I have been toying with the idea of challenging myself to go back to basics and start eating whole foods again - some people call this type of eating "Slow Food" as opposed to "Fast Food", which makes some sense, but I prefer the term Whole Foods because alot of the crap we put in our mouths has alot of vital stuff taken out of it, and replaced with a bunch of other crap we don't really need! I didn't realize how much until I started researching, but WOWZA! (More on that in a bit!).
For the last few months, I was trying to find out more about living a whole food kind of life. I mean, would it be hard? Is it expensive? Do I have to give up a bunch of stuff? What about pizza? Is that a whole food? If not, can it be? Does chocolate come in "Healthy" without being remotely carob (I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth!)? And most importantly - where do I start? Admittedly, I am generally an obsessive kind of gal...once I set my mind to something, I hit the road running (then usually fizzle out and die mid-stride because whatever change I am attempting to undertake seems so overwhelming (and hard) that I loose momentum and give up (abeit, I don't always give up easily!). Often, it is easy to accomplish something if you share it with someone else...so the idea of this blog was born so that you can share the trials and tribulations as I attempt to go Whole Foods...and healthy! (What fun for you!)
As mentioned above, I have been dabbling in whole foods since the end of October because in the back of my head, I remember reading an article on food additives and finding out that there are BUGS in your food...yup, I am NOT even lying to you...if you ate something red today, chances are you ate a BUG (several infact!) - if you don't believe me, look it up ---> BUGS IN YOUR FOOD!
Yup...there are bugs in everyday foods. That you didn't even know were there! And if you didn't even know that BUGS were in your food - then WHAT ELSE IS IN YOUR FOOD THAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT???!!!
So, I watched Food Inc (and you should too!) where I learned all about factory food (and woke up as a vegetarian the next morning). Ignorance may be bliss for some things...but when it comes to your FOOD, lemme tell ya, the more you know, the BETTER you are! If you eat food, then you should watch this flick!
After that I started to really think about homegrown, 'organic', whole foods...and the timing couldn't even be better - all of a sudden (and 1 doctor's-appointment-with-scary-diagnosis later) and BOOM- I kinda HAVE TO do the whole foods thing...and omit as many chemicals and crap from my diet (and environment) as possible without immediately moving in with a Mennonite Family out in the Bible Belt of Southwestern Ontario - not that that's a bad thing - in my little dream world I do live on a totally self sufficient little farm where we make everything from scratch - but I cannot give up my affinity for electricity and the internet ;) plus, I think they may not welcome me so much because I am a little 'out-there'....oh well...
In any case...I have been spending the last few weeks researching and reading and trying stuff out - for instance; do NOT buy organic 100% cranberry juice without knowing that cranberries are the most sour and un-sweet fruit on the planet and that the Cranberry 100% juice that you have been buying all along was a juice blend with grape and apple juice to sweeten it up and not make you suck in your cheeks like a fish!
Right now I am recommending that you read the following books - only because I just bought all of them:
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (recommended reading on the Food Inc website) - so far so good, and VERY informative - "Eat Food- Not Too Much - Mostly Plants" - I can do that! I will also never eat anything that says "low-fat" or "diet" or "light/lite" on it ever again!
Omnivore's Dilemna by Michael Pollan - I haven't even cracked the cover, but if it's like In Defense..., then I am sure it's good!
And my next read: Food Rules by Michael Pollan - because once you freak out at alllllll the crap that is in your food, you wonder what the heck you are supposed to eat...this book tells you...like: "Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry" - that's keeping with my new food rule that if the ingredients listed on the product don't read out like a recipe to me (i.e. I have easy access to that stuff at the store) then it is not going in my mouth...
and before you get to thinking Mr. Pollan has cornered the market on this subject, I also considered a whole host of other books, but these really seemed no nonsense to me - like the film Food Inc - there doesn't seem to be any 'scare tactics' or sensationalism in these tomes...it's pretty straight forward information, i.e. this is your food, and this is what is in it. Point blank.
I also got some great cookbooks...which I carefully considered, because once you get on the whole food bandwagon, you can convert any recipe you have to a 'whole food' recipe really...you just have to be aware of the ingredients that you're using and sometimes, you may have to be creative and modify a recipe - I'll try to post some of those here as time goes on!
Finding Earth to Table by Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann really made me happy for several reasons! 1) What a freaking beautiful cookbook with gorgeous photos (I love food!) 2) This book teaches you about Seasonal Eating (which is part of eating whole foods responsibly) and sourcing LOCALLY from, like, an actual farmer at a farm. 3) IT'S CANADIAN! 4) Michael Pollan said "This book is beautiful in every way" (no, I am not becoming obsessed with Michael Pollan...I would have bought it had he endorsed it or not! It's just coincidence that he has put his stamp of approval on it.) 5) The authors talk about their experiences running a restaurant based on locally sourced organic foods 6) They encourage foraging (which I LOVE! Especially since I live in Bermuda and really cool things grow here!) 7) There are some really cool recipes in there to boot!
I picked up The Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook - Which has information on everything from choosing your ingredients to cooking with them to preserving them. It's an instruction manual on cooking in general too...I love this book - it's huge! It has EVERYTHING!
And I bought Dietitians of Canada Cook Great Food which has some healthy recipes and all the nutritional information that one could want! Cooking whole foods doesn't always mean cooking healthy foods...so you still have to consider all of that stuff.
Soooo I will leave you to digest this first entry while I see if I have enough time this evening to make some bread!
(p.s. I have to figure out why my pic is posting SIDEWAYS!)
UPDATE: I fixed the pic! :)
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