Eating to Nourish the Body

[chocolate m'scovy]

@PaulaJoAnne: I finally got around to trying out that granola recipe! My sister said, "This is the best granola!" She likes the softer texture. I had been hoping it'd be crunchier...but in retrospect, the texture is probably more eater-friendly. It's more like a cross between baked-oatmeal and oatmeal cookies in firmness.

It's nice having a more easily digestible instant breakfast.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

chocolate m'scovy :

@PaulaJoAnne: I finally got around to trying out that granola recipe! My sister said, "This is the best granola!" She likes the softer texture. I had been hoping it'd be crunchier...but in retrospect, the texture is probably more eater-friendly. It's more like a cross between baked-oatmeal and oatmeal cookies in firmness.

It's nice having a more easily digestible instant breakfast.

Awesome!​

 

[mandelyn]

Very cool read, have not gotten to the links yet. I grew up on fish oil and "weird" grains like Millet, really healthy childhood. Then around 17 I could decide on my own if I wanted soda, candy, fast food, easy food, ect. Biggest mistake I ever made! Lost a lot of energy, gained weight, dental issues, worsening vision, increased allergies (that disappeared while living in Germany)... couldn't sleep right, and became a lot less active, which contributed to everything else in a downward spiral. I could RUN most of the day, ride my bike for 20 miles, was strong, healthy, could work like a man. LOL Now.. I'm pretty wimpy and not near as efficient as I was. And it hasn't even been that long, 10 years. Knowing the difference, it's astounding. People who didn't grow up eating right... they wouldn't even know how they should feel.

I get an energy boost after eating half of a spaghetti squash. I swear! I save my seeds too, have quite the stash ready to sprout soon. Makes a great lasagna. I always thought you put cinnamon and butter on it and leave it at that. But diced tomatoes, fresh garlic, little splash of Olive Oil and a dash of Basil... yum! Way more healthier than spaghetti.

We use organic unsalted butter. Trying to stay the heck away from cheese. Any cheese, until I learn more about it. I mastered a quiche without cheese, or even a crust. Just eggs and a nice mixture of veggies and spices thrown in the oven for a half hour. Great way to use up a pile of eggs.

When money permits, I'd like to put the dogs on RAW and the birds on an actual organic mix. Pasture if I can, when we buy and. When I was a kid we went to a pasture burn, that was cool. They burned it every 2 years or so, to imitate prairie fires and add nutrients to the soil. The sheer number of mice and other rodents running out of there was astounding. The thickness of the grasses, it was one of the healthiest fields I had ever seen. And we burned it! Hard to believe that helps it. Was a big effort though, took a lot of people to keep it safe.

We've been to a lot of cocktail parties at "green" houses with people who are active in the Sierra Club and other organizations, and eat in all different ways with the same goal. One gentleman hired a private Chef and went on the "raw" method. He had had cancer, but it went away fast, and never came back. Minimal chemo. Doctors were shocked because they didn't catch it all that early. He's like 89 years old now and still jogs. Another place, their house used to be a barn. Instead of knocking it down and building a normal house, they just altered the barn and made it amazing. Weirdest food set out. Like something you see on TV. All natural, organic, most not even cooked, just the right amount of oils and spices. So good! I've always been around "spry" old people. So with that as my comparison to where I was headed with my diet, really helped make my decision about what to eat as an adult. I don't want to be staggering around all weak and on a bunch of pills when I'm 50. It's not in my genetics, it's all in how I eat.

So we stopped ordering pizza. Stopped getting "easy" food. If you do your prep right, you can make your own easy food. What you eat affects EVERYTHING, your health, mood, longevity, sleep, everything. As well as your activity level. No need to diet at all if you just eat right. I used to shop in a half hour. Now it takes me forever because I'm reading labels. Even if you shop at Whole foods and Trader Joes and the like, you still have to read labels. Some of the worse processed garbage you can eat is Vegan "healthy" stuff loaded with processed and flavored soy. And watch out for sodium. You need to eat some sodium, but you don't want to use the wrong kind or overload yourself on it. But some of those veggie burgers, may as well be a MacDonalds french fry.

Marketing and sales tactics in the labeling can be just as bad on "healthy" food as it is on not healthy stuff. Have to read the fine print.

A lot of people switch from white bread to whole wheat. READ THE LABEL. Most stores, have like one variety of whole bread that won't "poison" you. Whole wheat or not, there's still processed glutens, corn syrup, all manner of 10 syllable words I can't pronounce for "flavor" and "freshness" and what ever they say. Even within a brand there are differences. Like Pepperridge Farms, some of it is ok. Some of it is not. I get the "Oatmeal" variety usually.

My dad makes his own bread. Sets the timer on the maker, it's done and fresh when he walks in the door from work. He uses flax, oats, anything but pre-made mixes or regular flour. At some point I'll learn to do that too. Also want to learn to can, so that I don't have to pay attention to if stuff is coming from Mexico or California or China in the winter. I really don't want Chinese garlic, for example.

But it's all a choice. A lot of people rationalize their diets choices and make allowances. I know I do. I pig out during the Holidays on crap food because that is what is there. I don't serve it, but when others do, I eat it. I'm all about a good cheese ball or box mac'n cheese. Velveeta slathered over everything. Fake butter dripping everywhere. Butterball turkey covered in it's own gravy. All those artificial flavorings and preservatives concentrated into the gravy. Yum. Canned corn from lord only knows where fresh from the microwave. Cakes and pies with a list of giant words 3 times as long as a home-made recipe in their ingredients.

I've been off soda for so long, even my old favorite tastes like poison now. I used to take the piece of cake with the biggest icing flower on it. Now I can't handle the sugar and "fake" taste to it.

But I knew I was doing something wrong when I kept waking up feeling like an old woman instead of the less-than-30-year-old that I am. I know what I should feel like. Haven't felt like that in years, right when my diet went to crap. I know better than that. I remember the taste of the burp after a fish oil pill.

 

[Organics North]

Hi everyone,
I thought I would share something I learned the other week, while picking up my raw milk, from the family were we also got our last 1/4 of grass fed beef.

It is my understanding the "grass fed" beef association allows cattle to be finished on CORN! So grass fed can mean they were corn fed...

So just a heads up! Find out exactly how the grass fed beef you get is raised. Mine only get 100% grass. The fat is yellowish, not white like corn fed.

ON

 

[KristyHall]

Quote:
wow that is pretty impressive. more power to you.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Quote:
All beef is grassfed until near the end.
And it is traditional to feed some sort of grain in addition to grass and hay, for a couple of weeks at least. It mimics the seasonal feeding that the cows go through.
The reason one may want to check on what is fed at the end, and for how long, is allergen risks, and potential for them being heavily grain fed, so as to turn the fat to a white color, showing that Vitamin D has been stripped out of the system.