I am an omnivore
In a diet as restrictive as the one of a diabetic, exiling foods is for the crazy making. Since I have to eat grains sparingly, sugar even more so- eliminating animal proteins and products is not an option. Plus I really do love cheese. And eggs. And meat, I really love meat. Therefore, I am an omnivore.
Some would argue that eating meat and the resources it takes to to raise cattle is environmentally irresponsible. I might have before said “Yeah, well deal, a girl needs her chicken!”, before I read An Omnivore’s Dilemma.
There are conscionable ways to be an omnivore. It is an act of conscious decision making in purchasing. In cooking. In what you ingest and why you ingest. It is by acknowledging that there are inherent flaws in the system by which a bulk of our food is farmed and produced and processed. It is to understand how farmers, for lack of a more delicate way of putting it, get the shit end of the stick.
Conscious eating means to understand fully our relationship with corn, and the subsequent explosion of health maladies related to the ingestion of corn and corn byproducts. Now this is not to say that your favorite corn on the cob or your bag of popcorn is making you sick- it isn’t. It’s the hidden corn, the corn you DON’T see.
Waxed used to polish produce at your local market? It’s a byproduct of corn and carries trace elements of maize. Corn syrup in sodas, juice, ice cream, tea, cookies, chips and countless other products- is just that, syrup from corn. These chemical concoctions are broken down by the body and used as glucose in your blood stream. Elevated glucose levels over extended periods of time lead to a plethora of ailments, not the very least of which is diabetes. I am well versed in that particular illness. However, elevated sugar levels are also related to kidney malfunction, hyperactivity, chronic yeast disorders and periodontal disease. All of this in foods that we eat every day, yet rarely are conscious that we are being exposed to.
Secondary to the alarming health concerns related to a hyper-ingestion of corn is the havoc that maize crops are wreaking on sustainable farming and fields. Government subsidized farming has seen farmers and ranchers of all kinds of crops purchased out to raise crops of maize for corn byproduct production. This results in a decreased pool of farmers for actual food production and overused fields. Overused fields without proper crop rotation depletes the soil of nutrients and thereby robs your food of nutrients. In the US there are more miles of maize being grown than there are ranches being used for cattle.
Meat, my friends, is fairly straightforward. It is rare that you eat meat and don’t know it. It is not hidden in every food item you purchase. Maize, however, really is.
The answer to this? There is nothing clear cut. However, there has to be a very conscious decision to adhere to an awakened state in terms of what we shove in our mouths. Nourishment has to become a eucharist, of sorts. To be purposely worshipful of the body we are given to live in, and thereby be purposefully stringent in our nutrition.
Sustainable agriculture, local produce, organically farmed items are the cornerstone of a conscious pantry. Reduce your demand of highly processed food items from thousands of miles away, which take gas and labor to get to your table. You do not want an apple more well traveled than you are. Increase your demand of locally grown, unvarnished fruits and vegetables. Sooner or later cheap food, will become healthful food.
Sooner or later, Vegan, Vegetarian, or Omnivore, you will learn to be mindful and in turn, healthy. This is what I am striving to do.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Yes, it is hard to do, but worth it, we are pretty good here in our haunted house. I think that my husbands food science degree and living in Europe put us a little ahead of the curve. The upside is that it keeps us a little slimmer than the Joneses. Fly with it!
June 12th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Ooooh, I want this book.
The ethics of eating are what led me to the idea that hunting (for food, not trophies) is a good thing — with a bit of help from my friend who did her ph.d. thesis on problems in commercial slaughter houses.
Corn is a huge issue for me. Now they are saying that the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico was partially caused by the overuse of pesticides in corn production. And do not get me started on corn ethanol.
Okay, I feel a rant coming on — I better leave before my head explodes all over your lovely blog.
June 13th, 2008 at 1:36 am
Hey Girl
– Yes , this is a great book. Have you read The China Study? I am so interested in food, how we eat, what we eat, how it is grown, how it effects our health and the health of the environment. I think it is fascinating that the largest company in the world for marketing pesticides is funding and producing the largest amount of genetically modified corn. There is so much genetically modified corn in distribution right now, that we are not aware of because it was sold and distributed all over the world and put into processed foods and products before the law mandated that all GMO’s be properly labeled. The case studies on the health of this corn are limited, less then ten years, and most of it was payed for by the companies that produce the pesticides and grow the genetically modified corn. I think it is crazy. Sixty percent of all the grain grown is produced to feed cattle for production. I think it will get interesting as more information comes out, on how important it is to eat organic vegetables, fruits, legumes, and grains to fight disease and prevent cancers and diabetes. When farm land and water becomes more and more limited there will be many important decisions to be made about how much meat we can produce and sustain our environment and our agriculture. Ok…sorry I wrote too much. I can go on way to long about all of this. I love this post. It is a great topic, an important topic. I love you girl. Talk to you later.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:25 am
It’s really the right thing to do…buy local, organic products produced within a certain mile-radius but there’s just one thing, one thing that’s trouble…it’s so damn expensive. Until the government steps in and subsidizes the local grower, only the wealthy will have the luxury of conscientious eating. Unfortunately a twinkie is a lot cheaper than a field grown pint of raspberries from the local farmer’s market. It sucks, it’s reality.
June 13th, 2008 at 4:19 am
I have to disagree a tiny bit with cce – right now, buying local and organic is easy. It is a time of year when almost every city has a farmer’s market. So that makes it a tad easier to skip the middle man and go directly to the producer. Winter, of course, is a different story. My preference is to keep the govt out of it, since they have done a bang up job of fucking it all up to this point. If corn wasn’t subsidized, would as many farmers grow it?
One thing that IS crazy expensive is organic dairy. Whoa. Don’t get me started on $6 a pound butter. But I am a single gal, so I buy it. I only have myself to feed, and I really feel like the more people buy it, the more producers will see there is demand, and the supply will naturally increase, and prices will go down. A girl can dream, right?
I loved this book and I tell everyone who starts it – don’t worry, the first chapter is necessary, but the whole book isn’t quite so dense. I rarely eat anything that requires me to open a shelf-stable, sealed package. I think that is the first step, eliminating a lot of the processed foods that come our way.
I can’t imagine the extra layer that being diabetic adds to the mix. Nourishment as eucharist, indeed. Great post.
June 13th, 2008 at 4:33 am
We’ve made a real effort this year to get the processed stuff out of our house. There are still some things we buy that I don’t feel great about, but we’ve made a big dent in it by cooking from scratch and eating more simply.
June 13th, 2008 at 4:52 am
i couldn’t agree more. i don’t eat meat but my husband and son do – luckily our local butcher only sells free range meat. i’ve always preferred cooking from scratch – i haven’t eaten salt since i was a kid so all the processed stuff is way too salty for my taste. in the uk organic stuff is getting way cheaper than it was and much more available, largely because of consumer pressure. good luck with the healthy eating mrs flutter!
June 13th, 2008 at 5:13 am
It’s right but so difficult (expensive, too) sometimes. But, worth the effort. I heard someting laughable the other day on CBC. There was this BRILLIANT idea in farming…to let cows graze on grass. Revolutionary, right? Not feeding them hay, which they can’t digest on their own and that they require steroids to digest. What. Are. We. Doing. To. Ourselves. And. Why. Are. We. So. Stupid? It takes a revolution to get cows back to what they want to eat in the first place, you know, before we so rudly interupted.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:19 am
You said a mouthful. I struggle with what I put in my mouth on both a nutritional level and an enviornmental/econimic/humane level. The last meat scare ( you know the one with the sick cows?) sent me into a vegetarian tail spin that I could not keep up for more than a month or so because, well, I do love a good piece of meat. But what that did do was make me more aware of what I buy, where it comes from, and how it was processed.
Oh, and don’t even get me started corn syrup, processed sugar, and oh deary me- artificial sweeteners. I know as a diabetic you have to pay more attention to that than most, but I have found substituting honey and pure maple syrup for sugar has been an easier change than I though it would be.
It takes a little more time, and more than a little more money, but in the end I think buying organic and locally produced food is worth the pinch in the pocketbook. Besides, the more we as consumers make that choice, the more cost effective it will become.
Excellent post Flutter! Im adding that book to my list of stuff to read this summer.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:19 am
You know, I wish our budget had the give so that I didn’t have to compromise these things so often. I still don’t understand how the right thing is always the expensive thing, too.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:27 am
Awareness, it’s really the key in any area- parenting, love, food, business, health, funny how we suffocate it.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:52 am
yeah, my husband and i found that book life-changing.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:54 am
when do you have time to read?
awareness, consciousness, being present: all the stuff.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:16 am
I’m with Kyla, my budget just won’t allow me to pay the premium’s of better ingredients.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Your review of the book and the comments are very interesting. I will have to get myself a copy of that book.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:45 am
The maize thing astounds me; how did it end up in everything? (There is a documentary out there too, but I can’t recall the title.)
I’m allergic to eggs and they are starting to creep into odd things too. Non-eggy things…
I try to shop a local produce store. It’s cramped and not very glamourous but I know they know where the food comes from. It just feels right.
Thanks for posting about this one. I like your approachable tone, that we can all make better choices, even if we all can’t be vegan.
(Have a great weekend.)
June 13th, 2008 at 7:45 am
it seems so hard to keep up, but the little steps seem to be the ones that matter. here we are mostly vegetarians, although you could call us flexitarians, or even chickitarians (i’ve been saving that one).
June 13th, 2008 at 8:05 am
One of the main reasons corn syrup is used so heavily in the US, is because sugar is so expensive in the US. I don’t know if regular sugar is better or worse than corn syrup.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/11/27/061127ta_talk_surowiecki
June 13th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Fascinating! Also, in my thorough research of food allergies, I have found that the hybrid version of “corn” we now grow…so it’s pest resistant and other things…is VERY BAD for your brain. This version of corn now is so far away from the original strain of healthy corn it’s not even funny. Thank you for sharing this other research as well…it’s amazing how much corn there is in just weird things there shouldn’t be. I haven’t been able to eat a non-organic apple since I was a teenager…I always thought it was the pesticides, now I wonder if it isn’t the combo of corn and pesticides…ugh!
June 13th, 2008 at 8:25 am
And a lot of it is that not a lot of people cook anymore. Like really cook, from scratch, like someone up above said. It’s not difficult, or even really all that time consuming, but there are so many activities nowadays, for kids and parents have to ferry them about that it’s hard not to just buy the frozen chicken nuggets and meal-in-a-bag. I once needed an elective in my senior year of college and decided to take Catholic Social Thinking (which was odd, because I? am NOT a great Catholic), but a lot of it was about proper food management and why the world is starving because farmers are getting paid not to farm or getting paid to farm corn and things for government use. It was really interesting.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:30 am
As someone who has done a great deal of research on what goes into our bodies, this was mostly new information for me ~ thank you! I will put that book on my “to read” list.
We are *very* gradually trying to decrease the amount of meat that we eat, focusing instead on fruits, veggies and whole grains (with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s thrown in there occasionally for sanity’s sake)… but the meat I do buy, I only buy at Whole Foods or somewhere similar where I think I’m buying animals that were killed but not tortured. And that were fed no hormones or antibiotics. And that were allowed to run around and frolic before being turned into food.
I buy as much organic as I can, but I’ve read that if every single person bought organic food, there wouldn’t be enough to go around as “convential” food grows bigger, faster (thanks to chemicals that I’d rather not have in my body ~ hello, cancer) and more quickly. Our focus is definitely shifting to buying as much locally as we can ~ I’m going to make visits to Farmer’s Market’s and local farms a weekly trip… But I can’t give up bananas. And as far as I know, you can’t grow a banana in Colorado to save your life.
Anyway, great post ~ thanks for the new info! I’m proud of you for paying attention to what goes into your body as you’re striving to make it healthy… It’s so easy not to.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:42 am
It sounds like an awesome book. I will put it on my list of must reads.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:52 am
I am allergic to corn, too. Freaking awesome!
I pretty much know where all of our meat comes from. In fact, I know our meat’s NAME. Like “Bob is pretty tough, but Candy is delicious!”. And where I live, meat is a much more enviromentally friendly farming option than large-scale plant farms (we live in a rocky, heavily forested place).
June 13th, 2008 at 9:10 am
“You do not want an apple more well traveled than you are.”
What a priceless line!
One of my kids studied nutrition this past year and we went through our cupboards and they were amazed how many foods had corn byproducts in them. It was an eye opener.
As was your review. I love book reviews . . . so thanks.
Brian
June 13th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I loved that book. And yes, mindful, mindful, mindful. And eat for fuel – I keep repeating these things to myself and sadly, the chocolate eclair has been overriding them. But I try, really I do.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
I, of course, LOVE this post. As will probably come as no surprise to you.
Will and I have become EXTREMELY stringent on only eating organic fruits and vegetables, and only organic, free range meat. We make sure that our meat is also grass fed. What is so insidious about corn as well, is that they feed a lot of live-stock just corn, which is not their natural diet, to fatten them up…And so, meat ends up being fatter than it used to be, which in-turn, fattens US up. And also lacks the proper nutrition for our children while growing… they’re even linking this with the drop in U.S. education results in comparison to Europe and Japan.
The whole corn-correlation is just disturbing…
Great post, my friend.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
The Mister and I have been shifting our food purchases because of concerns about preservatives. I prefer the local produce markets and seldom purchase canned foods. I have the luxury of time when it comes to preparing food. If I had growing family with a child strapped to each tit, it would be easier to fill up the cart with spaghetti o’s and canned beans, and frozen dinners.
June 13th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Great post! High fructose corn syrup is in EVERYTHING, shocking that it’s in tea. Eating healthfully and mindfully has been on my mind lately, especially in terms of my own kid. Thankfully it’s farmer’s market season so we’re able to buy fresh and close to home.
June 13th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I must read that book. Did you read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? I read it last summer and couldn’t put it down.
As someone who, until recently, consumed waaaay too much sugar, I get that it can wreak havoc with the body. Here, where I live, buying locally, organically, sustainably is easy-peasy in the summertime. Come the all-enveloping winter, it’s a leetle more challenging. Still. It’s always a good reminder to read labels religiously and avoid that HFCS.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
It is a book I’ve been meaning to read. Thank you for this post. And this line was phenomenal:Nourishment has to become a eucharist, of sorts. I make a point of not buying anything with “corn syrup” in it. Gotta love that Trader Joe’s!
June 13th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I was JUST speaking with my psycho trainer yesterday about the evils of corn. And it is everywhere!
June 13th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Just saying hello since I’ve stopped by. Nothing to add beyond it’s good to be conscious as often as possible. Not so easy.
*
June 13th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
This gave me much to think about. I feel a little chastised as someone who takes for granted what I eat and where it comes from. I do visit farmers markets sometimes but it was a question of more flavorful fruits and veggies more than the good of buying local. I’m almost afraid to read that book.
At least I grow my own tomatoes….baby steps right?
June 13th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
I need to read that book.
I also loved the line about nourishment as eucharist.
June 19th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Its great to see so much awareness being raised about these issues. I’m actually considering starting an online campaign to incentivize major soda companies to stop using high fructose corn syrup. A simple change like that could make a significant public health impact, and I believe there is enough aggregate demand out there to make it happen.
If anyone is interested in sharing ideas or working with me on this I’d love the help. You can reach me at aaron@thepoint.com