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Kitchen Basics - Grains

By Mercy | October 9, 2008

This week, my children and I made many varieties of wheat products.  Usually, we just make either European-style bread or tortillas (using sourdough starter.)  However, this week we made cinnamon-raisin flat bread, seeded crackers, cherry bread, and bagels using the same starter.  The process is basically the same, up to a point.  You begin by grinding your wheat (preferably in a WonderMill or Wonder Junior grain mill).  Add about 4-5 cups to your mixer, 1 1/2 cups of starter and water.  Knead and let it rest 4 hours or till doubled. Add sea salt or any other ingredients.  Shape and stuff how you wish, then leave for another 3-4 hours. Then bake or cook/cool or eat!  It is easy with some practice!

I am a firm believer in the idea that if it’s not in your house, you will not eat it (usually)!  So, if you leave the polished white rice, Nabisco crackers, hamburger buns, spaghetti noodles (even the “whole grain” variety) and other wheat based products **AT THE STORE** you will teach yourself how to make tasty whole grain foods.  Don’t be alarmed if it takes you some time to develop your niche recipes.  The key is to keep practicing to gain the right consistency and flavor. 

While there are many whole grains available for purchase (e.g. - millet, Kamut, quinoa, buckwheat, etc.), we tend to utilize the staples of wheat and brown rice in our home.  Some of the unusual grains, like the ones mentioned above, I bought at one time and have to use them up.  But, lesson learned…don’t make weird things for your family!  Here are some things we do at our home that are familiar to the pallet:

These are just some ideas to get you thinking about using whole grains in your kitchen.  Every family has “comfort” foods.  The trick is to go slowly, don’t scare your family, and learn the methods of cooking best suited to the grain.  And remember not to use baker’s yeast in cooking whole wheat.  It makes the grain incredibly hard to digest.  To purchase a bread starter, Carl Griffith has 150-year dry packs online.  Just send him a stamped envelope.  Another good resource is Northwest Sourdough.

If you do not have a food co-op in your area, you may want to purchase grain online.  I buy mine from Wheat Montana and Lundburg Rice (Organic Brown Basmati Rice).  

Happy Baking!

Topics: Kitchen Basics | No Comments »

Kitchen Basics - Sugars

By Mercy | October 6, 2008

For most people, the term “healthy eating” conjures up many fears and even guilt.  This is due, in part, to the confusion that shrouds food today.  We are bombarded by what we hear “experts” telling us to eat, diet gurus touting health fads, and the advertising from major food producers.  It’s no wonder that we feel confused!  In order to understand what to eat, we must first understand the “genesis” of food, or the beginnings of food.  What is food supposed to be? When you think of any food or menu item, the first question you need to ask yourself is, “What is this ‘food’ supposed to be?” 

Let’s start with sugar:

We all know, by now, the dangers associated with processed sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and other cheap substitutes.  Unfortunately, these types of sugars are found in almost all foods sold large-scale.   Here’s what sugar should be:

Obviously, fruit is a natural source of sugar.  Dried or fresh: apricots, dates, apples, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, papaya, coconut, mango, plums, peaches, pears, grapes, bananas etc.   Add fruit to salads, blend dried cherries with cream cheese and honey for a whole-wheat sourdough bagel spread.  Eat it in trail mix, smoothies, raw, in breads and cooked grains…the possibilities are endless!  If you will be sure to eat fruit, you will have less cravings for other sugar.

Other Sweeteners:

Agave nectar
Stevia (great for beverages)
Raw honey
Unrefined, dried sugar cane juice* 
Pure Maple Syrup

These are some of the ways I use sugar in our home.  Next time I’ll be writing about how I use grain.

* One name brand of dried sugar cane juice is Rapadura (made by Rapunzel).  Use cup for cup in place of sugar.  Has a much stronger flavor since the molasses has not been extracted.  You can buy some from Amazon (and help support our website) by clicking here.

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Food Feelings

By Mercy | October 4, 2008

When you eat a meal, how do you feel afterward?  This is not a plea for inner esoteric musings, really…I mean how do you feel, physically?  Satisfied?  Hungry?  Sick?  These are all questions that you should be asking yourself every time you eat.  Based on your conclusions, you should either return to that same food another time or refrain.

Here are three telltale signs that you should NOT eat a particular food again:

1.  Food gives you a headache

2.  Food makes you sleepy or lethargic

3.  You crave sugar after your meal

Have we forgotten what the purpose of food is?  It is to supply your body with the right balance of nutrients and vitamins and it is to provide energy for your body to function at its optimum levels.  Headaches are often caused from artificial ingredients and dyes, dangerous fats (like most that are sold today), and other processed ingredients.  Headaches and lethargy are symptoms of a deeper problem…a system that has taken in more toxins than nutrients.  The body begins to draw extensively from its reserves in order to pass the toxins out of the body and to aid digestion.  To do this, it must slow down other functions in order to give energy to the problem.   Craving sugar or desserts right after a meal is also a sure sign that you are not getting the right balance of nutrition.  Perhaps you view food like a balance (i.e. - “As long as I eat some good stuff, I can add a few sweets to reward myself”).  This is not how you want to view food!  Your meals should be regular, include whole foods, not processed, and have natural sugars.  Let’s contrast two different menus.  You may want to try this as an experiment.  On the first day, eat “Menu 1″, and then try “Menu 2″ and see if you notice a difference in how you feel.

Menu 1

Breakfast - bowl of blueberries with fresh cream (from raw milk), homemade sourdough bread with fresh butter, warm herbal tea

Lunch - homemade beef barley soup (real stock, fresh vegetables that are not over cooked, and grass-fed meat), grilled cheese sandwiches with homemade sourdough bread.

Dinner - pasture-raised whole baked chicken seasoned with sea salt and pepper, steamed corn on the cob with butter and unrefined sea salt, homemade sourdough bread, and kefir wine

Snack - raw milk and carob powder drink (sweetened with maple syrup).  Handful of almonds (soaked for 8 hours in unrefined sea salt and water and dehydrated)

Menu 2

Breakfast - canned fruit cocktail, Wonder Bread (white or whole grain/wheat), margarine, and crystal light drink mix

Lunch - can of Campbell’s beef vegetable soup, grilled cheese sandwich made with American cheese, store bought bread and margarine

Dinner - chicken breasts marinated in a store-bought sauce and cooked in 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil, canned corn, Rice-a-Roni, Pillsbury crescent rolls, beer

Snack - chocolate milk and store bought trail mix (usually seasoned with sugar, salt and soybean/cottonseed oil)

It should be obvious which menu is going to provide you with fuel for the day.  However, in our self-imposed busy schedule, we have come to believe that fruit is fruit, bread is bread, salt is salt, and meat is meat.  I challenge you to see for yourself the difference that you can have if you seek out natural sources of food in you locale area.  Eating healthy doesn’t mean that you have to patronize the local heath food store and pay unreasonable rates for unfamiliar food.  It may be as simple as pulling over on the side of the road and picking some berries.   

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Getting Over Nutritionism

By Chris | August 23, 2008

This is the third of three articles summarizing and reviewing Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food. If you have not already read the review of his first section, “The Age of Nutritionism“ or the review of his second section, “The Western Diet and the Diseases of Civilization“, you may want to do that first.

Pollan writes, “A hallmark of the Western diet is food that is fast, cheap, and easy. Americans spend less than 10 percent of their income on food; they also spend less than a half hour a day preparing meals and a little more than an hour enjoying them.”

In the previous two sections, Pollan has described what is wrong with our eating in America, and now he makes the case on how to fix it. His solution, which adorns the cover of the book, is to “Eat Food, Mostly Plants, Not Too Much”.

Eat Food

Here, he brings up the point that most of what is sold today is really just foodlike products. After giving several examples of foods products that his great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize, he adds, “Don’t eat anything incapable of rotting.” Does a Twinkie or McDonalds french fry ring a bell? He also recommends avoiding food products which contain ingredients that are:

Next, he advises us to:

He offers excellent recommendations on how to actually put real food on your plate, as opposed to what the food industry has been pushing to us.

Mostly Plants

Here, Pollan makes the case we need to be eating more of the green stuff.  He rightly advocates eating more veggies, but his logic on meat is a bit flawed.  He does point out that industrial meat is no longer a whole food; so even a typical steak is still not ideal.  However, he doesn’t advocate eating goodly portions of pasture raised beef, for example.  Previously he had mentioned that there are almost no noticeable health problems in cultures which eat predominantly meat, as long as they avoid the Western diet.  On a positive note, though, he does say that if you do eat meat, you should eat meat that ate veggies (pasture raised beef, chicken, etc.).

Not Too Much

He notes that other cultures are often envied by Americans for their good physique while still eating high fat foods and other foods that nutritionists would not approve of.  So why can’t we eat like them?  His answer is that we eat much larger portions in much less time.  Instead of piling our plates full and scarfing the food down in under 20 minutes, we should focus on quality.

Additionally, with the preparation and cleanup times reduced due to modern techniques, we tend to eat more.  In 1999, 83% of people had microwaves, up from less than 10% in 1980.

Finally, he points out that meals are down while snacks are up.  All of these things are exactly what these other cultures do NOT do.  So how do we fix the problem?  He suggests:

Summary

Overall, Pollan has accurately assessed the food problem in America today.  His suggestions are, for the most part, right on.  We would definitely advocate eating good, high quality, pasture-raised meats, but apart from that, we would recommend most of his other advice.  For a good primer on fixing your diet, this would be a good book to read.

Topics: In Defense of Food | No Comments »

Vita-Mix or Grain Mill

By Mercy | June 28, 2008

We often get asked the question, “If the Vita-Mix can do everything, why would you also want a grain mill?”  And that is a good question.

Before I had the WonderMill, I used our Vita-Mix for grinding grain (about two years).  While this can be done, I found two things: first, it was difficult to get the grain as fine as I wanted using the Vita-Mix, and second, it took a long time.  The Vita-Mix will only allow you to do 2 cups at a time.  The WonderMill, though, will grind up to 8 cups (12 ground) in a short amount of time.

If you are only making small loaves at a time or are just experimenting with making bread, you may want to begin with just the Vita-Mix to see if you like making bread.  Your bread may not rise as much because it will be slightly heavier.  But, the Vita-Mix can be a “starter” grinder which you can upgrade later to a WonderMill if you are serious about bread making (just like we did).  The Vita-Mix is still the favorite appliance in my home, and it does an amazing amount of things; I use it 3-4 times a day while cooking.  But, I enjoy having the WonderMill to grind a variety of flours.

For the Vita-Mix, I would recommend the base version “5200″ with only the wet blade as well as the 32 oz. small container if you plan to make salad dressing and sauces.  For grains, the WonderMill is my recommendation by far.  If you’re not ready for that kind of investment, yet, I would recommend for most kitchens just getting the “Super 5200″ Vita-Mix which has the “dry” container included if you want to try out making bread.  Something else to consider is the Wonder Junior, a hand grain mill.  It has all the benefits of the WonderMill, but requires no electricity and can even do wet grains, coffee, herbs, etc.  Granted, it is hand powered, so it does require some more work, but would definitely be a fine choice for a grain mill.

Hope that helps in your planning process.

Topics: Kitchen Appliances | No Comments »

Can the Soda

By Mercy | June 18, 2008

Informed consumers are the choir when it comes to preaching on the health hazards associated with soda consumption.  However, not all buyers are as savvy.  In the year 2000, Americans spent over $61 billion on soft drinks, many of those consumers were young children.  To continue sales, the soft drink industry spends over 700 million dollars annually in advertising. Today, soft drinks comprise over 25% of the beverages consumed daily.  This is, in part, due to the fact that most members of the family are away from home during the day.  With 65% of mothers working outside of the home, and children engaged in segregated activities most weekdays, soft drinks become an easy solution to thirst.   You’ve probably heard it said, “Don’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach!”  The same applies at other times, too.  That’s because when you are hungry, you will tend to gravitate to junk food.  Sugar, fat, and salt are desired, but unless you’ve thought ahead and prepared healthy choices, your options are limited to foods designed to sustain shelf life, not health.  So what happens when you are in a public facility (such as an office or school) without access to your kitchen?  Well, you look for the fastest and easiest form of food available…a vending machine or the office snack bar!  Here are 10 alternatives to what is currently available on the market. 

  1. Water - Buy a water filtering system for your home (or office).  They even make portable ones you can hook up to the office sink (and take back when you’re done). Drink pure water!
  2. Lemonade - Make homemade lemonade using fresh lemons and stevia.
  3. Kefir Juice - Juice that is pasteurized is basically pure sugar.  However, if you add kefir grains to pasteurized juice, such as grape juice, you will add valuable enzymes and nutrients to aid digestion.  And, it’s pro-biotic.   If you have kefir grains from milk, you can rinse them and add them to juice (do not return juice grains to milk, only juice.)  Cover the juice container with a cloth and secure with a rubber band.  Make sure that you have at least 2 inches of space between the juice and the top of the jar because when the juice begins to ferment, it will bubble.   You can drink it when it has small bubbles on the top.  If you continue fermentation, it will turn into champagne and then wine.  To slow the fermentation, remove the cloth, put the top on, and put it in the fridge.  Loosen the top daily to release the gasses.   You can leave the grains in it and when you finish the bottle, pour off the grains and 1/2 of a cup of the previous batch to help jump-start the process.  FYI - If your juice develops some white on the surface, it may mean that you didn’t rinse all of the milk off of the grains.  It is fine to consume, or you can strain it through a cheese cloth.  Most likely, the next batch will not have this.
  4. Raw Milk - Milk from cows or goats eating green pasture.  Be sure to know the husbandry practices of the the farmer from whom you get your milk.  If the farmer is you, well..that’s easy enough.  Raw milk, as opposed to “organic”, means that it is not pasteurized or homogenized.  You can read more about it here.
  5. Tea - Teas such as rooibos, peppermint, chamomile, white tea, pregnancy tea (if pregnant), and nursing tea (if nursing) all serve their purpose.
  6. Milk Kefir - See this article for making milk kefir.
  7. Smoothies - Fruit smoothies made with kefir.
  8. Almond or Coconut Milk - Both of these can be made in the Vita-Mix.  Place about two cups of raw almonds or unsweetened coconut meat in the Vita-Mix with 3 cups of water.  Turn on high until the liquid begins to steam.  Add 1 cup of ice to cool it down. To strain, place a tea towel over a bowl (draping corners over the edge) and pour the liquid into the bowl.  Gather corners and squeeze out all of the liquid.  The resulting solids will be nearly dry with little effort.  The solids can be used for things such as arrowroot cookies (see this or this) or various cakes.  You can also freeze it for later, or just discard.  Milk is ready to drink.  You can add flavorings such as cinnamon, carob, honey, Rapadura, homemade vanilla, and more.
  9. Kombucha - If you are not familiar with kombucha, it is a cultured form of sweet tea.  Its ingredients include: black tea, white sugar, and the kombucha culture.  Kombucha takes about 7-8 days to ferment, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
  10. Last but not least…..Homemade Soda!!!!  Yes, it can be done!  For more information, please read http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/Realthing.html.

Here’s to your health!

Topics: Drinks | No Comments »

Baking Soda

By Mercy | June 17, 2008

I have tried many natural, home cleaning products to clean sinks and tubs.  By far, I have found that baking soda does the job better than anything else.  Instead of using a bleach-based product that may be detrimental to your health, battle difficult grime with baking soda.  Here’s how…wet the surface of the tub, sink or other surface with water.  Sprinkle a generous amount of baking soda on it to make a paste.  Then, scrub and rinse.  Simple!

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Sprouted Wheat Bread Instructions

By Mercy | June 16, 2008

A reader recently inquired about making bread.  To learn about making sourdough, click here.  Below are instructions for making sprouted wheat bread.

Before you begin, you may want to know that sprouted wheat berries can be ground wet in a Vita-Mix or you can dehydrate them. (FYI - dried, sprouted wheat berries, when coarsely ground, are called “bulgur” which is what is used to make “tabouli”, the Middle Eastern dish). When the grain is wet, you will need a heavy duty blender, such as a Vita-Mix. Even then, you can only grind about 1 to 1-1/2 cups at a time because it is so sticky. If using a Vita-Mix, be sure to use the tamper to help it to circulate. If you find that it is clogging, you can also add about 1/2 cup water to make it less dense and then add a little flour to your final mixture to make it the right consistency.  To dry the berries, spread them out thin on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. I’ve found this helps to keep them from getting too hot on the bottom, but if you don’t have any, use stainless steel or stoneware. Set your oven to it’s lowest setting and let them dry for about 8 hours or until dry. Once dry, let them cool and then put in the refrigerator. Mason jars work well for this. You can also grind them to make flour.

Here’s a simple recipe to make Sprouted Wheat Bread.  As with any recipe, make adjustments to suit the tastes of your family.  For example, you may want to add dried fruit or nuts. See below for some ideas.

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Wheat berries, just like any other seed, need a moist environment to germinate for a few days. However, you have to rinse them often so they will stay fresh. To begin, put the wheat in a quart-sized mason jar and cover with water. Cover with cheese cloth and secure with a rubber band. Rinse 2-3 times per day by turning upside down and then refilling with water over the cloth. Within about 1-1/2 to 2 days, they will begin to sprout. You will notice small white spots at the end of the berry.  Drain most of the water.  Put 1/2 of the berries in the Vita-Mix.  Turn on high and use the tamper to push down the berries.  After they are blended, repeat with the second batch.  In a bowl, combine honey and 1/2 cup warm water and yeast.  When it gets bubbly, add the ground berries.  Mix together and add the flavoring.*   Add enough flour to knead it into a loaf (bulgur flour is preferred)  Place in a buttered non-aluminum and non-Teflon pan such as glass or stoneware.  Let sit at room temperature for 45 minutes or until expanded in size.  Place in a preheated oven of 350 degrees and bake for 40 minutes or until done.  Let cool on rack before slicing.  Store in the fridge.

*Try any one of these 5 flavorings below:

Also, there are many other seeds/grains that can be sprouted such as millet, quinoa, lentils, barley, spelt and others.  For an overview on sprouting, you may also want to read this online article http://chetday.com/sprouts.htm

Topics: Bread | No Comments »

The Western Diet and the Diseases of Civilization

By Chris | June 7, 2008

This is the second of three articles summarizing and reviewing Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food.  If you have not already read the review of his first section, “The Age of Nutritionism“, you may want to do that first.  

Pollan’s premise here is that most of our health problems in society can be traced to how (and what) we are eating.  If we’d just fix the food, then our health and most diseases would go away on their own.  The previous section debunked the myth that “Nutritionism” could fix the food, and showed that it does, in fact, cause diseases to be more prevalent.  But do we really have a problem is the question?

Pollan begins by giving us a wonderful example highlighting that yes, we do in fact have a problem.  He describes an experiment done on some Australian aborigines who have been living in the city for quite some time.  In the experiment, all of them move from the city back to the bush country, and remarkably, their health began to improve…dramatically.  Junk science you might wonder?  Well, not really.

He spends the bulk of his second chapter bringing to light some of the research done by men like Weston A. Price and others.  Price, a dentist in search of the truth behind what was causing tooth problems, traveled the world and found that native populations which were not exposed to a Western diet also lacked one important thing…Western diseases.  Not only tooth decay, but cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and a host of other diseases were notably absent from these cultures which refrained from the refined foods of the West.  So why wasn’t he readily believed and accepted?  The answer was two-fold.

First, at the time of Weston A. Price, in the 1930’s, it was understood that “the processing of foods typically robs them of nutrients, vitamins especially.  Store food is food designed to be stored and transported over long distances, and the surest way to make food more stable and less vulnerable to pests is to remove the nutrients from it.  In general, calories are much easier to transport - in the form of refined grain or sugar - than nutrients, which are liable to deteriorate or attract the attention of bacteria, insects, and rodents, all keenly interested in nutrients.”  Price concluded that the key to good health was eating “a traditional diet consisting of fresh foods from animals and plants grown on soils that were themselves rich in nutrients.”  Those two ideas did not mix well together.

Second, with the industrialized society taking over (the WWII era), no one wanted to hear that they needed to eat locally grown, non-preserved foods.  The people wanted bigger, more industrialized cities, not more rural.  So, the nutritionists won out, and the supermarkets with the centrally located food were now entrenched.

In his third and final chapter for this section, Pollan again turns very evolutionistic.  Even though he does not credit God for designing food the way it is, he still accurately observes that foods do have unique traits that make them want to be eaten (smell, color, taste, etc.)  These unique traits often occur when the foods are ripe and ready to be eaten.  Amazingly, this also coincides to when the seeds are ready to be transported to the soil.  So what have we done in the West?  We’ve tricked our senses by adding artificial colors, artificial sweeteners, and the like.  Ironically, he concedes that humans may evolve and eventually be able to handle our refined Western diet.  So, as an evolutionist, I am not sure why Pollan is really making his argument that we need to fix our diet.  If we really will evolve into “superhumans” as he supposes, then we should keep eating what we are eating and hope for the best.

His point for the section, though, is that good foods look, smell, and taste good.  They grow that way naturally.  It is only when we break foods down and then try to reassemble them that we get into trouble.   A good example of this is how we mill flour today.  The old-fashioned way kept all the parts (and nutrients) together as the grain was ground by stone.  The modern milling process removes the nutrients and gives us white flour.  We then must go back and add B vitamins and folic acid.  We break it down and “try” to reassemble it.  Short term, we solve the nutrient deficiency, but long term, we’re still missing some things.  ”A whole food might be more than the sum of its nutrient parts.”    

The next issues he tackles are food diversity and quality.  Today, four crops account for 3/4 of our calories: corn, soy, wheat, and rice.  As omnivores, we no longer consume a wide variety of foods.  Now, combine this with the fact that the foods we are growing have less nutritional value in them due to the poor soils we’re maintaining.  ”We’ve been breeding crops for yield, not nutritional quality.”  We’ve swapped quality for quantity.

Finally, Pollan spends a good deal of time discussing omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.  The key, he believes, is the ratio more than the quantity, and in America, we’re at over 3 times the traditional ratio.  The omega-6 fatty acids are primarily found in seeds (i.e. - grains) while the omega-3 fatty acids are primarily in the leafy portions of the plant.  And this ecological shift is the underlying problem of our food woes.

So, overall, Pollan does a remarkable job bringing to light the problems in the diet we all (or most of us) are accustomed to.  Before we can fix the problem, we have to know that there is, indeed, a problem.  Though not a scientific treatise, it combines enough detailed information in the form of a light, quick read.  It has been enjoyable, and I highly recommend it (thus far).  Stay tuned for the next article, “Getting Over Nutritionism”, which will cover how we go about fixing the problem that Nutrition-ism has not only caused, but also has failed to fix.

Topics: In Defense of Food | No Comments »

The Age of Nutritionism

By Chris | June 5, 2008

Michael Pollan’s new book, In Defense of Food, really hits the mark when it comes to assessing the state of eating in America today. He divides the book into three sections, the first two of which really define the problems we face in America, and the third covering how to best fix it.

Michael Pollan divides the book into three sections; the first of which is: “The Age of Nutritionism.”

The basic premise is that nutrition-ism rules in America, not nutrition. Scientists are taking good things, like omega-3 fatty acids (fish fat), and putting them in things never designed for them to be in (like hot dogs and hamburgers). They’re taking bad things (like saturated fats) out.  The goal is food with nothing but good things…and to have at least 200% of all the daily recommended values of those good things…all in a convenient wrapper…oh yeah, and it won’t spoil…ever.  How (and why) does this happen? Well, it all started with a little margarine.

Margarine came on the scene as a cheap alternative to butter, but the manufacturers realized that they could market it, with a little tinkering, as better than butter. The bad things could be removed and good things could be added…the best of both worlds, right? The problem was, legally they had to label it as “imitation”, and that didn’t sound all that good. No one wants to be the imitation food.  They want to be the “better than real” food. These food processors eventually helped rewrite the rules to allow for foods with “equivalent nutritional value” to be labeled the same as their real counterparts. People were being duped with the line that if it all has the same (or better/more) nutrients, then it must be as good (or better). Scientists were believed to be able to engineer better foods for us, completely disregarding the fact that God designed foods the way He did for a reason.

So, back to the fish fat in your hot dogs…if omega-3 fatty acids are good for you in fish, they must also be good for you in hot dogs, right?  We’ll, that’s where things are headed.  Go take a look at the breakfast cereal aisle.  Based on the nutritionists’ logic, it won’t be long before the antioxidants in chocolate bars are touted as the new health craze.

Next, Pollan attacks the myth that low fat equates to good health. It is (or should be) intuitive that the premise does not hold true. Look at the number of heart attacks in America. Look at the waistlines of Americans. Look at the number of people now on cholesterol medication.  The numbers aren’t going down. So why don’t the propagators of this lie just admit they are wrong? Most likely because, “we’ll come to the unavoidable conclusion that the emperors of nutrition have no clothes and never listen to them again.”  And who is the emperor?  That would be the government food agencies out there trying to save us from ourselves.

So, the government keeps the lie going. Just recently, “the FDA has just signed off on a new health claim for Frito-Lay chips on the grounds that eating chips fried in polyunsaturated fats can help you reduce your consumption of saturated fats, thereby conferring blessings on your cardiovascular system.”  Wow.

Because of the propaganda machine, people now think of fat as a toxin as opposed to an essential nutrient. All of these lies is based on bad science. Nutritionism isolates nutrients from the context of food, food from the context of diet, and the diet from the context of lifestyle.  They are all interrelated, so pulling them apart gives false results and conclusions.  For example, beta-carotene in plants is very good, but as a supplement, it has been suggested that it actually increases the risk of certain cancers.  The foods we eat are amazingly complex and we fool ourselves if we ever think we can get to the bottom of it.  Foods we eat with each other also affect things.

Though not a godly man, and most definitely an evolutionist, Pollan still brings to light many of the flaws in the way we view food today.  It is unfortunate that he does not give credit to The Creator for the marvelous way God has designed all of His food.  The complexity of even a carrot should cause us to stand back and marvel.  God didn’t design us to get the nutrients apart from the food.  In fact, God did not design us to eat the food apart from the enjoyment of the food.  We may spend another thousand years dissecting a carrot, but I still don’t think we’ll ever create something so perfect.

Stay tuned for the review of Part 2, “The Western Diet and the Diseases of Civilization.”

Topics: In Defense of Food | No Comments »


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