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Well, it’s over. I’ve completed the 28-Day Real Food Challenge, but plan to continue and further my studies. Here’s a recap of the final week:
Real Food Challenge Day #22: Why you should eat red meat
If I had to choose one thing from my new foodstyle that I wouldn’t change for purely hedonistic reasons, I’d choose grassfed beef. It is so drastically different than its feedlot counterpart that I consider it almost a different meal altogether. But, it isn’t just purely pleasure that drives me to the farmer who provides grassfed meats. When even TIME magazine concedes that grassfed meat is healing to the ecosystem; the evidence indicates the incidence of pathogenic contamination is reduced in the pasture; and respect for our food animals necessitates allowing them to express the uniqueness of their nature, I know all the sum of the parts is adding up to more than the deliciousness on my plate.
Real Food Challenge Day #23: Eat your bacon, eggs and lard too.
I have tracked down pastured pork and eggs. I am very suspicious of one source, however, because as I crack their eggs, I see the yolks are not the golden-orange I’ve come to expect in pastured eggs, but are more the light yellow color I’d expect from a grain-fed chicken. I haven’t been to this particular farm and seen their operation, so although this farm’s eggs are the most reliably available, I choose them only when I don’t have access to the eggs from my other sources.
Real Food Challenge Day #24: Maximizing Mineral Intake with Homemade Broth
Bone broth was the first thing I made when I started this foodstyle a year ago, and it is the one thing that continues in my kitchen on a weekly basis to this day. I started out only making chicken stock because that was what I used most often, and I still try to fit some stock into at least one meal a day. A while later I added beef stock to my repertoire as pastured beef bones became available. This last week I made fish stock, and I have started collecting pork bones for stock in my freezer as well!
Real Food Challenge Day #25: Not-so-awful Offal
I had liver for the first time in ages this week. I’d been planning it but the recipes I’d found left me cold. I really enjoyed it made with bacons, onions and pineapple, though!
Real Food Challenge Day #26: Fish and Seafood
I’ve also been on a real seafood kick this week. We had oyster chowder, lobster tails and seafood bisque instead of our weekly dose of salmon. Oh, I also made Jenny’s scrambled eggs with lox and it was wonderful!
Real Food Challenge Day #27: Grow Your Foodshed
I’m so glad the Challenge ended on this note. Supporting farmers, bringing healthy food to those who otherwise go without, gardening and helping others is high on my list of goals for 2010.
You know, you don’t have to wait for someone to throw down the gauntlet to challenge yourself. You can start the 28-Day Real Food Challenge any month, week or day you’d like! You don’t even have to choose 28 consecutive days! Take your time, work through the ideas and lessons and improve your life a forkful at a time!
There was little for me to do this week, as my Real Food kitchen is in pretty good running order and these kinds of things I do on a regular basis.
Day #8: Fats for High Heat
I’m all set up with my coconut oil and butter and lard. I don’t cook over high heat often because my stove vent is very inefficient. Anything putting up much steam or smoke tends to activate the smoke alarm! We have a joke: “Mom, is dinner ready yet?” “Did you hear the smoke alarm go off?”
Day #9: Fight Against GMOs
Ah, a subject near to my heart. I struggle with believing the torturous route regulators and industry in this country have taken in order to perpetrate this massive experiment on unsuspecting citizens. Every time there’s a new challenge to the GMO status quo, I’m there signing whatever petition I can, making phone calls, writing letters, tweeting and retweeting. If Europe can get GMOs out of their food supply and the US can get rGBH out of our milk supply, GMO regulation is not a lost cause. I’m SO there, as my kids say.
Day #10: Fats You Shouldn’t Cook
Back during our allergy days, I made ghee regularly. Now that my youngest’s gut has healed to the point she suffers few allergies (almonds most definitely, the rest are nearly gone) I don’t bother anymore. We are stocked with flax oil to add to smoothies, fermented cod liver oil in supplement form and olive oil for salads.
Day #11: Bake Some Sourdough
Not yet, but I can’t wait to try the No-Knead Sourdough recipe once our starter is ready to use!
Day #12: Find Real Milk
I have and we love it! It was a bit of a challenge at first, but my WAPF area leader was able to point me in the right direction. It’s called “pet milk” here because raw milk is considered unfit for human consumption. I have done my homework and have found a reliable producer that really knows her stuff when it comes to safety. I’ve weighed the benefits and risks and I come down squarely on the “raw milk heals” side of the line.
Day #13: Get Your Bacteria
When we first started out, this was a difficult step—not because of the process of fermentation, I caught on to that pretty quickly, but because of the taste. Fermented foods taste, well, fermented! Sauerkraut takes bitter cabbage and turns it bitterly sour. Kombucha takes sweet tea and turns it sour. Kefir takes sweet milk and turns it tart. These are flavors my spoiled American palate took a while to accept. It’s no problem now, though. Starting with smooth creme fraiche, refreshing water kefir and flavorful fruit chutneys, we made the transition and now we can enjoy the more tangy flavors fermentation produces. Also, I stress with my family that these are relishes, only a small spoonful is needed. So this week I used this recipe to make sauerruben, a fermented rutabaga condiment.
Day #14: Happy Valentine’s Day
Jenny suggested today we indulge in a little fair-trade dark chocolate. I found a brand that I dearly love, and will be blogging about it (as soon as I confirm that the sugar used is non-GMO.) It’s organic and fair-trade, and locally ground and mixed! There are exactly three ingredients on the label and I even know what they each are! I’m very excited about this find.
If you’d like to join us, just come to Nourished Kitchen. The 28-day Real Food Challenge is on Jenny’s navigation bar at the top of the page. You can also catch up here and watch the goings-on from Facebook or Twitter!
EKG by rwk, on Flickr
Some changes come easily, some come with great fear and trembling. Choosing healthy fats falls into the second category for me. Being a kid in the 1960′s, a teen in the 1970′s, a young adult in the 1980′s, a parent in the 1990′s and middle aged in the new millenium has taught me some very loud, insistent lessons, one of which is:
ANIMAL FATS ARE BAD
“They will make you fat! You’ll have a heart attack! Your arteries will clog up and you’ll fall down dead! Your cholesterol will choke your heart and your blood pressure will skyrocket and you’ll have a stroke! Eat our margarine and cook in our canola oil, it won’t kill you, it’s safe! See? Look at this evidence, examine our numbers!” I had forty years of this drilled into my head, most of it coming from newspapers, television and food wrappers, but a good part of it coming from the authoritative man in the white coat.
When I married my husband, I had no idea the health challenges the men in his family had endured. It wasn’t until the last few months I’ve discovered that his father was only 38 years old when he had his first heart attack, and had a quadruple bypass before he turned 50. And it was only this week that I learned his grandfather died after suffering a heart attack in his 50′s.
This week, my husband’s younger brother was admitted to the hospital in cardiac emergency. Tom is only in his 40′s. The doctors say he has one artery 90% blocked, has a weak heart and is being evaluated for a defibrillator.
My first reaction was: (if you know me this will come as no surprise) panic. All that good-oil-bad-fat propaganda came rushing back to me and I was terrified that I was headed for a certain future as a widow with six growing children. It took several minutes for me to regain my calm and remember the “new/old” lesson I’ve learned in the last 12 months. I can summarize it in one, rational, calm thought:
Heart disease is new. Plant oils are new. Animal fats are old. How did man survive thousands of years eating animal fat if it’s such a “killer?”
That one truth brings me back from the edge of terror every time.
We are doing many things to help my husband overcome his heredity. Eating real food including animal fat and coconut oil is one of those things. When his blood pressure became dangerously high, we did agree to some (old) meds for a limited time. He exercises daily and strives to get enough sleep. He doesn’t smoke or drink and is managing his stress level. He takes fermented cod liver oil every day. He even enjoyed a cup of kefir soda pop the other day! Is there more we can do? Yes, we need to curtail sugar and grains. Maybe that should be where I channel my anxiety.
I wanted to share this story with you because I really do understand how scary it can be to make changes. I’m fully invested here, not just promoting a cause to have something to do.
2010 Letterpress Calendar by Sarah Parrott, on Flickr
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; See You in 100 Years; Not Buying It; No-Impact Man…I love reading about people who take big leaps. I’m an extremist at heart, I suppose, and extreme visions like these make entertaining reading.
Of course, from my overstuffed loveseat nestled in the cushy heart of suburbia, I can be entertained and challenged without being particularly inconvenienced. Sitting back and saying “Wow, I wouldn’t have done it that way!” is just so much armchair quarterbacking. And, as I’ve mentioned, big steps are easy to fall back from.
I’ve just spent a year of my life pursuing what many of my family members consider an “extreme leap.” I was reminded just how extreme during this most recent holiday visit to my Mom’s. It started out slowly enough: read a book, change one thing. But the more I learned, the more things got changed. And the more things I changed, the more this new knowledge changed me.
My diet, of course, has changed. My shopping habits, my menu, my recipe sources, my circle of friends to some degree, my reading list, blogging habits and schedule have all changed. I’ve changed physically as well. One change I experienced took me by complete surprise: my politics have changed! I won’t go into details here…
What does next year hold? Much will depend on my reading list for 2010, I imagine. I want to continue becoming less recipe-dependent. I want to become more active in the local food economy, but I’m not sure the form that will take. Near the top of my to-do list is brewing my own honey wine and perhaps small beer. I’d really like to expand my small garden now that I’m more physically capable. But I don’t want to plan too far ahead because the story is in the journey, not in the destination.
December 2008
10% of diet from conventionally grown fresh fruits and vegetables
“Seasonal foods” means whatever is in the grocery store is in season for me
All meat from industrial CAFOs, purchased at lowest possible price from megastore
Personal soda consumption in excess of 2L a day
6-12 meals eaten out per week
70% of groceries purchased highly processed*
Canola, corn oil and hydrogenated vegetable oil for cooking
Totally unaware of what a GMO was
8-10 prescription pain pills per week
Able to walk less than 1/4 mile before pain became unbearable
Walked slowly with a cane (on good days), considering a walker
The grocery store clerk was the face of my food
Could not imagine taking cod liver oil
Restricted dairy, took enzymes to help digest it when I couldn’t avoid it
Frequently took antacids for heartburn
Spent 12% of total income on food and 30% on medical costs
December 2009
30% of diet locally grown organic fresh fruit and vegetables
Seasonal foods almost exclusively
All meats local and grassfed, bought from farmer I know personally
Personal soda consumption less than six ounces a week
1 meal eaten out per week
80% of groceries unprocessed*
Coconut and olive oil for cooking
On my way to becoming an anti-GMO crusader
0 pain pills (that’s zero, folks) in seven months
Able to walk more than a mile with no pain
No cane, no walker, no nothin’
I know my farmers and their methods
Wouldn’t give up my CLO if you paid me
Drink raw dairy freely and without stomach problems
Frequently eat and drink fermented foods, no heartburn
Spend 33% of income on food and 0% on medical costs
*My definitions of “highly processed” vs “unprocessed” groceries: Unprocessed foods are foods to which 2 steps of processing or fewer has occurred. So, cutting and threshing wheat is two steps. Milling the wheat, separating it from its bran and germ, bleaching it, adding it to other ingredients, boxing it and calling it Bisquick are all additional processing steps. The further down the line, the more “highly processed.” I suppose the ultimate “unprocessed” food is a cow: for raw milk, for meat on the hoof, etc. But there are limits to what my longsuffering husband will permit, and for that, this extremist is very, very grateful.
Antibiotics are wonderful drugs. Used properly, they can help a body rebuild from severe disease that could otherwise end a life. Modern medical procedures include culturing infections to determine if the bacterium involved is gram positive or negative, and its specific make up. This information is a guiding principle in determining the most effective drug. Some bacteria, for example, have particularly strong cell walls, and a certain class of drug targets that strength. It has also been discovered that antibiotics can have reduced or nullified effects if the patient is on the birth control pill or consumes alcoholic beverages. Taking a proper patient history and sufficient lab work is important for proper administration of antibiotics. A quick “I have a sore throat”…”Here, take this” just doesn’t provide the information needed for a good antibiotic match. Each antibiotic that is overused to the point that it is no longer effective represents one missing tool in the arsenal of doctors to combat serious illness.
If these amazing drugs were administered properly, at the right time to those in need, we might be still enjoying their benefits. Unfortunately, for many years these wonder drugs were given to children when they fell ill with viruses: something the drugs have no effect on whatsoever. Their mothers, having heard stories of their great-grandparents’ lives being saved by these new antibiotics would bring the child to the doctor and insist “something be done.” The doctor, to placate the mom and move on with his hectic schedule, would write the prescription. By the time it was filled and administered, the virus would run its course and Mama would laud the effectiveness of the drug to her friends, who would queue up their children at the pediatrician for some of the wonder pills.
Then, these immune-suppressed children would get a case of bronchitis after every cold, so antibiotics would be prescribed early on to “prevent secondary infection.” Sure enough, any cold without these prophylactic drugs would go into bronchitis or pneumonia, further proving their need and desirability. It has not been until the last ten years that doctors have been officially warned to not prescribe antibiotics until they are certain of the need.
As a child, I was beset my a string of infections. Swimmer’s ear would set in, not just when I swam, but every time I got my head wet. Tonsillitis ate away at my throat at the change of every season. All my colds wound down into bronchitis. Never once during my years on antibiotics was I told that I should continue bedrest for the full course of the medication, something many doctors now realize is important to allow the body to rid itself completely of pathogens. As a matter of fact, I was usually released back to school the same day I got my prescription for antibiotics.
During one particularly difficult year in high school, I came down with mononucleosis. As I was recovering, my throat became too painful to even swallow water. Doctor after doctor was mystified as my fever rose above 102° for days on end. I developed an allergic reaction to penicillin, the old standby from my ear infection days, then erythromycin, then tetracycline, then cephalasporin, as each drug was attempted in succession to stem the tide of the hiding infection. Eventually the problem area was discovered: an abscess hiding behind a tonsil. A culture came back: antibiotic-resistant strep.
We had never heard of such a thing. It was only 1973, and the news of antibiotic-resistant strains was just breaking. After a week of hospitalization, trying one drug after another and dealing with the each anaphylactic reaction, my body was close to calling it quits. A new “experimental” antibiotic was tried, which finally worked. I wish I had cared at that point to note the drug that finally brought down the mighty bug, but I was just glad to be eating and drinking again. My case was unusual in those days, but it is becoming a much more common scenario in the 21st century.
Antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria are on the rise worldwide. Even more dangerous than antibiotics being poorly prescribed is the now common practice of antibiotic-laced animal feed. While it’s true that CAFO animals are delicate and are given antibiotics to prevent deadly infection over the course of their short, miserable lives, there is also evidence that these animals are given antibiotic treatment because it makes them gain weight more quickly. And, in a news article from this weekend, a couple cows that could have ended up on your dinner plate were discovered to have been drugged with 129 times the legal limit of antibiotics. Clearly, some of the misuse is not for the good of the animal, but for the good of the profit of the CAFO owner. Up to 70 percent of U.S. antibiotics go to animals raised on industrial farms that aren’t sick.
In a CAFO system, the close quarters, weakened immune system of the animals and poor sanitation all provide perfect breeding grounds for pathogens. Bacteria are tough little buggers and make it their life mission to mutate in order to survive the antibiotics given their hosts. There now exists in the world variants of bacteria that did not exist several decades ago. And the ammunition we use to keep them from killing us is useless against some of these new strains.
Four separate sessions of Congress have addressed this issue repeatedly since 2003, the bill has died as many times. HR1549, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009 is now in committee. Here is a copy of the bill, and a webpage from which you can track the act as it moves (or dies) through the legislative process. I will reserve comment on the bill at this time, but you should go and read through it to see if you think it deserves your support.
In the meantime, there is a great alternative to antibiotic-laced beef, chicken, pork and eggs. Get to know your local meat producers. Go to Local Harvest, your health food store’s manager, a nearby Weston A. Price Foundation leader, a farmer’s market. Talk to people. Tell them you’re looking for clean, grassfed meat, pastured poultry and eggs. Then when you meet the farmer, ask questions. What antibiotics does he use? When? Why? How? Talk. Ask. Decide.
This post is part of Prevention Not Prescriptions.
first married meal by tempophage
Readers, Heather needs help!
My problem is the saboteur is in my own house in the form of a husband. Lets just say that he is having trouble considering food from a nourishing healthy point of view, and is still stuck in the habits from his childhood. Currently if I open my cupboard there are frosted flakes in it ARG! He is scared of raw milk. He will eat an entire bag of Doritoes. Meanwhile, I’m fermenting and soaking and growing vegetables in the back yard. Praying the whole time that he’ll become more adventurous, maybe just give it a try….Anyone have suggestions for a resistant husband?
I’ve been really blessed in our real food journey. My husband has been on board most of my wild dietary changes. It’s true that not everything I cook is gourmet quality (pretty large understatement here), and it’s a far cry from the food of his youth, but he’s agreed to at least taste almost everything I make. He hasn’t gone the kombucha/kefir/yogurt route with us, but he’s fine with raw milk and fermented relishes in small portions.
I’ve overcome some resistance from the kids, but I think they are easier to convince than a husband. I mean, it’s Mom’s food or PB&J here, I don’t cook separately for anyone. When they start to feel better, have more energy and sharper minds, they notice right away. And, I can make healthy eating a school subject. Once you start hearing the evidence for a real food diet, the objections really start to dissipate. But that’s kids: husbands sometimes don’t like to be told evidence or be forced into eating strange meals.
Part of the problem with getting adults to make healthy dietary changes is that food is all wrapped up in our emotions. You’re bucking years of mornings spent sharing sleepy conversation with Tony the Tiger and cheering on his home team with the uniquely addictive crunch of Doritos. You’re also probably not cooking the way his Mom used to (unless he’s over 50 years old). If your home diet changes too much or too quickly, he might be terrified to think that these cherished food traditions will disappear from his life.
One piece of advice I heard seems to fit very well here: Pick the thing he eats most often and make a small change with that. I think a grown man would appreciate being asked first, not “surprised,” but that depends on the personality of your husband. You don’t want to lose his trust. Food is just food, it’s not worth risking a marriage over.
If your husband is a meat and potatoes eater, trying grassfed beef and pork over CAFO meat would be a terrific starting point. If he likes eggs, switching to eggs from pastured chickens is easy. It’s hard to imagine a man who would honestly prefer the taste of margarine over butter, but I suppose there’s one out there somewhere. And other changes, like cooking with sea salt and coconut oil rather than canola or corn, in my opinion, are “chef’s prerogative” and not something he necessarily needs to know or approve.
If your husband has a “hot issue” you might want to do some research and see if you can present your best case (one time: no nagging) from that angle. If he’s concerned about the environment, for example, you could mention how a real food diet creates less trash and discourages the corn monocropping that’s destroying our soil.
Over time, your best weapon will be the taste of the food you prepare. Delicious food is hard to resist, even if it’s not what he’s used to.
Readers, I hope you will share your best tips here for Heather. It’s important to have the support of your life partner in a real food lifestyle. What have you done to encourage your spouse down the road to real food?
This post is part of Fight Back Fridays, hosted by Food Renegade.
Efficient menu by andreasmarx
(Rant warning) It’s not that I don’t understand. I have a larger-than-average family to feed. Of the seven of us, three are teenagers that seem to eat their weight in whatever they can lay hands on daily. We’ve also been self-employed for the past 18 months since being laid off; working six-day weeks to scrape by on freelance assignments paid hourly, just making the mortgage, doing without health insurance, cutting back further and further on what we once considered necessities. Our income dropped by 2/3 in 2008 and here, at the end of 2009, is still running 1/3 less than we made just two years ago.
When I say our food budget is a full fourth of our income (that’s 25%, compared to the 9-11% the average American spends) it’s not because we’re eating expensive food, it’s because I have mindfully and carefully chosen the food my growing children eat to be one of my top priorities regardless of the insufficiency of our income. We keep a roof over our heads and health-supporting food on our table. If we wear last decade’s clothes with a few mended holes, we can deal with that because clothes are for covering and warmth here. Shoes provide protection from the elements in our house, they aren’t fashion statements. Our car is a servant that provides transportation from point A to B, it is not a commentary on our political or sociological views. We all make choices and these are some of mine.
Everyone has to make their own choices, of course. But assuming healthy food is out of your economic reach without actually doing the math or choosing not to make informed choices is selling yourself short.
So when I read that the economy has “forced” families to choose less healthy options at the grocery store, I get a little riled. There are so many better ways to eat inexpensively besides going for the lunch of chips and Coke. From the above article:
Mintel, the market research firm, is tracking double-digit sales gains for salty snacks as well as popcorn and cheese snacks this year. Potato chip sales are up 22 percent this year compared with 2007 while tortilla chips sales are rising 18 percent.
To me, these increases mean that more Americans are turning to Frito Lay as the basis for a meal. Lunch becomes the chip and soda as the more expensive sandwich and and less filling soup fall to the wayside. Junk food Snack food companies are reporting record years.
There is a better way.
If you, or someone whose health is important to you, is challenged financially, take heart. There are some great options for less expensive food that is still nourishing. Here are some examples:
- Jenny, over at Nourished Kitchen, just finished feeding her family on whole, fresh, nourishing foods for an entire month. She spent less than $227 for the whole month. Her menus, recipes and notes are inspiring.
- Kelly the Kitchen Kop corralled help for someone overwhelmed with the cost of real food from her readers. Lots of great tips here.
- While you’re there, go visit Kelly’s article about Anne Sergeant and download the “Eating Healthy Shouldn’t Cost an Arm and a Leg” PDF.
- There are some yummy $5 meals at Organic and Thrifty
- Kimi serves up nourishing but frugal dishes and shares her recipes with us at Nourished Gourmet
- Food Renegade’s food savings category has some terrific tips and challenging logic
In short, there are just too many great options to fall into the frozen pizza/chips/kool aid trap. Nourishing your body is something you have to do. You can’t just “turn off service” like you would a phone or TV to save a few bucks. There are long-term consequences to feeding yourself poorly for an extended period of time. Children’s bodies suffer most: with lack of concentration, poor growth and bad habits formed that will be hard to break. Some deficiencies can cause problems for several generations beyond our own. Let’s not spend fifteen minutes chatting with our spouses about tonight’s TV schedule then open a can of soup because we don’t have time to chop a vegetable or two and add it to homemade broth. (Rant over, thank you for your patience.)
This post is part of Fight Back Friday, hosted by the ever rebellious but rarely ranting Food Renegade.
This post is part of Fight Back Fridays, hosted by Food Renegade and the Bare Cupboard blog carnival.
iTunes is playing “Gonna Fly Now” on my computer as I write this post. You know that song. It’s the one from “Rocky” where Rocky Balboa is beating up sides of beef and jogging up the Philadelphia Art Museum’s steps and holding his hands up in victory at the top. It’s the theme song of determined underdogs everywhere.
photo by radiospike photography on Flickr
My victory once again focuses on a great meal review from my hard-to-please son, John. Earlier this month, I wrote a Fight Back Fridays post about two wonderful in-season foods: strawberries and kale. Michelle commented, “Haha I thought this was going to be a recipe made with strawberries and kale! That would have been a new one.” I took this as a personal challenge and served Strawberry Green Smoothies for breakfast this morning:
Strawberry Green Smoothies
Toss a handful of washed, stemmed, organic strawberries in the blender. Add a raw (pastured only, from chickens you know and farmers you trust, please) egg yollk, a splash of milk, a few drops of flax oil, a drizzle of whey and a few pieces of frozen banana. Turn the blender on. Add a washed, destemmed organic kale leaf and let it blend for a while until all the pieces are invisible and the smoothie is nice and green.
I never expected John to like it. I wasn’t even going to pour him a cup, but he insisted. And he liked it. He said if he was drinking it in the dark he would have never known it was green. And the kale I used was thick, meaty, red Russian kale, too.
It’s amazing and wonderful how quickly our tastebuds adapt to healthy foods if we give them the chance. My mother-in-law is visiting again this week and I learned last time to not allow that to be an excuse to eat poorly. This time, tempted with eating out, grabbing a Starbucks and ordering in, I was able to easily say no. I just have no interest in eating that stuff anymore. I’m spoiled. I’m also educated. The thought of what is in those non-foods kills my appetite as surely as the idea of drinking gasoline.
It’s Friday, I’m fighting back, and I’m gonna fly now!
My 11-year-old daughter, Christy, was very mildly oxygen-deprived at birth. The doctor tells me this is why she has 20/20 vision in one eye and 20/200 in the other. We were clueless until she was 6. We knew she had horrible handwriting and had trouble knowing what a clean dish or clean bedroom looked like. It wasn’t until one evening she was sitting on my lap with her head turned almost completely sideways to see the book I was reading to her that we decided there was a problem. The eye doctor said she was too old for exercises or any possibility of improvement and that glasses were our best option.
I just returned from the eye doctor. As of a year ago, her vision had not improved since the initial checkup at age 6. But today the doctor came out with a wide grin. “I don’t know how, but her eye seems to be growing! The cornea, the lens, the optic nerve are all showing signs of…I don’t even know what to call it. Growth? Regeneration? Improvement, to say the least. She still needs the glasses, but she can actually see out of them now, better than ever. We never see this kind of rapid improvement in a child past age two. It’s just a miracle! Can you bring her back once a month for a while so I can watch this?”
Absolutely! How exciting! My heart is doing back flips just to think that something measurable in one of us is changing and improving. There has been nothing different in our circumstances other than the testing of nourishing foods during January and a full-scale commitment in February. That there might be changes already—actual, measurable, verifiable, medically relevant changes—is staggering to me.
This post is part of Natural Cures blog carnival, hosted by Hartkeisonline, and Prevention, not Prescriptions.
Real Food Wednesday today asks, “How has learning about, finding, budgeting and shopping for, preparing, serving and eating Nourishing, Traditional Food affected our family?”
We are still at the start of our journey with nourishing, traditional food, so many of the effects are yet to be seen. But this journey is already beginning to change us.
We are more connected to the community. From going out into the farmer’s fields and talking to him about his growing practices, and meeting “my” chickens, to getting to know the source of our raw milk and grassfed meats, we have been making friends and meeting neighbors other than the checker at the grocery store. I’ve always been a loner, and this experience is getting me out of my home and connecting me with those that produce the foods my family eats.
My grocery trips are more frequent. Those locally grown, organic fresh fruits and veggies don’t last as long as the super-processed frozen “nukeable” foods we used to survive on. I am going to the store once a week for a large trip, twice a week for fresh produce, and then making a couple mini-trips for raw milk, fresh eggs, and other items we don’t get at a regular store.
My grocery list is shorter. I’ve noticed my grocery list contains fewer items. The recipes I use to cook our meals contain fewer ingredients as well. These fewer ingredients cost about the same as the larger list I used to carry, because the individual ingredients tend to cost more.
Cooking is a continuous activity. Instead of an hour of cooking followed by a half hour of eating, I find my food prep tends to go for days. The sprouts for Wednesday’s salad have to be soaked by Sunday night or they won’t be ready in time. There’s a continual preparation for the next few days’ meals. I don’t mind this because most of the advance work can be accomplished in four or five minutes between other activities. It also cuts down on the temptation to call for pizza. One evening I might be a little low energy, but if the beans are ready now, we will eat them. If the beans weren’t ready, we’d probably take a short cut to the drive thru.
Budgeting is in flux. In these early days, I’m relying on the availability of higher-priced foods at the grocery store as I transition to locally available sources. Paying $10 a pound for coconut oil is painful. But it is an item high on my priority list and I am highly motivated to find alternative sources.
I am running out of room in the fridge! We only have one refrigerator and freezer, and it is full to the brim with quart jars of raw milk products, lacto-fermented veggies, homemade salad dressings and all the other necessities. It’s time to watch Freecycle for some used appliances for the garage.
The Dark Side of Fat Loss
