What's food got to do with it?

So I left off still wondering what to eat. This question that we face daily has a lot to do with mood and taste, but in my life, it also has to do with health. You see, both my parents, well, primarily my mother, were plagued with the same dilemma every day, three times a day. My mom built a career around food and health and she wasn't about to let us (my sister and I) get away with eating frosted flakes for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly for lunch and a happy meal for dinner. As a kid, the aforementioned foods did not really exist in my world. A sample of my standard daily menu goes something like this: Oatmeal with tamari and miso soup for breakfast, rice ball (brown rice wrapped in Nori seaweed with umeboshi plum paste inside) and a salad sandwich on homemade bread for lunch, and millet croquettes, fish and kale for dinner. Believe it or not, 30 years later, I still look at that menu and, except for the salad sandwich (sorry mom, not really a home run), my mouth begins to water. We were lucky. In my house, the food was different from everybody else's, but the majority of my friends still loved to eat dinner with us.

When my mother met my father, she was fatigued constantly, always trying to energize herself with coffee and sugar. At the time, my father was following the macrobiotic diet. Well, one thing led to another and after they started hanging out together, my mother started following the diet as well. When her skin cleared up and her energy increased (with no caffeine!), she was hooked. For the following ten years, being a homemaker and new mother allowed her the time to teach herself about food and its connection to health and well being. When I was five and my little sister was three, my parents divorced and my father moved to Los Angeles. My mother needed to make a living, but she wasn't willing to put us in daycare, so she started teaching cooking classes in the kitchen of our New York City apartment. Now, 33 years later, her cooking school takes up two full floors of a commercial building in downtown Manhattan and my mother not only has her Ph, D., but she is the author of 4 published books! Anyone wishing to learn more can go to http://www.foodandhealing.com/.

So with a history such as this, the reader must be curious--wouldn't it seem that I already know how and what to eat? Well, unfortunately, not really. Once you really get interested in the connection between health and food, it's like opening a can of worms. And I've got worms up to my ears!

My little obsession

Ok, I'll be the first to admit, I'm obsessed with food. Of course I love to eat food that tastes good, but I've always been curious about how it affects the quality our lives. (Hmmm, I wonder where I get that? Mom? Are you reading this?...) I've read numerous books on "how and what to eat". Each one claims that after following their advice, you will acheive optimum health or lose weight or look younger or turn into a supermodel. They all say something different, yet they all claim to be correct. High carbs, low fat, low protein; high protein, high fat, low carbs, fat free; vegetarian; vegan; raw; gluten free, dairy free, soy free, corn free and, of course, sugar free. They say, don't eat white food or conventional meat, don't eat food cooked above 180 degrees or don't eat food in a box, can or frozen. Some say don't eat chocolate, or drink wine or coffee and others say a little every day is good for you. The skinny bitch girls think everyone should be a vegan and Michael Pollan reiterates that we should just eat food (but not too much and mostly plants). Dr. Mercola says NO grains! And Sally Fallon says eat all the animal fat you want from grass-fed healthy animals, yet Dr. Perricone says "lean meats" are the only way to go. Donna Gates promotes food combining. In other words, you should never mix protein and starches! Well, you can forget about eating your homegrown, organic potatoes along side your local, grass-fed, organic steak ever again!



So what the hell do we eat? Are we down to white rice? Gosh no--way too refined and void of nutrients. Ok, brown rice? Well, I guess if you want to end up with diabetes. How about fruits and vegetables? Uh, hello where's the protein? So what do we eat? And is there one answer for everyone? Ok, now that I've written down that question, doesn't it seem retorical? Of course there is not one answer for everyone! Then how do these people claim that their diets are the right way to go? And boy would I love to have a no-strings-attached ice cream cone once in a while. Yet, virtually every health guru agrees: white flour, white sugar, white rice, refined and processed foods are simply bad for you and pasturized dairy ain't great either.


Aha! that's where I need to start. OK everybody, this much we know: Don't eat white and/or processed foods!


So what is it that we DO eat?