The Edges of Life

When Wolf was small we noticed that he had an inclination toward violent play (as many little boys do). So we taught him the law of the jungle: one may only kill for two reasons, either for food, or to avoid being killed yourself. (This may have slightly backfired when, at five years old, he asked if we could please shoot--and eat--a songbird in the front yard, and I had to explain that it was too small to provide enough meat to be worth eating. He was terribly disappointed.) But I digress.

For the last two years we have been raising chickens. We are in it for the eggs, and we have quite a flock of happy ladies.

We knew that eventually they'd get too old to lay anymore, and we agreed from the start that when that time came we would kill them and eat them (or--since an old bird is tough and isn't great eating--put them in the crockpot to make soup or dog meals etc). However this last summer it became evident that one of our spring babies was growing up to be...not a girl. And so we had to face the prospect of slaughtering sooner than we had anticipated. I named him King Louie, because he strutted around, crowed a lot, and was destined to lose his head.

King Louie

(At this point you may be realizing that this post deals with slaughtering animals. If that bothers you feel free to stop reading. One photo shows blood but isn't graphic. I do discribe the process but it's not overly gory, and I share because the experience overall has been significant and poignant, so I hope you'll read on.)


We had no use for a roo. He eats food, he harrasses the ladies, we don't need fertilized eggs since we're eating them all anyway, and he doesn't need to defend the flock since we have that covered. So in October I sent a message to my friend who has butchered birds before, and asked if I could come over and she could teach me how. She was willing so we set a date.

Bear greeting the turkeys.

Hubby didn't happen to be available that weekend, and neither was Wolf, so I piled the younger boys into the truck and took them to my friend's house. She had a turkey that was destined for Thanksgiving dinner and the plan was to take care of Louie and her bird at the same time. Turkeys are big and strong and have to be wrestled a bit, so she'd invited another friend (also with experience) to come and help. All of us had young kids there, and we invited them to watch or help if they wanted to, but also told them that they didn't have to if they didn't want to. I feel like it's healthy to be part of the process though if you're going to be a meat eater, and to be conscientious of where our food comes from. (Bear opted to watch us kill the turkey and Eagle helped with plucking it.)

I was so glad that I slaughtered with these ladies though, because the first thing they both said to Louie as I got him out of the kennel was "thank you" and then I held him while one of them slit his throat, and as she did she was saying "thank you Louie" to him again.

It was a deeply respectful process. 

The place where we took Louie's life.

I somewhat expected to have a moment where I wanted to back out, but I never did. I didn't wield the blades but I helped hold both birds, helped with the plucking, and I cleaned out Louie's insides. We saved some of the feathers from both birds too--I don't know what I want to do with them but they are beautiful and I feel strongly about utilizing as many parts as we can. One of the ladies kept commenting about how clean Louie was so that made me feel pretty good about how we keep our flock. :)

It wasn't until afterward, when I was packing up and getting ready to come home, that I realized that Samhain was that weekend. That's the old observance of final harvest. (There's a grain harvest observance in August, a fruits/vegetables harvest observance in September, and the November observance is for harvesting animals.) I'm sure you know that Halloween has origins in the traditions about Nov 1 being the new year, and the old year dies on the 31st which is why the veil is thin between life and death and ghosts roam etc. Dia De Los Muertos as well as other ancestor-remembering traditions are celebrated at this time, and it all ties into the recognition of death as part of life, which I think is important even if I've never really been into any of those celebrations. This year we ate Louie on that day. It seemed fitting.

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But the story isn't over. Because literally the night that I got home from killing Louie, I heard a crow from the coop.

And that's when we realized there was another roo.

I have to explain a bigger story here. We bought chicks in the spring from a local farm store. But in the summer one of our adult hens (from the year before) got broody. So we got her a few fertilized eggs to sit on, and she hatched three babies. So these babies were four months younger than the spring ones, hadn't reached their adult appearance yet, and thus we hadn't realized that one of them was a roo.

Until we took Louie out of the coop, and realized that he hadn't been the only one crowing.

But back to the broody hen: I was checking on her daily, and I was the first to see the tiny fluffy babies when they hatched. I was even there during one of the hatchings--I watched the mama turn this way and that, continually shifting her weight and position and slowly turning a full circle until a third little voice started cheeping with the other two. It was the first time I had ever been present for a non-human birth, and I felt something similar to the births of my siblings or children.

The longer I live, the more I realize that the edges of life are sacred, on both sides.

The transition between life and non-life is an important time, regardless of what you believe is before and/or after it. And regardless of whether the being involved is human.

We gave Chanticleer time to reach maturity of course, but this week his time was up. I had hoped to wait until the snow melted so that we could do it outside, but we've had a lot of snow this winter and finally we decided to just do it in the garage.

Chanticleer

This time it was just myself and Hubby. I opened the door of the little kennel we'd put him in and carefully grabbed his feet with one hand and around his body with the other. He flapped and wiggled a bit, but quickly calmed. I adjusted my grip to make sure it was secure.
Since Hubby hadn't done it before, he asked to hold the bird and have me wield the knife. I had expected this, and had had several months to anticipate doing it, but in the process of getting Chanticleer out some part of me had thought and hoped that maybe it wouldn't be me.

Because here is the thing about taking a life: it is easier to do if you can distance yourself from what you are doing (indeed, the farm kills I had seen in my youth seemed to be of this sort). I certainly understand the inclination to dissociate onself from the act of taking a life. But I think that it is important--even vital--to get ones head INTO the space of what is happening, rather than out of it. The end of a sentient life--as with the beginning of one--should be a mindful thing. 

And it was. 

As my husband held Chanticleer's body and feet, I pulled our sharpest knife from its sheath and circled around to face the bird. I gently took his head in my hand, feeling his neck to make sure I would make my cut at the right place. I looked him in the eye. He looked at me for a moment, and then his eye slid shut, as though he knew what was coming; as though he were resigned to it, and knew that he was filling the measure of his creation. I pulled the knife across his neck quick and deep. His death was almost instant.
We quickly tipped him in a large bucket as he bled out, continuing to hold him as his body spasmed a few times. It's disconcerting to feel a body move when you know it's dead, and I had the fleeting fear that perhaps I hadn't done my job right and he was still alive and suffering... But he was not. I did my job properly.

And that is my biggest takeaway from all of this: how to do the job properly. It's not that I've learned how to hold a bird to kill it, or where to put the knife, or that I've learned how to make sure the blood doesn't make a mess, or that I know how to pluck it quickly and cleanly and how to get the guts out. I think the most important lesson in all of this is that life matters, and that whether I am ushering someone into it or out of it, I will always do it with mindfulness and respect for the life in question.

The Gluten Experiment: Part 4

Part 1--going gluten free
Part 2--eating 'normally' after the GF test
Part 3--low (glutenous) carb, focus on whole grains

Part 4--adding enzymes and/or soaking flours
(If you missed my note on this last time, soaking flours helps the grain begin to break down, so that it's easier for the belly to deal with. Digestive enzymes do the same thing only on the inside rather than the outside!)

The first thing I did was switch back to my soaked whole wheat bread recipe. It takes longer to make (it has to soak overnight) and the simple truth is that I got out of the habit of making it because I just always forgot to start it at night and so then when morning came I needed to make bread so I'd do the standard non-soaked recipe. Both are excellent breads, but right now I'm feeling a sense that soaking will help me.
When the first batch of soaked bread came out of the oven I purposely had several pieces (hot with butter mmmmm!) to see if I noticed anything as the result of the carb/wheat binge. I did not. This is an indication to me (again) that I do not need to stick to a strictly gluten-free diet.

I am slowly working on incorporating other soaked recipes into my diet. I made pancakes one day last week and that was easy. I'm working on adapting some other recipes--such as my roll recipe--so that they can be soaked as well. I think the soaking will especially make a difference for my occasional white flour recipes.
In conjunction with soaking more, I am taking an enzyme pill which will hopefully help deal with the unsoaked foods in my life. I don't want to have to swear off everything made by anyone else, and I really don't think I need to. I just need to make sure I take my supplements and eat well at home, and my body will probably tolerate occasional exceptions to policy without completely revolting.

I do also think that candida is a very valid issue for me. Candida is essentially a systemic yeast overgrowth, and it feeds on sugars and yeast. So if I get a flare up of it, then I get crazy intense cravings for sweets and/or yeast breads. It is really hard to knock them off, but once I do it for about 24 hours it starts getting easier, and usually within about 3 days I'm feeling quite normal again. I'm hoping that my new (or renewed) efforts to consume only minimal amounts of white flour/sugar and yeast will help me avoid those flares.


At least at this point, after a month and a half of experimentation on myself, I have reached a few conclusions about how I should eat:

1. Eat whole grains, soaking them when possible, especially if it's one that has gluten in it
2. Avoid white/yeasty breads in general. If I do consume them (ie, at a holiday gathering) then be sure to take my enzyme supplements.
3. Avoid purchased breads/floury things because they are the devil: unsoaked and full of other garbage
4. Regardless of the type of carb, aim for less rather than more. Fill in with more of other parts of plants (leaves, roots, etc instead of seeds).
   

The Gluten Experiment: Part 3

Part 1--going gluten free
Part 2--eating 'normally' after the GF test

Part 3--low (glutenous) carb with a whole grain focus
So far so good. I made a batch of homemade rolls (one of my favorite things) and snacked on them quite a bit one day, and found that I felt quite unfilled and also had that lethergy and malaise, and that was what made me realize that a problem with candida (yeast/sugar) may be a more likely culprit for me than a problem with gluten.
As I work on cutting back it gets easier. The first couple of days that I avoided white flour I was craving sugar like crazy--we didn't have any cookies or anything in the house, but I realized after the fact that I went through most of a jug of fruit juice in one day. Whoops!! As I stick to it though, I am finding that I don't crave those white breads/rolls as much as I used to. I make whole wheat bread and I seem to do fine with a little of that. I didn't notice any ill effects after having a meal with pasta in it. But I'm trying to take it very easy on white/processed flours.

There is one last step, which I am slowly starting into, and that involves soaking my grains and/or taking digestive enzymes. Soaking flours helps the grain begin to break down, so that it's easier for the belly to deal with. Digestive enzymes do the same thing only on the inside rather than the outside!

The Gluten Experiment: Part 2

So, part 1 was going gluten-free. I basically hated that. I will readily admit that it would take a LOT of awfulness in a non-GF life to get me to stick to being GF.

Part 2 was to return to normal eating.
That's actually not quite accurate, because I returned to genuinely normal eating for about a week, but then spent 10 days traveling, and that included some fast food and lots of meals prepared by other people so not only was it not GF, it wasn't even really 'normal' for me. But I digress. Lots of people told me that they didn't notice much when they went off gluten, but they did notice negative changes when they went back on it. Thus part 2.

On my first day eating gluten again I noticed mostly just excitement and not having to stop and read every label (or look it up on www.zeer.com). I'm not sure that I ate terribly 'normally' that day because I was just sortof excited about eating whatever struck my fancy. I didn't notice anything in particular physically.
On the second day I had a handful of pretzels and noticed afterward that I felt bloated. I tried to pretend that I didn't.
On the fifth day we made BLTs (which I love) with store-bought bread (which I don't love, but we had a loaf in the house because Hubby had gotten it for making french toast and we were trying to finish things off before leaving on our trip). Again I got the bloaty feeling afterward, and I had only eaten the one sandwich.
I did not notice bloating at any other times. I didn't notice any real changes to my intestinal regularity (except that the backed-upedness lasted a few more days...but it had started during part 1, so I didn't think that counted as a 'new symptom).

Within a week of eating whatever I wanted, I did notice that if I had a carb-heavy meal (especially one that was white-flour centric), I felt somewhat lethargic and unwell. Not sick really, just sub-par. So I didn't even give it a full two weeks of eating whatever I wanted. I launched straight into part 3, which was to not sweat it about which carbs I had per se, but to aim for fewer rather than more of them (and to try to stick to whole grains--that was hard until I got home but is fairly easy now).

(stay tuned, part 3 is coming tomorrow!)

The Gluten Experiment: Part 1

A couple of months ago I shared that I'd had a blood test reveal the presence of gliadin, which is the antibody to gluten. In other words, I tested positive for gluten intolerance. The standard procedure for that is to begin a gluten free "GF" diet.

I did not jump in immediately, partly because making the switch requires some effort, but mostly because I didn't have symptoms. (We had no reason to suspect an intolerance, the test was part of a standard battery we were doing because of something else, and the result was something of a surprise.) Many people experience bloating, gas, or irregularity. Many experience fatigue or joint pain. Some sources do suggest symptoms as differentiated as headaches, giddiness, loss or gain of weight, skin inflammation, nervousness, anger, impotency, irregular menstrual cycles, and miscarriage. That last one of course stood out to me, but it's one I did not find on most of the symptom lists, and I'm definitely a bit skeptical as to how a food allergy would be implicated in miscarriage.
My reading indicated that when dealing with a food allergy, an 'elimination diet' (ie, eliminating the offending food) is typically done for two weeks to observe whether or not there are any changes in symptoms. I spoke with several friends who have allergies to either wheat or gluten, and while a couple said that they needed to be GF for 3 or 6 weeks to see results, many also said that they noticed changes within just a few days. So two weeks seemed like a reasonable test to me. Also, several people told me that they did not notice anything particular when they went off gluten, but they did notice a change for the worse when they went back on it. So my experiment is really twofold: observing myself for two weeks off of gluten, and then continuuing to observe for the next two weeks as I go back on it.

Today's report is about my two weeks gluten-free. (Just so you know, there's a bit of "TMI" in here...so consider yourself warned!)

The first couple of days were really hard, as I had known they would be. I was overwhelmed with constantly checking labels or looking things up ( www.zeer.com is a great site for checking whether things have gluten in them). It seemed that most of what I wanted to snack on had gluten in it... I felt hungry, not because I wasn't eating, but because I had to be so discriminating about what I ate. I think the difficulty was mostly emotional, but it was certainly difficult. The second day was especially hard.
I did get a mix to make GF pancakes, and one to make a loaf of GF bread, and I did make a flour mix which I substituted into a couple of other things, so in those few instances I had my separate food from everyone elses...but otherwise I simply prepared GF foods for everyone. We ate several dishes over rice--Indian, Chinese, Thai, and Mexican foods. We ate several meat & potatoes type meals. I ate a lot of eggs for breakfasts and fruit or cheese for snacks. It was a little annoying, but I did get the hang of it, and it wasn't too hard.
On two of the days when I was eating every (GF) meal, I found that I felt weak, woozy, and even a little nauseous. One of these was day 2, and I credited it to the change...but the other day was more than halfway through the trial, and it caught me quite off guard. I was eating meals with the same frequency and of the same size as always have, and that ill feeling is not something that happens except occasionally when I am pregnant or if I have fasted a full 24 hours. (I actually did a partial fast one day during the trial--I don't do full fasts when I'm breastfeeding--but, I felt fine during that time.)
I'd heard that my often-poor sleep might improve. This is hard to gauge as I had a teething baby during part of the time and he was not sleeping well so of course I was not sleeping well either...however, I didn't notice any particular differences in that regard either.
I also observed was that there were a couple of days when I was quite gassy. I was keeping a food diary, and there doesn't seem to have been anything in common between those days that might have caused it. Also in regard to the gastro-intestinal situation, I have never gotten so backed up in my life. These two issues I suspect may have to do with the lower fiber content of my diet when I went off wheat--we do consume quite a bit of wheat in our household, but it is almost all whole wheat. I probably should have thought about that ahead of time and sought additional alternate sources of fiber...however, I felt that the most realistic way to do the trial was to simply get rid of gluten, without making any other dietary changes.

So, my conclusions at this stage are that going gluten free did not improve my quality of life at all, and may have actually decreased it a bit.
I did develop a fairly awesome cookie recipe though: Stardrops.
We shall see if I notice anything in the coming two weeks as I go gluten-full again (I'll let you know of course!)


One friend, upon hearing that I was trying gluten-free, mentioned that in her experience gluten-free is not usually as helpful as staying on gluten and simply adding digestive enzymes to the diet. I need to research this option more fully, but hope to try it out as part 3 of the experiment.
If I do notice adverse results as I go onto gluten again, then I will also add on a gluten-lite trial, and see how that goes.

Thank You Sockeye

I have said before that I believe in sustainable eating--in only taking what we can (will) use, and then in using all the parts of the animal (or, in making sure that all the parts are used, even if we don't use them all personally). I also believe in conscientious eating--that is to say, I believe in being grateful not just to the Lord for providing the food, but also to the animal who gave his life for our sustenance. Ancient tribes would give verbal thanks to the animal when they killed it, and I think that is a tradition worth remembering.
While I have not been present for the actual deaths of the 27 sockeye (red) and 2 pink salmon that Hubby has brought home this summer, I have done some of the cleaning and most of the filleting. I have tried to treat each fish with respect. To observe their beauty, to cut them carefully and not waste any meat. The guts and heads and other parts we don't use we try to either throw into the river at the time they are caught, or use for bait or throw back to the river or sea later on. We smoke or freeze the meat with the skin on, but since we don't eat most of the skin (Wolf likes to eat it sometimes), we give that to our dog. As I said, we try to respect the animal, and to waste no part of the life he gave to us.
I asked Hubby to take some pictures of a particularly big and beautiful fish so that I could document this side of our lives.
Look how big this guy is! Wash him off (Hubby guts them on site when he catches them).


Isn't he beautiful? I mean, he's a fish, and yeah he's a little slimy, but the colors on their heads and backs are so beautiful.
Take off the head, right behind the first fin (cutting as close to the fin as possible, so as not to waste meat). I find it hard to make that first cut--probably because that eye is looking back at me. But taking off the head (pardon the expression) dehumanizes the fish enough that I can do the rest. It is HARD for me to slice these guys open. Hard to think that we took a life. Sure, I know this was a spawning salmon and that it would have died within another week or so anyway, but still, we're responsible for his death, however slight it was in it's prematurity. That responsibility keeps me determined to use every bit of the meat.
Two very fat salmon fillets. As I'm taking the meat off the bones I often end up with little bits that didn't slice nicely--little scraps and bits. (I had a lot of those bits at first, I don't make so many now.) I collect all those together as well, and when I have a couple of cups I chop them up and use them to make salmon burgers or quiche or something like that.
I took a life to sustain my own; I must not waste it.

Food Hypocrisy

[warning, this post is mostly a rant...]

I know a lot of people who follow a particular diet, whether it's eating vegetarian, vegan, raw, organic, local, or dairy/nut/gluten/wheat-free.
I will state off the top that I do see allergies as somewhat of an exception--nobody asks to have a food allergy, and as I'm muddling into the middle of it myself I certainly feel the pain of thinking "but if I can't have ___, then what CAN I have?!" and it is overwhelming. However, this post is more about people who are choosing a particular dietary style based on morals or ideals, not on allergies.

My husband (before he was my husband obviously) took a girl out to dinner once. She told him that she was vegetarian, and he said ok, well, where would you like to go? He proposed an Indian restaurant, or a Thai restaurant, knowing that both of those places would have some great vegetarian dishes. She declined. He thought perhaps that was a little to exotic for her so asked about Chinese, but she said no. Where did she want to go? A soup and salad place...and once there, her dinner consisted of iceburg lettuce with a couple of carrots and tomatoes. She said that's what she usually ate.
I will bet you anything that her vegetarianism was short-lived, because you cannot survive on iceburg lettuce, and this girl wasn't willing to branch out and explore what vegetarianism had to offer.
In the grocery stores in November I always see something frightening: tofurky. Really? Turkey flavored tofu? Does anyone else think that sounds just gross? If you want to eat turkey, then do so. If you want to be vegetarian, then make a Thanksgiving meal centered on baked potatoes, or an amazing 'stuffing' casserole, or something like that.
If you like hamburgers, then eat them. If you are concerned about the treatment of the animals, then try eating local, grass-fed beef, or humanely-shot wild moose or elk burger. If you are morally opposed to meat, then feel free to grill up a portabella mushroom cap, or make rice & bean patties (which are good, but nothing like meat). But the 'veggie burgers' that are supposed to taste and feel like meat? Oh give me a break! They are full of fillers for one thing--they may be vegetarian, but I don't for a second believe that they are healthy...and if you're just eating substitute meats, then how committed are you to a meatless life? In my humble opinion, eating meat substitutes is still supporting a culture of meat-eating, even if you're not consuming it yourself, and if you don't believe in that...

The second part of my rant is this: if you DO eat meat, then you should be willing to participate in the whole process. I remember a college roommate who wouldn't touch raw chicken--it was too slimy and gross she said. But she liked to eat chicken. After the second time that she refused to help with that part of the meal preparation I told her that she had better give up chicken or else come help, because she was being a hypocrite and I wasn't going to enable her. (Yeah, I'm blunt like that ☺) From then on she helped...squeamishly, sure, but she helped.
Last weekend my husband went fishing and brought home a bunch of wild silver salmon. Salmon isn't my favorite fish, but they are plentiful here and very healthy, and you can't beat the price (or the feeling of fulfillment of literally providing food for your family with your bare hands). So he brought home fish...which then needed to be gutted and filleted. Do I enjoy gutting fish? Oh my no. But if I am going to eat the fish then I'd better be willing to start with an actual flopping fish, bash it's head myself, and so on. Yes, I have to touch it. Yes, I am taking a life. But I eat meat--that inherently means something died for me. So I participate in the whole process, doing my best to waste nothing (the heads and bones and other parts we don't eat get tossed back into the sea, where they will be put to good use).

The honest truth is that I don't really care what diet you have concluded is best for you and your family--be it vegetarian, vegan, raw, traditional foodism, or whatever else. I think that different families in different places have different needs. BUT, whatever it is that you decide you believe in, do it all the way, ok? Don't cheat on yourself. You're better than that. ☺

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One of my food idols blogs here, and she not only has lots of appetizing photos and amazing recipes (mostly vegetarian + lots of gluten-free), she also blogs about her reasons for her dietary choices, her perception of 'real food,' and her active participation in the process. Go on over to her sites, be inspired. ☺

Going Without Gluten

I have recently begun seeing a doctor for some issues I've been having. I suspected hormonal imbalances, but he tested several other things to make sure we didn't miss anything (thyroid, adrenal function, neurotransmitters, vitamin D levels, the list was not short). One thing that came up--something we had not anticipated--is that I have a mild intolerance for gluten. (A test result of 13-14 is "borderline intolerance" and 15+ is intolerance, with 30+ being severe intolerance. My result was 16.) I got these results the day before we left on our trip, so I haven't been able to do much about them yet. My doctor recommends going completely gluten-free immediately. The information pages he gave me suggest that if I stick to a strict gluten-free diet for 3-4 months, then after that (because I have a milder intolerance) I can have something with gluten once every week or so.
I am thoroughly overwhelmed.
Going gluten-free would require some MAJOR changes in how I cook (starting with no more homemade whole wheat bread...) and honestly I am feeling very lost in how to start. I know there are lots of GF families out there, and I'm hoping that perhaps you can help me in three ways:

1. Can you recommend specific websites and/or books that will be helpful for me in understanding better what gluten-intolerance is, how it works, and for goodness sake which foods have gluten and which don't (for example oatmeal--I'm finding conflicting information on whether it's ok or not).
2. Can you recommend specific websites/cookbooks where I can get good GF recipes?!
3. Are there ways to prepare gluten-containing foods so that the gluten is already broken down and therefore not a problem? For example, if I sprout my wheat before grinding it into flour, then can I eat it? What about soaking? This is actually something I'm very hopeful about, especially since my intolerance is on the very mild end of the spectrum. I would vastly prefer to find a way I can just cook for my whole family, rather than having to cook separately for myself...and trust me this family is not giving up carbs.
   

I really appreciate any help you can offer. ☺

WFMW: Sweet Treats

I suspect that most of us get sweets cravings from time to time. Maybe all the time. My regular readers know that I believe in healthy eating, but that I also believe in moderation, and that I have no objection to whipping up a batch of brownies for no particular reason...but I do object to doing it every day. Unfortunately, I get those sweets cravings almost every day, and when I try to just ignore them they get more intense (isn't that how it always goes when you're trying to quit something?!) So I've found a solution: satisfy the sweet tooth with something that's just a little sweet, but that's more or less good for me.
So, when I have a hankering for brownies, or ice cream, I am usually able to satisfy it with one of these things:

• A bowl of box cereal (we don't have the super sweet ones, but something like "Honey Bunches of Oats" is sweet enough)
• Applesauce
• Yogurt (mine is usually homemade)
  
• Yogurt with berries/fruit in it
• Fruit--fresh or canned (hey, I live in Alaska, fresh fruit is in season for about 2 weeks up here!)
  
• A smoothie
• A homemade muffin (especially if it has berries in it)
• A piece of toast with butter and/or jam
• A cup of hot cocoa--especially with coconut oil or cream in it
• Fruit juice (this usually doesn't work as well, because there's no chewing so it just isn't very satisfying...but in a pinch it's more satisfying than nothing)
  
• any other suggestions? (comment please!)
  

Just as an observation--my mother and I have both observed that a lot of times when we think we're craving sweets, sugar alone does not actually satisfy the craving. Interestingly, what does satisfy the craving is fat--saturated fat (cream, butter, etc). We think it's because of two things 1--those fats usually come together with sugar (brownies, ice cream, cookies...) but sugar is the more recognizable 'taste' for our brains. 2--In our culture's fear of saturated fat, we end up consuming too much unsaturated fat and our bodies are imbalanced (you need a little of each kind of fat because your body uses different types for different things). Due to that imbalance, our bodies give us cravings to get us to consume things that we need.
SO, you'll notice that most of my sweet alternatives also have a little fat in them--and I think that's important. ☺


See more Works for Me Wednesdays here.

WFMW: Pre-pulling 'leftovers'

I do what I call "multi-meal planning," which means that I plan sequential meals that will utilize the same ingredients. For example, on one day I will cook a pot roast, and a couple of days later I'll use the leftover beef for stroganoff or stew (or both). A roast chicken leads to pot pie, soup, or chicken casserole. The problem with planning this way was that sometimes there was not as much leftover meat as I needed to make the other meal(s). Especially if we ate a leisurely dinner, people would have just a little bit more, and just another nibble, until the meat I was counting on was gone.
Here's the thing, people will fill up on whatever is in front of them...they don't necessarily want certain amounts of any particular food, they just want to be filled.
A friend of mine told me that she serves portion sizes up onto all the plates and then puts the leftovers into the fridge before they even begin the meal. It ensures that everyone eats proper portion sizes. I took her idea and adapted it to my multi-meal planning.
Now, when I cook a roast, I cut the thing in half and put half in the fridge before I even bring it to the table. We don't need very much meat in our diets, and I always serve a meat dish with plenty of vegetables on the sides so nobody is left hungry. (Did you know that tests show that potato is actually the food that leaves you feeling the most full?! So just serve mashed or roasted potatoes and people will nibble on them instead of the meat, and they'll get full faster anyway!) Meanwhile, I have enough left over meat for my other meals!
Before I started doing this I could usually make one more meal from the leftovers of a "big meat" meal, now I can usually make two. It's friendly to my budget and our health!

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The World According to Monsanto

We recently watched the documentary The World According to Monsanto (watch it here, read other reviews from TwilightEarth and Greenpeace). It was originally in French (it was dubbed) and for someone who doesn't read or speak French that is a little distracting because of some of the visual aspects (which I'll explain in a moment).

There is a lot of information in this film. It is packed full of primary source interviews--meaning interviews with people who were there, not just people who heard about it later. There is not a very smooth flow to the film though; it sortof jumps from one thing to the next. The overall message is clear: that Monsanto is and has been doing very shady things with our food production, from bovine growth hormones (rBGH) to roundup-ready seed to suing farmers out of everything they have. Most of the information was not new to me, as I had learned it from other sources (notably The Future of Food), but while FoF focuses on Monsanto's effects on the USA, this film spent more time on the international ramifications, including the way the company is making small independent farmers from Paraguay to India dependent on buying their seed and herbicides and is pushing monoculture (to the destruction of the traditional small family farms). It traced the infiltration of Monsanto's roundup-ready corn hybrid into Mexico's ancient corn strains, and showed photos of the truly disturbing results (if you know anything about how corn is supposed to look, these photos will give you chills).

The downside of this film is that it feels like an amateur movie. The numerous interviews and world traveling indicate a big budget, but the main transition method in the film is a woman (the filmmaker) sitting at her computer and googling various terms such as "monsanto rgbh falsify study" and so on. Yes, googling. In French. So that was a little distracting for me. The rest of the content was great, but the transitions (and there were many) were annoying.

In general, I do recommend the movie because of the content (which does go above and beyond other food documentaries I've seen). Just be warned that it doesn't have as polished a feel as some other documentaries.

"Good" Food

I was talking with my mother recently about her efforts over the last two years to establish a farmers market in her area, and my new project of getting involved to improve the school lunch program here. We were talking about some different sources (blogs, other websites, books) tout healthy recipes or ideas, but that some of them are not helpful for us because different people have different ideas about what constitutes 'healthy eating' or 'good food.' Due to those differences, I thought I would take a few minutes to briefly explain what I believe to be the important things in food. (Please note that we don't have any food allergies to worry over, and have reached these conclusions via thoughtful reading of the Word of Wisdom and other nutrition book, and consideration of the information gleaned from books and documentaries about mainstream horticultural and agricultural practices in this country and the politics driving them.)

The staff of life
Grains are important, and they should be whole grains at least most of the time. With that said, wheat does not have the corner on the market. I don't care for the taste of regular red wheat myself, so I use some white wheat (still whole wheat, just lighter flavor), and I also use oats, cornmeal, and I've recently begun learning to use quinoa. I hope to continue to diversify the grains I use. (I do use regular white flour too, more on that later.)

The spice of life
Variety!! If we ate the same thing every day I would probably shoot myself out of sheer boredom (that is if my family didn't shoot me first). We enjoy eating foods from other countries, we enjoy trying new recipes and new foods. We have vegetarian meals, we have meat-lite meals, we have meat-heavy meals. We eat a variety of grains, a variety of legumes, and a variety of vegetables. Due to our preference for a variety of flavors in our meals, my herb/spice/condiment collection is fairly extensive, and yes we use everything in it.

Moderation in all things
There is almost no food that is "off limits" in my kitchen (mostly just caffeine and alcohol). If I want brownies, I make brownies, with white flour and white sugar and lots of butter. I am not afraid of sugar or butter or white flour or deep frying. We do not do these things often, but it is normal to want something like that sometimes, and I would rather go ahead and enjoy a treat, rather than making it strictly taboo (because that tends to make cravings worse).

'Naughty' and real is better than fake
I don't fancy the idea of mummifying myself before I've even died, so I try to avoid preservatives in my food. Since most prepared foods have preservatives, if I want something I'd rather make it myself. It's true, brownies aren't good for me, but I would so much rather make my own (with all those 'bad' ingredients) and know that there are no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.

Living as a Locavore
I'm not a hardcore locavore, in that yes, I do buy some foods from out of state, but I try to get all my perishables from in-state or at least within a few hundred miles. I grow some vegetables, I support my farmer's market, and our dream is to have a small homestead and raise chickens, sheep, a milk cow, and the occasional beef cow. We also hunt and fish for local wild meat.
Foods that are shipped from halfway across the world--even if they are cheap--are not earth friendly. They are not very yummy either, since they had to be picked long before they were ripe, and then shipped thousands of miles to get to me. I would rather limit the foods in my pantry and know that they are fresh. Fresh produce has more flavor--and more vitamins--than pre-picked/chemically-ripened produce.
I know a lot of people who focus on whether a food is organic, but for me that is not as big an issue as whether it is local. I will wash my fruit anyway, and while I prefer that it not have been sprayed with anything (because that kind of farming isn't sustainable), I look for that 'grown in Alaska' tag first.

Ethics Matter more than Dollars
Animals raised on factory farms are fed diets based on maximum weight gain, not on the best nutrition for the animal. They stand in their own filth all day, and are shot full of antibiotics to keep them from sickening and dying before they reach the slaughterhouse. The meat/milk/eggs from these animals are poor at best. So I willingly pay more to get local meat from smaller farms.
Secondly, for things that have to come internationally (such as spices), I try to look for the 'fair trade' sticker. Fair trade means that the workers involved are making a living wage. Firstly I think that's just the right thing to do, but secondly a decently-paid worker is more likely to do good work, so I think fair trade (as opposed to cut-every-corner-to-save-every-penny free trade) brings better products.
As Michael Pollen says, I 'vote with my dollar' about what I think is important in food. No, it's not as cheap, but it is better for us nutritionally, and my conscience tells me it's the moral thing to do. If I really care about what I am putting into my body, then the price tag shouldn't matter!

Living microwave-free

"Zappers" my family used to call them. As in "would you zap this for me?"
Or, better still "would you nuke this a minute longer!?"
NUKE? My food?! Something that I'm going to eat?
Think about that for a second!

We don't have a microwave oven anymore.
And we don't want one.

I know a few people who don't have microwave ovens because they have concerns about cancer or the de-naturizing effects of the micro waves on their food. I've read those articles and considered the matter, but it was never enough to convince my husband to go microwave-free.

When we moved to Pelican, we were moving by air, so anything we wanted to take with us had to fit into a very limited space since we had to pay by the box. We decided that it wasn't worth $50 to bring a microwave, and that we'd make do. Almost as soon as we arrived though one of Hubby's co-workers learned that we did not have a microwave, and offered us her old one because she had just upgraded.
So we had a microwave again.
There was very limited counter space in that apartment, and the only place we could fit the microwave happened to be next to the sink. I was very concerned about water getting under it and causing a short so I made efforts to avoid that, and also frequently unplugged and moved the microwave to thoroughly clean/dry the area as well. But you can't stop the inevitable I suppose, because halfway through our second year in Pelican though the microwave fritzed-out. (Yes, that's a technical term!)
One night Hubby put something in the microwave, but then removed it before the time had run out. He pressed the 'cancel' button and re-closed the door, but the microwave turned on. He pressed 'cancel' again but it continued to run. From that time on, no matter what buttons we pushed, if the door was latched then the microwave was on. It would only turn off if we opened the door. After about 5 minutes of observation we concluded that the microwave had some kind of short (or that at any rate it wasn't safe anymore) so we unplugged it and got rid of it.
My word I had so much counter space!!!
We started re-heating lunches in the oven or on the stovetop instead of in the microwave...it took 10 minutes instead of 3. Ten. Minutes. That is just not very long now, is it. How is it that our culture has become so impatient that we are not willing to wait ten minutes for our food? And you know what else? The leftovers tasted better. I'd long ago started reheating anything with chicken or pork in some way besides the microwave, because those meats in the zapper always tasted weird and got too dry. When we started reheating everything with the oven/stove though I realized that everything tasted better. (In searching online for a photo for this post--which I was unable to find and had to make by the way--I came across a bakery in New Mexico that has a notice on their website that they are a microwave-free facility. What a great selling point!!!)
When we returned to civilization this summer, we first spent a couple of months staying with family. They had a microwave, but we found that after 5 months without one we were not inclined to use it, and rarely did so. When we settled in to our new home, we chose to not buy one. So we are now an intentionally microwave-free home. Hubby wanted something for reheating leftovers at work, and opted for a toaster oven rather than a zapper.

One thing that would have been difficult about the change would have been if we had been using a lot of plastic in our kitchen, because of course plastic is not oven safe. But frankly I don't think that plastic is very food-safe, so we had been getting rid of plastic in our kitchen long before getting rid of the microwave, so it was no big deal.

What do we use instead?
We store leftovers in pyrex dishes. The lids are not heat-safe, but the dishes themselves can go in the dishwasher, oven, fridge, freezer (or yes, the microwave). On average, depending on the size of the dish, they cost $2-9 each, but boxed sets as the one shown here (and linked) are more affordable. I have containers ranging from custard cups to full casserole dishes, and use all of them. I pack Hubby's and Wolf's school lunches in portion-size containers, save full meals in the freezer in 6x10s, and so on. I love that I can see through the glass too because that way I always know what I have in my fridge. It's pretty sturdy glass, and while it can break if abused, it will hold up to years of regular use (no need to be paranoid about them!). When Wolf takes them to school (where his only heating option is a microwave) I don't have to worry about the plastic from his dish leaching into his food. Incidentally, pyrex is also made in the USA. Just a note--take a dish straight from the fridge or freezer and put it into a cold oven, then turn on the heat. The glass will heat gradually as the food does, and will not break this way. ☺)
I use glass or ceramic mixing bowls (some pyrex brand, some others), so I can set the whole bowl in the oven to soften butter, speed bread rising, and so on.
We use corelle dishes, which are also oven-safe, so sometimes we reheat food directly on our plates. Yes, this does mean that our plates get hot (oh, wait, don't fancy restaurants bring out meals on heated plates? Why yes, I think they do!) They are classy looking like china, and technically breakable, but still sturdy like the pyrex (I think they may be made by the same company actually). My grandmother gave an extensive set of corelle dishes to my mom because she (grandma) had had them for a couple of decades but very few had broken and she was tired of the pattern and wanted something new.

Sometimes I have to adapt a little, such as when the recipe says to melt chocolate chips in the microwave, I use my double boiler pan (or a saucepan on low heat with lots of stirring and careful watching). Anytime I want to cook with butter I have to plan ahead enough to get it out of the fridge to soften, or at the very least I have to set it in the oven for a few minutes to soften/melt a bit. On the other hand, when making cookies requires forethought, it's a good way to curb impulsive cookie-making, don't you think?!☺
Yes, living without a microwave means that many things take longer, but good things always take time.

So, the short version of living microwave free:

• Plastic-free (or mostly plastic-free) kitchen
• More counter space
• The food tastes better
• The food gets heated more evenly
• The texture of the food is the same as how it was originally made (crisp pizza crusts in the oven, soft pasta on the stovetop, just think about how the original dish was made and reheat in the same way)
  
• We slow down and think about what we're eating before consuming it
• And, just in case microwaves do cause cancer, well, we're avoiding that too

Why I'm NOT Vegetarian

Several times someone (upon learning that I care about nutrition and am trying to eat a healthy and natural diet), has been surprised to learn that I am not vegetarian. So today I thought I'd explain why that is.
It is not because I like meat and am just unwilling to give it up. That reason might apply for my Hubby, but not for me. I don't like beef much. I rarely eat pig products (even though I like pork) because they give me gas. I do like chicken, but I don't care for turkey or goose. Lamb is pretty strong and I'm not fond of it either. Ironically, given that I live on the coast of Alaska, I really don't like fish and I won't touch any other seafood.
We do not eat as much meat as the SAD ("Standard American Diet"). Rather than a chicken breast per person, I use 1 or 2 breasts (or thighs) cut up and mixed in with the pasta or rice or whatever. I cut steaks in half, and even roasts--I cut it in half before bringing it to the table, and one half goes straight into the fridge to be cut up for use in other meals such as stew or stroganoff. Sure, sometimes we have burgers or ribs or some other meat-centric meal, but they are the exception rather than the rule. I believe that meat is part of a healthy diet, but not the basis of it.

But yes we do eat meat, and will continue to do so.

From a geographic and environmental standpoint, we live in a cold climate with a short growing season. Fresh produce is not as readily available as in warmer places. The higher fat content of meats, including the omega 3s of fish, help support our systems through long cold winters with little sunlight. If we wanted to be vegetarians we would have to buy food that was almost all shipped great distances, and that is not sustainable (nor is it economical, nor is it as healthy as eating fresh local foods).

From a genetic standpoint, our ancesters were all northern european (mostly scandinavian), meaning that they adapted to live in a climate similar to the one we have here in Alaska. If their genetic makeup adapted to that regional diet (which included meat), then it seems that our genetic makeup would also thrive on that same diet.

From a physiological standpoint, our bodies are not constructed the same as vegetarian mammals--we have much shorter digestive tracts for one thing. They are not as short as the average carnivore either though, because we are omnivores. Yes, most of our teeth (the 'choppers' in front and the molars in back) are plant-eater teeth. However, we also have those four corner cainines--meat-eating teeth. Considering the ratio of meat teeth to plant teeth, I certainly believe that meat should be a small part of our diet...but I think the simple fact that we have meat teeth is a clear indication that meat does still have a place in the human diet.

From a religious standpoint, we have The Word of Wisdom, the dietary policy which makes us teetotalers and non-coffee drinkers, but also includes a long list of "dos" with all of the "do nots." It talks about eating foods in season, and using all foods with gratitude and thanksgiving. It also says that it is appropriate to use meat sparingly, but especially to use it in times of winter, or cold, or famine. Considering that I live in a cold place with a long winter, there is the final reason why I am not--and am not considering becoming--vegetarian.

Is it Just Me?

...or is it sad that frozen turkeys now come with a gravy packet included? "Pour drippings and contents of gravy packet into a saucepan and mix well over medium heat."
Have we forgotten how to make a simple gravy? Um, meat drippings, flour, water, cornstarch if desired...maybe a little bullion (or a few cubes of frozen bone broth) to round it out...this is not a difficult thing to make...is it?
In the last couple of months I think I have seen a dozen facebook status updates that reference the person taking on some new and 'elaborate' cooking endeavor (often after watching "Julie and Julia"), and then I see what they are making: quiche, alfredo, a turkey... No, you're right, these are not necessarily beginner projects. But they are not terribly advanced either...most are more in the intermediate range. In and of itself there's nothing wrong with that, but some of these people are, well, a lot older than me. Women who have been stay-at-home-moms for a couple of decades, and yet have never attempted to cook anything complicated.
I am not suggesting that everyone needs to be a gourmet chef, but we all have to eat every day, so why would we not at least make quality food? And if you are already a pretty good cook, don't you get bored just making the same things over and over, no matter how good they may be? Don't you (and your family) deserve some variety? I chose to be a homemaker--shouldn't I care enough about my profession to be good at it??
So I'm issuing a challenge to all of you, my readers. It doesn't matter what level you are starting from; this coming week try something new. A new recipe, a new technique, a new something-that-will-make-you-a-little-better in the kitchen. After all, we could all try a little harder to be a little better. ☺

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollen

I recently finished a most fabulous book: Michael Pollen's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. I heartily recommend it, and I do so with the note that it will probably make you re-evaluate not only what you eat but also how you eat it. Pollen says so much and says it so well that, rather than try to summarize, I will simply quote liberally from the book:

"The trend toward simplification of our food continues up the chain. As we've seen, processing [foods] depletes them of many nutrients, a few of which are then added back...Fortifying processed foods with missing nutrients is surely better than leaving them out, but food science can add back only the small handful of nutrients that food science recognizes as important today. What is it overlooking? [S]cience doesn't know nearly enough to compensate for everything that processing does to whole foods. We know how to break down a kernel of corn or grain of wheat into its chemical parts, but we have no idea how to put it back together again. Destroying complexity is a lot easier than creating it." (115-6)

After describing the findings of several people who studied indigenous peoples from all over the world (and found that all the people were healthy on these natural diets, even though the diets themselves varied greatly) Pollen comments that “The human animal is adapted to, and apparently can thrive on, an extraordinary range of different diets, but the Western Diet, however you define it, does not seem to be one of them.” (100)
He discusses the history of nutrition in the western world--seeking for foods that would be cheap, give lots of energy, and be quick and easy to prepare and eat. I appreciated that Pollen doesn't criticize the motives or the people involved so much as explaining why the results have been (and are) problematic. He goes into the nutritive and metabolic differences between white and whole wheat flour, and spends most of a chapter on what we have recently learned--but long ignorantly overlooked--about the differences between Omega 3s and Omega 6s. He takes on the matter of organic vs conventionally grown crops, and concludes that "very simply, we have been breeding crops for yield, not nutritional quality, and when you breed for one thing, you invariably sacrifice another." (121) (If you have ever smelled one of those huge fancy hybrid tea roses you probably know that they smell like nothing. On the other hand the wilder roses with the little blossoms are euphoric!) Pollen continues "Halweil cites several studies demonstrating that when older crop varieties are grown side by side with modern cultivars, the older ones typically have lower yields but substantially higher nutrient levels. USDA researchers recently found that breeding to 'improve' wheat varieties over the past 130 years (a period during which yields of grain per acre tripled) had reduced levels of iron by 28 percent and zinc and selenium by roughly a third." (121)

Finally, Pollen concludes the book with a list of guidelines, or as he describes them "eating algorithms, mental devices for thinking through our food choices." They are summarized right on the cover of the book: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Within the book of course he expounds upon each point. I have not copied all of his guidelines here, but this list is representative, and makes a good jumping off point for improving your diet--and your health. ☺

"The more eaters who vote with their forks for a different kind of food, the more commonplace and accessible such food will become." (14)

EAT FOOD (FOOD DEFINED)

• Don't eat anything that your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
• Don't eat anything incapable of rotting.
• Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A) unfamiliar B) unpronounceable C) more than five in number or D) that include high fructose corn syrup. (He adds that none of these things alone is evil per se, but that they are all indications of a highly processed food, and therefore an undesirable one.)
• Avoid food products that make health claims. ("For a food product to make health claims on it's package it must first have a package, so right off the bat it's more likely to be a processed than a whole food." Futhermore going to the trouble to secure those official health claims from the FDA involves time and money, and typically only the big food companies have that.)
• Get out of the supermarket whenever possible (try farmer's markets or, what a notion, growing your own garden!)
• Shake the hand that feeds you (I love that one!)
  

MOSTLY PLANTS (WHAT TO EAT)

• Eat mostly plants, especially leaves (because different parts of plants have different nutrients, and as the western diet has become more and more seed-based we have become less and less healthy).
• You are what you eat eats too (in other words, "the diet of the animals we eat has a bearing on the nutritional quality, and healthfulness, of the food itself.")
• Eat like an omnivore (eat a variety of foods!)
• Eat well-grown food from healthy soils (this more or less means organic, but certification is expensive and many smaller farms have the good foods in spite of not having the sticker).
• Eat wild foods when you can.
• Seek a more traditional diet, and regard nontraditional foods with skepticism. ("I'm inclined to think any traditional diet will do; if it wasn't a healthy regimen, the diet and the people who followed it wouldn't still be around.")
• Don't look for the magic bullet in the traditional diet (health comes from an overall pattern of good eating, not from ingesting large doses of one specific nutrient).

"A diet based on quantity rather than quality has ushered a new creature onto the world stage: the human being who manages to be both overfed and undernourished, two characteristics seldom found in the same body in the long natural history of our species." (122)

NOT TOO MUCH (HOW TO EAT)

• Pay more, eat less (Spend more money for the higher-quality foods, spend more time in preparing them, don't overeat)
• Eat meals (not just snacks. Interact with your family/fellow eaters as you sit together.)
• Do all your eating at a table (Don't eat in the car or in front of the television.)
• Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does ☺
• Try not to eat alone
  
• Eat slowly (eat deliberately and mindfully. Also, it takes around 20 minutes for your brain to get the message that the stomach is full, so if you finish a meal in less than that time you're obviously not listening to your gut.)
• Cook and, if you can, plant a garden ("To take part in the intricate and endlessly interesting processes of providing for our sustenance is the surest way to escape the culture of fast food and the values implicit in it: that food should be fast, cheap, and easy; that food is a product of industry not nature; that food is fuel, and not a form of communion...")

"I no longer think it's possible to separate our bodily health from the health of the environment from which we eat or the environment in which we eat or, for that matter, from the the health of our general outlook about food (and health). If my exploration of the food chain have taught me anything, it's that all the links in it are in fact linked: the health of the soil to the health of the plants and animals we eat to the health of the food culture in which we eat them to the health of the eater, in body as well as mind." (144)

"Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver

I don't remember when I first heard about this book. I do know that it was not an unfamiliar title last summer when my mother was reading it and told me that she loved it. I made a mental note to get around to reading it sometime...
A month ago I saw it on the rental shelf at our little library (they have a program where they can rent recent or popular books for less than buying them, so there is a decent rotating collection there), so I snatched it up.

I should probably warn you that if you are pregnant and craving fresh fruit and vegetables (especially if you live in a rural corner of Alaska and cannot get them no matter how much you want them), and it's the end of a long winter where none of the produce is very good even if you could get it, and you haven't had your own garden in three years and you miss it terribly...then this book may leave you feeling very very hungry and dreaming about things like farmers markets and hoeing weeds and canning peaches. Of course, I still heartily recommend it.


Animal Vegetable Miracle follows a year in the life of Barbara Kingsolver, her husband, and two teenage daughters. They decided that they wanted to be 'locavores' for a year, as a sortof social experiment. They did make one exception per family member--dad got his coffee (organic and fair trade of course), one daughter got hot chocolate, mom got her spices...but other than that they ate locally. They planted a massive garden, raised their own chickens and turkeys, went to their farmers market religiously, and almost everything they consumed that year was produced within their own county (I think the most distant item came from two states away). The book tells not only their story of learning to eat locally (and in season!), but also includes several essays from Stephen Hopp (her husband, a professor of environmental studies), essays from the elder daughter Camille Kingsolver, and a mouthwatering collection of recipes that follow the 'in season' rule (in other words, nothing calls for mixing produce from one season with produce from another).

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the book:

"[O]ur vegetables have come to lack two features of interest: nutrition and flavor. Storage and transport take predictable tolls on the volatile plant compounds that subtly add up to taste and food value. Breeding to increase shelf life also has tended to decrease palatability. Bizarre as it seams, we've accepted a tradeoff that amounts to: 'Give me every vegetable in every season, even if it tastes like a cardboard picture of its former self.' You'd think we cared more about the idea of what we're eating than about what we're eating."

"Each plant part we eat must come in its turn--leaves, buds, flowers, green fruits, ripe fruits, hard fruits--because that is the necessary order of things for an annual plant. For the life of them, they can't do it differently...
"Waiting for [some foods] is harder. It's tempting to reach for melons, red peppers, tomatoes, and other late-summer delights before summer even arrives. But it's actually possible to wait, celebrating each season when it comes, not fretting about its being absent at all other times because something else good is at hand.
"If many of us would view this style of eating as deprevation [only getting foods when they are in season], that's only because we've grown accustomed to the botanically outrageious condition of having everything, always."

"Waiting for foods to come into season means tasting them when they're good, but waiting is also part of most value equasions...It's hard to reduce our modern complex of food choices into unifying principles, but this is one that generally works: eating home-cooked meals from whole, in-season ingredients obtained from the most local source available is eating well, in every sense. Good for the habitat, good for the body...
"That's the sublime paradox of a food culture: restraint equals indulgence."

"It's interesting that penny-pinching is an accepted defense for toxic food habits, when frugality so rarely rules other consumer domains."

I found the book at once riveting, thought-provoking, and inspiring. It's not just about eating organic foods (though Kingsolver clearly feels strongly about that, and explains why); it's not just about eating local foods (though she obviously feels strongly about that too); it's not even wholly about eating in season (although that comes closer to the mark). No, Animal Vegetable Miracle is about mindful eating. About choosing our foods--and preparing them--with conscientiousness and thought.

Water, it Does a Body Good!

By the time you notice your mouth feeling dry, or your lips feeling chapped, you are already dehydrated. The average American walks around dehydrated most of the time. This is partly because of our cultural affinity for dehydrating beverages such as coffee and soda (yes, if you didn't know that, you did hear correctly--some things actually leech water out of your system, even though they are liquid...evil, isn't it?!)
The recommendations for water consumption vary, but pretty much everyone agrees that we need to drink more water than we do. One common recommendation is 8 8oz glasses of water per day (that's 64oz, or a half-gallon). Since every body is a different size though, I find that a better guideline is to drink 1 oz of water for every 2 lbs of body weight. 100 lbs = 50 oz, 150 lbs = 75oz...you can do the math for you. ☺

Being sufficiently hydrated helps metabolism. It improves skin clarity and elasticity, and tends to help control overeating (many people do not know how to differentiate between hunger and thirst, so they eat when they should drink...if you learn to drink more water, you'll probably eat less, and will very likely lose some extra weight). You will probably get less sick less often, and recover sooner.
Dehydration in pregnancy increases the likely hood of tearing at delivery (remember that skin elasticity part?), and slower healing afterward. It may increase the likelihood of stretchmarks (though that is mostly genetic). It exacerbates nausea, and can lead to weak contractions, long labors, and maternal exhaustion in labor. Along with poor diet, it can increase the risk of gestational diabetes. And remember all that stuff I mentioned before about how your blood volume increases by 50% during pregnancy? Guess what, you need water for that too.

SO, assuming that you are now convinced of the need for more water in your daily regimen, here is a list of ideas that can help you increase your water intake:

• Drink a glass of water before every meal. This can help those wanting to control portion size, but it's also a good way to get in some extra water every day. (A commenter noted that drinking with meals is actually bad if you have problems with heartburn--so try drinking 30 min before the meal, or saving a little room and drinking afterwards.)
  
• Rather than just rinsing, drink a glass of water when you brush your teeth.
• Carry a water bottle around with you at work/school. Take a drink every time you remember it. Make a goal to empty a certain size bottle each day...work up to bigger/more bottles until you are drinking the amount you should be.
  
• Keep a cup in the bathroom. Every time you empty your bladder, drink a glass of water. (This has the added benefit of being cyclical, as the extra drinking will have you making extra potty trips, and thus drinking all the more...but don't worry, the extra potty trips will ease off within a week or two as your body gets used to finally having enough water in it.)
• Use a big cup! The average person will drain their glass, so use a bigger one for good liquids (like water) and a smaller one for other drinks (like soda or juice).
• Stop drinking other things. When you are thirsty, regardless of what you think you want to drink, get a glass of water first, or instead. (I actually find that I no longer crave milk, and I usually find fruit juices too sweet. I can handle about two swallows of soda pop. When I want a drink of something, I almost always drink water.)
• Try establishing a water-drinking habit by going for a week with no other drinks--just water.
  
• Do you have other tips? Leave them in the comments and I'll add them to the list!

See more WorksForMeWednesdays here.

Prenatal Nutrition

I've been thinking I wanted to write a post like this, and then last week Jenn at BabyMakinMachine wrote a post full of questions about prenatal vitamins, so I figured I should get this thing finished up and published asap.


Prenatal vitamins are typically recommended during pregnancy and breastfeeding, as well as for women who might become pregnant (or are trying to become pregnant) and really for any woman of fertile age. I think one main reason for this is that prenatal vitamins have extra iron in them, and that is beneficial for a woman who is losing iron to menstruation every month.

As I said in my post on vitamins, the human body needs certain nutrients to live, and needs extra of some things when growing a second little human body. For centuries women just ate whole foods straight from their gardens and had perfectly healthy children. Unfortunately, in our modern world most of us eat comparatively lousy diets, so we rely on prenatal multivitamins. But as I pointed out in the vitamin post, multivitamins are a very poor substitute for real food.
SO, do you need a prenatal multivitamin? Probably not. But you do need certain nutrients, and while whole foods are the ideal source, it's nice to know that if you have severe morning sickness and throw up everything you eat, then an appropriate prenatal vitamin can be a saving grace.

If you do choose (or need) to take prenatal vitamins, here is something to remember: not all prenatal vitamins are created equal. Next time you're at the store (or if you have a bottle of inexpensive vitamins on your shelf), pull out the bottle and read the ingredients. Does it sound like a list of chemicals to you? That's because it is. In fact, it's highly processed forms of all those vitamins, and since it's not in it's natural form, your body is going to have a hard time figuring out what to do with it. The majority of it is going to get routed straight back out of your system. Yep, you got it, the average multivitamin is little more than expensive urine.
The one form of prenatal multivitamin that seems to really be good is a whole foods based one, such as Rainbow Light or Nature's Plus. On the one hand, they can be quite pricy, on the other hand, the ingredients are nice pretty things like "spinach" and "pineapple." I can pronounce those words! And my body knows what do do with those foods! As I said before though, if you are able to eat the actual foods, that is always better than even the best vitamin.


SO, assuming that I've convinced you to forgo the prenatal multivitamin, what do you need, why do you need it, and how can you get it?! (ahh, this is my favorite part!)
(see end for source info/links)

Folate aka Folic Acid aka "B-9"
This may be one of the most important nutrients to worry about, at least in the first couple of months. A lack of folate can lead to problems with brain stem and spinal cord development (problems such as spina bifida), and because that development occurs in the first month after conception (including those two weeks before you even take a pregnancy test) it's important to have a good source of folate in your diet when you are trying to conceive.
**The recommended daily dose for pregnancy is 600-800mcg of folate, however daily consumption of over 266mcg of folic acid (the synthetic form) can cause problems with metabolizing all forms of folate in the future (possibly for years)
**Some good food sources of folate are: asparagus, okra, spinach, avacado, liver, chickpeas, beans, lentils, broccoli, yeast, wheat germ, strawberries, and orange juice (see source links for details on the benefits and sources of folate: link, link, link)

Water
A pregnant woman should be drinking at least a half gallon of water a day. The guideline I have heard most often is to take your body weight in pounds, divide in half, then that is how many ounces of water you should drink in a day. So, if I weigh 140 lbs, then half of that is 70, so ideally I should be drinking 70 oz of water per day. (A half-gallon is 64 oz, in case you forgot, so I should have 6 12oz glasses, or 9 8oz glasses of water every day.) I know that probably sounds like a lot if you're not used to drinking water--it used to sound overwhelming to me too. But proper hydration is extremely important for health, especially in pregnancy. (Here is a post with tips for drinking more water)

Protein
During pregnancy a woman's blood volume will increase by 50%, so nutrients that build blood are vital, and protein is one of those nutrients. In my own experience, eating protein keeps morning sickness at bay better than anything else.
**Some practitioners advise trying to get 100grams of protein a day, but that can be very difficult. A more moderate recommendation is 60-100grams.
**Good sources of protein are: beef, chicken (which actually has more protein per oz than beef), milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs peanut butter, wheat germ, and beans.

Iron
Iron is another nutrient that contributes to blood-building (iron deficiency is called "anemia" and is a common concern following miscarriages or other situations involving blood-loss). Trust me that anemia is not something you want to deal with, so make sure you get your iron!
**The daily recommended intake for iron 30-60mg, although this is partly due to its poor absorption rate (as low as 10%), so if you are getting it from good food sources you can probably get by with the lower end of the range. Most of the sites I've visited point out that there are two forms of iron--heme and non-heme, with the former coming from meat sources and the latter coming from all other sources. All the sites seem to agree that the heme is better absorbed, and that for full benefit of the non-heme forms, it's best to consume them either with a heme iron; or with a vitamin-C-rich food (like citrus fruits); or at least cooked in an iron pan.
**Some especially Iron-rich foods include: artichokes, blackstrap molasses, nuts, lean red meat, salmon, clams & oysters, beans, lentils, currants,egg (yolks), chicken (especially the liver), quinoa, pumpkin seeds, spinach, tofu, wheat germ, sesamie seeds, seaweed (hijiki is best), and foods cooked in a cast-iron pan. (source links with additional info on iron: link, link, link, link)

Sodium
This is another nutrient that contributes to building blood volume in pregnancy--as with our other bodily fluids, both blood and amniotic fluid contain sodium. Sodium also helps maintain balanced fluid levels in your cells, as well as the health of the nervous, muscular, blood, and lymph systems. A diet low in sodium can lead to a decrease in blood volume as well as elevated blood pressure and swelling. Sodium deficiency can also cause impaired kidney function, decreased urine volume, and other signs of toxemia. (I am aware that a lot of doctors feel that restricting salt is the solution for toxemia, but based on my own experiences, plus those of my midwife who gave me the advice in the first place, I think that advice stems from fear of and misinformation about salt rather than from really understanding how sodium works.)
**While there is no daily recommended intake for salt, pregnant women should not hesitate to salt food to taste. If you crave salty foods (such as potato chips or french fries) then get yourself some healthy salt-containing foods, such as celery, dairy products, seaweed, or other seafoods.

Fat
Pregnancy is not the time to be afraid of fats. Your baby's developing cells (especially brain and nervous system) need a certain of fat in order to grow properly. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are all fat-soluable, meaning that you must have fat in order to digest (or use) them. Essential fatty acids are most readily available via fats. Cholesterol is necessary for the formation of sex and adrenal hormones, among other things.
**Now obviously not all fats are created equal, and balance is important (that is a whole other post). You do NOT need any form of trans-fats (partially hydrogenated oils), but you should seek a balance of saturated, mono-unsaturated, and poly-unsaturated fats, because each supplies your body with different essential things. Also a balance of omega 3s, omega 6s, and omega 9s. (Like I said, there will have to be another post about that all soon!) You should feel comfortable with around 60grams of fat per day.
**High quality sources of fats include: nuts, seeds, unrefined, cold-pressed vegetable oils (refined ones tend to be partially-hydrogenated aka trans-fats), butter, dairy products, and the fats in meat. Essential fatty acids are found in salmon, mackerel, herring, cod liver oil, and the oils from evening primrose, black currant, flax seed, walnut, and borage. (link, link, link, link)


In the near future I'm hoping to put up a post with a list of some pregnancy super-foods...so keep an eye out for that. ☺

There are other vitamins and nutrients that are important, and I'm sure I'll get a chance to talk about them...potassium is good for tight muscles (I often get muscle spasms or cramps when pregnant), magnesium and calcium contribute to good bone development...but the ones mentioned above are the key ones to focus on. Most veggies contain many vitamins (as you can see from the repetition on the lists above), so if you are getting a good diet you can feel pretty safe that you are getting what you need.

In case you didn't know (although I hope you did!) pregnancy is not the time to be thinking about your waistline, but it also is not the time to just eat twice as much. Remember that even though you are "eating for two," that second being is pretty little, and does not need adult portions! Eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full. Focus on eating healthy foods. Don't be distressed if you gain 40lbs...and don't be distressed if you gain only 20. Don't be distressed if this pregnancy is totally different weight-wise than the last one was. Don't worry if you lose a few pounds due to morning sickness (though more than 10 is cause for concern), and don't worry if you don't gain a pound until 22 weeks along (I didn't last time). So long as you and the baby are both healthy, pounds on the chart are just one more thing that doesn't really matter.


Sources:

• The Truth about Vitamins in Nutritional Supplements by Robert Thiel, Ph.D., N.H.D.
• Prenatal packet from Full Circle Maternity/midwife Jules Johnstun
• The Brewer Healthy Pregnancy Diet (recommended by many midwives and OBs)