I have a friend pushing me farther down the "whole foods" movement. In general I think I subscribe to this idea, but she believes in raw, whole fat milk eaten sparingly as a protein source. I have so many problems with this. I do view it as a protein source but I'm not prepared to buy it raw and boil it. Although people I know and trust swear by this. But come on! This same woman, whom I am very fond of, was not impressed by my defense of Cheerios, even the less chemicaly Trader Joe's version, as a "whole food." They are made with whole oats!
I feel like I need Michael Pollan to step in and mediate.
I am trying to do more farmer's markets now that it's summer. I bought some beets yesterday and quickly sauteed the greens to go with our grass-fed groung beef and whole wheat pasta! Success. However, I did think further about all the non-organic, corn-fed and processed foods we eat. I thought we were pretty good on those issues in general but I do need to research this milk thing a little more and I know that we eat too many animal products, especially animals fed a corn diet who don't eat a corn diet in nature. Oy, I'm exhaused thinking about it.
I guess the good news is that now that my weight is under control and within 4 pounds of my goal weight, I can focus on larger health issues for our whole family.
i need to tell you about the "whole food" proponent I met. Everything she said made sense, but it just sounded too extreme. She eats only plant-based food, and no sugar (including honey, etc.). She only eats wheat in the form of wheatberries as she is convinced that even "whole grain flour" is basically converted easily to sugar because it is not in its natural form. She won't use iodized salt because in the processing it is "cut" with dextrose (I checked the label of my Morton's and she's right). She makes a great point about sugar substitutes still impacting blood sugar and causing cravings and insulin impacts because the brain doesnt know the diff between sugar and Splenda - it just knows "sweet!"
ReplyDeleteI have started eating my exercise points when needed - at least 2 of them. I also am doing way better now that my period is gone.
ReplyDeleteAs for the whole foods Nazi, I have the same feeling - I agree with a lot of what they're saying, but not all of it. Certainly eating sweet stuff (Splenda or maple syrup or sugar) begets sweet cravings. That is just an undeniable fact in my brain. I happen to love wheat berries but to not eat whole wheat flour - I just don't buy that. But I eat almost no white flour and I struggle every day to limit white flour in my kids' diets.
The only thing I take issue with is coming from a place of dogmatic "only natural is ok." We have made some scientific or technological improvements to life since we were cavemen and they should not all be rejected out of hand. But on the whole, they're often right that whole foods are better.