My Food Revolution: News Spices

In my quest to give up fast food I will be eating at home far more often. Because of this I decided I needed to make sure I hD the proper ingredients to cook some of my meals. As you may remember from my post in Olive Oil, I currently have an Olive Oil that is neither Extra Virgin nor all from one country. While shopping at Lunds yesterday I decided to do something about this.

Lunds is a pricier grocery store. My coworker noted that in Boston they have regular grocery stores and discount grocery stores. The same is true in Colorado, but Minnesota is completely different. In Colorado you could find a discount grocery store like Cub Foods but the regular grocery stores were Albertson's, King Sooper's, and Safeway. In Minnesota there is Cub Foods and Rainbow Foods. And then there is a whole other level of grocery store. What started as two separate entities is now referred to Lunds - Byerly's. There are Lunds grocery stores and there are Byerly's grocery stores, but the two have merged at their corporate office as well as for their own brand.

While most store brands are deemed to be less expensive and often viewed as lower in quality, quite the opposite could be said of Lunds - Byerly's. I had recently run out of Garlic Salt and thus found myself in the spices aisle, checking out what there was to offer. Lunds - Byerly's spices were all in glass, there are no additives or preservatives, and the ingredients were simple and without names that couldn't be pronounced. I picked up Black Pepper, Red Chili Flakes, and Garlic Salt. Across the aisle sat the Olive Oil and picking up the 'store brand' Extra Virgin Olive Oil I instinctively flipped the bottle to look at where the olives were grown, picked, and the process used. All olives were grown and cold pressed in Italy. While I still have my bottle of Bertolli, I knew that this would not only taste better on my salads, but also would be healthier for me.

Now I don't begin to pretend that there weren't cheaper items, items I had purchased even weeks ago. It's hard to pick up the better product when there is something that looks similar right next to it. So just to re-affirm my belief that I needed to pay more for what I assumed to be the better product I compared the Lunds - Byerly's Garlic Salt to the leading brand, the very brand I had used for years. There was less than a two dollar difference yet the LB Garlic Salt was in glass, contained garlic and sea salt. The leading brand? Well it was housed in plastic, and had five ingredients, including one that was used for 'ease of pouring' - what the heck does that mean? Why is it needed?

The total cost of my three spices and one bottle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil? $30. I realize this may seem like it's too much money for four items as it's hard to justify while only looking at the price. There are fewer ingredients, no additives, no preservatives, and no chemicals in any of the items I purchased. I have read the labels on the other items, I can honestly say that's not the case. So what are we really paying for? Is a dollar worth it to you to keep something unnecessary out of your body?