Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I’ve been reading a lot of books lately about the importance of really watching the types of food we consume in our bodies. Avoiding dreadful processed foods that are full of way too many empty calories, chemicals and other things your body does not need and will just make you gain weight. Holly and I have really been making a conscious effort to watch what we consume.

I’m just finishing up a book by Barbara Kingsolver entitled “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” In this book, she and her family decided to test one year of living off the land at their family farm. While many of us do not have family farms to grow copious amounts of organic food on, we can make healthier choices in our lives with our direct food sources. As demands for better food increase, we’ll stop seeing crap products in grocery stores. Eating locally and in season is all for best health anyways.

The best food change we’ve made over the past year has been the switch to organic dairy products as well as organic meat products. The more I learn about industrial raised commercial meat products for this country, the more I’m thoroughly disgusted about what the FDA will allow as safe for human consumption. I don’t need to eat red meat from a cow that has been cooped up in a pen, never able to see the light of day; given massive amounts of chemically enriched soy and corn products to eat [cows should graze on grass]. These cows also standing up udder high in their own fecal matter just so these commercialized meat houses can turn a profit and fatten up cows quicker to get them to slaughter quicker and into our national grocery store chains. If I over think what I’m consuming, I get really disgusted.

Another aspect to this book that I REALLY liked was getting back to the root of family togetherness. All family units should make an effort to cook together, enjoy good products made in the home, and have fun in the kitchen doing so, and sitting down at a table to enjoy the fruits of your labors. Not just food products, but really making things to enjoy a more provident living lifestyle. We all live in a hectic world with hectic schedules. The convenience food products are making this country fatter, increasing heart disease instances and causing more and more diabetes. We all should be doing our best to keep local farmers in business and we all can make this choice. A few extra dollars on better quality food just means one less movie outing or concert each month, or one less shirt purchase.

In her book, Barbara quotes:

“Cooking together is good citizenship. It’s the only way to get serious about putting locally raised foods into your diet, which keeps farmlands healthy and grocery money in your own neighborhood’s economy. Cooking and eating with children teaches them civility and practical skills they can use later on to save money and stay healthy, whatever may happen in their lifetimes to the gas-fueled food industry. Family time is a premium for most of us, and legitimate competing interests can easily crowd out home cooking. But if grabbing fast food is the only way to get the kids to their healthy fresh-air soccer practice on time, that’s an interesting call. Arterial-plaque specials that save minutes and cost just a few bucks now, can cost you years, later on in life.”