First, I just want to say that this posting is a thought experiment or exploration. That being said, please continue reading...The cover of Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food, has a picture of a head of lettuce, with a label that says “EAT FOOD. NOT TOO MUCH. MOSTLY PLANTS.”
This is the secret to a healthy diet, translated as follows. First part:
Eat = consciously consume
Food = not foodlike substances, real food, mostly not processed
Eat = consciously consume
Food = not foodlike substances, real food, mostly not processed
Not too much = only until you are full
Mostly Plants = less processed crap, more living plants (fruits, veggies, etc).
This is part of the larger movement of....well it might be too large of an idea to really have one name. It involves eating good food, enjoying every bite, and knowing and enjoying how it was grown, picked, and prepared for eating.
As you can imagine, it goes by many different names, and shows up in many other movements. Some call it Slow Food. Some called it Community Supported Agriculture. Some call themselves Foodies. Some call it Sustainable Agriculture, or just Gardening or Cooking or Baking.
So what’s the point?
I love food. I love growing it, picking it, cooking it, and especially eating good quality, full of flavor food.
Have you ever eaten a pomegranate? They are one of the most ridiculous pieces of fruit. You dig out these tiny little seeds, and then carefully pop them in your mouth, sucking out the juice and scrapping off the meat with your teeth. With pomegranates, you don’t get a lot of bang for your buck, but you get a divine experience, both tactile and flavorful. The experience of eating a pomegranate is almost the antithesis of the Big Mac experience. Sure, Big Macs are flavorful, and texturally interesting, and after all, pomegranates are so much work, no one could live off of them. The big difference is in the intention and the awareness. When you eat a Big Mac, you are often in a hurry and pretty much just cramming food in your mouth. I’ve been really hungry before, and I’ve shoveled more than a few times.
So how would it be if you just slowed down and became really aware of what you were eating? Really slowed down enough to taste every ingredient, every texture, to enjoy it, to maybe think about it, where it came from, how it was cooked, who grew it, who cooked it, what your body thinks about it, how you feel after you eat some of it. Don’t you think that would really change your experience of your body and your food?
When I eat green beans in the middle of the summer, I eat them slowly, and I almost think I can feel my body being grateful for them.
But it’s not just about eating slowly, or being aware of what you’re eating, what you’re putting into your body. I can be very aware of a french fry, and still kind of enjoy it as I’m eating it. It’s also about eating mostly plants, and not mostly processed feed corn.
As two guys from the city found out in the documentary King Corn, feed corn is easy to grow, tastes terrible, and is in everything.
Including your hair. It turns out, what you eat can be detected in part by your hair. Different types of carbon isotopes indicate whether or not you have a diet rich in corn or corn-fed meat or animal products. And it turns out, a lot of the carbon in a lot of people’s hair (in the US) is from corn, and not just any corn, but highly processed corn.
This is very very bad for health.
So eat less corn (which is technically a plant, but more like a pure starch at this point) and eat more plants. Plants take less energy to produce than animal products, and we humans are meant to eat a lot of them, from the design of our teeth to the rest of our squishy digestive systems, we are made to eat a whole lotta plants.
For the past year, I’ve been cutting way back on refined anything, especially sweeteners and grains, and focusing on plant matter (with protein on the side). Our bodies get so much grain, especially corn and wheat, that they are really sick of it. For me, it’s mostly a way to balance my metabolism, keeping my blood sugar even. Grain and sugars are quick burning energy, so your blood sugar gets high quickly, the crashes. But with carbohydrates from plants, your body breaks down the food a little slower and more evenly, so you have more even energy.
So try eating 70% plant and 30% protein and see what happens. It’s sometimes called the “caveman diet” or “paleolithic diet”, because without grain, our diet is pre-agricultural. It’s worked pretty well for me so far, I feel much more healthy, and I know I won’t have to worry as much about diabetes in the future if I’m not abusing my body’s ability to manage my blood sugar.
