My Food Manifesto, Part Two: The Good News

I know it's taken five months, but here it is: the long-awaited second installment of my food manifesto! I'm sorry it's taken so long for the "good stuff" post, but I really have been working on it for five months now. Some invisible force seems to have a vested interest in this information not making it up on our website... innumberable interruptions, mysterious erasures, computer malfunctions—parts of this blog have been written three times over. But here it is, finally. I can honestly promise that I'll never write a blog this long ever again! I probably should have made each section a seperate blog, but instead it's all a part of this, my "food manifesto."

I know that my last blog sparked a few questions: What can I eat? Will it taste good? Do I have to give up pizza forever? I hope to answer these questions and more. But before I begin with my list of nutritionally-dense foods that are super good for you and taste great too, I'll say a few words here. I received much acclaim for my evil-foods list. But after reading this list, you might think I'm a bit strange. It seems that most people agree on what's bad for us. But there is a big debate out there on what is actually good for us. I've heard a lot about the "raw food" diet and vegan diets. And then there's the weight-loss component. I've heard about Atkins, South Beach, and Weight Watchers. The diet I'm going to propose is none of these. It contains some rather radical elements that might sound odd the first time. One thing to remember about the foods that follow is that these are foods that have been eaten by traditional societies for hundreds—even thousands—of years! We're the ones eating newfangled foods. Included are links for further reading if you are interested in eating your very best.

The Good News

As I said before, there is good news. There is food out there that will truly nourish your body, but you'll find that it takes a litle more time to prepare and it also costs a little more. I'll touch more on these two points at the end, but for now, set aside those two potential stumbling blocks and consider the ideal: the ideal food that we, humans, were meant to eat by our Creator. Do you think God envisioned us pigging out on Twinkies? Think again...

Good Fats: Saturated!

In the last blog I discussed public enemy no. 1: trans fats. Most people think saturated fats are almost as bad. Wrong! Saturated fats are good for you, and are important to your health and everyday functioning of your body. For our entire lives it's been beaten into our brains that fats are bad for us, and saturated fat is the worst. Take that mantra and put it aside for a moment. Now consider this: what foods feature saturated fats? Foods like butter, animal fats, lard, cocounut oil, and palm oil. Now, are these natural or unnatural sources of food? They are quite natural. And at the end of my last blog I suggested that our God-given foods (foods that are in their natural state or very close to it) are foods that were put here for us to eat, and have been nourishing traditional cultures for centuries.

So if saturated fats are of nature (remember that trans fats are quite unnatural), and we should eat foods that are of our Creator, then why are we told that saturated fats are bad? I have to reference Eat Fat, Lose Fat ¹once again for its wonderful explanation of fats and how we've gotten things so backwards. But let me suggest here that we seperate fat (the food meaning) from fat (the bodily meaning). We think that fats make us fat! And some certainly do (think trans fats). But not all fats are alike, and the important thing to realize is that some fats are natural and nourishing. Saturated fats help us to feel full and slow down the absorption of sugars. Saturated fats are a necessary part of our diet.

Monounsaturated fats are also good for us, and the most popular of these is olive oil. Polyunsaturated fats are the least preferred, although the most used and commonly thought to be the healthiest. The most common of these are soybean oil and canola oil (both are commonly called "vegetable oil"). I'll talk more in a moment about which oils should be used for cooking, but for now I'll end with a hierarchy of fats and a couple links. From best to worst, they are: saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and trans.

A starting point for reading about fats² and a detailed explanation of the real story on fats³.

Good Fats in the Kitchen

I highlighted saturated fat in the last section, but this is a practical section on how to use these fats in the kitchen. When introducing saturated fats into your diet, butter is the easiest and most familar. Be not afraid to slather butter on your toast! Coconut oil is another great saturated fat used by tropical cultures. The book Eat Fat, Lose Fat has a number of great recipies and uses for coconut oil, but you can experiment with it on your own. Be sure to get extra-virgin coconut oil (not the Lou Ana brand you can get at Wal Mart). Any health food store will have the right kind, and some grocery stores are beginning to have sections for natural foods and will carry at least one brand. Lard is also a great cooking agent (although we've all been trained to think we'll drop dead if we eat food that's been fried in it). When buying it, however, be sure to look for a non-hydrogenated brand without added preservatives. If the health food store doesn't have it, try ethnic markets (many Mexican stores carry lard).

I mentioned before that saturated fats won't make you fat. Not only that, but saturated fats can help you lose weight. If that sounds strange to you, believe me when I say that I lost fifteen pounds while using the following strategy: make a cup of hot herbal tea (or just hot water) and put in a tablespoon of coconut oil (the oil will sit on top of the tea). Drink this twenty minutes before each meal. The saturated fat helps you to feel fuller when the meal comes around, causing you to eat less. However, you will still get the excellent nutritional benefits of the oil, so you won't go hungry as with other "diets". You will be able to go longer between meals (and avoid snacking) and will have plenty of energy too from that good, cell-nourishing fat.

I'll also mention monounsaturated fats here. Extra-virgin olive oil is great to have on hand, and sesame oil is good too. One word on purchasing monounsaturated oils: I highly recommend buying the more expensive versions at the health food store known as "cold-pressed" or "expeller-pressed". The regular oils at the grocery store are "pressed" at extremely high heat, which ruins most of the nutritional benefits. "Cold pressing" preserves the integrity of the oil and keeps the nutritional benefit for your body.

Read more on how saturated fats nourish the body⁴ and the wonders of coconut oil⁵.

Real Milk from Real Cows

The milk we buy at the store is ultrapasteurized and homogenized. Pasteurization was utilized beginning in the 1920's to combat disease and poor sanitation in the milk industry. Today, pasteurization is no longer necessary due to the wide availability of sanitary facilities for milking and bottling. Homogenization breaks down the fat globules in milk so that they do not rise to the top of milk.

The problem with both of these practices is that it alters the milk from its original state. Pasteurization destroys enzymes, beneficial bacteria, and vitamin content in the milk. Homogenization has been linked with heart disease. Pasteurization has become a crutch on which the milk industry has rested ever since its institution. Now, the cows can be sick, dirty, and mutated (they are made to produce so much milk with hormones that their udders drag on the ground)—because we simply blast the milk at a high heat to kill anything in it. Because the mutant cows are forced to overproduce milk, they frequently develop mastitis (infection in their udders) and a good amount of pus comes out as a result. Pus and slime is taken out of the milk before we drink it, to be sure, but who wants to drink milk from a sick cow? Many a nursing mother can vouch for the intense pain of mastitis. Why force cows to produce milk at such an intense volume that they are miserable?

It's not just that store bought milk is bad for you (it has been implicated in infant colic, asthma, and allergies, among a host of other ailments); the flip side is that real milk is actually good for you. It is packed with vitamins and contributes to healthy teeth, bones, and much more. Anadulterated milk (milk which has not been subjected to the processes listed above) is available through dairy farms all over the country. There is a listing of some such dairies at www.realmilk.com⁶. Your local Weston Price Foundation chapter leader⁷ can help you find additional farmers not listed on the site.

Real milk is a hotly debated topic. You may want to research more about real milk before you are ready to go out and buy some. A great place to start is the Real Milk Website⁸.

Real Dairy/Lacto-Fermented Dairy

Once you've acquired real milk, there's so much you can do with it! If you're lucky enough to find a dairy that leaves the cream on top, you can use it to make butter and buttermilk quite easily (if the cream doesn't come with the milk, you can probably buy it seperately). Cream can also be used for making homemade ice cream...yum!

One of the most nutritious things that can be done with real milk is lacto-fermenting. This allows beneficial bacteria to grow inside the milk. This process also helps with the breakdown of milk protein so that the milk is more easily digested (which can be of help to people who are lactose intolerant). The most well-known way of lacto-fermenting is making yogurt. Kefir (a sort of drinkable yogurt) is also becoming more popular. Sour cream is made this way, as is cream cheese. The byproduct of cream cheese is whey, which is widely used in baking. Fermenting milk may sound strange and scary, especially in a world where we're taught that all bacteria are "bad", but remember that people eat yogurt all the time! There has been a lot of talk lately about taking probiotic supplements for digestive and overall health...lacto-fermented foods are full of probiotics.

So, how do you learn to do all this? Step-by-step instructions for lacto-fermenting and making real milk products can be found in the Nourishing Traditions Cookbook⁹. This cookbook is made by the Weston Price Foundation and not only contains hundreds of pages of traditional recipies; it also contains many facts, stories, and quotes in the sidebars. It's like having a nutritional book and a complete cookbook all in one!

Pastured Meat

When animals are confined, given lots of drugs, and fed things other than their natural diet, the quality of meat can suffer. A prime example is the chicken industry. The majority of chickens today are grown in giant buildings in disgusting conditions. Their production has become so centralized that quality has suffered in the name of quantity. The same happens with other meats.

A word about feed. Different animals were made to eat different things. Some are herbivores (like cows) and some are omnivores (like chickens). You will find packages of chicken proudly proclaiming that they were fed a vegetarian diet. Well, that may sound really healthy, but in reality, it's better for chickens to have some bugs mixed in with their forage. Hey, it may not sound yummy to you, but to a chicken, it's one of his preferred menu items. So, try to eat animals that eat what they naturally like to eat!

Where to find pastured animals? Start at Eat Wild¹⁰, a locator for naturally-raised meats. Or, raise your own! I know, that sounds crazy, but if you're at all interested in raising your own chickens, it's probably easier than you think. I recommend Joel Salatin's Pastured Poultry Profits¹¹ and You Can Farm¹² for starters.

One problem you may run into is cost. Meat is expensive, and good meat is even more so. Regardless, I think it's worth it to keep meat in the diet—don't go veggie on us! Meat contains so many nutrients that are very hard (arguable impossible) to replace in a vegetarian diet. I'll talk more about budget in a future blog, but I'll give a couple of suggestions for meat here. Bone broths (also called stock) are incredibly nutritious and are made using the bones of the animal and are therefore inexpensive. Stir frys and fajitas are great ways to make use of small amounts of meat. Try using less expensive cuts like stew meat, chuck roasts, ground meat... (but don't only eat ground meats as they become oxidized more quickly than other cuts) or even organ meats (like liver and heart), which can be quite cheap. Use more expensive cuts for special occasions.

A great way to get good meat for less money is to buy in bulk. The farmers on Eat Wild and those you might find through your local Weston A. Price chapter leader often sell whole cows, or half, or a quarter; whole lambs, etc. (by "whole" I don't mean that you get the whole animal...whole means that you get all  (or a fraction) of the meat, nicely packaged for you). If I do buy supermarket meat, I make sure that it is organic or at the very least, "all natural". This can be a transitional budget item—one that you work into over time.

Pastured Eggs

Eggs from pastured hens differ in quality from battery-raised hens. The hens do not have to be "free range"—in fact, it can be dangerous for chickens to roam free if there are predators lurking about. "Pastured" simply means that the hens are allowed to eat real grass, and usually means that their pasturing is managed; that is, they are moved to new grass every day.

Again, the hens should be allowed to indulge their omnivorousness—chickens aren't vegetarians. The best place to get your eggs is from a nearby farm (many raw milk farms also sell eggs), but the next best thing is at a natural food store near you. Specific brands are mentioned in the book Eat Fat, Lose Fat. Keep in mind that just because a carton is labeled "free range" or organic doesn't mean that the hens were fed appropriately or provided with good living conditions. And, just so you know, the living conditions of animals do matter—whether you are a member of PETA or not. Bad living conditions create stress for the animals, which makes them sick and unproductive. Not to mention that it's not a nice way to treat God's creatures.

Regarding the nutritiousness of the "incredible edible egg": yes, they are good for you. Eggs have been demonized for making cholesterol go up. There is evidence that battery-raised eggs could be detrimental to your health (these hens are in production facilities of 500,000 or more birds—completely unnatural, which makes for stressed hens and substandard eggs). But when hens are allowed to live in a flock with a pecking order and a rooster hanging around, then they're happy and they produce high-quality eggs. Eggs provide an excellent source of protein, and Americans were healthier back when they ate eggs every morning! Also, be sure to avoid egg substitutes—these are quite harmful. Search the Weston A. Price Foundation website¹³ for more information on the egg controversy.

Fish: Wild and Metal-Free

There is much controversy over fish today. Avoid farm-raised fish (which suffer from similar problems as their mammal counterparts) and go for "wild" fish instead. The problem with some fish caught in the ocean, though, is that they contain mercury. There are lots of "safe fish" lists floating around, and the philosophies on which are okay to eat can vary. The Weston A. Price website lists summer flounder, wild Pacific salmon, croaker, sardines, haddock and tilapia as good bets. I find that tilapia and salmon are both easy to cook (and salmon is now gaining popularity as being quite healthy). Just be sure that your salmon is not injected with artificial coloring to make it look more "pink". Yes, they actually do that.

Here are a couple of informative fish articles: Troubled Waters¹⁴ and Is Something Fishy Going On?¹⁵

Organic Vegetables & Fruits

Pesticide-free produce is becoming ever popular, and that's great news. But what about going one step further than the health food store? There are a couple of things to think about when picking produce: seasonality and locality. Fruits and veggies have growing seasons and climates where they grow best. So, avacados in December are a luxury of the world we live in—but shipping those foods to us from far distances brings problems, including transportation costs and reduced vitamin content due to early harvesting.

A great option for buying local and seasonal is farmer's markets and community-supported agriculture, or CSAs. Farmer's markets are good because they bring together many producers; the only problem is that the foods aren't always organic. CSAs are nice because the buyer goes to the farm to get seasonal items, and the farms are usually organic. Some CSAs even incorporate a number of producers for more variety. You may find that farms aren't organic but rather "natural". This can work since it may mean that the farmer hasn't yet received organic "status" from the FDA or has chosen not to get the official label. By asking the right questions and talking to others who frequent the farm, you can find out whether chemicals are being used. Most CSA's operate from spring to fall and require that a membership be purshased. To find a farmer's market or CSA near you, visit the Local Harvest site¹⁶.

Buying all organic produce can be expensive (especially if you are trying to keep fresh foods on your table—and fresh is best!), so one way to stretch things is to buy some organic, some not. The Environmental Working Group did a survey on pesticide levels in produce and came up with this fairly comprehensive list¹⁷, including a downloadable shopping guide. I use it when I'm deciding what to buy organic—for example, peaches and apples top the list, so I don't buy those conventional. Bananas and broccoli were among the lowest, so I don't worry about buying them organic, unless I already happen to be at the health food store and I would probably spend just as much to make a seperate trip to a conventional grocery store.

Fermented Fruits & Vegetables

Just like fermenting dairy, fruits and veggies can be prepared to take advantage of beneficial bacteria. The most common example of fermented vegetables is sauerkraut and pickles; however, these are no longer fermented since the factory system was invented. The same goes for condiments—all of these were once fermented: ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, relish, chutneys... Unfortunately, instead of being fermented, these items are now made mostly with vinegar and high fructose corn syrup.

The great news is that you can make these yourself. I have made my own ketchup and it's quite yummy. I tried sauerkraut but haven't quite figured out yet what I did wrong...it tastes pretty sour! It was only my first try, though—when venturing out into new food preparation methods, one can always expect some surprises. I had a lot of fun making the sauerkraut and look forward to researching what went wrong and trying again.

Nourishing Traditions¹⁸ contains oodles of recipies for fermenting (it turns out you can ferment just about anything!), and there is a great web resource for would-be fermenters called Wild Fermentation¹⁹.

Pure Water

Everyone seems to be toting around water bottles these days, and concerns about tap water are valid. Municipal water contains flouride and chlorine, two chemicals added for the supposed benefit for the public, which may prove to do more harm than good. It also contains "acceptible" levels of contaminants, including metals, chemicals, and parisites. I will write in an upcoming blog about Lucia, who was diagnosed recently with giardia, a single-celled parasite that can be contracted from tap water. We use a great deal of water, not just for drinking, but also for cooking and cleaning our bodies—and it's important that this water is pure.

The problems with adding flouride to all water are discussed on the Fluoride Action Network's website²⁰. Adding chlorine also presents problems, as the question must be raised whether it is advisable for humans to consume chlorine, and in what amounts. Options for water include buying spring water purified by reverse osmosis and having filters installed in the house (whole-house filters are available). We buy a lot of our water from our health food store or grocery store (the refill stations are becoming more popular) but will probably look into permanent filter solutions when we buy our next house.

Speaking of beverages, I'll add a word here about juice. Some juices are downright unhealthy, but even "healthy" juices have their problems, since fruits are full of sugar, albeit natrual sugar. So consuming fruit juice in any but small amounts could cause blood sugar problems. Another issue with fruit juice is that all juices in the U.S. must now be pasteurized—which brings the same nutritional deficiencies as pasteurizing milk: descruction of enzymes, decreased vitamin content, etc. This is a good article about breakfast foods²¹, including the skinny on commercial orange juice.

Soaked Grains, Nuts & Seeds

Today we're encouraged to eat "whole grains"—certainly whole wheat is better than white flour, but this is only part of the story. Traditional cultures have always soaked their grains, nuts, and seeds. Soaking makes digestion of these foods easier on our system. Soaking is easy to learn, and the many recipies in Nourishing Traditions are easy to follow. Soaking grains includes oatmeal, breads, pancakes...any recipe using flour. Soaking nuts and seeds makes an excellent snack—they are rich in healthy monounsaturated fats.

This article²² will help you learn more about the why and how-to of soaking grains.

Real Salt

The salt on our tables today has undergone quite the refinement process, including removal of important trace minerals and bleaching to make the salt white. This is another example of a healthy food gone awry with modern processing methods—people have used salt for thousands of years as a preservative and flavor enhancer. I've heard recently of people removing salt from their diets, but this isn't necessary if you buy the right kind of salt. In fact, the trace minerals naturally present in salt are essential to our bodies, so salt is actually beneficial for our health! Celtic sea salt is thought to be the best and most pure; I also like Redmond's Real Salt²³. Both are available at health food stores and online.

Next: How the Steins Got Healthy

In Part 3 of my Food Manifesto, I'll tell our story about how we moved away from processed, unhealthy foods and started eating and feeling better. You might be amazed at how a change in diet has affected other parts of our lives. You may also get some motivation to change your eating habits, too! I've also decided to add a final installment, Part 4, to the Manifesto. This last post will give some practical tips for transitioning your eating habits—even with time and budget constraints. Until then, happy eating!