It’s about eating well, not dieting
Posted: Sunday, February 17th, 2008
When I was 19 I decided to stop eating meat for ethical reasons. I couldn’t stand the thought of supporting animal cruelty and factory farming so I phased out meat, then cow milk, and eventually I ate a vegan diet. When I stopped eating these foods I had to learn about other foods to eat instead and how to cook in general. My hometown, Fond du Lac, WI., had one small natural foods store with food, natural supplements, and books. Since I lived down the street from the store I visited it often and learned a lot. I had to learn about this “other food world” all by myself without the support of my family. My dad at first said “not in my house,” about going vegetarian, but eventually he had to accept it. But for all the years of my being vegetarian he never really understood it and neither did the rest of my family and friends.
It wasn’t until I went to college at UW-Stevens Point that I found other people like myself where I could share my opinions and learn more about food and the environment. I learned about sustainable farming, the environment impact of eating meat and non-organic food, and generally everything I needed to know about leading a sustainable life.
Throughout the years I have worked at various natural foods stores, read a lot of information about global sustainability, and talked to many people who are trying to live a life with less of a global impact. Living in Madison makes it easy to eat organically and locally and live the kind of lifestyle I see fit. I am no longer vegetarian and I eat a lot of raw dairy products, but the meats and dairy I eat are natural and chemical-free. We eat meat rarely, and enjoy the wide range of plant foods available to us.
Almost 3 years ago now, I hooked up with my boyfriend, Jonah, who is also a health foodie like myself. We eat pretty well and find it worth the money to have nutritious foods in the kitchen. We spend about $70 a week on groceries, but we have everything we need for breakfast, lunch, dinners, and snacks and have no need to eat out. We eat hummus sandwiches with raw goat cheese and homemade mayonnaise, cereal with raw organic cow milk, and lots of beans and rice. The other thing we eat a lot of is raw butter. Many people would probably cringe at our butter habits, but we eat it for health and its yumminess! If you want to know more about raw dairy products and their benefits I highly recommend the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. It’s packed with tons of information and recipes and we reference it a lot when it comes to fermenting foods and making our own whey and cheese. Another group to acquaint yourself with is the Weston A. Price Foundation that was founded by Dr. Weston Price in 1999. He found that the nutritionally-dense diets of nonindustrialized peoples gave them perfect physical form and physical health generation after generation.
The title of my post doesn’t describe what I have just written, but I just wanted to give some of my personal eating background and let you know how important it is to eat healthy foods rather than going on temporary diets that don’t work unless you are truly eating well, getting physical exercise, and drinking clean water.
I have found a useful site on eating sustainably, Sustainable Table, which should give all the information you need to start eating well. Another site I found, SustainWeb, is a UK organization working to educate people on the importance of healthy foods and the environmental impacts of not eating healthy. Buon appetito!