This Book Will Change Your Diet

Or at least it'll give you food for thought (pun intended).

Last year I spent a lot of time taking a closer look at our family diet: what we ate, how we ate, when we ate, etc. I suspect a lot of this had to do with the fact that I am now full-time at home and actually have time to focus on meals in a lot more detail than before. During our food journey, I explored a lot of different types of foods and diets to figure out which might be the best for our taste buds, our health, and our pocketbook.

First thing I quickly realized was that in order to eat really well, food was not going to be very cheap. But K and I decided we were ok with that since, I feel, quality food is right up there with quality medical care in terms of importance. So we stopped going to mainstream grocery stores and we started focusing solely on organic foods (more so than we already did). We also tried to stay away from pre-packaged, processed foods (easier said than done). It's been a long journey...and there have been a few bumps along the way...but overall, I feel really good about what my family eats and where our food comes from.

At the beginning of this journey, I was pretty sure I knew how our diet would look once we'd figured everything out: less meat, less fats, more vegetables and fruits, less sugars and carbs. In some respects I was right, in others...I couldn't have been more wrong. See here's the thing: if you are at all interested in "green living" and organic foods, chances are you will gravitate towards a vegetarian diet. That's just how it is. Go to any Green Festival or eco fair in your local town/city and the entire "food court" section will be made up of vegan, raw vegan, and vegetarian foods. Not a meat dish in sight. Go to your local Whole Foods or health food co-op and most of the books on display will be touting the glories of low-fat, veggie-intense diets. It's kind of hard to escape. But frankly, while I like fruits, nuts, and veggies...I also really, really like meat. Which is why I was SO relieved to stumble across Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck.

Planck, a former omnivore-turned-vegan-turned-vegetarian-turned-omnivore, was raised on a farm in Virginia by idealistic, college-educated parents from New York City. She is best known for her push to bring Farmers Markets back into vogue in London and here in the U.S. So Planck knows food. And her personal experience with food combined with the latest nutritional data about fats, carbs, dairy, meats, sugars, etc is a very convincing sell as to what we should be eating and what most of us aren't.

To put it bluntly (and this won't be a surprise to those of you who have read any of Michael Pollan's recent books) humans are omnivores, have been so since the very beginning when we likely had a diet consisting of grubs, seeds, animals, and fruits, and we need meat and dairy along with fruits, vegetables, and nuts in order to stay in optimum health. But not only do we need meat and dairy....we should be getting it in very specific forms: grass-fed meats, wild fish, pastured eggs, raw dairy*. Without these foods, we're putting ourselves and our families at risk for a lifetime of health problems like obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, depression, and more. Sadly, anyone living in the Western world has likely been scared shitless by all the bad press surrounding fats, eggs, and meat. "What about high cholesterol?!" "What about weight gain?" etc, etc. Thankfully Planck does an excellent job of addressing these health issues and more with lots of factual data from recent (legit) studies.

Anyway, if you love meat and dairy, are passionate about the environment and about your family's health, I urge you to pick up this book. It'll definitely provide a perspective that few of us get when it comes to food and health. And Planck's writing is approachable, humorous, and engaging without ever becoming pedantic or alarmist...so it's not a painful read.

*I am pretty sure you were all nodding in agreement right up until you hit the "raw dairy" bit. Because there's been a lot of press lately about raw milk/cheese and whether or not it's at all safe for human consumption. There's a lot of pro/con literature out there and I encourage you to read it. Find out about the history of milk pasteurization and why/when/how it started. Find out about what happens during the pasteurization process and how it impacts the bad and good bacteria in milk. Visit a few raw dairy websites and get a feel for what the whole raw milk thing is all about. Trust your instincts, whatever they may be telling you, but definitely do the research before you make a decision one way or another. For the record, we've been drinking raw milk from a local dairy for over a year with no issues. Make of that what you will!