Whose Healthy Choice?

ConAgra does it again. Yummy, delicious, natural, and most importantly, convenient!!! Healthy Choice has a great healthy choice for you for lunch! Healthy Choice 100% Natural No Preservatives frozen meal. Vegetarian. Pumpkin Squash Ravioli. All natural, pronounceable ingredients. Only 310 calories. What a great meal. So healthy.

For... whom? Well, for us, to eat, of course. What can be bad about this? Surely, nothing! No weird bad chemicals. No artificial flavors or colors or preservatives. Must be great... except... except for the lovely crap from the plastic tray leaching into your food as it steams in the microwave. We quite frankly have NO idea what could be coming outta that tray and into your food. Remember when we didn't know what BPA was? (Of course, there are plenty who STILL don't know... SIGH) To think it's fine, perfectly safe... I find that short-sighted.

Seriously. Can we stop pretending and believing that anything that comes packaged in plastic and frozen and conveniently prepares in the microwave so we never have to step away from our cubicles for lunch is ANYTHING but RIDICULOUS? I know, I know, we are SO busy that this really is the best way to handle lunch. I know, I know, we can't be bothered to actually MAKE something over the weekend to freeze and package and take to lunch all week. That would require... well, time. It's really SO LITTLE plastic that surely, we can give it a pass, right? And after all, we'll recycle it!

(No matter that it still takes OIL to produce the plastic in the first place...)

Will we? The un-Healthy-er Choice regular black trays are a #1 or #2. I cannot recall, and since I don't buy them, I can't look. These white trays in the super healthy natural "meal" are a #5. Not many municipalities do anything with this type of plastic yet. Again, my old tired recording, just because you throw it in the bin doesn't mean it gets recycled. If there is not enough money in recycling a particular plastic - if it is more costly to recycle it than it is worth afterwards, it is NOT getting recycled. That is currently the case with anything over #2, so far as I know right now.

So, I inquire: How is this a healthy choice? Healthy for us? Healthy for the planet? Who?

Doesn't matter. These will still be out there, they will still be bought, we are not going stop. It's really getting to the point where we truly deserve what we get.

Just wish the rest of us weren't getting dragged down, too.

Worse Instead of Better

Are we going to learn before it's too late? I start to think not. For every scrap of awareness I think might be out there, we come up with 15 new and wasteful products.

Cat added for size reference :) 

Oh, sure, I've railed against these before. But they haven't gone away yet! They are still everywhere! My co-worker had this one and has stated she will never get them again. For the amount of waste, they are not as good as they should be, taste-wise, or amount-wise. We looked closely to notice the recycling code on it is a number 5. Those numbers don't currently get recycled. We only process 1's and 2's. So, all these bajillion plastic things just end up... somewhere other than our homes.

Oh, sure, you can reuse them. But how many can you possibly keep around to use? How many possible reuses are there? If you eat more than a few of these a month, what are you doing with them?

Oh, sure, they are convenient. Quick lunch on the go. But you are super-heating these in the microwave. Do you not think some of those chemicals from said plastic, whatever they are, BPA or no, are leeching into your meal? (I keep using "leech" vs "leach" because I like the image it brings to mind, but I suppose I should use the right one, lest someone try to call me on it. OK fine. Darn it. Leech is more fun.)

Oh, sure, we're so busy that we have to grab these things for lunches. Eat at our desks. Too too busy to make something over the weekend to package and bring in all week, even though that is so much healthier. How many chemicals are in these thing before we even talk about the plastic? I prefer to make a batch of rice or quinoa or pasta to jazz up and bring in all week. Isn't that smarter? Healthier? Cheaper? Better for everyone all around?

But... but it says "healthy choice" right on the box. Silly Green Witch. Why can't I believe what's right in front of me? Sure.