One of the perks of being a grown-up is that I can study only what interests me and not be forced to sit through an hour of will-never-be-relevant calculus so I can get to anatomy and dissect a cat. True story - cat dissection was the highlight of my entire high school career. As I research homesteading and feel somewhat ashamed of my excitement at the prospect of slaughtering and butchering animals myself, it turns out it wasn't a wasted lesson. My dissections were phenomenal, by the way - deemed to be on par with the pictures in the textbook. Due credit to my dissection partner, Jenn! We know how to skin a cat (contrary to popular opinion, there is just one right way).
The things I study these days are parenting, homesteading, birth, and nutrition. That's what gets my gears turning. I suppose that makes sense, since parenting and feeding my family is my job.
With food and nutrition, I feel like I've finally reached a point of saturation. I sunk myself into it really deeply for a long time, and I've landed at a point where I feel like no matter what new study comes out or what tidbit of information I pick up, it probably won't change much about how I eat and how I view food.
Now, finally, after spending a few years being bogged down in the details, learning about phytates and leaky gut and specific nutrients that serve specific purposes and dairy vs no dairy and how to tell if you have adrenal fatigue/low thyroid/zinc deficiency/inflammation and other tedious minutiae, I really don't care what the science says anymore.
I have one rule that dictates how I eat: Eat things that are food. Do not eat things that are not food.
A simple rule that excludes the vast majority of what I see on grocery store shelves. The dough conditioners in commercially-made bread products (with deliciously appetizing names like calcium peroxide and azodicarbonamide) are not food. For that matter, the wheat itself is not actually food (a run-down on why modern wheat is different from traditional wheat). Food dyes; MSG; preservatives; modern, improperly prepared grain products; improperly prepared soy; refined sugar; GMOs (which includes virtually all corn, sugar beets, soy, and canola); homogenized, pasteurized dairy from grain-fed cows; industrial seed oils (for the love, please put down the canola oil and walk away) - not food.
So I do my best to eat food that is as close to its original form as possible, food that is recognizable as actual food, food from ingredients that I could conceivably have foraged, grown, hunted, or caught myself. Food that is food.
Food is smarter than we are. We try to break it down into its component parts and improve upon it, by adding more of this and less of that (less fat! added omega-3s! probiotics!), and it's pure arrogance. Well, arrogance and a lot of greed - people are making big, fat dollars off of having you believe that their enhanced food-like product is better than actual food. If a food claims to be high or low in anything, you probably shouldn't eat it. If anything has been added or removed, you probably shouldn't eat it. If you've ever seen an advertisement for a food, it's probably not a food. If it doesn't spoil, it probably isn't food.
Food is greater than the sum of its parts. Michael Pollan talks about the concept of 'nutritionism' in this article.
I also don't worry about it when I don't eat real food. We eat out, we go on vacation, we eat a fair amount of food that is not food. We are very lucky that we don't have to worry about food allergies or any extreme conditions that would be aggravated by eating less-than-ideal food now and then. So I don't worry about it.
I've stopped worrying about all of it. I take a few select supplements to fill in some gaps (because while I think it is very important to eat organ meats, I'm just not going to sit down to a plate of liver and onions, and because our soil is depleted no matter what I choose to eat), but otherwise I just enjoy eating food that is actually food.
Eat things that are food. Do not eat things that are not food. Shoot for 80/20. Enjoy feeling awesome.
I have one rule that dictates how I eat: Eat things that are food. Do not eat things that are not food.
A simple rule that excludes the vast majority of what I see on grocery store shelves. The dough conditioners in commercially-made bread products (with deliciously appetizing names like calcium peroxide and azodicarbonamide) are not food. For that matter, the wheat itself is not actually food (a run-down on why modern wheat is different from traditional wheat). Food dyes; MSG; preservatives; modern, improperly prepared grain products; improperly prepared soy; refined sugar; GMOs (which includes virtually all corn, sugar beets, soy, and canola); homogenized, pasteurized dairy from grain-fed cows; industrial seed oils (for the love, please put down the canola oil and walk away) - not food.
So I do my best to eat food that is as close to its original form as possible, food that is recognizable as actual food, food from ingredients that I could conceivably have foraged, grown, hunted, or caught myself. Food that is food.
Food is smarter than we are. We try to break it down into its component parts and improve upon it, by adding more of this and less of that (less fat! added omega-3s! probiotics!), and it's pure arrogance. Well, arrogance and a lot of greed - people are making big, fat dollars off of having you believe that their enhanced food-like product is better than actual food. If a food claims to be high or low in anything, you probably shouldn't eat it. If anything has been added or removed, you probably shouldn't eat it. If you've ever seen an advertisement for a food, it's probably not a food. If it doesn't spoil, it probably isn't food.
Food is greater than the sum of its parts. Michael Pollan talks about the concept of 'nutritionism' in this article.
I also don't worry about it when I don't eat real food. We eat out, we go on vacation, we eat a fair amount of food that is not food. We are very lucky that we don't have to worry about food allergies or any extreme conditions that would be aggravated by eating less-than-ideal food now and then. So I don't worry about it.
I've stopped worrying about all of it. I take a few select supplements to fill in some gaps (because while I think it is very important to eat organ meats, I'm just not going to sit down to a plate of liver and onions, and because our soil is depleted no matter what I choose to eat), but otherwise I just enjoy eating food that is actually food.
Eat things that are food. Do not eat things that are not food. Shoot for 80/20. Enjoy feeling awesome.
Well said!
ReplyDeleteWould you please share the select supplements you take and why?
ReplyDeleteWill do!
Delete