Box Foods vs. Whole Foods

I’m so astonished with how widespread and available vegan products are becoming. Food shopping at my local FoodTown, I was struck by this box of Annie’s organic, gluten-free vegan mac and cheese. Seeing “vegan” gives me quite the tickle and, although I am not one to eat too much processed food, the nostalgic ritual of making boxed mac and cheese was very appealing. I also had planned to make mac and cheese for the week as a component of a ‘comfort food’ lunch anyway, using Chocolate-Covered Kate’s recipe. So it would be a taste off!

First off, you need to understand my concern for how quickly vegan items are spreading, especially when “Big Food” parent companies are behind the curtain. These companies have pounced on the profitability of established and trusted natural food brands and have pretty much bought all of ’em up. This association is just icky to me considering the greed-based values of most of these mega-companies. General Mills, who owns Annie’s, is mixed up in matters regarding deceptive labeling on sugar levels, of course its use of GMO’s in, like, all its cereals, and the general promotion of crappy food for dumb palettes.

I was pleased that my values align with my taste. Crap values, crap taste. (This runs across the board–food, music, people, movies, everything. If you are not discerning or principled, there is plenty to choose from. This is why I am single, I rationalize.) The Annie’s didn’t come close to the creaminess and taste of real food. Go real food! Rah rah rah!