LET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT WE’RE EATING
January is that time of year that people tend to set goals, intentions, resolutions, whatever you want to call them. It’s time to turn to a blank page & start fresh. I love the optimism! And I’m right there doing it too. One of my goals this year is to improve my overall health through scheduling sleep, increasing activity, and eating more intentionally. This post focuses on the eating part of the plan.
I feel like a little of this may be preaching to the choir, because if you’re part of our farm tribe you most likely know the things I’m about to tell you, or you may have even taught me!
I struggle with an addiction to carbs & tend to indulge my sweet tooth when I’m feeling stressed, so I haven’t been eating too cleanly over the last few months. As I write this we’re already three weeks into the new year and World Carnivore Month. It’s not too late to start something new! As a woman in her mid-fifties who happens to raise meat for a living, & has a few health issues I need to resolve, it seems like an obvious choice for me. I’m not advocating that everyone should eat only meat, but there’s a lot of anecdotal evidence and a lot of people in the medical community who wholeheartedly believe that animal-based diets are the answer to many of society’s most common diseases.
I’m not trying to start a food fight between plant or animal based diets either, I’m just exploring one way & asking you to consider what the experts are saying. I’ve got a lot of ideas in my head about why I think animal-based is a perfect fit for me, but I want to be more scientific with the evidence I supply to you. So I turned to the internet! One thing that became abundantly clear as I researched is that you can find evidence to support your claims regardless of what they are. I was watching a video about making egg pudding (which is delicious & a good way to switch up your egg eating), & one of the ads was a doctor whose opinion I respect advertising for an exercise guy who advocates for eating carbohydrates. Talk about mixed messaging!
Some of the things I think we can all agree on are that seed oils are NOT good for our health, the processed foods of today are not the same as those of our youth, and that food science has come a long way & not necessarily for the benefit of human health. I feel like my eyes are opened more every day to the reality that money is at the base of everything. Doctors cannot know everything they need to, so they rely on scientists for research, who rely on companies & industries who have a vested interest in the field, and so it goes. I’m not saying that any one piece of the puzzle is nefarious, but when they all work together it may happen that we all lose.
When I started writing this post, my intention was to promote an animal-based diet. The longer I’ve gone back & forth with myself while writing, the less hardcore I’ve become about it being the solution for everyone. I guess my goal now is to get you to start thinking critically about what you put in your mouth to nourish your body. There is SO much information out there, good & bad, that none of us has the excuse that we couldn’t know. Choose your experts wisely. We only get one body, we’d best take care of it!
My bottom line is that my doctor has told me in the past that I’m prediabetic, my younger sister has Type 2 diabetes, I have bad knees that are full of inflammation, & a lifetime of “sensitive skin”. It makes sense for me to embrace a carnivore diet, but I know it’s not for everyone. I’d love to have more discussion about this, so please feel free to comment whether you agree or disagree. I love to learn from you all!
