O.K. I guess I’ve put this off long enough. It’s time to get this blog thing going. This is totally new to me, but here it goes. My main objective for writing this is to share what I have learned about our food… from recipes, to health issues, to growing our own food… and to share our life on the farm.
In 2009, we moved out away from the city and to the country. An hour away to be exact. We were blessed with 90 acres of land and a house built in 1903. A new adventure began in our lives. The move from a small suburban lot to 90 acres was actually a downsize for us monetarily, since we could run our business from our home. It’s hard to believe that moving to this beautiful place actually helped us to keep going during this bad economy. We also got the added blessing of my daughter, Christi, and her husband, Robert, moving in with us. It’s supposed to be temporary until they build a house on the property, but I don’t mind if it stays this way. It is wonderful having my whole family under one roof, the way it used to be in my grandparents day. Our “downsize” increased our yard work (90 acres of “yard”!), our house work (bigger house & old house… lots of improvements needed) and added on a barn, a large garden, two dogs, two cats and hopefully some chickens soon. Oh, we were in for a surprise for all the work we would have to do, but thankfully everyone has embraced it and loves being here. It’s worth all the hard work.
For about a year before we moved, I had been making small changes to our food. With a lot of nudging from my daughter, Jessica, I finally gave in and began to research some of the things she had been sharing with me. I think the first change we made was eliminating high fructose corn syrup. We read that it caused us to gain weight. We wanted to lose weight, so it made sense for us to get rid of it. For the first time in my life, I actually began to read the ingredient labels… you know, all that fine print. Yes, that meant pulling out my trusty reading glasses at the store. I think they purposefully make the print small, so you give up trying to read it. Nevertheless, I did not give up. I was astonished by how many products have high fructose corn syrup! I didn’t clean out my pantry immediately. Change came as a slow process. As I ran out of a product, I read the labels and change brands to something better when I purchased a new one.
Next, was MSG. I have had migraines most of my life. Back in the early 90’s they were severe enough to seek medical attention. During my research then, I learned MSG was a big cause of migraines. For some reason, the changes back then didn’t stick. I think my headaches got better, but they never completely went away. Of course, as I gradually allowed more and more MSG, the headaches came back. Once again I was searching about the effects of MSG. I came upon a site, Battling the MSG Myth, that really opened my eyes to what it does. Please follow the link and read the many side effects from MSG. Check out the hidden names link. It is amazing how many different ways they sneak MSG into our food! At first, I could only remember MSG, monosodium glutamate. And gradually, I would watch for some of the other names. I had to ease myself into it. It can get overwhelming at the store. I printed out the MSG hidden names list and carried it with me.
Another thing I did was to go thru my pantry and set aside those things that had high fructose corn syrup & MSG to see if I could do without them. To my surprise, I ended up throwing away or giving away quite a bit. I did this as I began to eliminate other things as well. I couldn’t afford to totally change my pantry to organic whole foods. So, I felt I had to do it gradually. Setting aside items, sometimes putting them in a box or bag, to see if I really needed it. This seemed to help me. Sometimes I would pull things back out, to my daughter’s dismay, and use them till I could replace it with a better product. And some I would replace anyway without waiting until I was out of it.
I think the MSG Myth site was a big push to begin to change the way we eat. I had no idea that MSG caused problems other than migraines. And like most people, I thought it was mostly in Chinese food. I couldn’t believe it was so prevalent in almost every processed food there is. As we began to eliminate MSG, we noticed that when we did eat those processed foods with MSG, we would eat and eat, not because they tasted good, but because we couldn’t stop. MSG causes you to eat more. It fools your body into thinking it is something nutritious and that it taste good. Your body keeps eating, waiting on the nutrition that never comes. If you really pay attention to your first bite, you will notice it doesn’t taste that good. It takes three or four bites… then you’re hooked!
Speaking of processed … almost 20 years ago (ugh, that makes me sound old), anyway, when my youngest daughter, Melissa, was little, God began to show me about processed foods. I felt that I somehow needed to eliminate them from our diet. But, I did not know how. I didn’t understand the full scope of what processed food was. I tried not to buy the real sugary cereals and things with lots of color. I gave my kids “healthy” snacks, tried to keep it more natural. Boy, I didn’t know I was only on the tip of the iceberg. It took about 18 years for God to reveal to me how to truly eliminate processed foods. I have heard people say that you should shop the perimeter of the store (meaning produce, meats, dairy) and only minimally in the center aisles (where all the processed foods are). I never thought I could do that. It sounded impossible. How could I cook with only “plain” foods? Well, I’m here to tell you… you CAN cook with those plain whole foods and it can taste like the best gourmet food you’ve ever had. Our food began to taste so good at home that when we ate out we began to notice that restaurant food just didn’t taste that good.
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| Homemade Pizza - - Delicious!! |
I got hold of a couple of books that enlightened me. First, was The Unhealthy Truth by Robyn O'Brien. She opened my eyes to GMOs (genetically modified foods). Then, I read The Hundred Year Lie by Randall Fitzgerald. It is a very good source that tells about chemicals that are added to our foods. A must read. I will continue on the next post to tell you my journey to healthy foods. Until then, start your own research. You will be amazed at what you find and most importantly you will be amazed at how you feel when you begin to make changes in the food you eat.
