I couldn’t imagine killing a wild boar in order to feed myself but ever since reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma a few years ago, I've seen this form of hunting in a different light. This month’s Utne Reader excerpted an article from the newsletter Counterpunch which asked progressives in the U.S. to consider the fact that some rural people fear gun restrictions because they need to hunt for food to feed their families in lean months. And I recognize that as a meat and fish eater, an animal had to die for me but being so far removed from that process of the food chain, this point is easy to overlook.
I’ve thought about all food sources differently since reading Michael Pollan’s books, Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and Paul Roberts’ The End of Food, among others. However, fresh baked bread was always calling my name so I figured, even with this newly acquired knowledge of how food gets to my plate, as long as I was consciously choosing ingredients, I could sustain myself without feeling too guilty, or nauseous.
I’ve thought about all food sources differently since reading Michael Pollan’s books, Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and Paul Roberts’ The End of Food, among others. However, fresh baked bread was always calling my name so I figured, even with this newly acquired knowledge of how food gets to my plate, as long as I was consciously choosing ingredients, I could sustain myself without feeling too guilty, or nauseous.
I was all over transfat-free foods long ago and, much to the chagrin of some un-named members of my family who didn’t understand why I chose to interfere with their enjoyment of processed cheese or artificial flavour, I have always restricted certain foods from our household. I’ve made the effort to source local meat, eggs, and greens that are organic or naturally-grown, eat in-season while shopping at farmers’ markets, and support manufacturers of organic and natural products at the store. I buy organic fair-trade coffee beans, refuse to buy garlic grown in China, and try to grow vegetables in pots on my deck in the part shade (to no avail). My next goal is to join a farm co-op where they deliver various vegetables to your door, and maybe then I’ll finally figure out what Swiss chard is.
The biggest change in the kinds of food I was eating happened more recently because I was fed up with a digestive system that was ruling my life and finally found out what was causing all the problems. After months of research, I came across the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which, in simple terms, explains how certain foods are harder to digest so once I eliminated those foods, I felt more like myself again. Unfortunately, the so-called illegal list consists of my four favourite food groups—pasta, bread, pizza, and chocolate. To be more specific, if I want to feel well, I can’t have any grains, lactose, sugar, or starch.
In order to broaden my meal choices, I’ve had to adapt recipes, make my own yogurt, mayonnaise, sauces, dressings, and bake using walnut flour and almond flour (an expensive commodity, and if I were a betting person, I suspect more people will eat this way in the future so we should all invest in the lucrative almond market right now). What I can eat are fruits and vegetables (except potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn), seeds and nuts, including peanut butter, lactose-free cheeses and dairy, butter, certain beans, unprocessed meats, eggs, fish, coffee, very dry red wine, and, although no pigs will be harmed by my own hand, a few pieces of crisp, naturally seasoned bacon are permitted. The only sweetener on the allowable list is honey and I keep a jug of it big enough to feed an army; that’s when my family knew I was going whole-hog with this lifestyle change.
After a time, you can slowly introduce more things back into your diet and see if your body chemistry has adjusted itself enough to digest these foods again without unpleasant symptoms. That’s the stage I’m at now and knowing how to help myself means I feel I have control over my well-being again. I would recommend this diet change to anyone experiencing digestive upset, insulin-resistance, or general lethargy because it's the foods in our typical North American diet that may be part of the problem.
We often take food for granted, especially because hunger is a strong instinct, but food has a chemical make-up and its sources have an impact on people and our environment therefore I want to stay aware of what goes in and where it comes from.
