Riding the Fence of Nutrition

I wanted to dedicate a few posts on nutrition starting by what I call my nutrition testimony.

Like I've told you, after getting married in 1995, I was loving the cooking aspect of my new job.  You could have nick named me Casserole Cassie because if it had cream soups, cheese or sour cream in it, I was game to try it.  That kind of cooking is usually pretty yummy but pretty heavy on producing the extra pounds.  Not exactly what I would call nutritious meals.

In about 2001 I started reading more and more about nutrition.  At this time, my view of nutrition was buying the low fat cheese or fat free cheese (now that is nasty!) instead of regular cheese or getting low fat frozen yogurt instead of ice cream.  Little did I know that my view was FAR from nutritious.

I wish I had made a list of the books that I read on the subject but I didn't.  I tell you though, you would be impressed because it was a lengthy list.  I read Dr. Andrew Weihl, Jordin Rubin, Nourishing Traditions, What the Bible Says About Healthy Living (Rex Russell) and many, many more.  Part of my passion came from a quest to just return to my pre-pregnancy weight before the next pregnancy arrived.  I had done the Weight Watchers thing with success but after reading some of the above books, I became more and more convinced that that wasn't healthy eating in the way I was searching for it.

The problem was that I was convinced in what I was reading to be good and true.  Basically in a nutshell, I learned that we, in America, have so processed our foods that they are no longer healthy and nutritious.  In my humble opinion, we have probably created the monster of cancer and many other illnesses that American die of today from the processing of our food and our lack of nutrition.  What is good is to get back to eating food the way that God made food.  Try to eat it in it's purest form.

Sometimes after reading a book, I would be so motivated, it would almost overwhelm me.  How could I eat the way I wanted to, keep within my budget and not live in my kitchen preparing everything from scratch??  It was a big source of frustration.

Along the way though, I have learned that balance is important.  I know there are total food purist out there and I admire them for being able to live eating purely in a society as ours.  I also realize that many of those purist might not realize the inconvenience that they can cause on others or the feelings of condemnation when they forbid their child to eat a cupcake at a friend's birthday party because it is "poison" or when they ask "How can you serve that Kool-Aid?  Do you realize what is in that and what it does to your body?" (I have known folks who have done both of these.)

The solution I have found for eating well is taking baby steps.  Our first baby step was 9 years ago when we started drinking raw milk.  We are hooked and never want to go back to store bought.  Does this mean that we don't drink store bought when we are served it?  Of course not.  Next we bought our own chickens to lay eggs.  One year I was able to buy half of a butchered cow, a lamb and half of a pig to fill our freezer.  I would love to do that again.  I don't buy organic as often as I would like, mainly because of the price.  We grow a huge vegetable and fruit garden that supplies us with most of our vegetables throughout the year.  Two years ago I took the plunge and bought a wheat mill to grind my own wheat and I started making our bread.  It's superior to store bought and we love it.  I still buy some store bought bread because one picky Fish Stick just can't seem to enjoy the good stuff.  I have hopes for her one day though.  Last year we butchered 75 chickens to fill our freezer.  It was a learning experience and we might give it a go again.

These are all just gradual, baby steps that we have taken on my quest for better nutrition.  I am not a purist though.  Go look in my pantry.  You will see I have sugar cereals, a few condensed cream soups, crackers, packaged chips for school lunch boxes and even Oreos and cake mixes.  I buy these sometimes for my own convenience and sometimes for budget reasons.  We don't overdo them, but we do eat them.

So now you know where I am coming from.  One day you will get the best whole foods recipe from me and the next post will show you all the Fruity Pebbles that I bought for $1 a box with coupons.  Go figure.  :)  I guess I'm just riding the fence of nutrition.