If you enjoy cooking Real Food that is as fresh as possible and preferably home grown. That is why you have a garden.
Eating healthy home grown foods makes you feel better and improves your health. Staying healthy has become more important as you age The high cost of healthcare in the U.S. has made a healthy lifestyle essential. Yet diet related disease has continued to increase in spite of the health claims of the huge Food Processing Industry. Most of the diet related diseases are a result of the modern western diet. Changing the way you eat is the most important thing anybody can do to stay healthy.
I have learned a lot from other people that I follow. In the past that was from reading books.
The first person to really inspire me was Ruth Stout and her gardening bible called Ruth Stout's No Work Garden Book published by Rodale Press in 1971.
It was a her revolutionary approach to gardening that copied the natural process of using deep mulch and the breakdown of organic material to feed the soil. I was hooked on getting the highest yield from my garden space and growing the most I could with the least amount of work… I was a little naive to say the least.
Then came Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew published in 1981 by Rodale Press.
Building raised beds, applying deep mulch, setting up drip irrigation, and composting kitchen and garden waste - all takes work. To me it is enjoyable and the rewards far outweigh the effort.
One of the people I followed in the past was an author who wrote a food column for the New York Times. Mark Bittman is still writing about food many years later. I enjoy watching his short cooking videos called The Minimalist produced by The New York Times and available on YouTube. He presented a very good essay on "What's Wrong With the Way We Eat" at a Ted Talks in 2007. I believe Mark's words may be the most important concept we need to face and are still as relevant today as when he first presented them.
To read more about Mark Bittman's philosophy on health and diet, check out his book titled Food Matters published in 2008 by Simon and Schuster.
The new evil empires may just be giant Corporate Agriculture and their brother the huge Food Processing Industry with all of the processed food products they promote.
The biggest statement anyone can make is to grow our own food at home. Even if we can't grow everything we need. Anyone can grow some food at home and we will all be healthier for the effort and a little less dependent on Corporate Agriculture and the Food Processing Industry.