Pay me now or pay me later – healthy food vs health care

One of the pages I follow on Facebook is Mother Jones magazine.  They have progressive, thought-provoking content.  Yesterday they had an interactive tool on their magazine’s web site – Is Your Food Spending Normal?  I’m a sucker for these types of quizzes.  I also am competitive – I like to win.  So (insert frowny face here) I was at first bummed at seeing that I, picturing myself as Ms. Frugal (I am Scottish and Dutch, after all, nationalities touted for frugality) spends too much on food.

The me who can be negative and judgmental had a little snippy remark to self about comparing checkbook size and waist size.  But then I thought “Oh wait! Create Positive Change!  How can I make this into a GOOD story?”

While I am the first to admit that my food expenditures are not just on apples, broccoli and cod, and that Ms. No-to-Big-Corporations has a robust Starbucks addiction going, I DO think that eating high quality, nutritious food is part of the reason why I spend more —- on Food.

On health care?  not so much.

And I think there’s a correlation.  I had asked my friend Kay, when she worked as a nurse in our local hospital, what percentage of people were in the hospital due to lifestyle factors as opposed to genetics or accidents.  At that point she said something like “over 75%”.  When she and I discussed this again last week, she said she thinks it is well over 90%. This 2005 article “Only 3 percent of Americans live a healthy lifestyle” would seem to substantiate that.  Some common diseases caused by lifestyle (nutrition, exercise, smoking) are outlined in this recent Livestrong article.  And though this article is from 2003, I suspect the depressing facts and figures on how obesity contributes to health and health care spending have gotten more depressing, not less.

I could provide a million links, but you get my point.  As I’ve written here before, when people point out that it costs money to eat healthfully, I always say that I’d rather spend money now on good food than later on cancer or diabetes care.

Does eating healthfully guarantee that I won’t develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes or other lifestyle-related leading causes of death?  No, life does not come with guarantees other than death itself.  But if articles like this one are correct (and if you read just ONE link from today’s blog, make it this one) you can save lots of money for yourself – and the government (as you may well get these diseases once you’re on Medicare – the effects of bad choices often take a few decades to kick in).

So – the Create Positive Change me DOES need to look at some of the unhealthy food choices I make with all that excessive spending (can I justify a Snickers bar?  I’m thinking no.  The Starbucks, however, shall remain).  But I can feel good about the choices I make  – food, my gym membership, even reading Prevention magazine to stay motivated – that are helping me save money – both now and in the future – on health care.

How about you?  How did you do on MoJo’s “Is Your Food Spending Normal” quiz?  Do you feel okay about the results?  Or do you need to make some changes?  I really want to know!

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Urban homesteading

Wednesday are Community Day here at Taking it to the Streets

My paternal grandparents were farmers in Doon, Iowa. They had a family farm with different animals (chickens, cows and pigs is what I remember) and raised different crops. Grandma had a huge garden, even after they moved to town.  When it was harvest time they’d get together with their friends and go from farm to farm. While the men harvested in the fields as a team, the women canned, smoked meats, quilted.

In what we call “the Sixties” which actually occurred mostly in the 70s, there was a small but notable “back to the land movement” with homesteading hippies.  Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sang Joni Mitchell’s lyrics in “Woodstock” – “We’ve got to get back to the land and let our soul free.”

According to Wikipedia “In the 1930s, 24 percent of the American population worked in agriculture compared to 1.5 percent in 2002”

But there’s a new phenomena arising – a very different “back to the land” that doesn’t involve “tune in, turn on and drop out” lifestyles. In fact, it more likely involves minivans, soccer playing children, iPads and Starbucks.  “Urban homesteading” (which often occurs in suburbs) is a term being bandied about for the increasing numbers of people who want to take a more active role in producing the food they eat.  From back yard gardens, to keeping chickens and bees, to smoking your own meat, canning, drying food. 

When I went to the workshop put on by the McHenry County Transition group (mentioned in this post) there was information about creating your own solar energy source, canning, soap-making, beekeeping, creating community – an entire panoply of skills that were once the province of only rural folks.  Yes, some of the people attending lived in very rural areas, but the suburb my friend and I are from is far from rural, however bucolic it may appear to be.

I think this movement which fits hand-in-glove with the localvore and sustainability movements which also interest me, is a sensible response to both the ills of the world (as the Transition Town movement talks of – the confluence of Peak Oil and Global Warming) but also with some really good generational synergy – the ambitious sometimes driven members of my generation – the Baby Boomers – are starting to mellow; and the younger generations seem much more focused on connecting with life and one another – not as driven by “success” and greed.  It’s a nice confluence.

I like the idea of getting back to basics. And what is more basic than food, really?  In a world that seems more and more corporate and inhumane, taking back our lives, starting with what and how we eat seems a truly radical act.

Tackling urban homesteading on my own seems pretty daunting to me.  But I remember Grandma talking about those canning parties and quilting bees and getting together “to put food by” and it all sounded very warm and friendly and enlivening.  I could very much welcome that.

Of the 18 posts I’ve tagged “Food” the ones below seem most connected to this topic. So if Urban Homesteading and “rolling your own” (crepes that is – now what were YOU thinking?) interests you, pop in on these topics and please add to the conversation!

Something’s in the Kitchen with Diane (a Whole Lotta Somethings, actually)

More Cohousing Lite – Cooking Parties

Power to the People – Let’s Turn this Country Around!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Farmer Jane

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Food conundrums

Mondays are Physical Day here at Taking it to the Streets

If you’ve been joining me here for a while, you know I read and think and write about food and nutrition fairly often.  It’s a topic that’s interested me since my 20’s (the nutrition part – the food part mostly since I was born).   I became even more passionate on the importance of healthy food as I watched my 46 year-old-friend die of cancer this winter. 

As I began reading more on nutrition I was first struck by how much things had changed over the years.  The books I read in the 70s and the authors who taught me what was healthy to eat (books like Diet for a Small Planet, Laurel’s Kitchen, and Adele Davis’s books) soon gave way to the anti-fat (in foods, not necessarily in us, though the point then was that they were interrelated) mania in the 80s.  So then I read Jane Brody’s Good Food Book:  Living the High Carbohydrate Way and Moosewood Cookbook.

My recent forways are mostly written about in Taking it to the Streets – Gary Taubes’ book Why We Get Fat and Dr. David Servan-Schreiber’s The Anti-Cancer Lifestyle being the most recent forays.

After I wrote about Taubes’ book, my good friend Susan sent me a link to The China Study and asked “well, have you read this?”

Because The China Study and Why We Get Fat say pretty much the opposite things.

Then there’s my new juicer.  I eat a lot of fruits and veggies anyway – they’re a very big part of my diet. And I almost never drink commercial juices as they are just WAY too glycemic.  But it would be fun to drink something that’s not water or coffee or tea once in a while – I don’t drink pop, I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t drink milk – sometimes it would just feel nice to go a little wild, you know – like have some beet-kale-pineapple-blueberry-beet green juice.  Which was my first made-up juice recipe (verdict:  Trish and I liked it, KJ reported “this tastes like dirt!”).

Now my juice had no added sweeteners but beets, pineapple and blueberries are all at least somewhat glycemic. then there’s the matter, for Ms. Sustainability here, of all the perfectly good food (which, in juicer-land is disparagingly called “pulp”) which got put in a plastic bag, then into my fridge, and ultimately into my friend Bill’s garden.

So, the juicer – a good thing? or a bad thing?

It IS hard to figure out what one should do.  The bad old days of Beck’s beer, Hostess cupcakes and pizza, while crazily unhealthy, were at least not confusing.  “Taste good”/”Addictive” = I want, therefore I eat.

Now, not so much.  The evidence I see between what we eat and health is just too overwhelming.

The only sure shot I have found – the one incontrovertible food dictum that seems like everyone can sign up for is that sugar is not a good thing.  A tasty thing, yep. Addictively so.  But if you are in doubt, have a look at Gary Taubes recent New York Times article on sugar.

So I continue to read, to talk to smart friends and my so-called “alternative” health care providers (i.e., health care that works) and most importantly, I listen to my body. Which, now that I’ve taken most of the addictive substances away, is actually talking to me rather nicely.  So for instance, when KJ said our little concoction tasted like dirt, and my frugal-sustainable-girl self said “Wasteful!” and my health bossypants said “probably too glycemic” my body said YUM!  I’m going with the yum.

How do you decide what to feed yourself?  What’s most important to you? Is it taste? Cost? Health?  If you had to rank what matters of those three, how would you rank them?  I really want to know!

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Farmer Jane

Mondays are Physical Day here at Taking it to the Streets

And Tuesdays are  “Idea” day – today, my friends you get a Two-Fer, as I just finished reading Farmer Jane:  Women Changing the Way We Eat by Temra Costa.

What a lot of great ideas!  The book is divided into six sections, each with several profiles of women who are doing cool work around that topic.  The sections are:

• Building new Farm-to-Eater Relationships
• Advocates for Social Change
• Promoting Local & Seasonal Food
• Networks for Sustainable Food
• Urban Farm Women
• The Next Generation of Sustainable Farmers

At the end of each chapter, after reading 3-5 stories of women involved in the topic at hand, there is a “Recipes for Action” section with action tips for Eaters, Farmers and Food Businesses.  Additionally, there’s supplements (aka Appendices) and resource listings in the book and a really great Farmer Jane web site .

While I truly enjoyed the entire book, the “Building new Farm-to-Eater Relationship” section and “Urban Farm Women” probably spoke the most to me.  As someone who is becoming passionately interested in localvorism, hearing of women farmers starting their own CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) was really inspiring.  I LOVED the suggestions for eaters in this section (I’ve greatly shortened them):

• Join a CSA
• Start with a small committment and grow it (i.e., shop at Farmer’s markets once a month before you commit to weekly)
• Shop at your locally owned natural foods store or even better, a member or worker-owned food co-op)
• Start a food-buying club
• Encourage more local foods wherever you eat or shop
• Help those in need (check out www.foodnotbombs.net )
• Can and preserve  foods

I was excited both because I’m doing some of these things already – but also because I’m not yet doing many of them – more opportunities to make a difference! In my own life and health, for sure – but also in this goofy world.  Every carrot that doesn’t have to be hauled on a truck from California is one more bunch of oil we don’t have to buy from bad guys.  And one more job closer to home.  And hopefully, if I’m buying from local Farmer Janes or Farmer Nicks, it won’t be loaded up with all sorts of horrid chemicals either (like baby carrots in their chlorine baths…)

The other section I loved was the urban farming one.  There are some very innovative women out there making big changes in the world – one empty lot at a time.  Just check out what Willow Rosenthal started with City Slicker Farms! Starting with an $11,000 empty lot in Oakland, CA she has gone on to six little urban farms in Oakland, as well as the highly innovative Backyard Garden Program: “The Backyard Garden Program builds food self-sufficiency by empowering low-income households to grow fresh produce where they live. Low-income households interested in growing their own food apply to this free program.  Our staff then tests their soil for contaminants. Based upon the soil analysis and what the household wants to grow, the household makes a garden plan with our staff.  Together, the household gardeners and City Slicker Farms’ staff and volunteers build a garden in only four hours.”

I LOVE this concept!

But wait! There’s more! They do education, advocacy and consulting too.

And that’s just one of the stories in this highly inspiring book.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what we can do in my little neighborhood. Already some of us are banding together.  5 households banded together and bought chicken and egg ‘shares’ for the winter (a poultry CSA, I guess) – prepaying Farmer Nick for a set amount of whole chickens and dozens of eggs (for instance my friend Bill & I split 3 chickens and one dozen eggs per month).  Our friend Jen took delivery of them all and then we worked out delivery from Jen’s house in a nearby town to where the rest of us are a few towns away. 

In the past I’ve split a CSA share with my neighbors Pete & Julie.  Last year going to Farmer’s Markets worked out better. 

It’s fun to take back our health and our economy and our lives by the very crucial issues of where we get our food.  I’m not quite ready to turn into a gardener (though you know? I think I’m getting closer…) but getting healthy food that is healthy for me, the planet, the animals I eat and the economy – that’s pretty important to me.

So this book was a great resource for me.  What part appeals to YOU?  And how are you changing the way you eat – for health, the economy, Mama Earth or just because it’s so much tastier and more fun?  Tell us!

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Blogs I read on health and wellness and food

Today, for your consideration, I’ll point you to some of the blogs I read about health, nutrition, wellness and food.

Agrigirl’s Blog – I LOVE Tammy McLeod’s blog!! If you like food, like reading about localvorism, sustainability and enjoy good writing from an insightful woman you’ll love this blog as much as I do. Plus she has a neat ‘signature’ in that she ends each blog post with a relevant recipe.  Today’s offering is about the herb rosemary and its medicinal uses.  Check out Agrigirl!

Ayurvedic Adventure – My dear friend Alan Myers is continuing his recovery from a bout of cancer – he is in India working with Ayurvedic practitioners and blogging about it.  I’ve always really loved Alan, but after all of these years of knowing him as a dear friend, reading his blog is opening up a whole new Alan to me.  What a deep, insightful guy. And what new things I’m learning about healing!  I hope he keeps blogging upon his return from India!

The Heart Scan Blog – I came across this one when I was ardently trying to prove that the current “anti-wheat” movement was a fad, misguided and just wrong.  After reading Dr. William Davis’s blog, I stopped eating wheat.  He says it’s the cause of much of the heart disease in this country (he’s a practicing cardiologist in Milwaukee) and adequately answered my prior rallying cry “humans have been eating wheat for thousands of years” – yes, but they weren’t eating one species – they had variety – and they weren’t eating it by the bushel-full.  A good blog, albeit very one-pointed.

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“Why We Get Fat” – part two

Mondays are Physical Day at Taking it to the Streets
Tuesdays are Ideas/Information Day at Taking it to the Streets

So today you get a ‘two-fer’ – a book review on a book about nutrition and health.  I wrote a bit about this book when I first started reading it and promised I’d report back to you.

So let me start by saying that if you’re a woman you’ve either read or thumbed through “women’s magazines”.  And maybe you’ve noticed all the eight zillion articles about how you HAVE TO BE thin to get a man and thus, have a worthwhile life.  If you are a thinking woman this perhaps has annoyed you.

I know many women in my community (I’m gay) are insulted by this cultural bias and seem to take it almost as a point of pride to do a little flip-off to “lookisms” and the tyranny of slenderness by just Not.Giving.A.Shit

And while I personally find overweight to be  aesthetically unpleasing, I do agree that having fashion set by gay male fashion designers who seem to want women to look like teenaged boys is rather annoying.

If the whole question of weight were just aesthetics, I’d say “well, to each their own” and not give it another thought.

This book made me take (at least internally – at least for now) a more strident stance.

Because it’s truly a matter of life and death. 

At the benefit concert for my 46 year old friend who just died of adenocarcinoma (111 days after diagnosis) her best guy friend, Greg, said to me:  “You know, I’m getting disillusioned with the health care industry even though I work in it.  A million dollars worth of tests and treatments and this is the best they can do.  Really?  I’m mad!”

I said to Greg that it is my belief that while many of the folks involved are no doubt well-intentioned, they aren’t looking at the big picture.  Ask your family doctor how many classes they took in medical school on nutrition. And think about it – when was the last time you went to the doctor and got nutritional and lifestyle advice rather than a prescription?  If the answer is “within my lifetime” you are amazingly lucky and I want the name of your doctor. 

I keep reading in multiple areas that 75-80% of disease is “lifestyle” – meaning bad food and no exercise. 

And the definition of  “good for you food” keeps changing – which is what felt revolutionary to me about this book.  When I first started reading about nutrition in the 1970s it was all about eating  low-fat and carbs, carbs, carbs.  Dr. Atkins came along in, I think, 1982, but that seemed like a diet-fad to me so I paid it no heed.

This guy – Gary Taubes – basically says that Atkins got it mostly right – but explains the science behind it.  Thanks to him I understand what triglycerides are and how they relate to high-carb eating.  I understand the role insulin plays in regulating your overall health. And I understand why it really is true that sleeping more helps you lose weight.

So the book has this “let’s sell a boatload of copies” title “Why We Get Fat” – and it talks a lot about weight loss.  But I was reading it to find out about health – one of the main benefits of weight loss is very concrete health improvements. 

However, when my brother started eating the Atkins diet (lots of meat, eggs, and green leafy veggies) I was very concerned about his heart as this our family’s weak link – heart disease.  So Mr. Taubes has a whole section “The Heart Disease Argument” in his chapter “The Nature of a Healthy Diet” addressing just that very concern. 

I was telling my friend last night that I’m eager to see what all ‘my numbers’ are when I go for an annual physical later in the spring.  I’m kind of a “show me” girl – so I want to see if the changes I’ve been making – no wheat, very few grains of any kinds, virtually no processed foods, more protein, lots of veggies, fruit and nuts and (other than dark chocolate) no sugar – if that has made a difference.

One thing I DO know is that when I was eating the way I had learned was healthy I was fat and had high cholesterol.  My BMI is still in the overweight zone, but not by a huge amount – so Taubes argument about weight loss seems true.  And I’ll soon see what the other numbers say.

More protein.  More fat (yes, you read that right).  Less carbs.  I’ll tell you one thing – you don’t get very hungry when you eat that way.  The whole point of this is regulating your insulin. If you’re thinking “Well, we don’t have diabetes in my family” I’d say a few things – look around – there’s an EPIDEMIC of diabetes in this country.  And also – unregulated insulin contributes to heart disease (which I knew) and cancer (which I did not) too. 

If you care about nutrition and heath and longevity (and quality of life while you’re living a long time) I HIGHLY recommend this book.  I’m tweaking the way I eat even more based on reading it. 

Oops – time to go put my hard boiled eggs in the refrigerator so they’re ready for breakfast tomorrow.  I’m open to changing how I eat to have a vibrant life – how about you?

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“Why We Get Fat” by Gary Taubes

Monday is Physical Day here at Taking it to the Streets

I’m reading a fascinating book now called Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes.  Common wisdom says we get fat because we eat too much and/or exercise too little.

He says we eat too much and exercise too little because we are fat.

And says that science has not done an adequate job of determing why we are too fat.  I’m only about halfway through the book but I read about this book whilst reading something else so I already know where he’s going with this – insulin and glycemic indexes and WHAT we eat, not how many calories the food contains.  I think this book could also be called Dr. Atkins vindication – it seems to be going that way.

I’ll report more on the book when I’ve actually read the whole thing, but what interests me besides my innate interest in health and nutrition is the idea that “common sense” or “everyone knows that…” needs to be examined.  I’m thinking of  Galileo and the earth being the center of the Universe and all.  Sometimes it just isn’t so.

I do know that as I’ve continued to move away from many carbs, I have very effortlessly lost weight.  is that scientific evidence? No, but it makes me want to keep reading this book and keep doing what I’m doing.

Gary Taubes wrote an earlier book, on which this one is based, called “Good Calories, Bad Calories” which contained even more scientific backup for his assertions.  This is the “for the general public” version – and i’m glad he wrote an accessible book for those of us for whom scientific writing is a bit like Japanese.

At just half way through the book, I’d say it’s definitely worth a read – I’ll keep you posted.

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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Tuesdays are “Information/Ideas” day here on Taking It to the Streets – often showing up as book reviews.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver’s recent book is really a masterpiece and a perfect-for-me book:

– Gorgeous, accessible, beautifully writing
– Funny! I wasn’t expecting that. Kingsolver is a firebrand, passionate activist – and she’s writing on serious topics, but good gracious this is a funny book.
– Her passion about food, nutrition, health, the environment and what I consider to be TRUE family values is visceral. I can’t imagine reading this book and feeling ho-hum about it. Her arguments are compelling, her way of presenting them is at times inviting, at times challenging. It’s not a ‘sit back and just take it in” book – to me this book compels action.

The book chronicles one year in the life of her family as they “abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life – vowing that, for one year, they’d only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it.”

So they took the localvore thing to a whole new level – actually growing/raising a LOT of their food, putting food up (canning and freezing) – in many ways, living like my rural grandparents.  Food politics as well as nutrition are passions of mine and I felt as though I had thought about this topic a lot so I was surprised to learn as many facts as I did in the book.

The book was co-authored by Barbara, her husband Steven Hopp, their elder daughter Camille.  Their younger daughter Lily (9 at the time of writing) was prominently featured in the book – my favorite character along with a wild turkey named Lolita (the part about turkey sex was laugh out loud funny).

For those of us who have read The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan, we are aware of the nightmares of industrial food – the sad, scary parts of our food supply that are so hidden from us.  But I think a lot of folks picture the kind of farm my grandparents had or the one they sang about as toddlers (you know where your quarter pounder comes from – Old McDonald’s…) when you think of farming.  If you even THINK of farms as where food comes from.  Of course for a lot of people what they eat is very far removed from both farm and food.  Even so, with all that I read on this topic, I didn’t know that turkeys don’t typically live past four months old and that turkey babies aren’t made my turkey mommies and daddies having sex any more – it’s all artificial insemination. 

While I’m not sure I’m ready or willing to work as hard as they did to raise ALL of my own food or to eat only locally, the book’s evangelism definitely hit home with me.  I’m either doing a CSA share this summer (Community Supported Agriculture) or doing Farmer’s Markets combined with my friend Bill’s generous garden bounty. 

She talked a lot about the cost (in all ways) of shipping food all over the planet – the oil involved to get bananas or kiwis here.  And while even St. Barbara didn’t give up coffee, her family DID give up tropical fruits.  I’m not ready to eschew bananas as yet, but I AM being much more diligent about not buying strawberries in the winter, or any other things that would have shocked my farm-wife Grandma.  Buying locally makes sense to me.  Growing your own, makes sense to me.

I’ve been eating less and less processed food.  Not so many boxes or bottles or cans in my life.  More cooking. Simple meals that taste great, are cheaper than packaged stuff. And I’ve lost 22 lbs since I started focusing more on the health of Diane and of the Planet.

Even if you don’t intend to grow your own food, make your own cheese (I DO want to try that one!) or eschew anything – I still think you’d benefit from this book.  My interest in this subject has been growing, but I started small. the changes I’m going to make now are small – did a lot of Farmer’s Markets last year, intend to do more this year.  Maybe start a compost pile to give to Bill the Garden Guru.  Get a rain barrel.  Cut down on non-local foods.  Go to restaurants (like Duke’s in Crystal Lake, IL) that use locally grown, hormone and antibiotic free animal products and local produce.

The Earth needs us to pay more attention. Our bodies need us to be better stewards.  Plus, you know? Locally grown, fresh REAL food tastes SOOOOOO much better.

Really, this is one of the 2 best food books I’ve read (Omnivore’s Dilemma is the other one).  All of Barbara Kingsolver’s books are great, but this is my favorite.  Have you read it? What did YOU think?

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More on food and health (and oh those secret Coke ingredients….)

It’s Monday – my day to write about the Physical aspects of life.

Couldn’t help but notice some ideas in the juxtaposition of the book I’m reading  (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver – expect a review tomorrow on Ideas/Books day) and the news story about the secret formula for Coca-Cola being revealed, combined with my ongoing shock at my 46-year-old friend’s fast slide into death from liver cancer.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a perfect book for me – food activism, localvorism, nutrition, health and a kickass writer to bring arch observations to it all. 

Coca Cola contains (no shit!) coca (you know, the stuff they make cocaine from…) and alcohol.  Lovely.

And Becky’s cancer has had me thinking hard about what goes into my mouth (see We Can Make a Difference – Killing Ourselves with Forks or Choosing Health from this blog).

I am still making choices that I think I ultimately won’t – blackberries in February in Chicago (goes against my localvorism), bananas anytime (actually, I don’t see myself giving up bananas – we aren’t meant to be perfect – smile), eating industrial chicken when I go to restaurants. 

During the stress of my friend’s last month I had a few more York Peppermint patties than I think I should have (my regime is plain dark chocolate only in the realm of sweets).

But at least I’m conscious, making choices, in general choosing health, and being aware of what I put into my body. The problem with eating packaged/processed foods is that you really DON’T know what you are putting in your body.

“things go better with Coke” – yeah, just give me a snort of cocaine and bottle of Jack Daniels while you’re at it, ya know?  No wonder they sell gallons of it.  And what’s scarier?  People give this crap to their children.  Yowser.

We ARE what we eat.  Our lives, our health, the welfare of the planet and our spiritual condition are all intertwined with the choices we make.  Even the staid American Cancer Society says 3-14% of cancers are a direct result of obesity.  Sugar is cancer fertilizer. 

I’m troubled by two things:  one, that corporations hoodwink us (coke’s secret ingredients) for their own profit.  Two, that we are too lazy, pleasure-seeking or oblivious to inform ourselves and make better choices.  I know there are times when the 2 minutes of “ahh” with something that I know isn’t good for me pulls me in despite the fact that I actually know plenty and still sometimes make dumb choices.  But my friend’s death has had a sobering effect.  When I look at the big picture, how I love and feed myself seems pretty important.

This is an issue about which I have a lot of passion.  I’m curious – what’s YOUR take?  Do you believe that what you eat is a major factor in your health and the health of the planet or do you think I’m a spoilsport and need to lighten up?  How do you view food and health?  I’d really like to know!

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What’s for dinner?

I’ve been rather focused on nutrition lately.  8 friends with cancer, most younger than I am – it kind of gets your attention.   So I’ve been reading a lot and I’m finding more and more evidence to support what I’ve thought since I was in my 20’s – what we eat makes a HUGE difference in our well-being, longevity and day-to-day health.

On some things there is pretty wide consensus – sugar is not good for you (surprised?).  But even in those “doh” findings, I’m learning new things like “sugar is cancer fertilizer.” – wow – that’s more specific and more scary than “not good for you”!

Last summer I went to see a holistic chiropractor who does a lot of work around nutrition.  Among the very first recommendations were to eliminate wheat and dairy. So I assiduously set out to prove the guy wrong (I was sort of – no, make that outrageously – attached to those substances).  The more I researched the more alarmed I became.

Right now I’m reading “The Inflammation Syndrome” by Jack Challem.  The theory being that chronic inflammation underlies much disease and our diet underlies much inflammation. This fits with a lot that I have read and actually what this guy recommends fits overall with the way I’ve been eating lately.  So I was feeling pretty good about all of that.

Then I did a little research on The China Study – may have to get the book – but that study basically says avoid all animal products, whereas the Inflammation guy says the exact opposite.

At some point one could become the sort of person others don’t wish to invite for dinner and that would be no fun!

That said, I’m very focused on what I put into my body lately. I’ve grown crazy fond of living.  I see so many of my contemporaries with a zillion health problems, tired, overweight, on lots of pharmaceuticals and I don’t want that.  While I DO believe there are likely some diseases over which one simply has very little control, it’s my belief (and from what I believe and the health care people I talk with) that something like 75-85% of disease is lifestyle-related.

So I’d like to be my like my Grand-Aunt Edna, please.  Aunt Edna died at age 102. She was sick for a month or so.  But she went to the gym 5 days/week til she was 100. She laughed a lot.  She ate like the farm-girl she once was (i.e., real food, not packaged/processed pretend food or fast food). 

As I watch my friends go through chemotherapy I’m thinking that really does not look like fun.  There’s no guarantee that what I’m doing will prevent cancer, heart disease or any other disease – but you know, it’s worth a shot.  Plus I have to say – real food – lean protein, lots of fresh veggies and fruits and nuts – is pretty delicious too.

Do I miss brownies or lasagna or cookies and cake?  Not nearly as much as I’d miss the great joy of health and life.  Not even close in the trade-off department.

How about you?  Have you given much thought to how what you eat affects your life? What are you doing about that?

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