Guilty? or Maybe Not

I mentioned,  a couple of entries back,  about a book I am listening to: Anticancer, A New Way of Life, New Edition I have not finished, but it is messing with my mind. I mean, when I went to the grocery store today and looked at the meat and chicken I almost felt ill. When he talks about how animals are treated on the mass production farms and the hormones, antibiotics and other substances they are fed with, it is disgusting. I really had no idea. I am, by nature, skeptical about such information, but the problem is I have now read it in at least 5 different books, albeit, not so graphically as he talks about. I walked away without any meat, except one package of chicken I found that is hormone and antibiotic free.

His book is not just about nutrition. But because I am interested in that, I downloaded another book:. ChefMD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine: A Food Lover's Road Map to Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Getting Really Healthy. I have just gotten started reading it, but it too has been messing with my mind. I thought I knew something about nutrition and health, but I surely have a lot to learn.

 
I always knew the concept of “colorful” food, since my mother practiced and taught that principle. This plate of food to the left really is typical for us, with black rice (that I just love), salmon, green beans, broccoli, carrots and beets. What is wrong with a plate like this? Actually several things. No oil on the veggies. Uncooked veggies (yip, they are better cooked than raw). Overcooked green beans (I love them boiled until they are dead.) “Farmed” salmon, not wild salmon.

So I am off on a tear of trying to do better by me and my family. First off, I cleaned out cabinets. No more plastic. I just hate it when someone can say: “I told you so!” My sister Jeri has always had a thing about plastic, refusing to drink out of a plastic cup, etc. I laughed at her. She was right. Stuff is poison. Especially in a tropical climate. So off they went. I started buying glass containers. Don’t have many, but I will gradually acquire them. They are expensive here. I am glad I bought a stainless steel water bottle last year. I had no idea how VERY toxic plastic is. And drinking diet soda out of a plastic bottle is sort of like ingesting pure cancer. I’ve been off soft drinks and artificial sweeteners for a couple of years now. Like someone said, the name says it all. Who would eat an artificial banana? So why would we eat artificial sweetener?

Since white sugar and flour (they are inflammatory agents for me and really make me feel sick) should have been off my shelves a long time ago (but now and then they find their selves back in my life and into my mouth), I thought I’d try to get in some things I can quickly grab for a snack. I have nuts (in the glass container), but sometimes I want something different. I LOVE peanut butter, but you just have to be skeptical about how healthy it can be when you read the label. Like Jillian Michaels (Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones ) says, if you can’t pronounce an ingredient, if it doesn’t have a mother, or it didn’t grow in the ground, don’t eat it! So tonight I made a mixed nut butter.  I used macadamia, brazil, and walnuts. It’s really good. I stored it in a glass jar!

For our supper we had something totally new for us: QUINOA. It acts like a grain, but is actually a fruit seed, very high in protein. I cooked it with apples and cinnamon and expected to choke it down. I did add a spoon of the nut butter and a little honey (hey no one is perfect) and vanilla before serving. Wow! It was good. We were both surprised by that. It tastes like a nutty version of oatmeal. I washed it down with some white/green tea I mixed up.

I feel so “unguilty” for making these baby steps. I have a lot of changes to make, but it will have to be gradual. I even tried to make chocolate for  Easter somewhat healthier. I bought “boutique” chocolate (but not the really good stuff, as the store was out of what I wanted) Easter eggs for our girls. This is a 70% cocoa big egg, filled with semi-sweet chocolate bonbons. I wish someone would get one of these for me… or a semisweet chocolate bar, since I can handle little pieces of that chocolate.

I actually have more to say on this subject, believe it or not. I am shocked by what I am learning and how greed is destroying our health and how hard it is to do anything about it. But there will be other days and I will share more on the subject down the line. For now, I’ll just leave you with these two phrases: BUY ORGANIC and BUY LOCAL!