On Food: A Manifesto

In a sure sign that spring will eventually arrive, I received an email and order form from a local farmer that we buy beef from. Time to order for the fall harvest. I sent in my deposit and I’m in for a side of his locally produced beef.

Food. We all need it. We all eat it. It seems to me that many of us spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about it. I know I do. Not in the way you might think; I’m sort of obsessed about our food chain. I believe that our food is the biggest cause of disease and ill health in the U.S. I’m not alone. You can do your own research.

Start with the movie “Food, Inc”  or “Fed Up” and many others that you can watch for free on Netflix and Amazon Prime, etc. Maybe you’ll climb on my bandwagon after doing a little research.

One of the reasons that I wanted to move to northern Michigan was because it’s a foodie heaven. Tons of locally grown produce, fruit, meats, cheese, honey, maple syrup and on and on. Almost anything you need for sustenance is grown and produced here. Much of it organic or chemical-free. There are so many farm stands in the summer and fall, that I constantly carry $1 bills so that I can stop and buy great food.

We also grow our own food. We have a garden, an orchard with 30 apple trees, wild blackberries and raspberries, a huge asparagus patch and now my husband has resumed his hobby of beekeeping.

We buy our beef, poultry, fish, lamb and eggs from locals. We see how those animals are raised; outside, foraging with plenty of room. They are healthy and strong and I’m mostly convinced that they have pretty good lives. I’m still considering cutting animals out of my diet, but as long as I can get the protein that’s raised in this way, I’m at peace with eating them. My moral and humane apple cart is not upset.

Now, I understand that we are blessed to live in a place where this is possible. But, then again, we chose this place for that reason, so it’s not luck; it’s planning and foresight.  Most everyone can find a supply of organic or humanely raised meat no matter where you live, if you take the time.

My husband and I still argue about organic vs. conventionally grown food and I tend to choose organic and items that are labeled as non-GMO. Obviously for health, but also because the mega-food industry pisses me off so much.

It’s my personal, activist protest against the way that our food is grown and produced, with so many chemicals and toxins and mostly, the way that these huge companies will NOT allow accurate labeling. The movement to force them to label GMO products has been crushed under corporate money and lobbying and again, that pisses me off.

We should be able to accurately assess what we are buying and eating. We cannot and that’s why I spend a lot of time procuring, growing and preserving the food that is consumed in our house.

The way that animals are grown and harvested for mass consumption is evil and immoral. They are caged, force fed, kept in the dark and shot full of hormones and anti-biotics to produce more meat, more quickly. Then, they are slaughtered in ways that give me nightmares.

In my airy-fairy belief system, I think that when animals are treated this way, negative and violent energy remains in their flesh, meaning that when it is consumed, that bad mojo then transfers to the eater.  Crazy?  Hey, we’re all energy; we exchange good and bad energy all day, every day.  Violence begets violence.  That’s probably a whole other post, though.

I understand that we need food and I understand that we want inexpensive food and that is the problem. Cost. We are not willing to spend a little more for a superior and more moral product. Even though food is the very foundation of our health and well-being, we’d rather spend that money on more data for our phones.

So, this is my manifesto on food. Meat that is labeled “all natural” at a fancy supermarket is not organic or humanely raised. That label means nothing, other than to make you feel better. Educate yourself, commit to spending a little more and eating a little less. Give up the processed crap. Read any of Michael Pollan’s books on food. Don’t just give up and consume environmental toxins because it’s easy and convenient. This kind of apathy is making us fat and sick. That’s not what the creator intended.

Stake out a little area in your lawn and grow something that you can eat.  Quit spending time and money on useless grass and the care and the toxic sprays that keep it green.  It’s not that hard to care for a small garden and you’ll be part of the solution.  I also suspect you’ll feel pretty damned good when you harvest that first healthy salad that you grew. We rely too much on others for our personal care and feeding.  Take back some control and feed your body, soul and spirit with your own hands.

Be well. As Michael Pollan says: “Eat real food; mostly plants”.

Life can be hard…or not

How do you self-medicate?  Statistically, most of us do in some form or another.  I just read that over 17% of adults routinely binge drink; I also read stats that indicate that 1 in 4 of us are on some sort of anti-depressant.

So, really, is life all that bad?  Or could it be that you aren’t doing what you need to for your own health and well-being, minus drugs and alcohol?  To stay physically/emotionally/mentally/spiritually healthy takes effort, but when you have liquor stores and bars on every corner, that’s just easier.  Or when you go to your doc and tell them that you’re ‘unhappy’ or ‘restless’ or ‘moody’ and they give you a prescription, it’s just easier.

We want things to be easy because we’re told our lives are difficult in these modern times.  After all, we have debts and conflicts and blended families and single parents and cultural decline and obesity and ADHD and ADD and bratty kids and horrible bosses and low paying jobs and pollution and wars and pain and suffering and the Kardashians. And that’s just what I saw on the “Today Show”. Yup, it sure sucks to be walking about on the earth in 2012.

So, why NOT drink too much/eat too much/sit around too much/pop a pill too much?  How else can you cope?

Well, you can STOP drinking too much/eating too much/sitting too much and obsessing too much.  Sounds kinda preachy coming from someone who self-medicated with alcohol for much of her adult life, eh?  Well, as they say ‘it takes one to know one’.  I’ve outlined my drinking history enough on this blog, but in a nutshell, I started making the world go away with booze as a teenager.  I continued with this strategy throughout my 20s, part of my 30s and most of my 40s. I’ve quit drinking 3 times, now.

Having been sober for a few years, with new coping strategies in place, I feel like I’ve quit for good, but since I’m an alcoholic, I have to be vigilant to stay off the booze and to not fall into some equally destructive habits.

For instance, menopause and it’s first cousin, peri-menopause have thrown quite a monkey wrench into my physical, emotional and mental well-being.  The symptoms march into your life singly or in herds; they wax and wane and there are times when you just want to escape with our favorite friends: food, booze or pharmaceuticals.

A few hours of relief results in a doubling down of those symptoms, meaning you crave more self-meds and that’s destructive.  Identify your triggers and take a long, hard look at how you’re dealing with them.  For instance, I’ve been working on identifying the things that trigger me to shove carby food into my piehole; bread, chocolate chips, pita chips, coooooookies.  I ended up eliminating them from my diet, thanks to a book I recently read, outlining why those things are so addictive and ultimately unhealthy.  I feel great and have begun eating much more mindfully.

About six months ago, I began using bio-identical hormones for my menopausal symptoms and it’s made a tremendous difference for me physically,  sexually and for my overall quality of life.  My husband and I just read a great book by Dr. Andrew Weil, called “Spontaneous Happiness” that has opened up a whole new holistic medicine cabinet for coping with the physical and emotional aspects of aging.

Be proactive.  Don’t just live for the next bottle of wine to ‘take you away’ or pop those meds that your doctor lazily gave you for “anxiety” or shove another 4 brownies in your mouth and call it good.

Here are some books that I found invaluable in my quest for physical/mental/emotional/spiritual health.  I’m always searching for a better way, so I welcome your suggestions as well.
Cheers!

Dr. Christiane Northrup:      “The Wisdom of Menopause”   Dr. Northrup’s book is an invaluable resource, as are all her books on women’s health
Dr. Andrew Weil:      “Spontaneous Happiness”   Dr Weil is the father of “integrative medicine” and I love all of his books on holistic health
Mark Sisson:       “The Primal Blueprint”   A less restrictive “paleo” diet/eating style that is well-researched and might change the way you eat and feel.

HRC Medical :  This is where I go for my bio-identical hormone therapy.  The website has a lot of information, but many practitioners also offer them around the country.