Alright, so I have a question to pose...
I have been debating on if I should pose this on the blog but decided in the end to go for it...
So some of you kinda know (and some REALLY know) that Jacob and I try to eat different then the mainstream (what, we are different???)
it really started when liliana was 6mts old and I was in the midst of having to decide how to nourish her, I bought, "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. This book was my first eye opener that I did not have to eat what food companies had to offer me. As well, it taught us that we can determine how we are by what we eat...That was 3 years ago now.
We hate going to grocery stores and hardly go anymore as there is hardly anything there one could call, "food".
No, I am not joking. Most everything there is edible (except for detergents and all that, wouldn't recommend eating that, and for the most part I wouldn't even recommend using those to wash your clothes, but that is a different subject)
We shop at a health food store where we are able to buy items in bulk (cheaper for us anyway) and it is "REAL FOOD".
Real food is defined as something your great-great grandmother would have recognized and I have to say there is not much in my supermarket that she would recognize, even yogurt has been defamed and turned into a sugar dessert (under the awful guise of health food-although there are some that are 'better' than others)
Jacob has not even graduated and he is already tired of seeing so many people that have all these chronic issues and it is just diet.
It is even harder in the church to see ill health, where we have the Word of Wisdom. There really are 'conspiring men' out there who make loads of money off our palate.
So my question is this (and the answer really does mean alot to me)
How do we (Jacob and I) share what we have learned about health and food with friends/family without coming across like we are better than another (for we do not feel this way at all)? How do we say we don't want to eat certain food (or don't want our child to eat certain food (at least that often, or as often as others eat it) because we don't see it as food, it is more of a chemical concoction?
You know back in the day (1800's) you had to label food items as 'imitation' if you were trying to get people to buy an item because it looked like the 'real' item, for instance margarine/butter. But the food industry did not like putting the imitation label on as it deterred many from purchasing the item. They took it to court and that my folks was the beginning of the end. And so my generation has grown up on fake food and am just now discovering the 'real' food item it was intending to imitate. We prefer the real. My body was made to process 'real' food, real fats, real food...Our bodies were never made to process/handle food that was created in a lab.
Food is a sensitive topic. It is also a topic we love talking about, because we LOVE to eat good food. I mean, just tonight we grated fresh (raw milk) Parmesan cheese. The scent filled up the room and I said to Jacob that once you have the real stuff there really is no turning back. Many would counter to me that they cannot afford the real so they buy the fake (although no one has ever used those exact words (referring to their food as fake or real). We have been blessed with being able to buy in bulk (thanks to a local health food store) which saves us alot. We also have a local farm to get raw milk (which we are starting to learn how to turn into butter and kefir so that we can cut that out of our supermarket purchase as well, thereby saving us money.) We also make everything from scratch (fake convenience foods eat up alot of ones budget, so by not buying any of that we are able to spend that money on things like real Parmesan cheese or whatever.
I was asked to teach an Enrichment class on Whole Grains the other night. I loved every minute of it. Answering every ones questions. Seeing the variety that Heavenly Father has provided for us. It is very empowering taking control of our food/health back from those who profit off of us being submissive and ignorant. It was ignorance that kept me from eating better until now. I just ate the way i was taught. I was in ignorance. In so many ways I still am but I just love learning and then changing some more.
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4 comments:
Hmm. Hard question. There's always going to be people that take it the wrong way (like assuming that you think you're better). But I think that as long as you're honest and sincere about what you say, most people won't take it the wrong way (as long as you're not preaching fire and brimstone if they don't change their ways).
Food is certainly a touchy subject... where you live makes a huge difference in what is truly available to you in relation to stores, farmers markets, and true affordability. I'm not sure the best way for you to share that information - it certainly has the potential to make people feel very defensive because not everyone has the same options available to them under the same circumstances.
There is also the consideration of number of people in the family. Not everyone has the luxury of buying "real food" in bulk. And certainly the more people you have to buy for, the harder it is to find the money. (After all, the money doesn't multiply when the kids do, but what is needed to be spent all around increases exponentionally)
"Real Food" is typically more expensive (at least around here.... we've even looked at the Health food store). When the average household of 4 spends just over $900 a month on food, people who don't have that much and only budget $600 for a family of 6 (or less funds than that for families larger some times), well, it makes it hard to stomach listening to others who may truly have something better knowing that it's not as easily with our reach.
I know this because I've struggled with this for a long time. We do what we can, shifting where we can. But the reality of it is that we just don't have the same options - or funds - to work with. We find what we can and we work with that. Adjusting when we're able.
Good luck figuring out how best to present it. Personally, I'd love to see the cost side of things... realizing, of course, that for us we'd also have to then add on a gas price that would be significantly different then yours. Having the costs presented would make it easier to at least consider some options we may not have considered yet.
Just be careful... regardless of whether people see you as "being better" or not, it's a lot easier for people to see you as preaching and pushy on a topic like this.
Advice is best only when solicited, otherwise it can come off as preachy. Especially when our "best" varies greatly from person to person.
I think the key is promoting what you do eat (the benefits, etc) rather than bashing the "normal" diet. People have varied concepts of what a "healthy" diet is, developed over time and comparison to what they have eaten in past or currently eat.
I think you guys have put a lot of time and effort into researching the why's of healthy eating and have a lot of great insights developed over a long period of time. We're just getting started here and, despite what I may know to the contrary (I'm thinking cleaning supplies and hygiene here) I'm willing to change some things but not all. At least not yet, perhaps not ever (the fruity lotion thing is a little beyond me...I get the principle but the appeal is pretty low). :)
As for me, I'd love to try out recipes you guys like and see how they fit in with my brood, tweaking them to suit our tastes. Maybe you can start up a separate blog for that and invite different contributors (those you've found helpful in your journey) to post recipes, stats, experience and experimentation with, say, gardening and making things more cost effective. You can include links to sites which explain the benefits of certain ingredients (or problems with the alternatives) and leave it up to the reader to decide for themselves whether they want to make changes, research the data or just try out the grub and see if they like it. Sometimes people aren't interested in the why's and just want results. That's where a trusted resource, like you pair, comes in handy.
Good luck! I'd be a regular reader for sure and I can think of a couple of friends here who might like it also.
PS Micah is still not allowed to move back to Maine to become a four season gardener. Sorry. :)
Thanks for those who have already posted a response. We are so fortunate to have such great family/friends.
It looks like we will be starting a web page and I am really excited about it.
I really do believe that food will change the world (access to it as well as what is considered food). No, not in the way sharing/accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ would. But there is a link, a profound one, between our spirits and out bodies. Those of us in the gospel know what a privlage it is to be given a body and jacob and I just want to share all that we have learned from others who shared with us. It is a journey..
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