Living on muscle, guts and luck

So much food, so little time...here's a little round up of what I am learning lately.  First of all, I've had a pretty much 180 degree change of opinion about animal fat. It feels strange after a decade of vegetarianism to be so into meat, but I think the evidence is in favour of high quality organic meat.  I am not talking about feedlot beef here, or claustrophobically caged chickens.  Or fast food.

I am realizing that my health in the future will be largely dependent on two things: exercise and managing my blood sugar.  I have diabetics on both sides of the family so it's a major concern for me.  Plus obesity/diabetes are the number one health problem in our society right now.

I just finished reading a book called "Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food" which was so fascinating.  The author shows how beauty and health are connected, how siblings appearances differ because of the nutrients available to them in utero, and how cholesterol is good for you. It's sugar and vegetable oils that cause illness. Yes, you read that right.  Sugar and veg oil.  Eat the butter, it's good for you.

She also says that we are losing the genetic nutritional advantage that our ancestors gave us, in part because they ate the whole animal - guts, livers, eyeballs and everything.  I know that may not entice you but we aren't living longer anymore, we're aging faster and our children are less healthy.  Shanahan thinks this is one of the reasons why - our food is no longer as nourishing.

Also, here is a podcast with Raj Patel, author of "Stuffed and Starved."  He talks about lesser-known aspects of the 'green revolution' (ie. industrial farming) such as authoritarianism, overpopulation, the Cold War and more.  Patel says we currently produce enough food to feed the entire world, it's just not distributed to people who need it.  He says when capitalism controls food it actually leads to more hunger, because people without money can't eat.

Dark times we live in now.   But we still have a choice, and the more I go to the grocery store, the more I don't want to go there anymore.  So I am slowly working out a way of eating that is best for me and for my loved ones, and that doesn't involve an industrial outlook on life.