and circumstances.

  • i would never give someone unsolicited advice about their diet. however, i get very irritated when people tell me that my diet isn’t healthy, when they just ate a giant plate of fried noodles and beef glazed with sugar. then this person tells me i should be sure to get all the vitamins and minerals my body needs. excuse me?

    of course, this is at work, so i simply say that i do get all the vitamins and minerals i need, thanks, and that’s the end of it. basically, unless someone is close to me, they’re out of my hands, and even if they are close to me, i just tell them what i’m doing, answer their questions, and move on. people have busy lives, they see a way to save time, they take it. i can’t fault them for that.

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    Bluedolphin – Oh, I am sorry if I offended anyone. But honestly, it doesn’t take much to pack your own kids lunches so that you KNOW what is going into them.

    I guiess, ‘illinformed’ moms? Bashing and being nasty, were not my intent. I made an observation. We are all entiltled to our own opinions. Plus ‘lazy moms’ was not the point, the point was the processed junk, that was being passed off as a healthy choice!

    Plus as you can see by most of my avatars, pretty much most of what comes out of my mouth is pretty off the cuff, and tongue in cheek. I suppose you really don’t know me yet. I am pretty much a happy go lucky goof! So please fon’t assume that I am a nasty people bashing creep. I couldn’t be further from that!

  • roxiroxi Raw Newbie

    I almost find it amusing in a way to see these people and their carts. Simply because I used to think those things were “healthy” at one time. Now of course I know better, they just haven’t been informed. I don’t feel it is my place to inform them. I simply do what others do and lead by example. I will be a huge example this weekend as I will be visiting with family I have not seen in months and plan on bringing some raw recipes. We will see how they react….

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    roxi, it’s like watching a trian wreck, it’s awful, but you just can’t look away!:)

  • last night the couple in front of me had ONLY packaged food. not one single piece of produce. I live in a tourist town so all the tourists come and eat especially unhealthy! I almost gagged…even if I wasn’t raw I would never eat that junk…and never in a million years would I feed it to my kids if I had any! I don’t even wonder any more why this country is going down the tubes…it’s pretty obvious – you are what you eat! (and in this case the USA is a package of chemicals)

  • i wasn’t offended luna blu. i don’t know you, but i do like you! i’ve seen enough of your posts to know you’re not a nasty creep of any variety.

    anyway, my sisters are both moms of two with jobs, and sometimes their husbands act like their third child, so they do sometimes take shortcuts. they’re not raw foodists or even vegetarians, but my niece just got diagnosed with aspergers, so she is being taken off wheat and dairy. my sister is fairly up on health topics, so she is trying to avoid an overload of super processed soy products, so they have been eating some raw nut and coconut products, which i think is super awesome!

  • achin70achin70 Raw Newbie

    I’ve gotten a few wide-eyed looks from other co-op members behind me in line, but I’ve gotten more of a response from the cashiers. Some of them are pretty impressed by my wide selection of produce, and others are slightly irritated at having to enter the codes for each item. I guess it takes longer to remember and enter the codes, as opposed to scanning, like you do with processed and packaged foods.

    Anyhoo, it’s good training for the cashiers. They should thank me! :)

  • kandacekandace Raw Newbie

    Reading this topic made me grateful once again for our farmers market opening for the season this past weekend – I do love the break from grocery stores!

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    Mandelicious – Thankya darlin! I know the hubby child thing all too well! I have a busy life! I work, I make home made raw meals for myself and my dog, guitar practice, yoga, couple hour walks with pouch a day. Still I make my man his linches, and they are home made with no convenience junk. Well, a few cookies, or there will be a revolt! ( Shhhh, I save my raw cookies for myself! Oooo greedy bad girl!) it can be frustrating sometimes, but I love him and want him to eat something healthy. he probably trades it at work for some junkfood! Ha ha!

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    Oh another thing I find intersting. I am amazed at some of the cashiers lack of fruit and veg. knowledge. i get alot of ‘what is that?’ What do you do with it?’ It’s an orange for Petes sake!. Just kidding, usually it’s an avo. or a parsnip or rutabaga! :)

  • BluedolfinBluedolfin Raw Newbie

    Luna blu~ I don’t think you are a nasty person. I have seen you very compassionate with folks on this site. Your following post to the one I sited was just such an example. I understand your point wasn’t about “lazy moms”. However, you did include that phrase in your post which, in my opinion, diluted your message. It is just really easy for everyone, including me (how many times have I wanted to reach out a smack someone to wake up about something that is soooo obvious to me, thinking they are just sooo stupid, ignorant, WRONG, or whatever characterization?) to fall into that trap. It is a trap because it comes from a place of frustration, anger, hurt, efforts being thwarted, a place that questions self?, etc. This separates “us” from “them.” Isn’t this compassion/understanding/acceptance w/o the need to agree, what many people on this site are longing for from people who don’t view raw the same way?

    Another point is that many people already have such destructive self talk (again, including me), that this type of languaging just feeds into it, and many times even with a person you might not have characterized that way.

    Hmmm… how many times has someone wanted to reach out and slap me out of frustration?

    Food for thought?

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    Blue – I do agree. Somtimes things come out of peoples mouths our of frustration. It’s a hard habit to break. I try to see the worth in everyone. I try to accept that not everyone is going to agree with what I am saying or doing. I try to remember that with in everyone lies the devine spark. A precious life that we are privileged to have. So, you can see my frustration when i see people inadvertantly harming themselves. I am of course not perfect by no means. I have not yet achieved full enlightenment! Maybe i never will!

    Peace and much Metta Blue. Thankyou for reminding me to watch what I say.

  • BluedolfinBluedolfin Raw Newbie

    Luna blu~ Thank you for participating in this conversation. We are here for each other the best we can be… We are all in that same habit… :) I have been grappling with shifting the knee-jerk reaction to separate (which I think is part of trying to dissipate the frustration energy or protection) to a knee-jerk reaction for compassion… Not to limit or suppress expressing myself (major destructive results), shifting energy that is more inline with what I am up to in the world and what I want to see in the world. I guess I am in a reflective mood…

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    :)

  • achin70achin70 Raw Newbie

    Yes, at my co-op parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, daikon and burdock seem to be the most confusing for the cashiers. :)

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    Actually I had a couple ask about papaya, and avo. alot the Avocado question, kinda blows my mind, since I don’t view them as otherworldly! I have been eating them since I was a teen! so they seem mundane now.:)

  • I shop at a little market in San Francisco where most of the (amazingly overpriced) produce is organic. A lot of people who shop there know their stuff, but my cart still gets comments every single time. Generally, people want to know what I”m doing with my dozen or so coconuts. (I use them as the base for my and boyfriend’s banana, berry, and kale smoothies that I make every day). One lady got pretty confrontational with me a couple of weeks ago – asking first if i was making thai food and then lecturing me about the high cholestoral. (sp?) I kept telling her that there was no chol. in young coconuts and they were a health food, not the opposite as she believed. She insisted that I did not know what I was talking abuot and that i better go to the doctor! I make smoothies and juice every day, so my cart is always overflowing with kale and other greens. It costs me about $200 a week. I also go the farmers market here during the summer, but it is super pricey as well. Sigh. The place where I always have to bite my tongue is at work. People make microwave popcorn every single day as a “healthy” snack, and they are constantly microwaving their Lean Cuisine fettucinis, macaraonis and cheese, and other ‘diet’ prepared foods. It’s so gross – I hate the smell and I always want to make them try to read the list of ingredients in their lunch. but, I instead keep my mouth shut and put up with the (honestly good natured) teasing I get every day about my big jars of green stuff.

  • I feel. after endless hours of discussions with my family and friends, is that the best way to get to them is to “show, not tell.” I am 44 years old, and if it comes up in conversation, I attribute it to my diet. No processed foods, I say, eyeing their cart, no dairy, etc. Raw food, I also attribute my health to prayers, but I don’t always go in to that unless someone needs my help, and then I will pray for them. Anyway, what I am trying to say is, words do nothing. You have to show them.

  • OH, and it helps to make food for them to try so they see it is not horrible and downright good. If my SAD husband can change, believe me, anyone has the potential! Dagny, that lady is sadly wrong. It’s so too bad when people are so misinformed! What “doctor” did she want you to go to? How weird!

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    BlueDolphin-

    i try to change my knee-jerk reaction too. it’s so hard. i was thinking about this in the car actually. maybe there is a difference between judging BEHAVIOR and judging the PERSON for their behavior. when we see the behavior as separate from the person (who is us) then we have compassion for the person… ?

    i see silly/crazy/insane behavior as reflections of inner turmoil that take on different disguises: poor diet is just one example. they pop up in all our lives when there is unrest and a lack of conscious awareness.

    there was a day when i was the girl in the grocery store buying things i thought were healthy and silently judging the person in front of me for buying something i deemed “unhealthy” (because i knew better!). today i am still that girl, but the contents of the grocery cart haver changed. tomorrow the contents might change again. we keep learning.

  • lzhptlzhpt Raw Newbie

    This weekend (while with Mom and her husband dying of bladder cancer), it all became astonishly clear to me that people don’t WANT to know what’s in their food and they don’t WANT to know their tap water is contaminated. Several times, I said to my Mom, “Why does the water smell like sewage in the kitchen and like pesticide when I shower?” I just tried to get her making some small changes, bottled water and meats and veggies in the Greenwise section of her grocery. This old tymer faith that “the government would never allow contamination of drinking water supplies” is so unbelievable to me , it makes me cry. People don’t want to educate themselves as to where their food is coming from or what the animal ate before they ate the animal. If they don’t know, they can continue the gluttony and mindless eating that will destroy our soils and ourselves. The cancer rate alone in her county is twice that of the state. These are mostly seniors and it is so sad to me they cannot connect the dots. Let’s see—bladder cancer=water? House on a golf course that used to be a conventional watermelon farm? Shower smells like pesticide?

  • Hmmm I after reading all these hardships people are having…I must say that I think I have a very supportive group of friends and family.

    Everyone is generally curious about my diet. Plus I also have proof. I was in sooo much pain two months ago and it disapears more and more each day….I’ve given RAW books to friends who then started incorporating more raw food into their diet…I ate a plateful of fruit at a church function while conversing with the two college students across from me…who, by the end of the day, came up to me to say that they were going out to buy fruit!

    I think that if people are curious…they ask. If they look curious…I share. If they feel alienated I share my food.

    I never put people down for eating horrible cooked food. Most people don’t even know. It’s not well known. RAW is rare! I heard about it for the first time 2 months ago! Fortunately I’m the adventurous type…..

    My boyfriend on the other-hand is a very picky SAD human. I don’t pressure him into anything, ever. But I do pay attention to his favorite raw things. I make sure there are cut up pears and pineapples to snack on when he comes over. Showing people that you generally care is most impactful. Sharing, giving, loving them…maybe not to RAW..but at least to healthier. Babysteps.

    The other day he bought an energy drink (chokes) and I picked it up to read the ingredients…my eyes got really big

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Thank you all – your posts have been very inspiring!

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    strawberry—that’s great! my sound engineer and i were talking about how much produce we buy… people think we own a restaurant (he isn’t even completely raw).

    izhpt- my mother is the same way! sometimes it’s just too much info at once. oh, one thing: bottled waters, in my opinion are not necessarily a better solution since the plastic leaches into the water. i just found out whole foods sells reverse osmosis treated water for 39 cents a gallon. i bought a 1 gallon container for myself (leach-proof) and fill it up regularly. it’s cheaper than evian, which is what i drank for years.

    k822- nice attitude.

    i agree with angie… i’m loving all your thought on this!

  • WinonaWinona Raw Newbie

    i LOVED reading these posts ya’ll. great thoughts and comments. I feel inadvertently self righteous when shopping – but I was SAV (standard american vegan) just 1/2 a year ago, so who am I to judge?

    my SAD coworker just started a 3 day raw thing – to detox, she said. how COOL is that? I can’t believe i’m having such an effect already. plus, i bring fruit to events at work – nobody minds. i wonder if it’s because i’m almost the skinniest one in the whole staff group of 30-40 ladies (most of em older)... so they don’t give me a hard time about being healthy. so THATS a relief.

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