We pay a lot of attention to the foods that come into our house. We avoid products packaged in BPA plastics. We cut out foods that contain MSG, or High Fructose Corn Syrup. We love an abundance of organic and local foods, when we can afford it and when the season is right.
We enjoy going out to eat. We love seeing new restaurants open and experiencing unique menu items that might win us over. We know that many food establishments use ingredients from cans that probably contain BPA. We know that Corn Syrup lurks everywhere. So what happens when we go out to eat? Can we be certain that a restaurant will avoid the same ingredients that we shun?
Is it even reasonable to ask a restaurant these questions? Our thought is mostly, “No.” Going out to eat, and enjoying it, requires a certain amount of suspended belief. Unless you have a life-threatening allergy, you have to take a restaurant at their word. If a menu states that there is no MSG used in meals, then you have to choose to accept it as a fact. If you are vegetarian and your server declares that there is no lard in the beans, you have to decide to listen. If you can’t make these assumptions comfortably, you should probably eat at home.
If we worried about all of these things every time we went out, we’d never discover restaurants like Steve’s Pizza, or the Paradigm, or any number of other great places we enjoy. We want our children to grow up willing to try new foods and to be open to exploration. So we have to show them at an early age to get out there and do it.
Don’t let your fears limit you!