Food, book, love

I have a new food book. And I am In LOVE. This was one of those books where you find you MUST chat incessantly and excitedly to someone about it, immediately. My dh's ear was the one of choice and it took the brunt of my enthusiasm whilst we were driving and he was not giving me 100% of his listening attention but that was OK, I told him even 50% was fine. He nodded in agreement, although I am not sure he knew what he was agreeing to.



But The Book. Oh yes. I love it, that's what I was getting on to say. It is this wonderful combination of several of my favourite nutrition books (Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Pottengers Cats, Nourishing Traditions, Wild Fermentation..... etc) all rolled into one cutting edge bundle - with fabulous new research and studies. That's the force behind this book - masses and masses of clinical and research material, studies, papers, publications. Every comment is backed up inscrutably. For those who sniff at 'nutritional science' then come and have a god long whiff of this book. You'll be hard pushed to put it down the material is just so fascinating.

The premise: that 99.99% of our genes were formed before agriculture. The implications of this are manifest: our physiology expects us to eat as our ancestor hunter and gathers did. Over 100,000 generations shaped our physiology in this way. Our genes take an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 years to adapt to new environments are thus are still in hunter gatherer mode - in Europe alone it is thought that agriculture was not in any way established as a main food source as closely as 2,000 years ago. Fossilised stool samples from as long ago as 300, 000 years up to 5,000 years show no plant matter whatsoever. This is just mind blowing, don't you think? That plants mostly had potentially toxic compounds which meant the preparation (not to mention gathering) outstripped the calorific expenditure of their usage. Fat was prized in every form, carbohydrate consumption was virtually nil, leading to the physiological conclusion that there is no human need for grains or starch. Every little thing in this book has links and papers and books for you to continue your research and back up what Nora is saying. It is just a riveting read. I had thought after reading the aforementioned books that I knew all there was no know about good fats. I was so wrong. This book puts everything in context, everything slides into place and you just think, oh yeah. I get it now. Like the regular modern food pyramid - no civilisation on earth has EVER eaten that way, ever. It has been constructed with no scientific backing what so ever, based around corporate greed and surplus grain stores etc. It doesn't go into that as much as Sally Fallons book, but you get the idea.

A bit of the book I am digesting today talks about how if we eat carbohydrates (which the body turns to glucose) this is what we use as our fuel, what we burn - not fat. Eating more fat and no carbs has the effect of using ketones (a good thing) as fuel, and so the body then not only burns the fat we eat but the stored fat too. This is why eating fat can make you thin (now doesn't that sound like a book title? it probably already is).

Also this, that the body has two modes - one; we are eating lots and the body reasons that we have food in abundance therefore it's a good thing to reproduce right now, our reproductive mode (which is after all the purpose of our physical existence). In opposite we have restricted calorie intake and the body gears it's self towards possible famine - reproduction is off the menu BUT (and this is the exciting bit) the body then switches to a restore and repair mode. Restricting calorie intake has the effect of improving health (we all know that those slightly underweight tend to live longer than those who are overweight) - when their is abundance in food, the body recognises this and seems to stop the repairing of cells and restoration of tissue. Of course it's all reasoned and researched out, I am just parroting here.

I feel I have been climbing a nutritional mountain for so long, this past decade of childbearing has been a nutritional study for me, an experiment. Constantly. I tweak, I change I read and read and read. And eat. This book brings me closer than ever to the top of the mountain, or at least I am in the peaks. It is exhilarating. I think I know what I need to do to reach the summit, to stand and admire the scenery to breathe deeply and be free from illness. My fingers are perpetually crossed on this score anyway, but this sort of book makes me feel closer.



I am drowning in greens, not just from my garden but from the organic veg lady too. Specifically Swiss Chard. This is my most favourite way to eat them:

Swiss Greens

~Chop and onion or leek and sautee gently in a pan with oil
~Wash and dry your greens, roll them into a cigar and chop
~Chop a couple of fat garlic cloves too
~After 5-10 minutes or so the onion should be lovely and soft and clear, add the chard and garlic and good splash of tamari
~You only want your greens on the heat for about 3-6 minutes, the stalks should still have a bit of bite to them, the leaves vibrant still. Season, add more tamari if you need to, I use a fair bit :)



Serve and add shredded chicken or fish with seeds. I also add to this and chop carrot or sweet potato or baby globe turnips in with the onions at the start. You can add anything really. The amount of leaves above were for me alone, one portion. That is both an indication of how much I love this dish and how much chard I have to eat through :)



Also today I made 'ice cream' from a recipe I found in The Mother magazine that landed on my mat this morning.

Dairy Free Chocolate Ice Cream

~2 cups of cashew nuts soaked for at least 4 hours, in blender
~add 2 cups of ice
~1/2 to 1 cup of agave nectar (I used a cup and it was WAY too sweet for me)
~cocoa or carob as you like
~1-2 Tbls of coconut oil

Blend really well and serve.

She liked it. Can you tell? I was virtuous and just licked everyone's spoon.







The strawberries pictured up there? From the garden - we have so many! But are only for Felix and The Beauty, the rest of us are either sugar free or allergic. All the more for them, they don't complain :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

edited: It sounds like I am on some conceited nutritional pedestal when I say I am at the 'top' of this mountain - lordy I have so far to go and every time I find out something new it both knocks me down with the staggering amount I literally have no idea about - but at the same time bolsters me up that little bit more.

Also this book is not a 'diet' book as such - rather it is a compilation of nutritional research. I am not sure if I was clear about that. And also it talks a lot about how although plant foods were not essential to human surviavl in our modern climate of ultra stress, environmental toxic overload, depleated minerals in soil and compromising food choices, greens and super food greens have a crucial part to play in our health - as do supplements for these very same reasons. On a personal note I did once play out a vastly negative nutritional 'experiemnt' - I wrongly decided not to use ANY supplements, convinced that if I ate a whole food diet I would get everything I needed from my food. I was pregnant at the time and ended up having a very difficult birth and recovery and was so weak and anemic, I had a blood transfusion. Of all my children Felix is probably the most compromised health wise. A poor experiment on my part and not one to be repeated. Some people pooh-pooh supplements but not I. Now. I think as a race we have become vastly depleated in essential fats and minerals and it shows, even when we eat 'well'. Sometimes what we think is a good diet really is not. But until we are faced with health challenges we don't see it. Or if the issue is one of weight then we eat from that perspective.... and I am at this moment drinking green barley grass powder with pollen and acerola cherry powder so I do of course walk this bit of talk :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~