It's a saying I've heard time and again though I never gave it much credence growing up: You are what you eat.
What would that make me? What does it makes you?
My first experience in organic farming was exactly 10 years ago. I was acting in my first professional production in NC. One of my co-stars, who was in college and more "worldly" than me, was spending her summer working on an organic farm. To be honest I thought she was pretty weird. She had a nose ring, a few tats, her hair was cut like a boys...and she dated girls. So, it was safe to say that other than acting, Annie and I had very different interests. In my naivety I told her I was perfectly happy eating food sprayed with pesticides and made in a plant as I had been doing my whole life. I was seventeen. Looking back I can only imagine what she must have thought about me.
Over the next few years I found myself inexplicably drawn to understanding what was so important about eating organic. Was it just a fad? A gimmick to make people spend more on food? Was it really better, I mean seriously, hadn't I turned out just fine?
Like many people my childhood memories contain food memories as well. My summer was one cheese puff and grape soda after another. What I didn't know then but know now is this - I was not eating food! Oh, I was eating something...but not food. I was eating a highly processed food-like substance, but sadly, not REAL food.
I started to read. I started to research. And then, armed with the knowledge I almost wished I didn't have I was forced to re-evaluate what I was putting in my body.
I made the switch to whole grains first in 2005. As a life long white bread eater this was probably the most difficult switch for my new husband. A month or two later I switched to organic milk. What began as a slow transition switched into warp speed once I read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Combine reading this book with, having my first child, watching Food Inc., and then reading Food Rules, also by Michael Pollan. It was safe to say a simple trip to the grocery store has never been the same since!
Feeding myself was one thing, but being responsible for what nutrition I provide for my child placed a burden on my heart. I could not turn a blind eye to facts any longer.
Americans invent many remarkable things. We are the true innovators of this world, I believe. One not-so-wonderful thing we are the culprit of inventing however is the Western diet. What is the Western diet, you ask? Well, it is a diet generally defined as eating lots of processed foods and meat, lots of added sugar and fat, lots of refined grains, and lots of everything except fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
That being said, it stands to reason that societies subsiding on the Western diet invariably suffer from what have become known as Western diseases. According to Pollan, "Virtually all of the obesity and type 2 diabetes, 80 percent of the cardiovascular disease, and more than 1/3 of ALL cancers can be linked to this diet." Wow!
So if we know this, why are we still eating this way? "There is a lot of money in the Western diet. The more you process any food the more profitable it becomes. The healthcare industry makes more money treating chronic diseases (which account for more than three quarters of the $2 trillion plus we spend each year on healthcare in this country) than preventing them.
How can we take a step towards changing what we eat? That's what Food Rules is about! (I swear I should be paid to advertise for this book! I LOVE it!) It is a tiny book (You can read it in less than an hour) that simplifies what and how to eat. Simple, straight-forward rules with concise explanations. Here are a few of my favorites:
1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. (There are thousands of foodish products that our ancestors wouldn't recognize as food!)
2. Avoid food products no ordinary human would keep in their pantry. (Do you have ethoxylated diglycerides in your pantry? I didn't think so.)
3. Avoid foods that contain more than five ingredients....or what ever arbitrary number you adopt. The more ingredients in a packaged food, the more highly processed it is.
4. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle. Processed foods dominate the center of the store, while fresh food - produce, meats and fish, dairy -line the walls. If you shop the edges you're more likely to end up with real food.
5. Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature.
6. If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.
7. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well. The diet of the animal strongly influences the nutritional quality, whether it is meat or milk or eggs.
There is so much good info in this book! It has certainly influenced what I eat and feed my family.
I am thankful for what I've been learning. It has become my goal for my family to be eating entirely organic and whole food by the end of 2012. I recently purchased a grain mill so I can make my own flour (thus make all my own breads.) So...if you need someone to grind your wheat, you know who to call. It has been difficult, if not impossible, to eliminate all processed food from our house. I still have a bag of fritos in my pantry calling for my affection. Some of my recipes call for things that I have yet to find a suitable substitution for...but I'm working on it. And I will get us there, eventually.
If I am what I eat, then I am currently some organic raisins...my snack of choice to keep the fritos at bay till I find the will power to toss them!
Does the old saying ring true: Are you what you eat?
