Raw Milk: The Choices I Make, and Why

Raw milk has risks. It just does. That means it is exactly no different from anything else we ingest, from lettuce to alcohol. I choose to accept these risks,because I know what they are, and I’ve decided that any potential risks from raw milk from a local, well-vetted farm with excellent husbandry and milking practices is still lower than that of drinking conventional milk.

Here’s the deal:

-Not all of us who drink raw milk are uninformed, on jumping on some bandwagon. I’ve done the research. In fact, part of my job is literally to research food illness, benefits, husbandry practices,etc. I didn’t just hear someone says “raw milk is awesome” and decide “hey, I must drink that!” Raw milk isn’t a recent thing for me. I grew up drinking milk warm, directly from the teats of the cows and goats I milked on our farm. We didn’t pasteurize, but we were taught really excellent husbandry and milking practices. And yes, we milked by hand. We weren’t a dairy, we were too poor to have a milking machine, and as kids we were excellent free labor for our parents.

-I trust my local farmers far more than I trust corporate agriculture. I can stop by and visit my cow, help feed, watch the milking, and see what they do with the milk (including the fact that they’re drinking it, the same as we are) anytime I want, without notice. They provide any information I ask, including testing/herd testing information, with appropriate  verification if requested. I didn’t just wander onto some field with a guy milking a cow and say “hey, can I have some of that?”  Which is essentially what I’m doing if I buy food from corporate agriculture. Corporate Ag sickens thousands each year, from eggs to dairy to produces. Do people get sick from local goods? Of course. But, after looking at all the facts, I believe that–for my family–the risks of non-GMO, grass-fed, pastured, unpasteurized cow’s milk is simply far less than trusting a corporate food system we already know is horribly corrupt. I’ve been sick from mass-produced goods. I have never yet been sick from anything I’ve gotten from my local, vetted farmers. I realize that’s anecdotal, and I don’t expect others to make my choices. But *I* should have a right to make an informed decision about what I eat.

-The risks are, from all the data I can collect since the data is fairly sparse, pretty statistically insignificant. I know that when it’s you or a family member, statistics become irrelevant; but, when making reasonable food choices, they can be helpful. Depending who you listen to, between 3 and 10 Million people drink raw milk in the US. There is, from all the data I could find, an average of 100-150 cases of hospitalization a year reported, meaning they were serious enough to be diagnosed and hospitalized. Only 2 recorded deaths since 1998 that I could find (there may be more, I am willing to revise this, so please let me know). This means that reported cases of illness are between .00005% and .00016%. Even assuming there are, say, 100o unreported cases a year, you’re still only looking at well below a 1% chance of getting ill from raw milk.  I’ll live with that.

-Not all of us who drink raw milk espouse Weston A. Price Foundation values. I am not a member. I do believe in whole foods, I do believe in not eating processed sugars or many simple carobhydrates. I do think we get too few CLAs, Omegas, and the like in our diets as Americans overall. That is about where my paradigm similarities with them ends. I don’t have a problem with them. They’re free to make whatever food choices work for them, and I do applaud the fact that most members bother to educate themselves on what they’re eating, which is more than I can say for the vast majority of Americans who choose to eat crap “food.” I just don’t believe everything they do, and their paradigm borders too closely on fanaticism for me, personally. It’s also frequently tied to religion, and I prefer to keep religious issues out of my food choices.

-I don’t think raw milk is magic. Yes, there are many people who’ve got stories about it curing this or that, and maybe it does. Or, maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know, and that’s not why I choose it. I’m healthy, I am not looking for a panacea. I, personally, notice my (very mild) seasonal allergies are non-existent when I am drinking local, raw milk regularly. The same is true of local, raw honey. Is it psychosomatic? Possibly. But, since that’s not why I drink it, I don’t actually care. I drink it because I like the fact that the cow (from my farm) has been fed no corn or GMO feed, that it eats grass and therefore likely has higher levels of good fatty acids, that the milk tastes better to me, has a higher fat content (yes, we do actually look for that–Thadd needs something like 4 thousand calories a day, and we get almost none of them from simple carbs or sugars) , that it actually contains no hormones or antibiotics (as opposed to “allowable” amounts), that it’s only hours old when I get it, that it supports local agriculture, and that I can make cheese and other products from it much more readily than I can from high-heat pasteurized milk.

-I don’t feed it to the world. Thadd and I drink it. I do make my own cheese, and some of those cheeses can only be made with raw milk or, in some cases, low-heat pasteurized milk. Unfortunately, the latter is not available literally anywhere near me, so the former is my best choice, even if I didn’t want to drink it. These products, and the raw milk itself, are used for only ourselves. We have no children, and typically when we have guests over, we’re drinking local wine, cider, beer, or freshly-made lemonade, not big glasses of milk.

-You can know the risks, and still elect to take them. Simply because someone chooses to do something someone else views as “risky” does not mean the chooser isn’t aware of the risks. People who climb Mt. Everest are doing something I would personally never do, but I am pretty sure they’re aware of what they’re getting into. People have many different reasons for choosing what they choose to do, and can look at the same information, and come to a different decision. For some people, any germ associated with food is abhorrent. For me, food without germs is abhorrent. I think, overall, that germ theory has led us in the wrong direction, and is one reason we’re so sick as a nation. (I don’t use hand sanitizer, but I do wash my hands thoroughly. I don’t use bleach to clean my house, but I do clean well with soap and water.)  Of course, germs are not the same as pathogens, and while I realize that pathogens can be present in raw milk, appropriate practices keeps the risk of that very small. Small enough, in fact, that I choose to take it because for me, it’s a smaller risk than the long-term effects of what is in much commercial milk.

-Not all of us believe that raw milk should flow freely like a river down a mountain, unhindered and unregulated. I certainly don’t. I would love it if our government could take a step back from lobbyists who contribute heavily to their campaign funds, and draft real, reasonable regulation that would help ensure the safety of a raw milk supply and the products thereof. It’s not impossible. Other countries have done it well (some so well it can actually be gotten at vending machines, and the instances of illness are reported to be the same as pasteurized). Europe is famous for its fresh, raw milk cheeses. People are not hospitalized or dying in droves from fresh ricotta or aged Roquefort (the latter of which is required, by law, to be made from fresh, raw sheep’s milk). Unfortunately, our government, and many people who seem to speak on either side of this issue, seem to see no middle: it’s either a free-for-all, or a felony.  When really, it should be more along the lines of: here are solid regulations for husbandry, milking, testing, storage, and transport. Follow them, or you will be liable, just like other food companies (oh, wait…other food companies get people sick and hospitalize them all the time with no real consequences). So, until and unless those who do the regulation can get their collective heads out of their collective arses,  it leaves those of us in the middle with a lot of vetting to do on our farms.

Raw milk is not for everyone. There are plenty of instances when pasteurized milk is the better choice. But, there’s no good reason why the choice can’t be offered in a safe way.

Related Articles

• Why Hide Serious Government Data on Raw Milk Drinkers? (via Food Freedom) (healthisahabit.wordpress.com)
• Real Raw Milk Facts

Monday Healthy Eating, Nov. 15th

Get rid of the “diet” food. Study after study shows that people who eat real food are more satisfied and actually eat less than those who are eat highly processed “diet foods.” Why? There are several reasons:

1. Real food is more satisfying, so you can eat less and still feel sated.

2. Many diet foods contain ingredients that actually make you hungrier, thirstier, or change the way your body metabolizes things.

3. People tend to consume larger amounts of diet foods because, psychologically, that seems reasonable because there are (in theory) fewer calories. They often end up eating more calories than if they’d eaten something higher in fat or calories.

This doesn’t mean that opting for the highest-fat foods is a good idea. Drink a lower-fat milk (preferably grass-fed, if you have the option), opt for leaner proteins, and use good oils for cooking (EVOO is excellent, and coconut oil is great for you–just don’t use a ton!). Eat butter instead of margarine, just use less.

They key to being healthy and to maintaining a good weight isn’t diet food. There needs to be portion control, exercise, and healthful fruit, vegetables, and lean protein. Toss out the “low fat” Oreos, and just eat fewer of them less often.

Morningland Diary–Fight For Your Food Rights.

If you care about food rights and haven’t read about this, you need to. This is an outrageous violation of due process, and a blatant attempt by the FDA to  crack down on raw foods.

Was Hillendale Farms, who produced *millions* of contaminated eggs that sickened thousands of people, asked to destroy it’s chickens, or it’s undistributed eggs? No.

Have *any* of the conventional, large, corporate dairies had to destroy all their remaining product when their milk or cheese made someone sick? No.

Yet this farm-run dairy, with no reports of illness or contamination in it’s 30 year history, is being told to do exactly that, with no reliable evidence of contamination, improper testing procedures, and no due process. This impacts not just the farm, but also the people who rely on them for employment.

Please read their story and pass it along. If you can, please contribute to their legal fund.

Related Articles

• FDA Orders Morningland Dairy to Destroy 50,000 Pounds of Raw Cheese (eatdrinkbetter.com)
• Morningland Dairy recalls cheese over Listeria and Staphylococcus risk (walletpop.com)
• We’ve got Regulatory Authority! Get Used to It (barbaradiamond.blogspot.com)
• Criminalizing Nature’s Most Perfect Food: FDA’s war on private food contracts (radyananda.wordpress.com)
• Morningland Dairy Stops Cheese Production After Listeria Fears (nowpublic.com)
• Morningland Dairy Recalls Raw-Milk Cheese Sold in 48 States (organicauthority.com)
• Almost 69,000 Pounds of Cheese Recalled Over Possible Contamination (aolhealth.com)

Friday Fast Ones, Oct. 21, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

So, for those of you waiting for it: Yes, I am diligently working on a Part II to the whole “Feed the World” thing. It’s long, it’s complicated, and I’m writing it in between Life and Everything Else. So, keep checking, it’ll be here soon. Now, onto…

Friday Fast One: Hershey sources it’s chocolate from areas and suppliers known for child and forced labor. It’s a well-known problem, one that other chocolatiers have taken steps to help remedy. Except Hershey.  What This Means To You: Well, that depends on how much chocolate you eat. For me, it means taking a stand against Scharffen-Berger, a chocolate that was amazing and is unfortunately now owned by Hershey. It means buying chocolate from other candy companies, or forgoing it. If you purchase Hershey chocolates or candies, you’re supporting their practices. Chocolate shouldn’t be an indulgence built on the backs of children and slaves.

And…that’s it. I know, slow week, largely because the issues of the past few weeks (The Rawsome Food raid vs. the Egg Debacle) is still ongoing. And, enough bloggers have hopped on that issue and done it better than I could that I don’t feel compelled to do a Friday Fast One on it. Suffice it to say that you should eat local eggs and do all you can to support local dairy.

Have a great weekend, and swing by for Monday Healthy Eating on..well, Monday!

Related Articles

• Make A Reese’s Ad Asking for Fair Trade Chocolate (humantrafficking.change.org)
• Tagged Cocoa Beans Help Eliminate Blood Chocolate (food.change.org)

Friday Fast Ones

Fast One: Store-purchased organic eggs may not live up to all they’re cracked up to be. Those in the local food movement pretty much already know this, but it’s worth getting out there. Most organic eggs from supermarkets are produced in glorified (and often not so glorified) factory farms with very little difference from non-organic eggs, except for the price tag. Supermarket brands, including Whole Foods, rank lowest on the list of quality. What it  means to you: If you’re buying Certified Organic eggs at the supermarket, you’re probably being shafted. Find a local farmer, and get your money’s worth. And, honestly, it’ll probably be less money; though, it’s still a far better value even if it’s the same price or more expensive.  Ask around at your local farmer’s market, or go to localharvest.org to find real eggs.

Fast One: PA rejected regulation 2777, which would have effectively banned any an all ways of selling raw milk in PA! What it means to you: Well, if you’re in PA it means you can still get raw milk. If you’re anywhere else in the country, it means that some politicians are hearing those of us who are being active about wanting choices in our food. If you want the ability to decide if you should drink raw milk, eat pastured eggs and chickens from a small farm, or any other kind of food freedom, you need to get active.  Monsanto, the Corn Refiners Association, The Dairy Council…all of these companies spend millions of dollars a year lobbying to control your food.

Fast One: Speaking of the Corn Refiner’s Association, they’re now actively pushing their “educational” agenda about HFCS on blogs, and paying or otherwise compensating “mommy bloggers” to push their product as healthy. Essentially, they give money, gifts, or other compensation to people for listening to a presentation, and they blogging the positives. CRA reps are popping up on negative-HFCS blogs everywhere, and disappear when pushed about their agenda, whether or not the CRA is paying them to comment, etc. What this means to you: Buyer beware. Take a critical look at the blogs you read, and do some digging into their integrity. Taking money or other gifts to post positively about a product or service isn’t something I consider ethical, do you? There’s a large amount of money being spent here. People are becoming more aware of  HFCS and choosing to eschew it, which is starting to hurt the profits of Corporate Agriculture. They’re fighting back, and doing it in a fairly sneaky way, which writes a story all it’s own. There’s a whole post here in and of itself, one I’ve done before in some respects; but, really, just go read the link and the comments. It’s worth it.

And, last but not least:

Friday Fast One: It’s VA Wine month! There are 180 wineries in VA, many of them using grapes grown either on their estate or in close proximity.  What this means to you: Well, a very good weekend, if you plan it right! It also means, however, that all of those locavores (I hate that word, btw) out there need to hop on this bandwagon. Supporting local includes beverages, and there are some amazing wines coming out of VA. Several wineries are competing for international awards, and holding their own. For some insights, visit Swirl, Sip Snark, Dezel at MyVineSpot.Com, Drink What YOU Like, or  VA Wine Time to check out The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and plan a trip!

To Celebrate VA Wine Month, I’ll be splashing (which means pouring wine tastings) for Wintergreen Winery at Rebec’s Garlic Fest this Saturday. Swing through, say hello, see my New Hair, and try some great local wines! I’m the short blond with the short ‘do at the tasting station!

Related Articles

• Rebranding High Fructose Corn Syrup: Good or Bad Idea? (mpdailyfix.com)
• New York hopes to ban spending food stamps on soda (salon.com)
• Brands and blog tours – not always so sweet. (mom-101.com)
• Not a Sweet Idea: Rebranding HFCS to Corn Sugar (triplepundit.com)

Illustrated Astyk

Okay, so I’ve had no communication with Sharon Astyk about illustrating her book or anything, but I really liked the alliteration of the title.  She didn’t have any photos in her book, (which I actually prefer, since it’s not supposed to be a photo book), so I thought I’d take some photos while I worked.  And, I mentioned I’d be doing some more blogs about preservation, which this is.

Ms. Astyk talks about a lot of things in her book, and I highly recommend it. She’s witty, pragmatic,  and straightforward.  One of the things she talks about is salting as a form of preservation, and the various pros and cons of the method. With a background in food history, I’ve seen salting through a different lens, but the pros and cons remain similar through most of history.

There are many forms of salting, from soaking things in brine to just rubbing foods liberally with salt and hoping for the best. What works depends on a lot of things, including climate and the foods itself. In some cases, salting is intended to limit bacterial growth to “good bacteria,” as is the case with lacto-fermenting and the process of making certain types of fish sauce (this is not a process you want to hear about, trust me). In other instances, it’s to dry the food out and make it uninhabitable for any kind of bacteria, as with salt pork and dried fish.

This recipe, which I’m not going to give in detail because I want you to go buy Ms. Astyk’s book so she can keep writing books, is for preserved lemons. It’s closest, I think, to salting to prevent any bacterial growth, and is what I suppose I’d consider a brine (though Lord’s Sauce is supposed to do the same thing with a salt and vinegar combo, and I don’t consider that a brine; so, this is a pretty arbitrary decision on my part).  It’s up for discussion if anyone’s interested, though that’s not the point. The point is, it looked yummy, and I wanted to try it even though lemons aren’t local to us.

It’s pretty simple, really.  Start by cutting some lemons to the appropriate size:

Toss them with sea salt:

Weigh them down to press out the juices:

Layer with salt and alternating layers of bay leaf, peppercorns, and cinnamon:

And fill with appropriate amount of lemon juice:

Put on lid, shake a bit, and then turn every few days. In theory, that’s it. I am still at the turning phase, so I can’t tell you how these have turned out aside from the fact that they are very pretty. I’ll give you an update on them as soon as they’re ready to be tasted, in about 3 or 4 weeks.

Now that I’ve done this, and given that I’ve been thinking a lot more about the possibility of having no electricity at some point (seriously, I have no idea how we kept power last winter given the snow, and we’re kind of prone to hurricane throwoffs here, too), I am considering tossing together a batch of Lord’s Sauce, or at least making sure I’ve got everything on hand and a printed copy, in case I need to preserve meat without canning or refrigeration. I’m hoping to post this here, too, once I get the permission of Chef Channon (my mentor and friend), who came up with the recipe I’ll be using.

Related Articles

• Understanding Food Preservation (gomestic.com)

Food Photos!

I’d like to think you come here for my wit and food politics, but we all know you’re here for the food. Since I’ve been a bit light on food porn these last weeks, I’m going to throw a bunch at you today to catch up!

Above: You all know we eat from local sources as much as possible, and I just found a new source for amazing chicken: Davis Creek Farms. Their 100% pastured, free-range, better-than-organic chickens are slaughtered on the farm by the family, and they’re delicious. The bird above came trussed just as you see it–ready for roasting. His prices, which was about $3.40/lb for whole birds, are totally worth it for the flavor and the good farming practices. The carcass will, of course, go into stock later this week.  Below: These freshly-dug potatoes and carrots were roasted with Herbs de Provence for a wonderful side dish. Fresh potatoes have a richness that store-bought just can’t match, because store-bought potatoes are stored in warehouses just above freezing. These temperatures change the starches in the potatoes, rendering them less creamy and muting the flavor. The baby carrots tasted like carrots, not like sugar. Yum! The leftovers will be mixed with beets and beet greens in a homemade chicken stock base for a wonderful soup. The carrot tops will be used in pesto (thanks to the farm for this idea!).

Below: Falafel is hard to come by in this area, and we’ve been craving it. I finally had time to whip up a batch a few days ago:

Below: Summer brings cold fare to the table, in part because I tend to lose my appetite in the heat. For lunches, I’ve really gotten into savory smoothies, which are essentially gazpacho every day! They’re healthy, full of vitamins and fiber, and fill me up while cooling me down. I side them with some protein (usually an egg, cheese, and/or nuts), and it’s a light, filling lunch that is also full of what I need to keep up my active lifestyle.

Now that market season is here and our CSA has started, we’re looking forward to a lot of produce and a lot of new recipes. We’ll also be doing, as usual, a lot of preservation via canning, freezing, and drying. All this means lots of new pics, so if you’re just here for the food porn, you’ve got something to look forward to. If you’re here for the politics, don’t worry, that’s coming, too!

Market & CSA Share

It’s been really, really wet here for the last several weeks. Farmers are having a hard time with some crops, so our CSA has been a bit slow to start. That said, we got a nice share this week that included green beans, red cabbage, and carrots! We’ll be having sweet  & sour cabbage and carrots, with chicken.

We hit the Farmer’s Market this week, and are so excited to get cooking. We met some new farmers with great chickens, eggs, and produce. What we got:

-A whole chicken, a pound of backs, and a pound of necks from Davis Creek Farms (who, incidentally, is the front cover story for Nelson County Life Magazine!). The whole was $3.40/lb, and will be used to for several meals, starting with roast chicken. Then we’ll strip the carcass and grind the meat up with spices and pickles to make lunch spread. The bones will be used with the necks and backs, which were $1/lb, to make roasted chicken stock (we’re roasting the parts the same time as the whole, to save energy).  It’s incredibly difficult to beat $1/lb for stock parts, and this chicken wins hands-down with no chemicals or hormones, 100% pastured, and freshly slaughtered (never frozen).

-Local honey

-Local peanuts, locally roasted.

-Strawberry & Thai basil jam from Jam According to Daniel, who uses local fruit and no pectin.

-Collards, carrots, beets, baby squash, new red potatoes, and a few other things I am forgetting form other sundry farms we know and love. I’ll be linking more of them as I get their websites! All the produce we got was better-than-organic. We also renewed relationships with farmers we hadn’t seen since last year, and met some new farmers we hope to get to know better. This is about community, which is also about food security and health.

Aside from milk, which we’re getting from Trickling Springs, we shouldn’t need to buy anything at the store this week. And, we will start “putting up” fruits and veggies in the next few weeks, as well.

The excess rain has meant we’ve not seen garlicscapes this year, and the potatoes are getting dug super early so they don’t rot. It’s also meant some of the fruit isn’t as tasty, since it’s lots of water and little sunlight. But, it’s still better than “conventional” food. This week, we spent about $65 on groceries, and we’ll spend less than $10 for sundries throughout the week. We feel that’s a pretty darn good deal for the quality of food we’re getting.

I’ll be posting pictures and a menu later this week, so stop by and check out what we’re doing with all this amazing food.

Growing Power, Day 2

So, after no sleep and a meal I’d loosely term “breakfast” (hey, it’s a hotel, I realize I can’t expect too much), I trundled off to Growing Power for Day 2. I missed the morning at the farm because Anne, Cherlynn (I hope I am spelling that correctly), and I had to get to the kitchen and get started.

This is Cherlynn, helping out with kitchen prep before class. She works in nutrition education, and will be doing a mozzarella cheesemaking class with youth next month; so, she wanted to come early and get in on the boring pre-cheese action of kitchen prep and ripening the milk. She was a huge help, and it was also a great chance to get to know another chef who is as passionate about food as I am.

Sunday turned out to be the day of culinary experts and foodies in the cheese class. We had three chefs besides me, and all were inspiring, creative, and energetic. You see one of them above,  a man simply dubbed “Chef” by everyone I talked to, stirring a very, very large pot of very, very hot whey (did I mention he spent most of the day making us all hungry by elucidating on things like how he makes his savory cheesecake?). Because we had all this incredible whey from both cheese classes, and a bit of extra milk, and because my classes ran on-time as scheduled, I added ricotta making to Sunday’s itinerary.  What you see above is the whey and additional milk being heated to 200F before precipitating the ricotta curd with vinegar. What you see below is how you work on the fly with what you have instead of what you think you need.

The lovely blond woman hiding in the corner on the left is Anne, one of my two designated staff helpers for the weekend. She was amazing, from start to finish, and I really hope I get to work with her again.

Aside from the wonderful staff and students you see in the photo above, though, what you should be noticing is the cloth that is lining the (huge) colander. Is it cheesecloth? No. Why isn’t it cheesecloth? Because I hadn’t thought for one second we’d have time, milk, or reasonable facilities (or, for that matter, enough interest) to make ricotta. I was wrong on all counts, so I needed to come up with something fast. T-shirts to the rescue (thanks to the GP staff for running out and picking these up!). We washed them, then cut them and used them to strain the curds. They weren’t a perfect solution for many reasons, and we did lose some ricotta into the whey; but, it was a pretty darn good last-minute substitute.

I said there were three chefs, and above you see the remaining one as he pressed the whey gently out of the ricotta, and salts it for eating. The class came up with some additional seasoning ideas (including “Chef’s” brilliant addition of Lawry’s!), and it was probably the dreamiest batch of ricotta I’ve ever made. Seriously, we considered just hiding it and meeting up later to eat it on some crackers with a side of beer.

In the end, though, we did have enough left to take back to GP for some of the folks there to sample, too, despite the rabid sampling you see above.

This is the whole Sunday class, minus Amanda (who is taking the photo, but who appears to be stealing some cheese from the colander in the front of the photo above). Yep, that’s me with no sleep, not enough food, sweaty and steamed.

All in all, it went pretty well, and they’re hoping to have me back in June. We’ve got a kink or two to get worked out before then (primarily if we can use this kitchen again), but I’ll keep you updated.

As for the rest of the workshop, I didn’t get to do a whole lot of it, which is kind of what I expected since I was teaching. I got a chance to have a short chat with Will about future cheese possibilities and work-arounds, and I hope to see some of that come to fruition as Growing Power continues to grow. I met a slew of amazing people, some of which I hope to feature here in the coming weeks, and learned a lot about the ideas people have for urban and sustainable agriculture across the country. Some of it’s pretty damn impressive, and almost all of it is creative and out-of-the-box in a way that is very inspiring.

I did get to take the tour, and I got to play with the goats. They are so cute I almost just slept in their pen instead of going back to my hotel:

But, I didn’t. Instead, I helped pack up the tent and tables, then went out for a margarita with some of the staff and some of the attendees. Then it was home early-ish, because I had more work to do and an early wake-up.

I also owe a huge, overwhelming thanks to Ryan, without whom I am pretty sure this whole thing would never have happened, and to Anne, who also fits into the category of misson critical for this workshop (both GP staff members). Thanks to Amanda for all her help and enthusiasm, as well, and to Will for giving me the opportunities.

Healthy Eating Tip of the Day/Week/Whatever & What I’m Doing

One of my biggest “tricks” to staying healthy is to eat a really diverse diet. Science has proven that people who eat a wide variety of foods are generally much healthier than those who eat a limited diet for a few reasons: 1)  it provides a wider variety of vitamins, minerals, and micro-nutrients,  2) your metabolism is kept off balance, so your body works harder and burns more calories, and 3) your body, especially your tastebuds, feel more satisfied, so you eat less overall.

If you’re having a hard time getting in some diversity because of time, just make some small changes. Take a new fruit for lunch, or toss a different vegetable on the grill tonight.  Add some sharp cheese and red pepper to your salad.  Looking for bigger changes? Consider trying some different cuisines, like Indian, or switch to a vegetarian meal once or twice a week.

I want to add even more diversity to my diet, and get some more raw fruits and veggies in. I do fairly well with my daily veggie intake since I love them, but there are days like today when I’ll be working from 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM, and eating a salad in the car is a recipe for disaster. So, next week (I’ve already been grocery shopping this week), I’ll be adding savory smoothies to the “superfood” smoothies I’m already doing. While the fruity ones keep my sweet tooth at bay, I don’t always want sweet.  I’d love to hear your recipes, and I’ll be sharing mine here as I experiment.

I also think these will work out well for me when it gets really hot out. I tend to not eat in the heat, and a savory smoothie might just be the perfect way for me to get in the foods I need!