- This topic has 23 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Northern lights, excellent article. It brings out a nostalgia in me for a life I’ve never lived. Something about Mediterranean islands that just seem so peaceful and enticing whenever I see something on t.v. Or watch a movie set in that area. It’s funny how us westerners feel like we could somehow research these people and put the ” secret” into some kind of bottle or remedy. That said though, it definitely doesn’t hurt to try to reinforce our relationships with family, friends, and community and to try to slow our pace of life down and stop worrying so much about material things.
I am a former WAPF chapter leader, former because quite honestly, they were getting a little too weird and militant for me.
That said, I think there’s a lot to be gained from Dr. Price’s original research. Some of the foods that ALL of the people Dr. Price studied commonly ate were sea salt, organ meats, saturated fats, seasonal produce, fermented produce (as a means of preservation), bone broths, raw dairy, sprouted or fermented beans, nuts, grains, and seeds. All of these things are good for us and we should be eating them because they are indeed nutrient dense but more importantly, they are TASTY! (I know of course you all know these things by now!)
I think where this philosophy falters is in that it is limiting, and the limitations is what stresses people and causes poor health. I know of another WAPF chapter leader who is incredibly militant with WAPF principles, has been for 16 years, and is still struggling with her health. We went to our local food co-op’s harvest party and she WOULD NOT eat the kale salad (which was quite tasty by the way!) because the kale was raw, not cooked, and full of goitrogens! Oh the horror!
My point is that it is GOOD to eat nutrient dense traditional foods. Eat lots of them and feed them to your kids! We LOVE kombucha and sourdough with kerrygold butter and apples with brie and everything cooked in lard. LOVE THEM! But I also love days when I don’t have to cook and we go to Red Robin and I can get a Bleu Ribbon burger with sweet potato fries! Or eat at a Mexican restaurant. Or buy those Aussie Bites from Costco that have GMO canola oil in them. When we go out camping or just go to a lake to go jet skiing for the day, I love to forget everything I know about food and just drink margaritas and beer all day while grilling hot dogs and eating chips. It makes me happy. I’m fine with dying of margarita and hot dog cancer. We all have to die of something, and I’d rather die happy.
I read that article about the island where people forget to die several months ago. I, too, remember that the people on that island were happy and stress free, and that made all the difference.
My point is, eat traditional foods, but also eat white flour pastries and whatever else you want. See the value of feeding your family nutrient dense foods, but see more of the value in being happy.
Hey Sharonimo, I love what you said about dying of margarita and hotdog cancer. Well, not exactly the dying part, but just enjoying the food. I am a wap foodie, but trying to relax more about the food. Actually your whole post is good.
I love that, Sharonimo! I became so focused on my family’s health that I lost sight of being happy and enjoying life at times. I’ve found that again and I’m so grateful.
I was also going to add that a few years back I have decided to feed my cats raw meat diet, because of all the “evils in the commercial pet foods.” So I ground up all these chicken legs, mixed it up with raw eggs, salmon oil, all yummy stuff any carnivore should absolutely love. My pedigree cats hated it and I couldn’t understand. All this effort and money that went into it and they refused to eat it. Well, I persevered for “their good” and eventually they ate it as there was nothing else on offer. However, one of my cats with the most sensitive digestion started feeling really unwell on the diet, became ill several times during the course of the 2 years I have forced this upon them. The cat had to stay with vet over several days and they always had to rehydrate her and the vet would beg me to stop this raw meat diet madness and of course all I could think of was how he gets paid by the commercial pet food manufacturers to push this on me. (which he probably does anyway:)) Eventually I gave up on this idea, purely for convenience and voila, the same cat never got ill since and they absolutely thrive and are doing well on commercial pet food and most importantly they love it! So although puzzling, but I guess, generations of cats before them were brought up on this diet so their bodies couldn’t process anything else.
And now looking back I understand the significance of our bodies adjusting to the diet our previous generations ate and thriving best on the same food, regardless of whether it is seen as healthy or not.I’m not sure exactly what is increasing obesity but I’m pretty certain it isn’t just about eating more calories.
I read Farmer Boy to my daughter recently and there are many accounts of the huge meals they ate on the farm. If you go to Amazon and look inside there is one of the boy’s Sunday dinners on pages 93-94:
rye n’ injun bread
chicken pie
baked beans
fat pork
red beet pickles
a slice of pumpkin pie AND
a slice of apple pie with cheeseAnd that was after an enormous breakfast early that morning.
Love your comment, Sharonimo. I think the most important thing to take away from Weston A. Price is what he did here, in the US, with kids growing up with horrendous diets that make the SAD look good (eating things like white bread with margarine and jam for meals). He would feed them one meal a day with fresh bread baked from freshly-ground whole wheat flour, a supplement of cod liver oil and butter oil, OJ, raw milk, something like a stew with beef, marrow bones and veggies, and some cooked fruit for dessert. For the other two meals/day the kids ate their regular crappy food with their families. On this, the kids’ health completely turned around and they thrived.
To me, this means that there is definitely some leeway. You don’t need a “perfect” WAPF diet to be healthy. Just try to eat a fairly nutritious diet and you will probably be fine. Sure, incorporate raw milk, CLO, organ meats. But it’s fine to include some processed stuff, too, or whatever you grew up with.
The other thing that Weston A. Price showed is important is soil quality, and that is tough today. Probably if you can get local stuff from a small, well-managed farm, it would be ideal, but otherwise I bet our diets are still better than what people were getting back in the ’20s.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.