Good, Simple Food (Part 2)

"People are fed by the Food Industry which pays no attention to Health, and are treated to the Health Industry, which pays no attention to Food." - Wendell Berry

Good, simple food is what we try to produce on our little 5 acre slice of Heaven for consumption by our Family and friends.  We like the idea that a big percentage of the foods we eat are wholesome, delicious, and freshly grown at most 300 feet from our back door.  We also like the idea that we can pronounce the names of all of the ingredients in most of our recipes.

Food from Our Maker's Acres Family Farm

As opposed to the ingredient list in Hot Pockets, for example, a brand that is a $2 billion dollar category of frozen sandwiches and snacks:

Quite an ingredient list in the Hot Pocket

Ingredients
Unbleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product (Water, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Casein, Modified Food Starch, Whey, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Food Starch, Natural Flavor, Citric Acid, Sorbic Acid [As A Preservative], Xanthan Gum, Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Lactic Acid, Artificial Color, Mozzarella Cheese [Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes]), Pepperoni (Pork, Beef, Salt, Water, Dextrose, Spices, Lactic Acid Starter Culture, Oleoresin of Paprika, Dehydrated Garlic, Sodium Nitrite, Bha, Bht, Citric Acid), Tomato Paste, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil (With Lecithin, Artificial Flavor, Beta Carotene), Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product (Mozzarella Cheese (Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes), Water, Casein, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Food Starch, Whey, Salt, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Sodium Phosphate, Lactic Acid, Natural Flavor, Sorbic Acid, (As A Preservative), Artificial Color), Contains less than 2% of: Dried Whey, Seasoning (Spices, Salt, Garlic Powder, Maltodextrin, Xanthan Gum, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil), Modified Food Starch, Dough Conditioners (Calcium Sulfate, Mono- and Diglycerides), Sugar, Dried Egg Yolks, Salt, Yeast, Dried Egg Whites. (Contains 8.5% Pepperoni).

As touched on in the last posting, we've traded off good, home-cooked meals for convenience and we've paid a mighty big price in terms of our health.  I'm not a doctor and don't pretend to be one on TV, but a recent article I read What really causes heart illness? explores some of the things we've been told by doctors that have been flat-out wrong.  Doctors linked heart disease with high cholesterol and then prescribed medicines to lower blood cholesterol and put us on diets to restrict our fat intake.

Ingredient List: Raw Milk

From the article:

These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.

The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.

Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before.

Ingredient List: Carrots

Dr. Dwight Lundell goes on to say that cholesterol accumulates in the arteries because of inflammation. Inflammation traps the cholesterol and doesn't allow it to flow freely.  Inflammation is a normal reaction that the body uses to protect itself, but if we constantly expose our bodies to toxins or foods that we can't process, then chronic inflammation occurs.  Following the recommended diet low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates causes this chronic inflammation which leads to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and obesity.  

Ingredient list: Potatoes, Real Butter, Rosemary, Kosher salt, Cracked Pepper

So what causes chronic inflammation in plain English?:

Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.

The more we eat processed foods, the more we are poisoning our bodies.  There is but one solution: Returning to eating foods close to their natural state like your grandma and grandpa probably ate.  Eat fresh and unprocessed foods whenever you can. You'll make the pharmaceutical industry and the food manufacturers unhappy, but your body will thank you.

Ingredient list: Peas

If you can't grow your own food, get to your local Farmer's Market or get to know a local farmer.  We're passionate about the food we grow because it is GOOD and GOOD FOR YOU!