I will start off this post with a story from senior year in High School. Back then I was on the varsity basketball team and anytime we had a home game, a few of my friends and I would go out to dinner beforehand and then meet up with the rest of the team at 6:15 to watch the JV game before the Varsity game just after that. The important part of that sentence is that we went out to eat beforehand. We didn't care what we got. No food, or any amount of food at that, could affect how we played. And boy was that the truth. For one of the home games I convinced my friends to go to McDonalds, my palace of worship at the time, to take advantage of one of the most glorious deals ever constructed, 2 Quarter Pounders for $2. That day I had 4 Quarter Pounders before the basketball game. I distinctly remember another day in which I had 2 of the 2 fried chicken sandwiches for $2(that would be 4 sandwiches for $4). 4 sandwiches before a basketball game and I never knew a difference in the game. Played as well as I would have, had I gotten a salad or pasta. To the person I was in high school, that was an amazing meal. To the person I am now, that is just flat out disgusting.
Having just finished both of Michael Pollan's books (The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food) it can't help but make you think about food and how it affects you. For anyone who isn't aware of the books, it's hard to give an overall summary, but the books basically document food and how it arrives on your plate from every direction. They also give advice on how to get back to the basics of eating and getting away from the "Western Diet" and processed foods. I have tried to convey to friends why we have changed our eating habits and why we aren't "hanging out anymore". It's not that we don't want to hang out, it's that if we did, it's painful to have to choose what to eat when you go to someplace called "Wild Wing Cafe"... hmm... what shall I have?.... It has been difficult but I think Liz and I have finally gotten into a routine, a routine that I think we can continue.
I am not one to sit down, write, and finish a post thinking I have nailed every nook and cranny of thought I had in the back of my mind as to what I wanted to say. In fact often times, I'll edit my post and make changes hours after putting it out there. So the only way in which I can logically construct this post is through bullet points, hoping I hit as much as I can as far as how we feel about food. I think the three biggest points I want to make is "Why we have changed our eating habits", "What we are doing now to improve our eating habits", and "Our plans for the future as far as eating goes". I think those are things that anyone reading this would care most about, or at least find most interesting. I am not saying who is right and who is wrong in the way they eat, but there is no doubt in my mind that the change in our eating habits has been a vast improvement, regardless of who disagrees with my comments or these books.
Why we have changed our eating habits:
- "You are what what you eat eats too". I'm sure that'll take a couple reads. Everyone has heard the mantra, "you are what you eat". Well why has it been so overlooked by pretty much everyone that the meat you are eating is only as healthy as the animal it came from? I don't know if this is a metaphor I came up with or read somewhere, but If a doctor said to a lung transplant recipient, "this lung comes from a chronic life-long smoker, it's still good though" I'm pretty sure you would have second thoughts about it. What if every McDonalds labeled their meat with the truth of where it came from: "This beef comes from a CAFO in Kansas where the cow was barely able to stand-up from the corn-fed diet and antibiotics shot in them." It's not that the sandwich is not delicious, or even today that I wouldn't still think it was delicious, it's just the knowledge that there is more than meats the eye with every piece of meat(misspelling intended =P).
- Pages 268-269 of The Omnivore's Dilemma. Why are all these diseases like cancer and heart disease more prevalent now than they were several decades ago? The nutritional value in the differences of corn-fed beef vs. grass-fed beef is immense, and feeding cows corn is only a practice that started 30 years ago. These two pages argue that the reason why fish is so healthy is because of the 1 to 1 ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids, 6 being an unhealthy acid that blocks your arteries, 3 being a healthy acid that clears them. The ratio of corn-fed beef is 10 to 1. The ratio when you feed a cow grass, which is what it is meant to eat, instead of corn, the ratio is back to 1 to 1. It also discusses the nutritional value that a 1 to 1 ratio adds to your body, and when that ratio is out of whack, so is your body and it's health.
- I come from a family that reveres health and good practices. When the doctor told my Dad that he needed more avocados in his diet, he ate one every morning. When the doctor told him eating almonds was healthy, we had a bowl on the coffee table filled to the brim. When my Dad found out the health benefits of a glass of red wine, he had one every night. It's something I grew up with and something I take seriously. When I found out in 2004 that I weighed 199 pounds and started to develop health issues, I trained and ran a half marathon bringing my weight back to 170. It was just a natural reaction to change my ways. The 4 quarter pounder meal was my naivety, I'm glad I've grown up. My Dad is incredibly healthy and I'm so unbelievably thankful for that, so if those are the things I have to do to follow in his footsteps, then so be it.
- If eating healthy food isn't good for me, then at least it's good for the animals and environment. We are now shopping at whole foods, even if the spinach we are buying isn't any healthier than regular supermarket, grown with pesticides and fertilizers, spinach, then at least it was grown in a way that doesn't throw chemicals into the ground. If eating grass-fed beef isn't healthier than corn-fed beef, then at least I'm supporting the proper treatment of animals.
- I think there are many more reasons, and I will probably think of them later, but I think I've hit the main reasons.
What we are doing now to improve our eating habits
- Meat always comes from a farm we know of or Whole Foods or Earth Fare where they actually sell grass-fed steaks and grass-fed ground beef.
- We found a farm called Mae Farms where we buy all of our pork. They sell at the local farmers market. If we are in a rush and need last minute sausage like we did yesterday, we'll get it at Whole Foods or Earth Fare as good as it can come.
- We haven't found any good places to buy chicken, but we are looking hard. So for now we don't eat chicken.
- Any fruits and vegetables have been organic but we are wanting to go to the farmers market more for that stuff but it's tough because they go bad so quickly.
- We no longer buy anything with high fructose corn syrup or anything overly processed. On a side note, we have kept our New Years Resolution to not drinking any soda of any kind, I think we will definitely be going the whole year no problem. The sad part is, when 2009 comes around, I don't think we'll be able to bring ourselves to drink soft drinks again.
- Since cheese-its and goldfish have been pushed out the door, we are eating more snacks like carrots and a slice of toast with real peanut butter on it. And by real peanut butter I am talkin' peanuts ground up at Whole Foods. Ugh, it's amazing. I could eat a tub a day.
- Any deli sandwiches are organic meat without antibiotics.
- Just like "In Defense of Food" says, we are doing our best to eat real food our great grandmothers would recognize.
Our plans for the future as far as eating goes:
- Obviously continue what we've been doing.
- When our little girl comes this summer, we are going to do our best to eat together every night and not have people eating at different times.
- We are going to be buying beef straight from the farm. We found a local farm in Durham and are very excited about it. Haven't gotten a chance to go see it yet.
- One month this year, I am not quite sure on which one, we are going to go vegetarian, just to see how it feels. This will not include fish, which might seem like a cop-out, but if for the whole month we find ourselves eating a lot more fish and not as many vegetables, then I'd see that as a success because it only happens once every two weeks right now.
Like I said before, just because we read two books and have changed what we are eating doesn't make us experts on food, we just feel like this is the healthiest possible way to eat. Since early March, I'd like to say I've been trying to lose weight, but honestly, I haven't been trying at all. My running has fallen off to about once or twice a week and the most exercise I've been doing beyond that is walking Daisy around the block. But according to the scale I haven't gained any weight so something might be going right.
I'm sure our vegetarian month will yield many blog postings, but until then, this is probably the only food post I'll make.
