My mom said at lunch the other day that people need to know where their food comes from, and I agree wholeheartedly. I don't mean the local Woolworths or Pick 'n Pay (or whatever your chain stores are called where you live) I mean the origin of that food.
When we pick up a loaf of bread from the store, or veggies from the grocer, do you know where that grain is grown, how it is treated, harvested and preserved? Do you know what they have sprayed on your vegetables and whether it is sun ripened or sprayed with hormones for ripening?
Is your beef like one of these poor feed lot cows? Or is it grass eating free range beef?A couple of months ago Superman and I got hooked on watching a rerun of Jamie's School Dinners. Do you know that the kids in British schools (generally speaking) did not know that carrots grew in the ground?
People have become so far removed from the origin of food that children are growing up thinking that fruit and veg are grown in some sterile environment and that the concept of a carrot growing in "dirt" is just yucky! How sad. Add to this that the parents actually do not know any better and fill their kids tummies and bodies with highly toxic food in the form of sweets, chips and fast foods.I think the way to correct this is first in ourselves. Reading labels will quickly convince you that "health bread" is not actually healthy! That the corn syrup, instant gratification, highly processed diets of the 21st century are actually the things that will slowly kill us.
A health advisor shared a scary statistic the other day, I wish I had asked him for the source of it, but I didn't - it was to the effect that if this adult generation (you and me) do not address the way we eat VERY quickly, our grandchildren will die from dread diseases BEFORE our children!2 weeks ago I made two more steps towards getting closer to our food origins. I bought a grain mill and a water distiller. The water where we live is being treated with more and more chemicals to get it clean and they have started to add flouride to it as well. The distiller that we have bought produces the cleanest sweetest water and it is the best we can do for our family's health.
Our grain mill is a superb little machine and makes short work of the organic wheat, oats, barley and spelt that we have stored in our freezer. My son mills 1.2 kg's of wheat every second day which we bake into the tastiest loaves of bread. This makes 2 loaves which last about 2 days. The hard crusts we soak in milk and give to the chooks.
So, back to the origin of food...we can become overwhelmed quickly by all the information out there, the books telling you this and that and 100 other articles on the internet about healthy eating. I believe it is simple - get as close as you can to the raw product and follow it from the source. If a label says that the product it has EA027051 in it, and you do not know what EA027051 is...then DON'T PUT IT IN YOUR BODY!If on your journey to the source you find something questionable, stop and find out more or walk away from the product. And remember the baby steps...just work slowly through your diet and replace one thing at a time...always keep learning...listening and reading as much as you can so that you can take back control of what you put into your body and not be reliant on clever advertising and manipulation by mega companies whose bottom line is money.
Like I said, long and rambling, hope it was helpful :-) I must just add that I think that the only way to get ourselves and the future generations on board with a food change is by exposure...that's why mine sow and harvest next to me, cook in the kitchen from scratch, do the sprouts, grind the grain and make the bread.
This will not guarentee that they will always make the right food choices, but like most things when it comes to kids, it sows a thought, an idea and then we can water it as they grow so that when they are older they will be equipped to make the right choice when it comes to food.
4 comments:
Fantastic talking point! In my earliest years of seeking health God's way, I learnt to try eat as much of my food as close to the way God made it.
When children nibble on fresh picked veggies - raw, right there in the garden - they discover how delicious it is!
And when we see where our food came from; what hard work and faith and sacrifice it required, we are filled with gratitude.
I think viewing of the film "Food Inc" is a must for everyone and know many people who have been forever changed by it. A lot of what you say sounds like common sense but it seems sorely lacking. The root cause is also part of another post that you did about laziness and food preparation. I can't remember the name of the post but it was great encouragement for people to prepare their own food even if "fast food" sounds like a quick alternative. You rightly pointed out that many nutitious dinners can be cooked as fast as the 15 minutes or more that it takes to go and order take away and at the same time costs far less.
Great posts.
Amen!!
Been reading your thoughts for a long time and they have helped me rethink healthy family eating in many area of our kitchen. Would you be willing to share your bread recipe?
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