Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer is an absorbing read. It’s about his exploration of the meat industry. An eye opener. The things that are done to animals are horrific, to say the least. Until recently I never really felt like a vegetarian. True, I didn’t eat meat, but that was because I didn’t like the taste. It was a matter of taste. I don’t eat mushrooms either, for the same reason.
However, knowing what I know now about factory farms and industrial animal husbandry, it’s clear: it’s true I don’t eat meat as a matter of taste, and I am also vegetarian.
So it was with special interest that I read an article about the Paleo Diet. This is a diet, a lifestyle really, where (mostly) men eat only meat in an effort to be as healthy and strong as cavemen. Another key of the Paleo diet is fasting between meals, in order to approximate what the cavemen may have experienced. It has a ‘back to basics’ kind of appeal, if you only want to eat meat.
Eating fads are common throughout American history. Perhaps because most Americans do not have a strong tradition of cooking and eating certain kinds of foods, (like the Italians, or the Mexicans, and so on) we are especially susceptible to dietary suggestions.
John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943), the inventor of Kellogs, was not the first to promote a particular diet, and he won’t be the last. He plied his patients with multiple bowls of Corn Flakes in the early part of the 20th century. (Read the novel by T. C. Boyle, Road to Wellville, for a fun fictional account of Kellogg’s sanitarium).
I am not a big fan of cornflakes, but having had three pregnancies and being a woman susceptible to society’s pressures to be thin, I am no stranger to the struggle to lose weight and the struggle for healthy eating. I’ve dabbled in fads. I did Atkins post-baby once — it worked — probably because I don’t eat meat, which is an Atkins mainstay, so there wasn’t much left to eat, except whipped cream, as I recall. I tried the Zone too, but it was to abstract for me: trying to think of food in terms of percentages.
But really, it all comes down to:
eating whole foods — whole grains and lots of fruits and vegetables;
cutting out processed foods.
So why is that so hard? Well, for one thing, a mother or father prepares around 1000 meals a year for the family, (not including snacks), and even though grandma made it look easy (and maybe it was for her) for a lot of us, it ain’t easy. Another reason is the whole information overload thing, and also product overload — the sheer size grocery stores and the abundance of products and choices can be, frankly, overwhelming.
But again, my advice is (as with most things): Keep it Simple. If it’s too complicated, don’t eat it.
I would love to hear your thoughts, tips, and experiences feeding yourself and your family — send an email or leave a comment!
