More Food Stuffs
Here's a great article by Michael Pollan I read a week or two back, but never mentioned.
He makes a few good points that I really like. He suggests more greens, less grains, eating in traditional ways (which as I've come to learn via the Weston A Price Foundation, often has mre wisdom than we at first may recognize), and he also responds satisfactorily to an issue that I've often been troubled by with from low-carb diet advocates. That is, while they like to point out that 'people have been eating less fat and more carbs, just like the authorities say, but have been getting fatter' in the last generation, that criticism has been addressed by John Robbins in The Food Revolution. Robbins response, like Pollan's, is that, sure that's what the recommendations are. But what's going on on the ground in people diets is, they've just been eating more carb-rich food, and shitty carbs like white grains and sugar. You can't really say that there's a mass experiment underway in which people are eating low-fat and hight-carb diets, and hey, look how bad it is; the truth is, people haven't actually been eating this way, so fair's fair- don't trace the obesity epidemic on the by-the-letter USDA guidelines that aren't being followed.
Makes me think about the criticism of low-carb diets that I haven't seen adequately addressed: our brains need carbs for energy, and ketones that result from high-protein consumption, are unhealthy for us. Now, it could be an issue in which there's just a fundamental clash of interests and perspective, with some people saying ketones are bad, and others are good (like with saturated fat or cholesterol). If that's the case, one has to sift through the competing info and figure out what seems legit, what seems like petty politics, and what the conclusion ultimately should be. I'll keep that all in mind.
Anyway, my food choices are ok. Kind of a two steps forward, one step back deal. I was ill recently, and got very lazy and ate out more frequently than I had been because I didn't have the energy to prepare food. I've also had some white rice and flour, which I had eschewed totally for a while. I'm seriously considering eliminating grains entirely for a while, maybe a week or two. I just feel so gross after eating crappy starchy food. I'll focus on more greens, fewer fruits (which I tend to overeat at times) and good quality meats and eggs. I'm also planning on experimenting with EFT, which may be kind of hokey, but so am I often.
It's unfortunate, though, if I avoid grains, because I just started making sourdough bread, and was hoping to keep working on it. My first loaf was pretty ok- dense, which I can work on, but slightly sour in taste and pretty nice.
On the positive side, I remember a week or two ago, I hadn't had grains all day, or most of the day, and had some coconut oil and felt energized in a different sort of way from carb-energy. Sort of a cleaner-fueling energy, if that makes sense. I was barely conscious of it, but with more time away from grains and with green, I suspect I'll have a chance to explore it more.
Also, there have been some serendipitous events recently as my worldview is widening, which
is encouraging me along the way.
Much love, friends.
He makes a few good points that I really like. He suggests more greens, less grains, eating in traditional ways (which as I've come to learn via the Weston A Price Foundation, often has mre wisdom than we at first may recognize), and he also responds satisfactorily to an issue that I've often been troubled by with from low-carb diet advocates. That is, while they like to point out that 'people have been eating less fat and more carbs, just like the authorities say, but have been getting fatter' in the last generation, that criticism has been addressed by John Robbins in The Food Revolution. Robbins response, like Pollan's, is that, sure that's what the recommendations are. But what's going on on the ground in people diets is, they've just been eating more carb-rich food, and shitty carbs like white grains and sugar. You can't really say that there's a mass experiment underway in which people are eating low-fat and hight-carb diets, and hey, look how bad it is; the truth is, people haven't actually been eating this way, so fair's fair- don't trace the obesity epidemic on the by-the-letter USDA guidelines that aren't being followed.
Makes me think about the criticism of low-carb diets that I haven't seen adequately addressed: our brains need carbs for energy, and ketones that result from high-protein consumption, are unhealthy for us. Now, it could be an issue in which there's just a fundamental clash of interests and perspective, with some people saying ketones are bad, and others are good (like with saturated fat or cholesterol). If that's the case, one has to sift through the competing info and figure out what seems legit, what seems like petty politics, and what the conclusion ultimately should be. I'll keep that all in mind.
Anyway, my food choices are ok. Kind of a two steps forward, one step back deal. I was ill recently, and got very lazy and ate out more frequently than I had been because I didn't have the energy to prepare food. I've also had some white rice and flour, which I had eschewed totally for a while. I'm seriously considering eliminating grains entirely for a while, maybe a week or two. I just feel so gross after eating crappy starchy food. I'll focus on more greens, fewer fruits (which I tend to overeat at times) and good quality meats and eggs. I'm also planning on experimenting with EFT, which may be kind of hokey, but so am I often.
It's unfortunate, though, if I avoid grains, because I just started making sourdough bread, and was hoping to keep working on it. My first loaf was pretty ok- dense, which I can work on, but slightly sour in taste and pretty nice.
On the positive side, I remember a week or two ago, I hadn't had grains all day, or most of the day, and had some coconut oil and felt energized in a different sort of way from carb-energy. Sort of a cleaner-fueling energy, if that makes sense. I was barely conscious of it, but with more time away from grains and with green, I suspect I'll have a chance to explore it more.
Also, there have been some serendipitous events recently as my worldview is widening, which
is encouraging me along the way.
Much love, friends.
posted by Archangel at 6:31 PM
8 Comments:
Finally! Another person who has the sense that God gave them--oops, I mean the sense that they evolved with. ;-)
It's true that most people who eat high-carb low fat aren't eating well. They figure out which foods are low fat by READING LABELS. If they're reading labels to find low fat foods, they are eating packaged, convenience foods, not real food.
I've mentioned before that I love grains and do well with them. I really love eating sprouted wheat. I don't cook it, just sprout it and eat it plain. Mmm. I think that'll be a great survival food, because it gives lots of energy without having to be cooked. I was thinking of buying some dehydrated stuff, but that involves boiling water and cooking it. What if you don't have access to a means to boil water? What if using a fire would draw negative attention? But I think it would fairly easy to find water to soak the wheat. But if I couldn't even get water, then the point is moot, anyway.
Anyhoo, I think your focus on more greens is good. If you're avoiding grains and sticking to veggies, make sure you get enough carbs for energy by eating potatoes. Try eating them raw. Raw sweet potatoes and yams are quite delicious. I like the crunch of eating raw potatoes. And I'm pretty sure that by eating them raw, it lowers the glycemic index of them, too.
I keep going through periods of low-level depression where I tend to eat out a lot. Whenever I focus on real foods, though, and lots of raw veggies, I feel great.
By the way, ketosis is bad, generally. The only time ketosis is good is if you're starving to death. The euphoria brought on by being in such an extreme physical state is a merciful thing that mother nature has done for us. It makes dying of starvation less painful. But it's not a state that our bodies should be in if we're healthy.
Hi Marcy,
Of course God/evolution gave me my smarts- who else? :-D
Great point about 'reading labe;s'- if there are labels on the damn food, it's usually not a whole food, and probably better not to eat.
I have a sprouting jar at home, and lots of seeds (mainly beans- mung, adzuki, etc) that I really ought to start messing around with. I just haven't yet.
I always thought it was unsafe to eat raw potatoes, but I dug around a bit, and a bunch of sources say its plenty safe, just be careful of teh green spots. Kind of funny- I remember you mentioned the unhealthiness of eating raw meat, but that's also safe (provided good quality meat and all).
One thing about potatoes and to a lesser extent, sweet potatoes, that I read was that they're much more easily broken down in the body. Dr Mercola describes them like this ( http://www.mercola.com/article/carbohydrates/scientific_evidence_low_grains2.htm ):
" I give them an analogy to think of grains and most below ground vegetables as a simple train. Each car in the train represents a simple sugar molecule which is easily broken down once it reaches the digestive system.
I then ask them to visualize that same train but this time stacked 20 to 50 high with other trains and each train care interconnected to the cars above them. This is an accurate representation of the much more highly complexed and branched sugar molecules that are present in most above ground vegetables.
They have multiple bonds connecting each of the sugar molecules and take the body a long time to break them down. The extra time allows the body to slowly use the sugar and thus not have to secrete large amount of insulin to store the excess."
You mentioned that the glycemic index is lower with uncooked potatoes, which may impact this. But uncooked potatoes seem so unappealing to me. We'll see, though.
I totally sympathize with the low-level depression when I don't eat well- same here.
As for ketosis, that's generally what I've heard, but I'm still digging and trying to find out counter-points and try to make sense of it. I suspect it's not good for you, but I'm not yet willing to make a judgment.
Anway, thanks for stopping by!
When did I mention the unhealthiness of eating raw meat? I feed it to my cats. *I* wouldn't eat it, though, for aesthetic reasons, mainly. I think I remember saying something about hunting not being developed until after humans learned to cook, because I naively assumed that humans wouldn't eat raw meat. Then someone (maybe it was you) told me that humans ate raw meat a lot "in the olden days."
I've been eating raw potatoes since I was a kid. My mom would be cutting up potatoes to boil for mashed potatoes, and I would dig pieces out of the pot, sprinkle a little salt on them, and eat them. Yum.
Yeah, the green parts contain aflatoxin, if I remember correctly. The only thing I know of that can't be eaten raw is tapioca. Supposedly, it's deadly raw, but perfectly safe if cooked. And rhubard leaves are poisonous, but you'd have to eat about 11 pounds of them before you reached a lethal dose.
Dr. Mercola is a protege of Weston A. Price, so I'm gonna take what he says with a grain of salt (you know how I feel about WAP). I ended up on his mailing list somehow, and I would say some of what he said was nutritionally sound, and the rest was varying degrees of quackery. When I got a mailing from him advocating eating plankton, I sent a scathing e-mail back. Plankton is food for whales, whales are seriously endangered, and he wants humans to eat their food for some questionable gain to their health? Looked at from a primitivist perspective, why would humans eat plankton? They can't see it, they can't ingest salt water, so it's complete and utter bullshit. I think he hawks a lot of supplements, too, so that puts him on my "Nixon's enemy list" for sure.
Hey Marcy,
Yeah, you're right- my bad. It was the comment about not eating meat until fire was controlled, to which I responded, 'No, actaully raw meat is regularly consumed in many or all traditional diets.' Or something thereabout.
I don't know he's a protege of WAP so much as he advocates similar things for similar reasons.
I mean, the plankton thing is somewhat troubling, as is the frequent recommendation for cod liver oil among him and the WAP folks. There's an article Dan linked to months ago stating that the world's fish stocks would collapse entirely if everyone started using fish oil supplements, and that's something I'm obviously concerned about. I know also that plankton populations are falling, and that's a huge problem not just for whales, but for climate change (since they provide something like nearly half of the world's oxygen). I also agree that the WAP folks, and Mercola, are not great about advoacting a wide variety of foods. They tend to stick to their pillars, like butter, eggs, pastured meats (particularly organ meats), etc.
I also think that the whole dairy thing is pretty questionable, particularly for Mercola, who is a semi-advocate of the Paleo diet, and criticizes grain along those lines. I mean, I still dont' eat dairy, but am considering it to see how I do on it, but it's certainly not something that humans need. It just may be something we can utilize in the absence of the grubs and other nutritious animal fats we ate as foragers.
Another thing: I don't think a straight up h/g gave too much thought to this, you know? Like, food was important sure, and enjoyed, sure, but they spent a few hours of the day procuring and preparing it. Food fit into an overall different scheme of things, and ost of their time was spent chilling out, playing games, dancing, talking, whatever. Food was I'm pretty sure not obsessed over like we obsess over it (like I do anyway).
Anyway, why don't you like the WAP folks again?
Oh, and I'm with you on the suspcion of Mercola's hawking of supplements. While I appreciate that his advice is free, he does come off as a snake-oil salesman with his frequent product recommendations.
Coolio, friend
Hey, I avoid most grains, but I eat lots of sourdough. Soaking the flour neutralises the badness as far as I understand, and it's just pure, easy n healthy. I eat a sourdough pancake stuffed with whatever's around most lunchtimes.
Good luck with your experimenting!
Hey Dan,
Yeah- I find that my sourdough pancakes don't seem to bother me much. I have them regulraly for breakfast. I suspect I'll end up keeping them around after my experiment, but I still want to avoid grains for a few weeks to see how I feel.
Thanks for stopping by!
I think the optimum diet is the one a person feels good on. For years, I tried to follow various diets, from vegetarian to strict paleo, that sounded good in theory, but were terrible for me. I've arrived at a paleo-style diet, without much red meat, with tubers and beans, and occasionally rice and other non-gluten grains. We're supposed to be opportunistic, adaptable eaters.
Hi Sara,
I think you're very right- we are opportunistic eaters, and adaptability is the name of our game. This is why we are able to survive on the standard American diet, which is certainly a strange one.
I'm planning on focusing more on foods that are joyful and feel right.
Thanks for your words and thanks for stopping by!
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