A Few Words on Food...

 I've decided to make a statement today about the “proper” foods to eat... Now I have good reason behind this. I get so tired of hearing how one food is good for you and how another isn't. Back in the way olde days, you know; before “processed” foods were made commercially. People generally only had to worry about a couple of things when it came to their food. Could they get it, and in what quantities.

The various groups in local areas from not even that far back.. middle ages till probably about the time they started putting things in tin cans. Sometimes even a tad past that. People ate totally locally, and seasonally. Which if you pay attention to most of the “big time” nutritionists out there and the “green movement” all talk about doing for your health and the environment.

Now I'm not putting either of those groups of people down here I could actually be considered part of the green movement per sec... As I do believe in protecting the environment and getting poisons out of the ground.. which means getting it out of our food.

I sit here sometimes and wonder though if some people are just silly... To tell you that one “natural” food is bad for you then come back a few years later and discover that it really was ok for you. We need to stop with the going back and forth.

Back when what you grew is what you ate, you also went out and foraged for some of your foods. Some people still do this and even some high range food items are still acquired in this fashion. Ever hear of Morel mushrooms.. they can only be “hunted”, I have yet heard of someone growing them commercially.

So if you just head back to providing your own food source, you are eating the proper diet in reality. If done correctly you will provide all your own fats, meats, grains, vegetables, and fruits any person could need. Some of it is found through foraging and you have to be willing to go out and do it. I have taken up to making a wilted Lambs Quarter salad while that “weed” is growing. I gather blackberries from the multitude of canes that grow wild here, and I am learning about other things I can acquire to add to our plates here.

I know some people would find it odd that I planted “old fashioned” daylillies in my vegetable garden. However, the flowers are edible, as are the flower buds; which can be used as a thickener for soups and stews. I have been told the young leaves as they are just starting to come up can be eaten like asparagus. Cattails are also edible, the roots for one can be dug up in winter and eaten like potatoes, the pollen can be gathered and used like flour. Again the young shoots can be eaten as well.

I have just read the first of the books on the series called “The Hunger Games” and then looking over what is being talked about online about food got me to writing this post. It's not hard to grow your own foods.. or even to eat seasonally. Also to be able to eat food you prepare yourself, most food does not really take all that long to prepare, especially since there are so many ways to make it faster or “hands free”.

Another pet peeve (as I guess you can call it) is food made from actual food versus food made from plastics... Take the following for example, a friend of mine posted it on Facebook:

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back.
It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings....

DO YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter?
Read on to the end...gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories.

Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to5 grams for margarine.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and only because they are added!
Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years.

And now, for Margarine..
Very High in Trans fatty acids.
Triples risk of coronary heart disease ...
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..

Lowers quality of breast milk

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT

These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

Open a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny micro-organisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

What do you think about one of the #1 substances that graces the American table now? I don't like Margarine... never have. My mother used it when I grew up because for one it cost less (and yes the “cost” is less), and because “EVERYONE” said that butter was bad for you. Ummm... ok if it's bad for you and eating a plastic substance is good. Why not just stop growing food and feed everyone plastic from the stores.. it would be cheaper I imagine...

So in a nutshell my opinion on this is, eat what is food you make yourself... or that you can find the process of and that it doesn't include a mixture of chemicals by a chemist. A good rule of thumb is if you can't pronounce.. or for that fact even know what an ingredient is.. don't buy it! I buy ice cream this way as at this moment it's harder for me to make it. I also avoid HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), MSG, and most other chemical flavor enhancers. Yes, on “occasion” I do knuckle down if I or Silver is having a blood sugar reaction; or when I have to shove the kids out the door before I am awake enough to put a meal together for them.

What I find funny is when I have been making my own bread now for over a year and we for what ever reason needed a loaf of bread and we bought some. The kids thought the store bought bread tasted bad.

So Eat local.. eat seasonally, eat REAL FOOD; I use this term because if it has to many chemicals.. I don't consider it to being very natural in nature. Now I better climb off this soap box before I really start rambling on, and on, and on.....

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...