The other day, I decided to make lemonade, so I went to our local store and bought quite a few lemons. The cashier looked at me and asked what I planned to do with all the lemons. I said I was going to make lemonade. She looked at me with a shocked and disbelieving look and said “With lemons?” I said “yes, therefore the name ‘LEMONade’.” A minute later the girl came to bag my groceries, and the exact same conversation occurred. I left in my own state of astonishment that two girls, probably in their early 30’s had no clue that lemonade comes from lemons! What happened to us?
Yesterday, a patient of mine was commenting she had guests over. Before coming they had discussed what foods they should bring since my patient was on some sort of weird diet. When dinner was served – a beautiful array of fresh vegetables, fresh fruit salad, broiled fish and probably a potato or something similar, they were pleased. After eating they commented on how it was the best meal they had had in a long time. Realizing they are so used to eating packaged and microwaveable foods, they hadn’t eaten REAL food in so long they almost forgot what it tasted like. A conversation ensued between them about how they had previously interpreted her diet as being weird, but now realized it was simply normal food, forgotten about in the now normal American diet.
What has happened when we, who eat fresh vegetables (especially if they are organic, not canned and not frozen), fresh fruit (organic and not canned), fresh fish, chicken or beef that was farm-raised and whole grains became the weird ones? Didn’t all foods used to come that way? Shouldn’t those who eat a diet from a box – food that that has had all the good stuff taken out and refined to pure, beautiful white, worthless “food” – shouldn’t they be the weird ones?
Another patient, new to our office, commented yesterday on how she realized there was nothing hard about eating this “new” way. She just had to get used to cooking again, and it took surprisingly just about the same amount of time. Microwaving packaged foods is not cooking. My cooking nature is inherently lazy. I don’t chop my vegetables into cute little presentable flowerettes, (as with broccoli). I take the whole head and throw the whole thing in a steamer and cut it as I’m serving it! ! It’s softer and easier, and much less time-consuming. I stack my vegetables. If I’m having a potato I steam it instead of heating an entire oven to bake it. I put the small potato in the bottom of the double steamer, stainless pot and set the timer for 10-15 minutes. Then put the broccoli or other veggie, whole, on top, set the timer for another 5-10 minutes (depending on the vegetable), then put the spinach, kale, swiss chard or other green leafy veggie on top and set the timer for another 3-5 minutes and my meal is done. During this I may prepare my protein (or if chicken start it earlier). The vegetables are cooked in one pot, practically no work, and practically no clean up.
Why is eating fresh foods a “new” way of eating. What happened to good-old-fashioned fresh foods from a garden or local farm? We have become so commercialized in our foods that if something happened and the trucks with our foods couldn’t get into the area, we’d all starve! We’ve either forgotten how to garden, or consider it too much work. I have an extremely busy life. But I have a small garden. I don’t have time to weed it. Fortunately, I have amazingly few weeds compared to my childhood garden. But there are some, and it’s not pretty, but the food is good. I am trying to learn to garden again, as I too have become dependent upon the markets.
When we realize we are calling friends who eat well, weird, it’s time to take a look at our own food habits. When powdered lemonade from a can is normal, and fresh lemons weird or unheard of, something has gone seriously wrong! When so-called foods – packaged, processed, preserved to death, full of dyes, artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup, oils that are hydrogenated or otherwise adultered, caking agents, fillers, excipients, and a whole host of ingredients we can’t even pronounce, much less know what they are, is filling our bellies, why should we wonder why every disease we’ve had over the past half century is skyrocketing at an alarming rate? Why should it puzzle us that we are losing the race when it comes to our health? Why should it surprise us to find ourselves in a deplorable state of health, unable to find the energy or coping capacity to live a “normal, healthy life” unhindered by symptoms? If we want to regain power over our health, the answer isn’t in revising the national medical care system. It’s in going back to the basics. Eating foods that were designed by the Master Designer to feed, nourish, strengthen and enliven our bodies. To build healthy, functional cells – to give the body what it needs to survive!
© 2009 Holly A. Carling, O.M.D., L.Ac., Ph.D.
