What’s the hardest part of healthy eating?  Fixing the food!  That’s what.

1. Do you know what’s healthy? 
2. If you’re eating whole food, real food, someone is fixing it.

Maybe YOU do know what’s healthy, but it’s obvious that many Americans are not eating healthy.  Diabetes, and obesity in the U.S, so someone out there is not eating healthy whole food.

Before we get going you should know that many of my ideas about healthy eating come from Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, et al) and Dr. Mercola’s newsletter (www.drmercola.com). 

We’ve heard this same old advice so many times we no longer take it seriously. So, for the purpose of this article we’ll zero in on just a few ideas that seem to me, pivotal points for eating well in today’s fast-food culture.

• Eat vegetables and whole foods
• Not too much sugar, and really watch the fructose
• Eat breakfast, but be careful of what you’re eating.

Michael Pollan is famous for the “eat real food” phrase.  He doesn’t consider anything in a package, especially if it has a label with “health claims,” ”real food.”  (This doesn’t count produce with those little sticky labels on their sides.)

Real food is close to how it grows in nature.  Part of your diet should include raw foods, fruits and vegetables in hand or in salads.  You don’t have to make a big deal over this.  I’m not saying we should eat everythng raw, although there are those who recommend raw for a healing diet.  Carrot and celery sticks for lunches and dinner.  Cucumber slices, radishes.  When I grew up we had carrot and celery sticks every night with dinner.  My mother’s habit food.

It does mean, though, that most of what we eat for dinner/lunch will have to be cooked by someone. 

This is America’s soft underbelly–why we’re vulnerable and unhealthy.  We’ve gotten out of the habit of preparing meals.  Noone’s cooking.  Meals are something we throw, already processed, into the microwave to heat. This is our problem.

There has to be someone in the family willing to prepare meals.  Without that person you’ll eat processed food from which most of the nutrition has been leached and to which preservatives and sugar have been added for palatability.  Much food value has been removed.  Is that why processed foods have nutrition labels…

That’s the family discussion you’ll have to have.  Who will be major domo food-preparer/organizer?   

Get a crock pot.  I use mine several times a week.  Weekly grocery shopping centers around one meal I prepare in quanity on the weekend.  It’s enough food to go for a few meals so get a big crock pot.  They’re around $20-30.  Make soups, stews, spaghetti.  Teach the kids to make soup.  Cook a chicken and vegetables in the crock.  Serve as is one meal, add canned tomatoes and Italian seasoning and serve over pasta for a second meal, and then make soup with what’s left.  That’s the idea. 

You’ll save money on groceries.  With commodity prices rising you’ll want to buy in bulk anyway, whenever you can.

Share some of your ideas with the group here.  We’re a creative bunch, but we often don’t plan ahead. If you’re not looking ahead you’re going to get caught when food prices really rise…

P.S. Don’t tell me you don’t have time to prepare food. When food prices rise high enough, you’ll begin to notice, and you’ll have to start fixing your food.  Start thinking about it now.

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We’re making Christmas cookies!    These are Peanut blossoms.

I suppose most families have traditional foods this time of year.  John’s family was famous for Christmas cookies: green spritz wreaths decorated with tiny red berries–real works of art, powdered-sugar snowy Mexican wedding cakes, red-sprinkled shortbread, peanut blossoms, and tangy lemon bars. 

Mexican Wedding Cakes

Made with butter!

I don’t bake as much as I used to, but when I take time to make holiday cookies I use butter.  None of the chemical concoctions manipulated to taste like butter.  I use the real thing or I don’t bother. 

Since this is a blog devoted to healthy living, (Healthylivingbeyondfifty.com/) why, you might ask, am I devoting an article to baking Christmas cookies with butter?  Actually butter is something we should talk about.

A couple of Michael Pollan’s rules for healthy eating, “In Defense of Food,” are

• Eat Food.  ”Avoid food products containing ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, more than five in number…”
• “Avoid food products that make health claims.”

(You know Michael Pollan…”The Botany of Desire,” “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” and “In Defense of Food.”)

Pollan means you should eat things your body recognizes as food, not chemical concoctions stirred up in a lab by white-coats who have never touched a cow, let alone milked one.  Processed foods make your liver work overtime trying to break up and excrete the toxins they contain.

Your body recognizes butter.  It knows what to do with it.  It’s just butter, and, hopefully, it’s organic without antibiotics or hormones which very often are part of the cow’s food and which are, once again, toxic to our bodies.

What about Pollan’s second point: health claims?  What’s wrong with health claims? 

Whole foods don’t come with written health claims. There’s no list of health benefits on the side of an orange or apple, ribe eye steak,  or an onion.

If it’s packaged with health claims on the side of the box it’s probably processed.  If it’s processed most nutritional value has been removed because nutrients are the part of food that spoils and shortens “shelf-life.”  Shorter shelf life means lower corporate profits.

Look at a package of breakfast cereal.  Natural, essential-for-good-health nutrients are removed so the cereal can sit forever on the shelf.  To sell you on buying it, though, the sides of the box will be plastered with health claims for the few chemical vitamins that have been added back to replace lost nutrients.

Some mis-guided advice tells us to avoid butter because it’s a saturated fat that will raise “bad” blood cholesterol and also cause weight gain. According to Dr. Mercola butter slashes heart attack risk in  half.

Gaining weight?  You’re more likely to gain weight on simple carbohydrate foods, processed foods containing simple carbs, and toxins your liver can’t break down for excretion. 

Natural saturated fats such as coconut and butter are stable.  Some vegetable oils, on the other hand, turn into unstable compounds that aren’t good for your body. 

Butter is especially good when it comes from cows eating green grass because it contains a compound that helps build muscle rather than store fat, and it has an excellent ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids.  It contains many fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, K) and essential minerals difficult to get in our depleted western diet.  I always buy organic butter (Organic Valley brand) because it doesn’t contain those antibiotics and hormones.

Holiday baking is one of the fun things we do.  John is in the kitchen right now perpetuating the family tradition.  I think it’s lemon bars today.  Our two grandsons will be here next week, and they check out the cookie area where we stack the tins.  Father Daniel parses out the cookies or they’d finish them all in one fell swoop, I’m sure.

Have fun baking and sharing with friends and family. 

P.S.  Oh.  If you want to check out Dr. Mercola’s article on butter here’s the link.  More nutritional information that I quoted here.  http://bit.ly/hC84kQ

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Know where your food comes from?

When I grew up in the 50s we knew.  The back yard garden, the back pasture, the neighbor next door who had a few chickens.

Now, it’s not so easy.

AMERICA’S FOOD, CONTROLLED BY ONLY FOUR CORPORATIONS

Food is big business. Hogs, chickens, and beef production is controlled by only four (4) corporations.  These four corporations control the animals, the buildings, the feed, the feedlots, and the distribution centers that supply meat to American grocers.

Controlled Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) control most of our egg supply, too.  Unless you buy eggs from a local small farm!

I found a great website just yesterday.
Amy Goodman, “Democracy Now!” interviewed Kirby about his book, “Animal Factory.” (check the 8/25 blog post).  Here’s his website. It’s a good one. http://animalfactorybook.com/

And, here’s a video from his website:

POLLUTION MACHINES=INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE

“These factory farms, known as “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations,” or CAFOs, confine thousands of pigs, dairy and beef cattle, and poultry in small spaces, often under stressful conditions, and generate enormous volumes of fecal and biological waste as well as other toxins.”

DISEASE FACTORIES

Kirby: “Swine flu. MRSA. Unusual concentrations of cancer and other diseases. Massive fish kills from algal blooms and flesh-eating parasites. Recalls of meats, vegetables, and fruits because of deadly E-coli bacteria contamination, salmonella and 380 million eggs…

Recent public health crises raise urgent questions about how our animal-derived food is raised and brought to market.”

NOT SO EASY TO TELL WHAT’S REAL FOOD

It’s not not so easy today to tell what’s really food.  But, there are still a few tell tale guidelines.

Michael Pollan (In “Defense of Food”) lists five.

• Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
• Avoid food containing ingredients that are a: unfamiliar, b: unpronounceable, c: more than five in number, or that include d: high fructose corn syrup.
• Avoid food products that make health claims.
• Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.
• Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.

Know where your food comes from?

It’s the responsibility of the consumer now.  Read labels.  What else do you do?
Food is big business today. Corporations aren’t concerned with your health; they’re money-making machines.  Each of us must take responsibility.

So, what do you do?  I’ll take new ideas, your thoughts about food sources.  Let me know below

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380 Million eggs recalled since last week.

Were they from a small family farm or CAFO?

What’s your guess?

Two Iowa farms, CAFOs, recalled more than half a billion potentially tainted eggs this month. Those two farms share close ties since they supply both the chickens and the feed and yet are owned by the same company.

DECOSTER FARMS CITED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE

Both farms are linked to businessman Austin “Jack” DeCoster, cited for numerous health, safety and employment violations over the years. DeCoster owns Wright County Egg, the original farm that recalled 380 million eggs Aug. 13 after they were linked to more than 1,000 reported cases of salmonella poisoning.

FDA SEEKS FURTHER REGULATORY AUTHORITY

According to Sherri McGarry of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, “There are preventive measures that would have been in place that could have prevented this.” She and other officials declined to say what specific measures would have prevented this particular outbreak, citing an ongoing FDA investigation. The FDA recommends stronger regulatory powers be given to the agency.

CHEAP EGGS, FILTHY CONDITIONS

Michael Pollan, “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” would call these eggs, “battery cage eggs,” because the chickens are crammed into tiny cages, unable to walk or spread their wings.

They’re covered in feces, often forced to share cages with the bodies of dead neighbors. These unnatural conditions produce sick birds, which increases the likelihood of infected eggs.

DeCoster has been warned before of environmental violations. Hog effluent, from his hog farm, contaminated the chicken operation. Rats contaminated the feed, and carried contamination from one to the other.

Hog effluent, rats rummaging in chicken feed.  It’s no surprise there’s salmonella.

Picture courtesy of “Farm Sanctuary”

FACTORY FARMS FIGHT NATURAL DESIGN

I wonder how the FDA proposes to inspect and regulate huge animal factories.

Why try to regulate “farms” that are, by design, breeding grounds for disease and bacteria? It seems to me this problem does not stem frm lack the lack of regulation as much as faulty design.

It’s the industry itself. How do you present factories that treat animals/birds inhumanely as sources of healthy food for our bodies?

Can we expect food from abused creatures to really nourish and bring health?

EGG INDUSTRY CONSOLIDATION MEANS FEWER FOOD SOURCES

The egg industry has consolidated over recent years, leaving a few very large businesses.  Controlled Animal Feeding Operations, CAFOs, control most of the nation’s egg supply.  That’s not a sustainable system.

Amy Goodman interviews, Aug 24, on “Democracy Now” author David Kirby, “Animal Factory,” about the dangerous consolidation of our food supply:

WHERE DOES OUR FOOD COME FROM?

WHERE DO I GET MY EGGS?

Thanks for asking!! Our family buys chickens and eggs from a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Program. The chickens are raised on a small family farm in Nevada.  Even in the city you can find today folks who raise a few chickens and are willing to sell their eggs. 

The chickens run free, are not cramped in small cages with no room to turn.  They’re allowed to express their “chickenness,” as Joel Saladin would say.

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Toxins Are Stealing Your Health and Energy

Environmental Toxins Linked To Most US Disease

There are 72 different insecticides, pesticides, and chemical poisons in our fruits and vegetables. Animals are injected with hormones, heavy metals, and pharmaceuticals, and our air, filled with toxins. PAH toxins, from anything that burns (barbecues, cigarettes, automobiles, factories), are linked to the breakdown of immune mechanisms that protect us from breast cancer. Toxins in our environment are a serious problem, linked to most disease in the U.S. today.

LIVER: THE BODY’S CLEANSING FACTORY

The liver is the body’s cleansing “laboratory.” It filters toxins from the blood, breaks them down, and sends them to the lungs, skin, kidneys, and colon for excretion.  It’s the liver’s job to disable toxins to isolate them from important organs.

WHY YOU HAVE A FAT STOMACH

Poisons the liver can’t break down must be stored away from important body organs.  They’re coated with fat and water and deposited.

There are no boundaries to man’s creativity, so there are manmade chemicals beyond the liver’s ability to disintegrate. To immobilize and hide them, the liver coats them with fat and water and stores them.

Heavy metal toxins, aluminum, lead, and mercury, from lipstick, anti-per spirants, vaccines, and pharmaceuticals, when absorbed, are stored in more fat and water. 

By-products of the petroleum industry in plastics, cosmetics, and shampoos are coated in fat and water and stored.

The result is an accumulation of fat and water in upper arms, thighs, and the belly.

THINK YOU’RE HEALTHY?  YOU’RE TOXIC

Fat buildup. Water Retention.  Fat Stomachs.

80% of us are overweight; 31% meet the criteria for “obese.”

We spend over $75,000,000,000 (billion) a year on weight–related diseases.

No matter how good you think your health is, toxins are part of your reality. Because of toxin buildup internal organs are sluggish and unable to function, and disease becomes part of life.

4 TIPS FOR FIGHTING TOXINS

• Become aware of cleaning products for house, and clothes.  Chlorine is a poison, so investigate natural cleaning and “green” laundry options. Use vinegar in a spray bottle, a non-toxic sanitizer/cleaner.

• Be aware of ingredients in personal care products. If you can’t read the name, it’s a toxic chemical.

Anti-per spirants contain heavy metal aluminum. Shampoos contain ingredients in auto anti-freeze.

• Eat Food, Whole Food, with natural packaging. Processed food has little or no nutrition, and many toxins.

• Eat food in its natural state. 

Read the labels on Twinkies, Cool-Whip, Sara Lee’s, Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread. (white bread, with the whole part of the wheat kernel removed, can be called whole grain?)

More than 5 ingredients=frankenfood, not real food. Avoid.

Michael Pollan’s, In Defense of Food, Penguin Press, 2008. 

SHOULD YOU CLEANSE TOXINS?

You can undertake a “cleanse,” to cooperate with your body. Some cleansing products on the market, recommend no solid food while cleansing.  “Fasting” should be with a physician’s guidance because our bodies, with today’s fast-paced lifestyle, need balanced fuel: carbohydrates, fat, and protein.

MUSCLE NEEDS HIGH-QUALITY PROTEIN

1. No solid food for many days won’t give the body fuel it needs to build and maintain lean muscle tissue.  Support muscle growth and maintenance with ample high-quality protein.  Your heart is a lean muscle.

2. Drink water, preferably filtered, to flush toxins.  No little plastic bottles, please, no chlorine, at least 100 oz. a day.  

To flush toxins your body needs plenty of water, not high-energy caffeine drinks. Energy drinks give you energy by pulling from the body and depleting the body’s reservoir.

BEGINNING A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

Take the few steps above. Become aware of toxins in your world, and take small steps to minimize impact.

As they’re flushed, fat and excess water will be released, and you will feel more energetic than in years. Your fat stomach will begin to shrink.

Built-in systems seek balance in your body. When you cooperate natural good health, your birthright becomes an easy companion.

Check the link in the upper left corner of this blog for  the “Cleansing for Better Health” free newsletter. 

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FACTORY FARM BOAR HOG INFLICTS LIFE-THREATENING STREP INFECTION

Russ Kremer was stabbed in the knee cap by a boar’s tusk as he worked on his farm fifteen years ago. When pigs are packed into a closed area that’s not too unusual.

A life-threatening strep infection threw him into the hospital for intraveneous treatment with state-of-the-art drugs or he might not have survived. His story is important to us for several reasons.

Like other factory farms, he administered  a laundry list of pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics and hormones, to keep his pigs healthy and make them gain weight fast. This is common practice in feedlots in America today.

STREP INFECTION FROM MUTANT ANTIBIOTIC STRAIN DIFFICULT TO CONTROL

The strep bacteria that infected Russ was a mutant strain, difficult to control. Regular use of antibiotics in factory farms kills weak bacterial strains and, not only favors the strong ones, it actually creates stronger antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Animals kept in close confinement, as they are in industrial farms, must be given antibiotics to control disease. A list of bacteria dangerous to humans includes eColi, Salmonela, and Campylobacter, methicillin-resistant Staph, and 15787, a feedlot bacteria responsible for the death of humans.

This directly concerns me as a consumer because of the danger antibiotic-resistant bacterial pose. “New” diseases such as avian/swine/Spanish flu, and SAARS can be difficult to treat. Anitibiotics, hormones, and pharmaceutical drugs, are now part of our water supply. They are difficult to remove.

“FRESH,THE MOVIE:” FROM FACTORY TO FREE-RANGE

Here’s Russ’ story in the “trailer” of the new movie, “Fresh.”

I’ve seen the entire movie, and it’s great.  In fact, I love it so much I’ve played the DVD maybe 9 times.  It’s inspiring and educational at the same time.

Kremer, Joel Salatin, Michael Pollan, Will Allen and others talk about America’s food–where it comes from. That part of the movie isn’t a pretty picture, but all of us need to know, since it’s what we feed our famlies.

Then the movie shifts and showcases farmers, grocers–inspiring visionaries–who are changing the way food comes to us. People working in their local communities to make healthy food available locally to all people, not just those who can afford to buy organic.

HEALTHY FOOD IS A HUMAN RIGHT

It’s an encouraging movie that will raise your spirits.

Check their web page http://www.freshthemovie.com/screenings/fresh-screenings/ for showings in your area. I’m excited that we’re screening the movie here in Elko, Nevada, in September!

What experience do you have with factory farms or family farms?  Have you visited either?  Do you work in either? Please post your thoughts below. Let us all know if you get to see “Fresh,” the movie! 

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