Growing up on a large family farm, I drank fresh milk from a cow on a daily basis and if it was drought season and the dairy cows were dry there was always goat milk. Every week a sheep or goat or chicken would be slaughtered and occassionaly even a cow would grace our plates for dinner. Mum kept a good size garden out back with all sorts of fruits and vegetables that we enjoyed throughout the year. Even flour was milled from corn grown on the farm.
Today I am 8000miles away from the farm in a foreign land where everything comes from the store! I ONLY get to taste my childhood luxurious flavors once in a blue moon when i visit the farm. In the meantime my diet is based solely on what i buy at the store, much of which can now be found as a wheel around my waist! I suppose that weird taste should have been a dead give away!
After a little bit of shocking research on what is in my store bought milk, it is
time to go back to my roots and eat as i did on the farm or at least as closely to it as possible. Essentially, i need to know what i am eating, where did it come from, how was it grown, how was it treated etc. Since i can’t very well talk to it to get the answers i need - i will need to focus on getting as much of what i consume as possible from a local producer. Local farmers are going to be my newest best buds coz i don’t want to be caught up in any of this, ‘Ground beef recall’ nonsense ever. So proactive is the name of the game!
Tossing out every food item in my pantry is going to be very overwhelming so i will take small steps and tackle the items that would make the most impact.
1. Meats - buy only meats sourced by grass-fed livestock (at the farm we had beef cows too and they all roamed free in their paddocks eating grass - and boy did their meat taste yummie)
2. Dairy Products - i can’t go raw for milk, our farm milk was always boiled before consumption so am going to stick to that. Buy milk that is rBGH-free, rBST-free and non-homogenized, sourced from grass-fed dairy cows. Homogenization removes some of the good nutrients from the milk.
3. Vegetables + fruits - Buy local from a CSA (community supported agriculture) - i have already identified one and have started the paperwork to get this ball rolling. My CSA does not use pesticides, herbicides and any chemicals on their vegetables. One of the CSA i called said they do use the chemicals when the produce is not doing well - so again call and talk to these people and even pay a visit to the farm and witness how things are done. If you don’t want to join a CSA or can’t find one in your area, go to the local Farmer’s market to find your local produce.
4. Flour + Grain - This is where most of my experimenting will suffice. Am interested in grinding my own flour but i don’t know that i want to invest in that at the moment. So am going to look for high quality nutritious flour and grains from a local whole food store. Am interested in trying Quinoa, Spelt, Millet, Kamut etc. I will do a write up on my experience with these grains as i go along.
So there - that should be a good start!
I just also recently started reading up on the health risks connected to eating animal produce as a result of all the growth hormones and antibiotics used in animal farming…not to mention unhealthy animal fats…
It’s really a jungle of information and a lot of the evidence is not published in scientific papers but on health websites with no acclaimed scientific base. Still, what I read made me change to drinking soya milk and to cutting out most animal produce from my diet…and the only eating organic. I actually feel loads better…less bloating anyway.
I can vouch for spelt and quinoa…would be interesting to read of your experiences.
it really scares me how little we know about our food and how unconcerned the federal regulating bodies are about all the toxins found in our food supply.
I think soy products are a good move although there are concerns over the large quantities consumed in america. I remember reading that back in the day in asia ‘fermented’ or ‘boiled’ soy was consumed in very low dosages(2 tbsp) with another protein like miso soup to facilitate digestion. In the past decade there has been a rave over soy products in america + folks are consuming it at an alarming rate …
In addition, just like any other crop grown in america on a conventional farm, pesticides and herbicides are a factor….sigh
Hey,
First up, congratulations for being a more conscious food consumer.
Just wanted to interject with my opinion on soy: Apparently soy started out as a rest crop, was then moved into a manufacturing product and then was manipulated until it was edible and then injected into every thing as vegetable oil and all sorts of things and it even affects the menstrual cycles and cramping apparently……in short not good.
I am also a huge fan of quinoa. Nice to visit and see people who care about the food we eat, I am already among the converted
it seems the food industry does seem to be a bit of a lost cause for the normal consumer. On my visit over I found it very hard to to get organic foods…and ended losing weight because I lived off eating apples!
From what I’ve read, soya milk has been a traditional component of Chinese diet and I haven’t, in that context, read any concerns about dosage. Scrawling ncbi for scientific papers about the effects of soya, gives a couple of articles on experiments that showed that soya is beneficial for pms, age related osteoporosis, and certain types of cancer. The folks crying “wolf” about soya have not published scientific papers based I could find…so I have to wonder.
For the time being I will stay on the side of caution and avoid Western soy but more investigation appears to be necessary-especially practical experiments- in this area of Soy. Btw have any of you guys ever gone to Steve Pavlina’s website and checked out his 30 day food trials?
Caution and moderation certainly should be our ‘modus operandi’!
@mwangi - no, but i now will ..
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