So confusing...

Sometimes we just don't know how to choose!

I've been spending alot of time researching the best and "greenest" ways of living. I'm creating a business based on helping other people to sort through the avalanche of new, often conflicting, and confusing information on living. Questions like "Should we spend the extra money to get a product we need that was produced somewhere other than China. Should we spend even more to get it made in USA, and even more to get it made locally-ish?" "What is my energy use." (I live in a community where our energy bills are 3rd party and very confusing. I'm actually going to have to "talk to someone" to understand my bill.) "What items are essential, what are important, what are good to have, and what are frivolities?" And most important to me, "What is a healthy diet?"

This kills me. That the more I read on food, eating, politics, and culture, the more confused I become about what is the "best" diet. Sure it depends on what's local, fresh, seasonal. What's least processed and most lovingly raised.

But what about meat? Okay, pasture raised, healthy lifestyle, happy meat? Do we need meat in our culture of abundance? Is this just an addiction like sugar? I know there are good things in meat, minerals and vitamins that are more readily soluble, proteins and fats that are good energy. But is it the best way to get these things. We don't need much if so, about 4 oz is enough, which is roughly one deli sandwich worth of meat, a day. Alot less than I grew up eating or eat now, even trying to be aware of cutting back. I tend to base my meal planning on the meat or entree first, then the vegetables and starch as sides. But according to most nutritionists we should eat mostly vegetables and grains with meat as a flavoring.

But what about starches? Carbohydrates are the producers of insulin, insulin traps fat, fat causes cancers and heart disease, plus contributes to diabetes. How does that apply to whole grains? Should we be eating a diet of mostly vegetables with a few whole grains, a bit of meat, no dairy, no processed grains, no added sugars and fats, what about eggs?

Nuts are okay, but now they maybe pasteurised (heated quickly to kill bacteria, which also kills important nutrients and changes the molecular structure. And now the USDA is pushing this and not mandating that the consumer be told if they are or not).

Beans are good, I think, so far I haven't found anything negative about beans.

Fruit is okay, if we consider carbon footprint and eat whole fruit, not juices. Though with fruit you need to consider sugars again.

But what about Slow Food? Enjoy and savor, eat with tradition and conscience, be mindful of being nourished. Where does my beloved cheese fit into all this. I'm a chef by nature, I need to play with food, be creative, make things taste good, and nurture. But that means leaving behind all the things known as comfort foods. We've been eating meat since we became. We grew larger brains because of it. We've been drinking milk since we domesticated the beast. We've evolved the ability as adults to digest it. We've been eating grains all along the way. Wheat is the "staff of life" and bread and/or rice are the best known staples in almost every culture. "All things in moderation", but what about some of the processed food-like stuff out there? Or things like bread and cheese, that are totally addictive and take about a month or so to break free of the craving for? And what about cravings? Is that instinct telling you that your body needs something or the addict calling for more drug? Argggghhhh!

I want clear answers! This is food we are talking about. Something every single one of us does everyday, and have done so since time began. Why is it confusing? Why is it so non-intuitive? Why am I up at 1:48am (second time this night I've seen 1:48am, daylight savings time) trying to figure out the simplest and most important question of humankind? What to eat?

Rainbow Rice!

This one worked moderately well at getting my picky eater to consume a bit of food at dinner. The green beans, yellow, orange, and red peppers, purple and blue (used a drop of plant based blue food dye) eggplants are from our CSA and the brown basmati rice is organic, though I don't know where from. I also added cut up leftover chicken from a previous meal, though sadly it is only a free range organic chicken and not a local pasture raised one*. The prep wasn't too hard, I blanched the green beans before dicing, diced up everything else and, in order of yellow to blue, stir fried everything with a bit of garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and salt. The rice was steamed with homemade stock, which I make using any left over vegetable pieces, meat bones, and herbs. (Whenever we have meat I freeze any bones or pieces that we don't give the dog and every other week or so I get out my huge pot, chuck in everything and let it simmer all day. Viola! Oh, and I add a tablespoon or so of apple cider vinegar to get more minerals out of the bones.) I'd say she ate about 1 1/2 cups of the stuff, and I felt elated!

*I'll go into the pastured chicken vs. free range organic chickens in another post soon. I want to do a bit more research first to give solutions instead of frustration.

Got S.O.L.E.?

I've created this blog as a means to discuss, rant, consider, and express my concerns about what and how we eat. To me as a mom, wife, human, and chef, food is one of the most essential things I do that I direct control over. Though the more I'm aware of eating, the more I realize how much of my ability to decide what I'm going to eat has been stolen from me without my knowledge. I'm finding the need to be hyper vigilant when I get food. I can never make assumptions, but must do research and often extensive detective work just to find the answers to the basic questions I want to, and should, know about my meal. These questions are:
What is this?
Where did it come from?
Is it healthy?
What is it made/grown with/from?
What is the cost?

In terms of "What is this?" too often I grab a box of something that has a picture of food on it, but upon further examination I find that it is many other things as well, many of them things I have no idea what they are. A simple thing like rice has other things like maltodextrin, lecithin, modified food starch, soybean oil with TBHQ added, monosodium glutamate, disodium guanylate, & disodium insoinate (which are labeled as flavor enhancers). I can take the time and look these up, but I'm pretty sure most of these aren't that healthy and some may be downright scary. The fact is that I don't know, and shouldn't I? If I'm going to put this into my body, and my breast milk?
"Where did it come from?" In the case of this rice, the package says "Distributed from New Orleans". But where did the rice come from? Or the disodium quanylate? I don't know and doubt even with calling the company or even going to the distributing warehouse that I would not be able or allowed to find out specifics. In this age of global intermixing of products, and all the news about the milk from China, I'd like to know where my food lived out its days. Not to mention the possibility that eating food from my own eco-system helps my body to deal with and adjust to the elements of that eco-system.
"Is it healthy?" Probably the most loaded question of all. With scientists, nutritionists, doctors, herbalists, and folk wisdom all having their own say, I have come to the conclusion that nothing is "safe" to eat and everything could possibly cause some kind of harm. Water can be contaminated from toxic runoff from the beef ranch upstream, therefore just about everything else can be contaminated as well, not to mention the unhappy hormone, antibiotic, and chemical laden cows themselves. And not overlooking the toxic chemical and BPA filled containers that the food comes in. Just makes me freaked out to think of the depths this question can take me.
"What is it made from or grown with?" Though this harkens back to the first question I feel it should be asked also. Lets go back to the rice, what container was used to cook the parboiled rice? Was it aluminum? I have concerns about cooking with aluminum. Was the water fluoridated? Did the person who put it into its container have the flu? A cut on the hand? Will I only find the answer to that question too late? Was it grown in a field next to an over concentrated feedlot? Was it grown in a field next to a busy freeway? Did the seeds occur in a natural process of evolution or a laboratory? Was it watered from a stagnant pond, a fresh spring, or snow melt from two states away?
"What is the cost?" By this question I do not only mean the price on the label. Cost involves how and who brought it to this point. The toll on the eco systems, environment, farmers, workers, producers, packagers, shippers, fuel ( and oh how we are learning about the huge depths that simple word goes. Think polar bears, soldiers, families, politics, financial institutions, etc...), suppliers, vendors, grocers, advertisers, my time, my kids time, and last but by far not least, our health after consuming the product. Is this food food worth the cost?

So getting back to the point, I'm striving(and struggling)to keep what we consume good for us. Sustainable for our health, our community, our environment, our future, our planet. Organic and not riddled with chemicals, enhancers, laboratory science, and/or politics. Local support for local support. We couldn't thrive without keeping our community together. I love our village and want to keep it. And ever being mindful of my place in ecology. Ecology is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their natural environment. I think we play a very central role in our ecology and cannot fully know the impact we will make over the course of time. Not only to our surroundings, but to ourselves. We must take the interactions of all things we do very seriously. To quote a t-shirt "Karma is as Karma does".

So keep checking in with me and maybe together we can find a way to eat and be merry!