Anyone who knows me knows that I struggle with my weight... ....it's been a battle my entire adult life and it is a struggle that continues still. I don't know, maybe I'll always be this way. What I do know is that I am unwilling to sacrifice my health to lose weight. I did that once several years ago ~ I was taking diet pills and working 3 jobs, on my feet approximately 16 hours each day, 6 days each week. Anyone would loose weight under those conditions, right? And I did. The only other 2 times that I lost a significant amount of weight was when I got sick... really sick ~ once in 1989 and once in 2005. I'm back up near my all-time high weight, and I can't recommend either one of these as a good strategy.
So, in the absence of both serious illness and fad dieting ~ that multi-million dollar industry of pill pushers & plans, of instruction books & boxed "food," of fasts & fat flushes, of restrictions & radical eliminations of entire food groups.......What's left? As a society we're fatter and sicker than we've ever been.......What's that all about?
These questions have inspired me to learn as much as I can about nutrition and weight, and nutrition and health. And, as you might expect, my research has ultimately helped me construct another of my favorite soapboxes:
THAT'S NOT REALLY FOOD, YOU KNOW
The first thing is the industrialization of our food supply, I think.......That gradual process over the last several decades by which our food supply has increasingly become a corporate commodity ~ more and more removed from local choice and control. It was a barely noticeable trend for many years and it came clad in the costume of convenience.
Imagine being a housewife in the 1950's, when the tv dinner hit the grocery store shelf.......or a teenager in the 1970's when the fast food drive-through window became a staple in everybody's town. Oh! The freedom and independence that came with these brilliant time-savers! Who wouldn't love progress like that?
Imagine next how easy it was in the face of all this progress to cast the small Mom & Pop grocery store and local farmers and farmers' markets as quaint but out of date and unfashionable relics of America's rural past. Mom & Pop and the farmers cooperated (as if they had any choice), and disappeared... ....almost completely.
It was a true coup.
Then came the politicalization of our food supply. As the political lobbies for a few of the biggest ranching and farming groups grew stronger and more influential, it became more and more difficult for politicians to do the right thing.......when they could actually figure out when that was.
Imagine a highly placed politician reading what appears to be a reliable report about an alleged connection between eating animal fat and having heart disease. He suggests during a speech or press conference that perhaps American citizens should cut down on their consumption of beef. Holy Cow!! The ranching lobby is beside itself, set its machine into motion, and the politician never sees the inside of an elective office again. Remember here to follow the money! Dairy lobby, corn lobby, sugar lobby, soy lobby, beef lobby ~ all are operating with virtual impunity because they receive tacit approval of their tactics from a political machine that recognizes their power to influence voters, and is only concerned with the next election.
It is this impunity, I believe, that also accounts for the fact that a pound of organic produce costs an American family more than a pound of Twinkies, or a pound of Oreos, or a pound of macaroni and cheese. How is it that the food from the earth costs more than the synthetic, manufactured, over-processed chemical creations of the American industrial food machine? Let's face it ~ the organic produce ~ a collection of leaves and roots and seed pods is actual food, with real nutritional value, while the Twinkies and Oreos and mac & cheese are clever concoctions of petrochemicals, highly refined carbohydrates, preservatives, colorings, and flashy marketing that barely resemble food but that we've been lead to believe are the same as food...only with out all those pesky natural nutrients.
Both the organic produce and the synthetic food-like substances will fill a hungry stomach, but only one will provide the nutrients that a body needs for healthy growth, brain development, immune system function, and metabolism. Given our blistering schedules and a dazzling sales job, the organic produce currently looses, every time, to the quicker fix of a cheaper box, bag, or can from the pantry.
Please don't misunderstand my point ~ I'm not pushing organic produce as the answer to our declining overall health and increasing waistlines. That would be an oversimplification. This is just one example of how crazy our food choices have become. In a society where the 99-cent cheeseburger is a viable meal selection, any solution is going to be complex and difficult.
I will continue to write about this topic in future posts. For now, though, here are a few of my Rules Of Thumb for getting on a better track, nutritionally speaking:
1. Baby Steps ~ Make whatever small changes you can, and then stick to them. Choose your changes because they are the right thing to do, not just because you think you should. Real change happens slowly. As you get good at each new habit another new and healthier habit will become obvious as your next baby step.
2. Eat Your Food As Nouns Rather Than Adjectives ~ Choose the apple rather than the apple turnover, the zucchini instead of the zucchini bread, the strawberries rather than the strawberry ice cream. The whole food item (the noun) is always going to be the better choice.
3. Eat Whole Foods ~ These are easy to identify. Whole foods rarely require an ingredient label; tend to be found on the perimeter of the grocery store (as opposed to the inner aisles); are perishable (as opposed to the 50-or-so-year shelf life of a Twinkie); are not bagged, boxed, or canned; do not make health claims on their packaging; and usually require some prep time before eating.
4. No Chemical Romance ~ Any substance that sports a label that requires a degree in chemistry to decipher probably isn't food.
5. Decrease sugars, decrease sweeteners ~ This goes for all sugars and sweeteners... even the more natural, less processed ones. However, the top two suspects to remove from your menu right away are all forms of corn syrup and all artificial sweeteners. These additives have a way of deranging metabolism in a way that causes all kinds of health problems. Following my Rule Of Thumb #3 (Eat Whole Foods) will completely eliminate this problem.......no whole food contains either corn syrup or any artificial sweetener. Just in case, though ~ here is a short list of sweeteners that will be healthy replacements for what you may currently be using: organic raw honey, Rapadura, organic raw agave nectar, organic maple syrup, organic molasses.
6. Get Acquainted With Local Farmers And Ranchers...And Then Support Them ~ Visit one of the many farmers' markets that have made a big comeback in cities across this country. Get friendly with a local, trusted raw dairy farmer. Find out who lovingly raises and humanely butchers local, grass-fed ranch animals. More effort for you than leaving your money at the Wal-Mart or Sam's Club that occupies your backyard? You bet! But well worth it for your improved health!
Before I wrap up this post, I have to give credit where credit is due. The bulk of the information that I have shared here I learned from one of the following people or organizations:
Michael Pollen ~ Anything he writes is a gem, but the articles that I've read most recently were Unhappy Meals, published in the NYTimes in January 2007, and You Are What You Grow, also from the NYTimes in April 2007.
Sally Fallon ~ Founder of the Weston A Price Foundation for Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, a nonprofit nutrition education foundation based in Washington, DC, and editor of the Foundation's quarterly magazine. She also founded A Campaign for Real Milk, dedicated to creating consumer awareness of the health benefits of clean, whole unpasteurized milk from grass-fed cows. She is a journalist, chef, nutrition researcher, homemaker and community activist. She is also the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.
Marc David ~ author of The Slow Down Diet: Eating For Pleasure, Energy, and Weight Loss.
And the statement about eating your foods as nouns rather than adjectives came from an excerpt that I read about a book called The Triple Whammy Cure...I think. I have been unable to find that excerpt again, and I haven't had a chance to read the book, so I'm relying on my memory for this reference.
Good Luck!...More later.
