Saturday, February 25, 2006

High F#@*tose corn syrup

High Fructose Corn Syrup. This stuff appears to be the sweetener of choice for the majority of food products in this country (apart from all that artificial nonsense). We hate the stuff as it is just too sweet and it tastes disgusting. A big deal is made of any product if it happens to contain ‘cane sugar’. Given the predominance of the sugar industry in Australia, it is strange for us to think of anything else being used as a sweetener.


The use of the corn syrup, coupled with Paul’s disparaging comments regarding food production through his reading of Fast Food Nation has lead to me being a little more vigilant about reading food labels since we have been here. Organic options seem to be more appealing.


It is difficult to find the time and the motivation to shop, let alone supermarket shop (with the boys, the cold weather, and without a car). At least we can be assured that nothing is going to melt on the trip home! I have therefore become quite accustomed to on-line shopping, and as of last week, on-line grocery shopping.


I accessed a site called Peapod (on the advice of Lynn) and placed a grocery order. This took some time as I read the ingredient information of practically every item I chose (still looking for a plain white rice that hasn’t been coated in glucose!). I completed the order at around 4pm Tuesday afternoon, and presto, it was delivered at 7am Wednesday morning! (Orders can be taken until 8pm if a morning delivery is required). The delivery included green grocery items and frozen goods and included a number or organic lines. I was most impressed with both the quality of the produce and the efficiency in which it arrived. We will definitely be using this service in the future for ‘big shops’.


The photo above was taken by Paul during our morning’s visit to the Shedd Aquarium. The Aquarium is located on Lake Michigan to the south of downtown Chicago. It is a fantastic place with some excellent exhibits (and a lot of fish!). Being an indoor activity, I took the boys here last week. I bought a family membership with the expectation that we will be visiting this place on numerous occasions.

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