challenge blog 4

The menu I chose for this challenge post was spiced chickpea and vegetable stew, pita bread, and pears with rice pudding for dessert. I wanted to include all the "pieces" of the USDA MyPlate in designing this meal. I did my shopping (aka photo-taking) at Lund's because it's the nearest grocery store to me, and, conveniently, it carries a range of both organic and conventional products, which was a useful comparison tool while I was at the store.

The recipe for the stew (I've had it stuffed in one of my cookbooks forever, not sure where it came from):

1/4 cup cilantro

1 T olive oil

1/2 onion

1 clove garlic

1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes

1 lb sweet potatoes

- Which I inadvertently replaced with carrots, bell peppers and spinach. I forgot that sweet potatoes were the main ingredient in this when I was at the store, but hey, more vegetables.

1 can chickpeas

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

2 T creamy peanut butter

Salt, cinnamon and red pepper flakes to taste

The rice pudding, though I didn't look up a recipe, would contain cooked rice, milk, sugar, raisins, and spices. Ideally not too much sugar.

On to the grocery store pictures! First stop is always produce.

 

The prices are hard to see, but the peppers on the left are organic and the ones on the right are conventional. The conventional ones were a full dollar cheaper--but only, it appeared, because they were on sale.

The carrots proved to be pretty interesting in terms of price difference--and health claims. Again, the conventional version cost a dollar less, and in this case, came with a paragraph on the benefits of eating them.

The world of spinach yielded a range of options--two conventional and one organic (which cost about twice as much as the other two). One of the conventional brands made note of the vitamin and mineral content in spinach, the other two made no health-related claims.

Though I'd count vegetable oil as a pantry item, I happened to walk past this shelf and I had to include a picture. I just noticed the number of health claims that are on bottles of cooking oil, mentioning things like trans fat, omega-3 fatty acid, and cholesterol contents.

I found three (3!!) brands of chickpeas, with a range of prices, only one of which had a little note about being a good source of fiber.

They were out of my peanut butter of choice (Smucker's Natural Creamy, thank you), but I looked at the jar I have at home, which boasts having "0 grams trans fat per serving" and "no hydrogenated oils." Skippy mentions its protein content, and Earth Balance claims being a low glycemic index food and providing omega-3s. I also noted the unusually high price for Earth Balance, despite peanut butter generally being pretty inexpensive.

 

I could only find one type of pita-like bread at Lunds, and it happened to have a multigrain version that advertised itself as a good fiber and whole grain source.

I didn't find anything too interesting with the rice or sugar. I was surprised by the rice selection, though. The cheapest kind I saw (of brown rice, anyway), happened to be organic.

No health claims here...

I looked at organic and conventional milk of the store's generic brand, and the only apparent difference is price. Both made similar claims in being good sources of vitamins A & D, and from hormone-free cows.

 

And the last thing I will mention--raisins--which I was surprised to find were plastered with a number of positive statements. They are "100% natural," contain antioxidants, have no preservatives, are naturally sweet, and have no fat, cholesterol, or sodium.

I think what surprised me the most in doing this, especially since I made some broad comparisons between organic and non-organic products, is that the conventional foods actually tended to make more health claims on their packaging. It could have just been the foods I chose, but I would have expected more of that from organic products since I figure their marketing and appeal partially rides on the perception of them being more healthful. And, of course, as other people noted, there is almost always a price difference between organic and conventional foods and sometimes it's pretty significant.