Food thoughts

Over the last, oh, probably six weeks I've read several books on foods and numerous studies and websites online. I'm slowly implementing a lot of changes in our diets, and we are making the slow drift to traditional foods. I've gotten a lot of processed foods out of my cupboards, stopped buying breads (and I'm trying to stop buying pasta, it's not an easy task!)... I want to switch us away from the "big grains" and get more variety in our diet (so, less wheat is a really big one, since we eat a lot of that in the form or pasta, sourdough bread, pancakes, etc). I've ordered some kamut flour that I'll be getting at the end of the week, and I have a big tub of coconut oil coming to me in the mail (along with some arrowroot powder because no one seems to have it in stock locally!), and some coconut flour is also on its way.

So I have some goals and ideas in mind, but I'm really conflicted! I'm just going to kind of lay them out, and maybe some of you readers and chime in with some insight I may be missing.

Some changes we've made:

• switched to vat-pasteurized non-homogenized milk. I'd like to get raw, but I haven't found some here yet. Raw milk is illegal to SELL in Iowa, but you can give it away for free, and there may be "milk shares" I can join.
• switched to only organic butter. This is a place I have been really conflicted for some time; I've wanted to go organic for butter for some time, but it's been cost prohibitive; organic butter runs around $4.50/lbs at the low end. But my reasoning for accepting this cost is explained in the section "things I've learned".
• Making a real effort to keep our food purchases as local as possible. This means carefully selecting my cheeses, my meat, vegetables... Some of this is harder than others. I've found, though Local Harvest farms around here to buy meat, eggs, and honey. Then there's the Farmer's Market which has opened for the season, and of course my own backyard, that is already giving us the gift of food. Sadly (at least to my kids and husband), this means no bananas here state-side. We will eat copious amounts when we are in Hawaii visiting my folks, and lots of avocados.
• Eating seasonally. As our fore-mothers did, this simply means eating the foods that are available in our area at that time of year. So we haven't eaten grapes yet this year. Or melons. But I know when they are ripe and ready, they will taste soooo good.
• We've added in a fermented food or beverage every day. Some examples of this are kefir, yogurt (home cultured), sauerkraut (also home cultured, most of the kraut in the store is pasteurized, which destroys the beneficial bacteria), sourdough bread (though technically the bacteria are destroyed during cooking, the fermentation and action of the bacteria make the bread more digestible, and add more nutrients)
  

Things I've learned:

• Conventional (non-organic) butter can contain, in one pound, the same amount of pesticide load as ten YEARS worth of conventionally grown produce. It didn't make sense to me to reach for the organic potatoes (potatoes being one of the worst conventionally grown products), and then turn around and buy regular butter.
• I want to say something here about polyunsaturated fat, but I don't think my reading on the subject has yet been exhaustive. We didn't do many vegetable oils before (mostly just olive and sunflower), but instead of using those in my recipes calling for vegetable oil, I'll be using coconut oil. I'll eventually write up a post about polyunsaturated fats and why they are evil.
• You can save more energy by eating less meat than by buying a hybrid vehicle. I already knew Americans eat too much meat, but generally Americans eat an unsustainable amount of meat, especially if that meat was all to be ethically raised. This is a change we have to make. I'm not a fan of PETA, but I do think Americans should know the conditions our meat animals live in before they go to slaughter, and the conditions that the workers (I do not say farmers, because it is more factory than farm) also have to endure so that we may have our "chicken in every pot" and our quarter pound burgers. The meat in grocery stores doesn't even look like an animal any more, it's become a convenience food, easy to grab, easy to fix, easy to not think of it as having been a living thing.
  

Conflicting feelings:

• Part of my conflicting feelings comes from the amount of conflicting "food wisdom" or studies that are available. Take for instance the subject of "phytic acid", an acid present in grains that keeps the nutrients locked in until the seeds (as grains are seeds) is planted. Apparently, some purport that this locks away nutrients from our digestive system, possibly even pulling out some nutrients along with it, especially iron. But on the other hand, some studies show that phytic acid in whole grains may help chelate heavy metals out of our bodies. So what is better? Having iron available for absorption, or getting rid of heavy metals in our blood stream. We know Elyas has elevated levels of lead, not alarmingly high, but it is there. On the other hand, Elyas has always had troubles with constipation, grains seeming to be the culprit, but soaked grains (so the phytic acid is reduced) seem to reverse this problem for him. What's the right thing to do?
  
• I feel like animal fats and tropical fats are very good for humans, but tropical fats runs into issue with my Eat Local goal. I ordered some, after quite a bit of thought, because I've read quite a bit about how a diet high in good saturated fats, such as butter and coconut oil and cod liver oil, can, among other things, reduce your need for sunscreen. This makes me very happy because I've been quite concerned about both the effects of burning in the Sun, and rubbing a chemical solution all over your body at frequent intervals.
• Actually the eating animals in a conflicting feeling for me. I was a vegetarian for a long time. I don't think, as I stated above, that the common level of meat consumption is sustainable. Most of the meat in the stores was certainly not raised humanely. I don't want to eat meat from an animal that was treated as a product and not a living thing. I am conflicted with my feeling of wanting to eat meat, thinking it's right for my family to have a small amount of animal protein in our diet, and my feelings about the animal's life and how it is devalued. For the time being, I am selecting only local meat that I know was humanely raised, fed a diet that was species-appropriate.
  
• Suggestions by some diets to give up eggs and dairy. Now, I don't know if any of you have heard about the A1/A2 milk debate, essentially something about a casein difference in the milk, and A1 supposedly links to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and all those other lovely diseases running rampant in America. There are claims that Holstein cows mostly have the A1 casein, Jerseys are either half or mostly cows that produce A2 (depending on the source you find), and Guernseys are nearly all producers of the A2 casein. Frankly, my gut tells me to not buy it because the scientist who discovered the distinction is the cofounder of a biotech corp in New Zealand for, you guessed it already?, A2 milk. I'm not going to be giving up my milk or dairy products or eggs anytime soon. I think the benefits of eating them outweigh the risks, but I do think one has to be careful about their sources. And we are going to have to eat less cheese as we make the switch to organic cheese, it's just so pricey! If only I could get raw milk and start making my own. *sigh*
  

It's interesting, but the seasonal eating thing, while so simple and obvious in nature, I feel like I've been blind to it my whole life, having been born in the late 70s, there was never a time in my life when you couldn't just get anything you want at any time of year in the supermarket. At least, not in my memory. But I feel as if my eyes are open. When I go to the store and notice that most of the potatoes have eyes on them, I think "well, these were harvested last fall, they've been in cold storage since then, and now you bring them out and the plant 'instinct' kicks in, these want to get planted..." I just never thought that way before. I look at grapes, even at the co-op, and see lots of different handles as those grapes are picked unripe, and jet-set for North America. I think of eating them, and the taste of sour grapes comes into my mind. I tell myself to wait and the taste-memory from childhood, of grapes picked at my Grandmother's house, comes to mind. Stiff grape skin with bloom still on it; sweet, juicy, fragrant fruit; grape jelly; the year my Aunt Suzy made grape juice... That's what I want for my kids, not some memory of grapes from a ziplock baggie that don't taste all that much like anything.

Anyway, at this point I'm going to classify myself as a SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) and traditional gourmand (sorry, I don't like the term "foodie"), and keep adjusting our diet toward these goals. Next food adventure on the horizon? I'm going to try making kombucha. :)