I added
Unprocessed to my library queue because I liked the idea of eating unprocessed. Kimble did it while trying to live a normal life. She did't move to a farm or start a garden on her terrace. So I wanted to see how she did it, living her normal life. Overall, I enjoyed Unprocessed and gained some good knowledge from it.
Kimble lives in Tuscon, Az, works part time and is a student part time. As a single woman, she has some time to devote to food making (baking bread, making chocolate, making plant-based milks). She has no rush to get meals on the table other than her own hungry stomach and no need to create full meals for just herself. I did find the information she found out (how milk is made, how flour is made) illuminating and have incorporated that knowledge into how I shop and cook. Sometimes her unhurried, casual way of making food drove me nuts. I don't have that kind of time. Grr.
Also Kimble is a young white woman with an upper middle class background. In the last chapter she does the
SNAP challenge. This chapter alone changed the way I saw Kimble. She acknowledged that she had never been hungry or worried that she wouldn't eat. She went grocery shopping in a lower income neighborhood and watched families struggle to decide what to buy. I know that sometimes cost comes before health and often you choose the cheapest option, not the most nutritious. I wish that more of the conversation I heard about changing our food systems wasn't from white people. I think there are a lot of other voices out there I'm not hearing. I'll continue to look.
Overall Unprocessed gave me a lot to think about. I'll be making some changes to what I buy and attempt to buy more locally. I'll also be looking for ways to continue the conversation and include more people. Others who shared their thoughts on Unprocessed:
Walking On Travels,
Living Upp, and
A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss.
This is my sixth read for the Foodies Read Challenge.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
