Learning about food

This last week or two has been spent immersed in books.  I've been reading about nutrition.  Since my health concerns are centered around Crohns (everyone's got something right?), which is specific to the digestive system, you can see my renewed interest in what I eat.  From various blogs I've been reading I kept coming across the book Nourishing Traditions, about eating what's been made for thousands of years.  My library didn't have the book on hand when I was there but they did have the book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.  That's the research the Nourishing Traditions is based on.  I figured it was probably a better beginning place anyway.  I have been so amazed at what I'm reading.  I always knew eating better equaled better health but I never saw it spelled out quite like this.  Weston Price, the author, is a dentist from about 70-80 years ago who wanted to know why his US patients were getting more and more cavities instead of fewer.  He compares primitive diets to more modernized diets of groups around the world.   He finds significant differences between the health of those on primitive diets and those on modernized diets eating sugars and processed foods (and imagine how much more processed our diets are now in comparison!)  I've never read a health or nutrition book and felt so moved to change my behaviors.  I'm also questioning some of what I've been taught all my life about food, a good start and well intentioned but maybe thousands of years of eaters knew something about what their bodies needed.

I'm also reading Real Food by Nina Planck.  Her book explains what to eat and why.  I'm not super excited to go back to the grocery store anymore, though I know I will at least for now. Another fascinating book.

I'm not much for purchasing books. I go through too many to keep in my house, so I support my local library frequently.  But these are two books I might consider keepers on my shelf.  I want them to refer back to and so I can hand over the information about my choices when someone looks at me like I'm a crazy person!

So I'm kind of turning into a health nut but from what I see many people feel better by making the changes suggested in these books and it appears to be rather permanent changes.   How much of this is just telling a one sided story?  I don't know yet.  My next step is to read a little of the other side of the story to get a full picture before I make any major changes.  I'm not sure what the other side is but I know someone will have a complaint for what these individuals have researched, there always is. 

That said I do feel good about what I'm reading and learning.  Its nothing major, pretty much to eat a well rounded diet, except for things such as sugar and processed foods which I already knew were on the don't eat very often list - if at all.  Its mostly eat foods in their purest forms.  Yes cooking is foods is fine but but raw is important too.  I'm also learning how adversely the wrongs foods, or I should say processed foods, can affect us.  That's what stunned me and I don't mean just adverse weight gain. We're talking major stuff like bone development, arthritis, heart disease, insulin problems, reproductive problems, immune system problems and so on and so on.  The list keeps growing and growing the more I read. 

The funniest thing about all this is I just can't get away from wanting my own small farm.  Living in a small town has intrigued me since at least my teens.  As I've gotten older I've thought about having a farm and realized much of what I needed was really just sunlight.  I needed to be outside.  Being outside helped keep me exercised and provided sunlight which both helped to keep postpartum depression at bay.  Those days are past and I don't deal with the depression much, just normal does of bad days here and there like everybody else but reading these books has me wanting my own farm again. I can't get away from thinking what my children will learn from the work and experiences of farm life and how we will benefit nutritionally.  I don't know anything about about farming, just bits from books and blogs. Right now it seems too tall an order but I think we'll baby step there if Chris supports the idea - at least a garden if nothing else.


I know I've said nothing about the family today but I don't think I've been able to have a conversation this week without something about this topic in it.  Its kind of consuming my mind at the moment. If its all a bit jumbled that's because its that way in my head.  I think I've gotten so much information so fast I'm having a hard time fully sorting it in my mind.  Its like my eyes have been opened.  This information has been here for years I just was unaware of so much of it or it just wasn't the right time for me to address it.  Who would have thought I'd ever be so interested in understanding things like grass fed beef vs grain fed beef , raw milk vs pastuerized milk, mass production vs. small farms? Not me, I figured there might be some quality differences but didn't know those differences could actually be affecting my health.  More to read, more to learn.