Cyndi's Two Cents

Food facts and fiction at the hair salon

Commentary.

I was getting my hair cut.  I only had 30 minutes.  My head was leaned back in the black salon sink while my stylist washed my hair.  When she washes my hair, she massages my head and upper neck.  It is one of the things I look forward to every time I schedule a hair appointment. I close my eyes and the stress subsides.  It’s wonderful.  Well, it would have been wonderful if I would have had my ears plugged so I couldn’t overhear the other 2 stylists spewing misinformation to their clients and to each other.  It went something like this:

“That red dye they put in food is banned in every other country in the world because it makes kids get ADHD and then when they grow older they commit suicide.”

“If the label on a food package includes the word enriched, don’t buy it.  Enriched just means they’ve added chemicals.”

“All food that you buy at the grocery store is full of chemicals.  Unless you buy organic.”

“You can tell chickens are pasture raised if the egg yolk is orange.  If it’s not orange, they’ve been fed GMO’s.”

“Duck eggs are much better for you than chicken eggs.  Most ducks aren’t fed GMO’s”

“There’s only one place you can go around here to get eggs that are really healthy.”  (She then gave the name of the famers and their location.) “They know a lot about what to look for on food labels, too.”

I had 30 minutes.  I really, really wanted to enjoy the 4-minute massage during the hair wash.  So, I did exactly what I ask you NOT to do.  I kept my mouth shut.  Well, not exactly.  I did tell my stylist that her co-workers really needed to stop spreading misinformation and that if I had to listen to this I was going to walk out of there with wet hair.

The thing that bothered me the most about the misinformation these stylists were discussing is that some of it came from the farmers who supply one of the stylists with “really healthy” eggs.   I knew exactly who she was talking about when she said the name.  I’ve seen them at a farmers’ market and read their posters promoting their “hormone-free” meat, milk, eggs and produce.

I have friends who live not far from the “hormone-free” farmers.  My friends tell me the fences are in disrepair, cattle are in weedy pastures grazing around junk farm equipment and their goats are always out on the neighbor’s property.

To redeem myself for keeping quiet during the assault on all-food-except-that-which-is-raised-by-the- healthy-egg-farmers, I am putting together a one-sheeter that addresses the concerns these women have about food.  I’ll include a list of local resources where they can go to seek out information about their food. There are a lot of good resources out there, but one of my favorites is Common Ground.  The Food Facts section at FindOurCommonGround.com features farmer volunteers talking about some of the food and farming topics the stylists obviously have concerns about.

There’s not much I can do about those farmers who spread lies to gain customers.