I was reading a book entitled Food Matters about the meat industry, and watching the 100 Mile Diet on FoodTV when a friend suggested I read In Defence of Food. This book is written by Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivor's Dilemma. The first sentence was one of the 3 factors that made me start a food revolution in my kitchen. It read "Eat food. Not to much. Mostly plants".
The second factor was finding out about soy. Studies conflict about the role of soy in hormonal receptive cancers and estrogen dominant conditions. Some say it contributes, some say it reduces. The issue is between fermented and unfermented soy, basically real soy versus processed. In North American, we eat soy mostly in processed form. It's by-products are found in most baked goods--soybean oil, soy lecithin, etc, and are xenoestrogen. That's also why Asian women don't get breast cancer more than we do --they eat real, fermented soy which is a good form of phytoestrogen, and helps balance hormones. It's all very convoluted.
The third factor was finding out what's in cheap mayonnaise and sour cream. I went to the grocery store one day this summer to get both. I was curious about the ingredient so I picked up the cheap store brand sour cream (price has always been my selection factor) and read. The first ingredient was soybean oil... in sour cream. I was shocked. Isn't sour cream, cream that's sour? Shouldn't it be cream or milk and bacterial culture? I searched and found some that were just that, so I was right. Then I checked the mayonnaise: same cheap store brand, same soybean oil. Mayonnaise should be oil, eggs and seasoning. Nothing else.
These experiences were very upsetting, but they got me thinking. What's good for us is only getting more complicated: low fat, low sodium, margarine/butter, Omega 3, fibre and flax, red food, green food, blue food, health check this and blue menu that. But really, if you think about it, there are only two types of foods on the planet. Not healthy food and junk food as I used to think. Besides, that division is subject to interpretation and debate. No, it's even simpler than that:
Real food and fake food.
Think about it for a moment: Does an apple need a label that tells us it's healthy? Of course not, we all know it is. So why do already-made goods have one? It seems the more they try to convince us the food in question is good for us, the faker it is. One of the most obvious examples of fake food is Cool Whip and the less obvious is non fat, sweetener added yogurt. Yogurt is supposed to contain live bacterial culture and fat by definition. In North American, we pasteurize all dairy products, and fruit juice for that matter, to kill any potentially harmful bacteria. It's the fear of food poisoning liability kicking in. But since we've realized probiotics are essential to good gut health, we've seen more expensive yogurt with "good" bacteria appear on the shelves. You could say that's how they control the bacteria we injest. But the odds of getting sick from yogurt and cheese is minimal compared to the benefits. That said, yogurt is healthy regardless and I still eat it --just the real, sugar added, fatty kind. My favourite is Liberté balkan, made in Québec. All this is why I choose butter over margarine and sugar over artificial sweeteners. Speaking of which, did you know that when heated, aspartame turns into formaldehyde? And sorbitol is a laxative, by the way.
Why do products have a million ingredients in them now? They can't all be preservatives. Do I need guar gum in my salad dressing? Do you know what goes into real salad dressing? A fat (oil), an acid (lemon, vinegar or wine) and a flavour (seasoning, garlic, raspberries). It definitely comes in handy to know what foods are supposed to be made of. Have you looked at the ingredients in store bought bread, our western diet staple? Too much of nothing if you ask me. Bread can be made with 4 ingredients: flour, yeast, salt and water. That's what I make* it with and it looks like this. I'm so proud.
Last night I had a craving for potato chips, so D whipped some up in 15 minutes with potatoes, oil, salt and a frying pan.
The point is, this is back to basics at it's best. Just like with plastic, why fix what's not broken? Making your own baked goods like muffins, loafs and cookies takes little time and effort, and you have the added bonus of choosing what goes in it. It also feels very rewarding to say the least. So far this school year, I've baked* for C. de Lune's lunches, all from fresh and mostly local produce:
Blueberry muffins;
Peach muffins;
Banana chocolate chip muffins and banana bread;
Applesauce muffins and apple loaf;
Gingerbread;
Oatmeal white chocolate cookies and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies;
Carrots cookies.
*Recipes in future posts.
I freeze them until I pack them in her lunch. By the time she's ready to eats them, their thawed. You can also make your own tomato sauce, mayo, applesauce...the possibilities are endless.
The other advantage of eating real food is the reduction in options to choose from. Believe me, when you can't pop open a bag of cookies, you tend to go for the apple. I've been eating real foods exclusively for a month now and I've seen my chemo-induced-temporary-menopause symptoms practically disappeared. I've also been regular (I've had a problematic relationship with my gut all my life) and I feel like I'm doing something to prevent cancer from hitting me and my loved ones again.
If you're wondering how to recognize real food, here are a few hints:
If it's sold as convenient, it's fake;
If it's sold in the perimeter of the grocery store, it's real --there are exceptions of course;
If we had it 100 years ago, it's real;
If you can find it in the wild or in the garden, it's real;
If it only has more or less 5 ingredients, it's real.
There is so much more to be said about food, so keep checking. Recipes will be posted next time.
Sources
Bittman. Mark. Food Matters. A Guide to Conscious Eating. NY, Simon and Shuster, 2009.
Pollan. Michael. In Defence of Food. An Eater's Manifesto. NY, Penguin Books, 2008.
Sexy Hormones. F & W Ltd, Markham, 2007.
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