On The Feeding of Quirky Mammals, Part 4

In this fourth and final installment of this series, I will be discussing matters of obtaining, choosing, and consuming food. That is, I will attempt to explore a possible range of responses to questions like, "How can I get food?", "What food should I get, and how much of it?", and "What options do I have in terms of places to eat when I am not at home (or even when I am?)"

How to Get Food

Obviously this is not a question I (or any other individual person living in a particular area in particular socio-economic circumstances) can answer definitively for everyone else. How you get food is going to depend on many, many variables, from what is available in your local area to your transportation options to whether or not you are getting whatever support you might need (as some individuals may not be able to shop on their own, etc., for a variety of reasons).

I can say, though, that from what I've personally experienced and learned of the experiences of others on the autistic spectrum (in addition to people with other disabilities, from ADHD to mobility issues), the mere existence of grocery stores within a several-mile radius of one's dwelling does not in any way guarantee that one is going to have an easy time getting food. The same goes for income variables -- again, simply having a job or some other means of financial support and hence being able to afford food does not guarantee that one will be able to actually obtain meals on a regular basis.

So, what might stand in the way of someone's getting food (presuming they don't live in a remote mountain hut with no source of income aside from milk from the family goat, which some people assuredly do, but which I personally lack familiarity with the situation of to the point where I don't feel qualified to comment)? Here's a short list:

- Transportation / Location

So, say there's a grocery store two miles from where you live. That isn't too far, but whether you can get there or not (much less on a regular basis) is going to depend on all kinds of things. If you drive yourself, getting there at least probably won't be much of an issue (unless parking is really crappy or something), but for those of us who don't drive, we've either got to:

...get a ride from someone we know,
...have someone who can bring us groceries,
...ride a bicycle or other human-powered vehicle,
...take the bus,
...or walk (or wheel, if one is a wheelchair user).

Needless to say, whether any of these things can be done at any given time is going to depend on a lot. If you're very fit and like walking, you may be able to walk (or bike) -- but not if the only access to the store entails going on a freeway. Moreover, in the walk/bike cases, you are obviously limited only to what you can personally carry (a wagon or bike trailer can help in this regard but still), and if you take the bus even if you could technically tote more than you could if walking, the bus driver and other passengers aren't likely to appreciate your taking up six rows of seats with your bags, etc.

Right now I am both lucky and very spoiled, as I live with someone who drives (and who is also quite the foodie, hence the likelihood of a bare cupboard here is close to nil).

But that was not always the case, and is not the case when I am home alone (e.g., when the one person I live with is away on business, which is infrequent but has occurred).

I have never lived completely alone but in college my and my roommates' schedules frequently didn't entail sit-down meals with all of us together, so there wasn't really an "eating prompt" in place for me for a long time, nor a consistently established means of food procurement. I survived on things like "energy bars" and frozen burritos from the gas station a block away from one of my apartments for a while. Occasionally I trekked down to the Trader Joe's on my bike, shoving as much as I could into a backpack, which generally meant I had better quality edibles for a little bit at least, but that brought its own problems with it -- e.g., the time it was so hot out that my milk spoiled on the way home!

Anyway, the point here is that you may well have trouble just getting to a local food source, and if you need routine like I do in order to do a lot of essential things, not having a consistent means of getting there can lead to serious badness.

I wish I could recommend or explain some general formula for EVERYONE to get access and transportation to groceries, etc., but unfortunately there simply isn't such a formula. About the only things I can really recommend are:

(a) If you have any choice in where you are going to live, try and pick a location within walking / biking / wheeling / skating / etc., distance from a source of groceries, preferably without any busy main roads to cross in between. You probably don't want to live right next to a grocery store or anything, as that would probably be noisy and annoying for other reasons, but if you can find a dwelling fairly close that will at least remove one potential hurdle.

(b) If you cannot find a location to live that meets criterion (a), then try and find something with access to public transit.

(c) If you cannot take public transit for whichever reason, and you don't know of anyone who might be able to periodically give you rides or pick up groceries for you, you may qualify for some sort of ParaTransit (transportation for people with disabilities, available in some areas) service. I have no experience with ParaTransit services, though, so I unfortunately cannot describe this process.

(d) Look around for online grocery delivery services in your local area. I've never used one of these so can't recommend any, but supposedly they exist and some people seem to like them.

Again, I know these are probably fairly "weak" suggestions but the problem is that anyone who doesn't have an established means of transportation for obtaining food is probably up against a lot of in-built accessibility problems. A lot of neighborhoods in many parts of the USA at least are so extremely car-centric that it almost seems as if the planners were not even considering non-drivers (or even disabled people who do drive, in many cases).

- Timing/logistics

This is a tough one, as even if you have a lovely grocery within easy transport or walking distance, your school, job, or other schedules and routines may not provide you with much time and opportunity to actually obtain food.

You may also end up in obnoxious situations like having a bus route that goes by the grocery but never when you are actually free to ride it -- e.g., a lot of bus lines I've noticed actually cut back on service on weekends. Moreover, even if you technically "have time" in the evenings, etc. for grocery shopping, if you've had other things going on that day already you might not consistently have brain left over for dealing with the store!

In any case, your goal is obviously to get food into your dwelling, and obviously that is going to take a certain amount of time every week, month, day, etc. And the first task in that regard is simply finding what opportunities actually exist timing-wise given your schedule, location, and transportation constraints.

It is probably good if you can find something consistent because this will likely be easier to keep to than simply a vague plan to go get stuff when you run out of something.

Though on the other hand, some people might only be able to get together the executive functioning to GO shopping when they've run out of something.

The key is to figure out what sort you are in this regard, and see to what extent you can match that with available resources. And if there's a mis-match, just remember that (and I realize this is much easier said than done) it's okay to seek help.

And of course there is the matter of planning. I am utter crap at coming up with things to have for dinner -- essentially I don't plan those sorts of meals, except very rarely when something occurs to me at random, and often it turns out to be some sort of semi-edible science project when I do (like last weekend's rice noodle/curry/carrot/soybean/ice cube disaster.).

Again, I am lucky enough to live with someone who seems to really like doing food-things (and who I can certainly end up sometimes helping to make pretty awesome tasty things), but if I did not have this lucky break, I would probably be living on lots of frozen Kashi meals and the like. Which wouldn't be a tragedy, but would certainly mean a less varied and probably more expensive diet.

The bottom line is that if you figure out that (for whatever reason) you just aren't going to be able to reliably and consistently create meals for yourself out of discrete ingredients, then you need to be able to get stuff that you (or someone you live with, or who helps you) can put together quickly and easily. And then when you go to the store, you need to make sure and stock up on this kind of thing, so you don't end up having "Ketchup Casserole with Circus Peanuts" or something similarly frightening five nights in a row.

- Sensory/information processing issues

There are some grocery stores I can usually navigate reasonably well -- such as the small Indian market down the street from my apartment. For me, an accessible store is generally (a) not too large (usually this means "less overwhelming"), (b) not crowded, and (c) organized in a way that makes sense to my brain.

For you, the criteria may be different -- e.g., you may be extremely sensitive to fluourescent lights (which really only bother me when they get to that dying-and-flickery stage or when I can hear them buzzing), or you may not be able to stand the smell of a particular thing, or you may only be able to use automatic checkstands, or any number of other things.

But in any case, sensory accessibility is definitely something you may well run into even if you have a conveniently located grocery in your neighborhood. And the first step to figuring out what to do about that is to figure out what is going on! If you are anything like me (which you may not be, but I am figuring I am probably not the only person out there like this), you may not even be able to recognize sensory overload when it is happening, and may not be able to figure out exactly what it is about some places that bothers you for a long time after going there.

When I was little I was apparently...a bit of a challenge to go shopping with because I was forever darting off, trying to find clothing racks to hide under or bookshelves to sit on, or spinny-chairs to spin on, etc.

Moreover, I also developed aversions to certain places that I now recognize to be sensory in nature -- like the one discount store that made my skin crawl due to the music they piped over the speakers and the weird yellowish lighting -- which at the time nobody could explain, least of all me.

And when I got a bit older, I developed habits like trying to wear headphones wherever I went (something that has happily been de-stigmatized immensely by the introduction of the portable MP3 player, yay!), and trailing my parents in the store with my face stuck in a book or magazine the whole way (I would follow by watching their feet). So really sensory issues are nothing new for me -- it's just not been than many years since recognizing them for what they were.

It may not be easy (especially at first) to figure out exactly why some places make you feel like you need to escape now (or, as in the case of the mall I grew up near, makes you start feeling really "out of it" the longer you are in it), but one clue is that if you find yourself avoiding a place, it's possible you may just feel crappy and confused when you're there.

A lot of people I've noticed seem to blame this kind of thing on "social anxiety" or even agoraphobia, and some people may certainly have those things (by themselves or in conjunction with sensory issues). But having been through a lot of frustration due to trying to put into practice the advice of people who said I was "just scared" in certain situations, I have come to really wish I'd known about sensory issues sooner in life.

Since learning to actually correlate certain "weird" or "bad" sensations with things like noise or crowds or certain kinds of lighting, I've learned to do things like make sure I have headphones/earplugs available, try to visit stores at less crowded times of day, and if I must visit a store that makes my brain feel like it's been shoved into a glitter-filled kaliedoscope and shaken (Whole Foods, I am looking at you!), not to go alone.

So, anyway, if you haven't already, you may want to try things like ear plugs or noise cancelling earphones in stores, or sunglasses (if the lighting bothers you), etc. Additionally if you are going to be running errands in places that are going to be overloading regardless, make sure you wear comfortable clothing so that the sensation of a stiff, unpleasant fabric rubbing against you isn't adding to the overall load you have to process.

And also realize that even if you may be able to communicate in a certain way in certain environments, all bets may be off in a store environment, especially if things are busy. Hence, you may want to think about bringing a pad and paper (or even small computer) with you so that you can write things down to show clerks, etc.

What Food to Get

This is definitely another area that is going to vary according to the individual, and I am not even going to attempt to provide a list of specific things everyone should eat on a regular basis. That would be ridiculous considering the different tastes, allergies, and other factors that vary widely between people and affect what each of us can eat at any given time.

However, there are a few very general things that I think can be said pertaining to nutrition, food storage, shelf life, and preparation issues that I figure are worth mentioning here. I've learned these things through a combination of reading (my interest in longevity/biogerontology has compelled me to read about dietary factors a fair bit) and experience so take them for what they're worth.

BIG HUGE DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor or a dietician, nor do I know your particular individual situation and its constraints, nor am I ignorant of the fact that some people have very little choice indeed in what they have access to in terms of food. However this writing cannot possibly encompass or solve all the problems with the world's food supply, etc., so all this is intended to do is share some

- Not all "convenience food" is evil!

While "convenience food" in general can be more expensive than buying separate ingredients and combining them yourself, if you can afford it at all, it is often (at the very least) cheaper than going to a restaurant. Moreover, if you can't or don't cook consistently, this kind of thing can literally be a lifesaver.

And there are actually some surprisingly good (and not-too-bad-for-you) options appearing these days -- Trader Joe's has a number of frozen veggie burritos that aren't bad, in addition to various other products in the freezer section, along with some "shelf stable" meal packets that are actually surprisingly good.

- Unless you are a hummingbird, avoid (non-dessert) products where the first or second ingredient is some form of sugar

If your aim is to obtain a food product that is not dessert, and that you want to be able to (for instance) have for breakfast and get sustained energy from throughout the morning (as opposed to a "crash" halfway to lunchtime -- from experience I can definitely say that molasses gingerbread cake is a terrible breakfast choice), you probably want to avoid the toaster pastries, the "granola bars" speckled with colorful M&Ms, and so on.

The problem with these sorts of things is not that they exist at all (without them I am guessing some people might literally starve to death, and I understand that some people have economic and availability constraints that unfortunately mean a "junk subsistence" diet, which is a whole problem unto itself way beyond the scope of this writing), but that they sort of masquerade as being "meals" or "meal replacements" when they are really no more nutritionally loaded than your average candy bar, and potentially less so in some cases.

And when it comes to beverages, most bottled or packaged drinks (at least in the locales I'm familiar with) contain wicked amounts of sugar these days, so don't be seduced by labels proclaiming "fortified with antioxidants!" -- you could still very well be getting something nutritionally equivalent to the powdered fruit punch you drank as a youngster regardless of whatever "grownup" and "healthy-sounding" terms are on the label.

You want to read the actual ingredients list whenever possible, not just the marketing claims, and if you see "sugar", "dextrose", "high fructose corn syrup", "evaporated cane juice", "brown rice syrup", "crystallized fructose", "glucose syrup", or any number of similar terms listed first or second, try looking for an alternative, unless your goal is actually to find a dessert item.

- Trail mix (may be) your friend

Okay, of course if you are allergic to all nuts, dried fruits, grains, and anything else that might conceivably be considered a trail mix ingredient, or if you simply don't like any of that stuff, then trail mix is probably your enemy and not your friend. I realize this item is going to exclude a number of people, and I apologize for that.

But for those of us that can eat mixed-together dried foods of various sorts, the ever-versatile option of trail mix (which I am using here generically as a term to mean, essentially, "dried bits of food mixed together") can be an awesome and convenient way to keep ourselves alive and fed. Seriously, I've lived on trail mix for various periods of my life.

Its advantages for people that might have difficulty with food preparation, shopping, etc., are very similar to the advantages it has for people who are hiking or camping -- which is to say, it is fairly shelf-stable (will survive a lot longer without refrigeration than most "wet" foods), it is portable (can be put in containers of any size and carried without fear of icky leakage, etc.), and can have a very high nutrient density.

(And it can be a good alternative for people who like granola bars but who are having trouble finding anything of that nature that isn't a dessert bar in disguise -- you often have a lot of the same "substrates" in trail mix as in granola bars, but without the sticky, sugary stuff they use to bind it together into the "bar" shape.)

Furthermore, there's also the fact that in addition to the numerous pre-fab mixes available you can make your own mixes based on what you (a) like, and (b) have available, and you (or someone who helps you with meal-related tasks) can make a ton of mix at once and then store it for quite a while in whatever size(s) of containers you want.

You can also make different mixes for different moods and days, and mixes that indulge whatever your individual food-quirks happen to be -- e.g., if you're like me and have a bit of a wasabi obsession, you can put a bunch of nuts and dried vegetables into a bag and shake with some wasabi powder, and have yourself a nice package of supremely spicy tastiness that you can take along with you wherever you go, whether that be the library or your living room or anything in between.

- Know your body and tailor your diet accordingly.

If you have any food allergies, etc., make sure you check labels, and read the whole label. I was eating some rather tasty cereal for a while a few months back, and couldn't figure out for a week why I kept breaking out in itchy hives every day mid-morning. It turned out the cereal contained peach extract, and I am allergic to peaches. I'd missed this the first time reading the label because I'd only checked the first few ingredients to make sure it wasn't ultra high in sugar -- it wasn't, but that didn't mean it was okay for me to eat!

Bear in mind as well that depending on age, gender, overall health, medical conditions, etc., different people may need different amounts and types of food and nutrients. As a small-boned mostly-vegetarian white female I know I need to make sure and get enough iron, B12, calcium, and protein, and that I may need to make extra effort to include enough of these things in my diet. I am not always good at this and my partner often ends up reminding me about protein especially, but I at least try to be aware of factors that could mean I need more or less of something.

And, of course, beware unscrupulous and random advice! Yes, this includes this very article, as I am not a nutritional professional and don't claim to be. If you read something that sounds good and logical, check your facts before doing it, and certainly be very leery of any claims that a particular "technique" or diet applies to everyone!