a bug in my spinach
Posted by lisaanddini on Jul 24, 2007 · Member since May 2007 · 2179 posts
I get most of my produce from this organic delivery service & I love it, except how dirty some of the greens are sometimes. This morning when I was washing my spinach I noticed a dead smooshed bug in it. I thought about throwing the whole thing out, but instead I washed it really well & made up my salad. Now I'm trying to eat the salad & I keep feeling like I'm going to gag. How do I get over this? Shoudl I just throw out the spinach? Has this happened to anyone else?
What I do is remember that bug is cleaner and healthier than all the "crap" that the meat processing plants add to the end product.
Remember, spinach is grown outside. Outside=bugs. Plus Organic farmers aren't spraying the spinach with pesticides, so be glad you found that bug! This happens on conventional produce too though-especially greens where there are so many veins and crevices to hide in.
I ate out yesterday and got my favorite taco/spinach salad at a restaurant. There was a bug on one of the leaves. I didn't even complain-just picked that piece off and went on with the meal.
Its nature!
Not that this will make you feel any better, but you are eating a ton of tiny microscopic bugs that you can't see on almost everything!
I understand about the gagging thing... if I find something icky I have a hard time finishing.
But everyone is right... bugs = GOOD! The unseen chemicals and pesticides (if it were not organic) are thousands and thousands of time worse.
Throwing out the spinach would be silly, it's not tainted.... do you use a salad spinner to wash your spinach? I drown mine and then rinse a few times and then spin because i'm not a fan of dirt taste.
I can identify with your "gagging" feelings. I used to throw away salads and such if I saw bugs, but as I bought more and more organic produce, or grew my own stuff I have gotten more used to it. I once heard this woman on t.v say that we want to eat the foods the bugs want to eat, it means it is not poisened. You are not the only one who feels this way, I don't even like it when I see fruit flies on bananas or other friut.
Well as me old mother used to say, "You gotta eat a peck o' dirt before you die." We won't even discuss the dirt and yuck that happens in factories that produce processed foods that people eat in blissful ignorance...at least this was one, visible, little ol' bug. You saw and removed it *before* you ate it, at least you didn't find it in the prepared dish.
Too gross, I know... :-X I found a *live* earwig that had been in my chard in the fridge for about a week...jumped out of my skin. That little dude had been hanging out in my crisper!! He seemed none the worse for his air-conditioned hotel...but your right, I washed that stuff in salted water within an inch of its life!! ;D
I think it's because modern Western man lives so far removed from the source of his food, veg and fruit as well as other stuff in the case of omnis. I grew up spending summers in my mother's immense veg garden...bugs are a fact of life.
I am a member of a CSA and I find bugs all the time. But hey I would rather have a few bugs than those nasty chemicals. What really grosses me out is when I buy grocery store corn and there are those little worms. I HATE worms, it is a serious phobia of mine. Other than that hey it is natural!
my dad always used to tell me not to worry if i found a bug in my veggies... its when you find half a bug, that you want to worry.
my dad always used to tell me not to worry if i found a bug in my veggies... its when you find half a bug, that you want to worry.
;D I think that's what I was afraid of! I don't know why it bothers me so much, I can handle worms in corn no problem, maybe its because its raw & corn gets cooked? I definetly need to get a salad spinner. That should help my phobia
I think that we eat a LOT more bugs in our sleep. I heard that the average person eats 8 spiders a year while sleeping.
And if you are a bike rider then you probably eat lots of bugs, I know that I do! I try to spit them out but what happens is somehow they always go to the back of my throat where I can't spit them out. But they are always just knats, so I don't worry about it too much...good source of protein and B12!