Welcome. I want to first wish everyone reading this a happy Valentines day. I hope you are spending it with loved ones and getting lots of hugs and kisses! My son gave lots of hugs and kisses in a group hug earlier. It was amazing. Even better, it was totally unprovoked. You can't not love random acts of love my a toddler. Talk about warm and fuzzy. Belly bean even got into the mix, wiggling around and making his/her presence known. Now onto the subject at hand, I know you are shocked, it's food! Food is critical to life (for most people). It nourishes us, heals us (chicken soup anyone), shows us that we are loved (in the form of a large family meal prepared with love), can be ritualistic and also can be overwhelming and frustrating. Food plays many roles in our lives. For many of us it has gotten down to a point though where you forget about the actual food and think food strictly means nutrients. We eat for nutrients and you can see this in all our prepared foods. Scientists know better then us what's good for our bodies. Michael Pollan has been the one speaking about nutritionism for the most part and how American's forget that their food is more then a sum of it's parts (I'm paraphrasing). “As I see it, nutrition science is today approximately where surgery was in the year 1650—really promising, really interesting to watch, but I think I’ll wait to get up on the table.” Michael Pollan I'm not going to lie, I was there. In some ways, I guess I still am as I am very focused on the nutrition of food (with depleted soils, toxins and all that other jazz plus a body and kiddo that have so many food intolerances I can't count them on one hand -- yeah, nutrition matters). But am I into nutritionism. No, but I definitely was to a degree (whole grains was a big one for me, as was the vegetarian/vegan which actually resulted in me being less healthy). I no longer trust that a scientist can tell me more about the food I am eating then my body can. Case and point, I feel like crud when I take vitamins...why? Well my personal theory is that most vitamins have some sort of corn or soy derivative in them and my body can't handle it. So am I going to listen to Dr. Joe tell me I need to take prenatal vitamins for a healthy pregnancy, sorry, no. I like the science that backs up my body's response though, but a lot of that isn't published in peer reviewed journals which results in it loosing a bit of it's credibility when sharing it with certain people.
My nutrition focus is on how nutrient dense a food is. If an animal, it needs to be fed as closely to its natural diet as we can achieve in this day and age (there is often mineral supplementation required because our soils are depleted). Do I care if it has added omega-3's, no. In fact, I tend to shy away from that stuff. I want it to be produced as close to it's natural, traditional, way of production. I supplement my diet with certain things, sure. But those things also come in, or close to a natural state (aside from my capsules that the fermented cod liver oil/butter oil is in and my vitamin D3...because lets face it, I'm not quite ready to start eating cod liver oil plain and I live in a northern climate and don't eat enough of the traditional foods to supply my D3 needs). But that's logical to me. I'm not going to drink milk with D2 added...or pasteurized juice that's been fortified. Two to three years ago, maybe. Now, no. It's a process. And if you aren't there yet, you may or may not get there. I had life events that required me to get there. The health of my child being the top factor. Are there aspects to the whole thing that we are missing, aspects that increase our health and the nutrition in our food, possibly. One of those things possibly being prayer over food. I am a scientist at heart but there has been lots of evidence (Dr. Emoto to name one) to show the importance love, appreciation and positive thought. I also must say that I subscribe to the theory that there is way more out there then we can hope to understand in this lifetime (and probably many more, considering conception is still not fully understood by science and that happens in our bodies). Have you read/watched The Secret? Lots of people firmly believe that you create your reality with positive thought and affirmations. So why wouldn't that transfer to food? Just a thought. What about singing to our food as it grows? Playing beautiful music? Are there aspects that decrease the nutrition/health of our food. Undoubtedly. Ayervedic principles maintain that you should not eat when you are angry, upset or otherwise emotionally compromised. How many of us have had "eating disorders" associated with emotions. This is also why there are practices such as Halal and Kosher. These practices maintain that the way an animal is slaughtered affects the quality of the end product (no doubt this is a rudimentary understanding and there are other factors as well like cross contamination). I'm sure there is a ton I am missing, but my brain is running and I wanted to declutter a bit of what was running through it. I have been working on a "vision" board for pregnancy/birth and also taking the Beautiful Babies e-course I mentioned earlier and my mind is full of information, thoughts, theories, etc. On another note, I have been trying out lots of new recipes in the kitchen. Some the little man and big man approve of, others not so much. But I think I have successfully recreated the lemon shortbread girl scout cookie that used to be sold (not sure if it still is, and it's been so darn long since I've had one of those my memory could be off). Thanks for reading!
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The Author
Hi there, Wysteria here. I will be writing as regularly as possible on behalf of my family and regarding our adventures in farming, food, health and things of the like. My interest range widely and my brain wanders far. Namaste. Archives
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