I find it typical that RFK Jr is attacking “ultraprocessed food” as part of the administration of President Mickey D, whose consumption of fast food is legendary. Listen, here’s the key: if you want to cut down on ultraprocessed food in your diet, learn to cook food from scratch. Not entirely – it’s not necessary to make your own burger bun – but there are many things we buy for convenience that can be made from scratch. For instance, bake your own fries from regular potatoes; make your own chicken (and extra points if you can buy it from a local farmer); cook spaghetti sauce using tomatoes and spices. You get the point. Basically, shop the perimeter of the grocery store, and cook your meals. We have a lot of cooking devices that can make this process easier, and with a mindful choice of recipes these devices can have the meal ready to go by the time you arrive home.

BUT, I hear the objections: I don’t have _time _to cook. No you don’t. Which really should lead to some questions about our economic system which robs workers of the time to live a healthy life – or, perhaps more accurately, creates the conditions that ruins people’s health. Your law firm that demands 80 hours a week? Yeah, they’re killing you. The cities with ridiculously high rents which force you to live away and commute? It’s killing you. The demand for constant increases in productivity? It’s stealing your health. Avarice and exploitation, not what we eat, is at the root of so many problems in our society. But hey, ordering takeout, buying gas and a car for your commute, taking prescriptions for high blood pressure or cholesterol all add to the GDP, and so it is good for our economy, and that’s what they value. RFK and the CDC will try to guilt you as an individual about your consumption of ultraprocessed food while failing to acknowledge the causes of our reliance on them.

The irony is that cooking at home is cheaper than eating out, which is like getting a raise – the one that your company won’t give you. Taking back your time is resistance. Cooking at home is resistance. Shopping the perimeter or the farmer’s market is resistance. You have the ability to take back your agency without having to ask anyone for permission.

Tom at @apoorplayer wrote a powerfully honest essay called “The Age of Futility” that inspired me to do what we used to do in the old days of blogging: write a post on our own blog, and then link to the original, creating an actual conversation. Here’s my contribution: “The Age of Sensibility.”

“We exchange something very precious for money: our life energy. Do we want to spend our time and energy earning money and contributing to the market economy, or fostering creative pursuits, our relationships, and community, and contributing love?”

Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream by William Powers