I've been thinking a lot about life lately, and one thing that is extremely important to me is food. I love eating, honestly. But I've been know to be slightly less than responsible sometimes. I'm trying to be better. I value my health and physical appearance a lot. It makes me feel good, so does eating, but there has to be a balance.
There's nothing like an unidentified illness to make you check your living habits. I've had stomach and allergy problems for a long time and several years ago they got exponentially worse. I won't go into details, you don't want to know them. Doctors said there was nothing wrong me. I'm telling you that the things I was experiencing do not happen to a healthy person.
My instinct when presented with something I know nothing about that is impacting me is to research it tirelessly. An example would be- "Oooh horses are pretty! I like them! I'm going to read every single thing I can about them!" How long would you like me to talk about horses? With my stomach and allergy issues reaching my limit of tolerance, I read everything I could find about the symptoms I was having. I came to no self-diagnosis, but I found that most of what I was experiencing was the same as people diagnosed with Celiacs. Hmmm.
My doctor suggested going dairy free. My aunt and her children are gluten and dairy free (I think it's both). I immediately asked my doctor if I could go gluten free too. She said, "If you want to try it."
So I did. Both wheat and dairy were eliminated for a week. After a breath test for lactose intolerance came back negative, I resumed eating dairy. However, I did not resume eating wheat, because I felt better.
Within a week.
I'd had a blood test which had some suspicious antibodies prior to this wheat-free-week. After this wheat-free-week I went in for an endoscopy/colonoscopy. Ask for more sedative if you must ever succumb to this procedure.
Negative for Celiacs. But, doc, I feel better being wheat free! Well, keep being wheat free.
So, since then, I have been wheat free. I still have a strange stomach but I don't have the symptoms I had before and all my head allergies cleared up. Gluten intolerance is what people like to call it.
The question I get asked most often when I tell people I can't eat wheat, is, "What do you eat?!"
Not bread. Or anything that might have wheat, barley, rye, maltodextrin or unidentified food starch. Instead, I eat tons of fruit, vegetables, fish, rice, beans and gluten free pasta. There are some really nice gluten free pastas I like, but the fruit and veggies - they're hard to beat. Occasionally I make some gf bread or muffins, but they're such a treat that it's hard to be responsible. Stores do sell gf bread and cookies and pizza, but to be honest I don't mind not having them around, and they're so freaking expensive!
In college it is extremely difficult to find substantial food that is not full of glutens, as my friends say. I really had to start paying attention to what I was putting in my mouth. So combined with my previous research about my body's ailments, this attentiveness has helped bring me to where I am today in regards to food.
After writing an
article for a class about sustainable agriculture, I became even more obsessed about what we as humans put in our bodies, not to mention what we do to the earth. If I could afford all organic food, I would buy only organic food.
2/3rds of Americans are
overweight. Fertility is decreasing. Birth defects are rising. Cancer rates are rising. Food allergies are more common. What's it mean? It means maybe the things you are putting in your body are not safe. Just do some light research, you'll see.
Big agriculture really does inject food - poultry, beef - with hormones to make them bigger. Why? So they can lower their costs and produce more. Turkeys are often so full of hormones that their breast are so big they cannot mate on their own. Besides the cruelty and grossness of that, don't you think those hormones are going to show up in your body? And all the pesticides and nitrogen they spray on the produce goes ... where? There are two places it can go - in the ground, or in the food. If it goes in the ground it seeps into the water table and
goes from there. If in the food ... then you eat it don't you? Those are chemicals. Not
safe for humans, really. Would you willingly consume toxic chemicals? You do ... Don't forget about the sugar and salt, preservatives, grease, that is on/in the food, too. This is what people eat all day, every day, and they're not healthy. Our life spans are longer but we have more diseases.
So -
I want to be a healthy person and I think that starts with proper food. Buying it and preparing it. Of course, I can't buy organic, usually just my apples. They really do taste better, and after you eat them for a while and go back to non-organic apples you can taste the chemicals. I'm not lying.
In my endeavor to be healthy, I am going to cook. I've realized that it doesn't have to take an hour to make a delicious meal. Cooking is like creating anything, it takes a lot of experimentation and practice. Although, I think I was born with a natural ability, thanks to my mother.
Here are some things I know:
~ You don't need a recipe, you just need to know what something tastes like and how long to cook it until it's done. Unless of course it's really complicated, like mom's chili.
~ You can do just about anything with vegetables and fish.
~ Just because two spice mixes are different ethnicities doesn't mean their baby won't be gorgeous. Southwest chipotle with Mediterranean mix = really tasty chicken.
~ Don't overcook gluten free rice pasta.
~ Don't stir the milk/yeast or it won't "foam."
~ Fish tacos are best with the least traditional toppings you can think of. Avocado, kiwi, mango = yum.
~ A giant bag of gf oats and a small bag of gf grits goes a long way as breakfast oatmeal. And those oats can make some pretty good granola.
~ Rice is hard to cook.
~ If you're going to add oats to muffins or bread, or make granola of them, soak them in water first.
~ "Alaskan salmon" is not Alaskan, it's farm raised and it's pink because of the dye in the food they feed it. Always buy "wild caught."
~ Just because it's "organic" doesn't mean it didn't come from a big corporation.
~ Just because it's "organic" doesn't mean it's healthy. READ the label!
~ Your body needs food, eat around 6 times a day in small amounts. You'll keep your ravenous hunger at bay, your blood sugar up (which means you'll be happier and more awake), and your metabolism won't have a chance to slow down.
~ Eat the skin on most produce. There are more nutrients there.
~ Buy darkly colored produce. They have the most nutrients.
~ Frozen fruits and vegetables often have more nutrients than fresh, because fresh produce is picked before it's ripe, thus never receiving those last vital nutrients.
~ Keep things past their expiration date, just be sure to inspect them (and sniff) carefully before consuming.
~ If you can't wash your dishes right away, fill them with water and put a drop of dish soap in each one to ward off fruit flies.
~ Quinoa is the most nutritious grain, with more protein and fiber per serving than any other.
~ Every one needs protein, the leaner the better, and probably half the size of what you normally eat.
~ Carbs are important, complex carbs are more important. This means bread with seeds and whole oats in it. Chunks of plants. Seriously.
~Fiber is essential. Chunky bread ^. Fruit, fruit, fruit. Veggies, veggies, veggies.
~ One day of bad eating won't make you fat, maybe constipated. A week of bad eating will add a few pounds. A lifetime of bad eating will destroy you.
~ If you eat well on a regular basis, you won't have to worry so much about that bowl of ice cream.
~ Drink water.
~ Avoid processed and prepackaged food like the plague. Have you read those labels?
~ Black beans are incredibly nutritious and are useful in torturing family members after consumption.
That's all I can think of right now. I will eventually post some pictures/descriptions of my cooking endeavors.
I want to share this stuff because I think it's important. The health of our species is in jeopardy, just look around the next time you're out. We are enormous.
Happy cooking, happy eating, happy bodies!
