…Continue reading from Part 1…
“Get out of the supermarket whenever you can”
One of the most informative and empowering things on my journey with food has been developing relationships with local farmers at my farmer’s market and the surrounding areas. Producing food, especially if you are doing it on a small scale locally, is not exactly a lucrative business. So, people farm because they love it. When you get out of the supermarket, you can see the shining faces and smiles of those who have nurtured your food. You can even shake their hands and hear them tell you all about the pigs they are raising or how extra good their spinach is this year. Plus, you can then give back to your local food economy! It’s a win-win!
“it’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language. (think big mac, cheetos, or pringles.)”
If it’s called the same thing in multiple cultures, you can bet that it’s a highly-processed convenience food! So, get out there and learn the French word for lettuce. Explore what an “egg” literally means translated from Japanese. Honor your food’s personality and history by letting it be defined by more than a simple “copyright” symbol.
“Eat your colors”
The greater the variety in the rainbow of your plate, the more likelihood you have of getting a greater amount of nutrients. So, spruce up your plate and your health by varying what you eat as much as possible. Or, as I was trained during my Certification as a Certified Mental Health Integrated Medicine Provider: “Eat your Brainbow.”
“Drink the spinach water” and eat the meat drippings
When we cook vegetables or meats, the water or dripping that are left behind are a gold-mine of nutrients. So, drink that spinach water! Save that bacon fat (eggs are killer fuffly and delicious cooked in it, by the way!)! Make sure to top your steak with the drippings from the pan. Soak of all of the nutrients that that food can give you.
“eat animals that have themselves eaten well”
The reality is that we are not only what we eat. We are what we eat eats. (This is why those who are keto/low-carb recommend eating grass-fed beef instead of the grain-fed approach used on large feed-lot farms. There are hidden grains/carbohydrates in meats when they are feed with grains/carbohydrates. Plus, cows are by nature ruminants, which means their multiple stomachs break down grass. So, feeding them grains, which is done to make them fatter and ready for market quicker, is, frankly, going against the laws of nature.) This explains why getting official “organic” meats, which requires animals to be fed with non-GMO organic feed, is so important. More on decoding marketing claims here.
“if you have the space, buy a freezer”
There is no greater way to be sustainable and honoring of our food than to eat in-season foods. There is also no other “superfood” like bone broth. I don’t know what I would do without my freezer to supply a constant stock of homemade bone broth, previously-in season foods grown from my tower garden, or bulk meat extras from a economically-friendly purchase like a whole cow or pig (instead of just buying various cuts as needed.
To make things easy, I just make a big batch of bone broth and stack them in glass pyrex cups (find them here), ready to be used when I have a craving, want to avoid something like the flu, or need them to add to a recipe like chili or pot roast. (As a side note, I currently have seven flavors of bone broth sitting in my freezer: beef, lamb, pork, chicken, duck, buffalo, turkey, and venison. Find an amazing source of organic bones just for such bone broths, even the hard-to-find ones like duck and buffalo, here.)
“Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself”
Craving a Twinkie? (Do they even make those anymore!?) Want some French Fries? Great! Just make it yourself. Take a step back from our instant-gratification food world and consider whether what you are having is just emotional hunger or if you want to make the effort to indulge in something you can be proud that you made with your own two hands.
