we've gone organic. with our food that is.
thanks to large amounts of free time, i've spent the last few weeks reading and learning about food. it all started with pinterest (a lot of things start there) i saw a yummy looking recipe and it brought me to this blog
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/
the welcoming sign: 1 family. 2 kids. 0 processed foods.
caught my attention and i started reading about this adorable family's journey to eat real foods. i was hooked. i think i read the entire blog in the next 3 days. this led me to other blogs about food, websites about real food, articles and studies about food.
and as i read the light bulb came on and i realized i needed to make a change. everything i thought i knew about food was wrong. i had been feeding my body imitation food-like substances my whole life, and it wasn't doing me any favors.
i was converted.
after showing kyle the things i was reading and learning he jumped right on board too. it wasn't hard to accept , honestly, everything that i was reading and learning just sounded so right, it followed common sense, intuition, and the word of wisdom as listed in the doctrine and covenants.
i understand how i got so lost though,
with the marketing campaigns, the claims of the health industry, and the backing of the government, its easy to get confused these days.
but eating real foods, as organically as possible--eating the way humans/our ancestors have eaten for the last 5,000 years is what's best for us. there's a reason why God placed all of the naturally occurring foods that we have on this earth for us, because they're good for us.
when it rains it pours.
a few days after my discovery we went to a farm fundraiser at a local farm (we were lured there by the fact that 2 of the best restaurants in provo were going to be there cooking dinner for everyone--pizzeria 712 and communal). i learned that that these 2 restaurants get many of their ingredients from this farm and that they use local, organic food to make all their recipes. no wonder their food is so delicious.
this was one of the best meals of my life.
it was so good. and it was real.
real, fresh fruits, ripened to perfection naturally.
real, delicious, organic vegetables.
they cooked up one of the pigs from the farm and some chickens and we had real, delicious pork loin and chicken stew.
we took a tour of the farm and saw that the animals had good living conditions, could actually see the sun, walk around, and eat what they are genetically designed to eat (and not gm processed corn feed).
a couple days after that i went to a relief society activity about being healthy.
after some zumba and yoga, a couple girls from my ward introduced us to
green smoothies.
aka the best way to get in all your raw, organic, leafy greens.
basically you mix together water, all kinds of greens (i use spinach, kale, chard, celery, cabbage, arugula, lettuce...) and some fruit to sweeten (i use bananas, peaches, mangos, pineapple, berries...) i also throw in some healthy add-ins depending on what i have on hand (ground flaxseed, coconut oil...) and mix it all together and drink!
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| mmm...so much goodness in one glass! |
I read the green smoothies diet by robyn openshaw and it was really interesting and easy to read. I definitely recommend it. she's actually from utah and lds. but after reading her book i checked out her website and she's definitely become a little extreme crunchy-earth-mother-100% vegan.
but i can literally say that since that relief society activity i have had a green smoothie every day. and so has kyle. he loves it! maybe even more than i do. its only been about two and a half weeks since we started eating more real foods and drinking green smoothies and we can definitely tell a difference. we feel so much better and have so much more energy!
and now whenever we have processed, high salt, high sugar foods we feel so gross and sluggish.
I am the queen of treats. but ever since we changed our eating habits my cravings for sweets and junk food has gone down a ton--something i never thought would be possible!
a few days after the relief society activity i checked out food inc from the library.
if you have not seen this movie--WATCH IT!!
it just cemented everything that i had learned about in the past week
and exposed how unethical, inhumane, and unhealthy the food industry in america is.
again really really good. and it sheds some light on why the american diet has evolved the way it has.
ok i know this blog post is turning into a small novel but one more word about organic food.
i always kinda thought organic food was for food snobs.
but no.
due to farming practices, organic foods typically contain more nutrition that their conventional counterparts. and they do not contain any pesticides. which is not just good for the environment (and i mean really good) but its good for us too.
in fact: "
Pesticide exposure has been shown to cause cancer, nervous-system and lung damage, reproductive dysfunction, and possibly dysfunction of the endocrine and immune systems. Research shows pesticide exposure may also heighten the risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.""In May of 2010, the President’s Cancer Panel recommended food grown without pesticides (as well as chemical fertilizers, antibiotics and growth hormones) to help decrease the risk of contracting cancer."
so yeah its a pretty big deal.
i could say so much more on the subject, but so many people have already said it far better than i ever could so i''ll just list some resources for you:
and don't forget to watch food inc
