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Hot dogs and sausages are foods we are often told to avoid. The scraps of meat, organs, and fat of animals are ground, spiced, and formed into sausages and dogs.
But what if we looked at these meat options from a different perspective?
Traditionally, people used all of the animal:
muscle meat
organs (eaten whole or ground into sausage)
make bone broth for soup and then grind the bones into powder to fertilize the fields
use the hides for tanning leather, etc.
From NY Times Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/the-island-where-people-forget-to-die.html?_r=0
Photo by Andrea Frazzetta
The Greek man above has an amazing story of health, healing, longevity, and defying medical hexing. To read his incredible story of being diagnosed by US doctors with cancer and given 9 months to live and his story of unintended healing success, click this LINK.
Human with desire for vibrant health
Real food: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/whole-food-feeding-your-cells/
Garden and/or connection with amazing local farmers
Vibrant lifestyle habits in mind, body, & spirit
Update 2/28/21 Connection to a loving community
It is really this simple: feed the body real food; real food for body, mind, and spirit.
In a recent conversation with a client a comment was made to me when speaking about healing:
"People do not want to believe that food is the problem."
To which I replied:
"Food, real food, is not the problem. The problem is factory made food products brought to you by Nabisco, Kellogg, Post, Betty Crocker, Pepsico, Tyson, Kraft, Nestle... on and on the list of food product manufacturers goes.
Real food feeds body cells for vibrantly healthy regeneration. Food products detract from body cell health, depleting nutritional stores, and degenerating body cells contributing to degenerative diseases. (Degenerative diseases are a body composed of degenerative body cells.)
As a culture we observe the world and look to emulate those countries with a better health and longer longevity:
The French Paradox
The Okinawan diet
Mediterranean diet
Importing their culture's specific foods is not the answer. Cultures who stick to their traditional diets: food grown locally & naturally and then prepared through time honored home cooking methods are the cultures who thrive with vibrant health. No importation of foreign foods needed. Simply grow food, team up with neighbors to share the different foods you have grown and raise, and befriend local farmers who grow real food in time honored and sustainable ways... keep those farmers farming through purchasing their food and supporting their work in this world. Your health will soar, local food economy will soar, life will be vibrantly good. http://www.gardenshare.org/
Reverse these time honored practices and instead eat processed, packaged, factory made food products and your body cells suffer. To digest and get rid of these products (detox, methylate) your body must rob nutrients from your cells. Keep robbing from your cells and the cells degenerate further and further and degenerative diseases are now the norm.
Cultures who have always eaten their locally available and traditional foods create pregnancies with healthy babies who are developing with a firm foundation of healthy body cells. Feed those newborn infants (and their breastfeeding moms) real food and the baby's bodies develop with cellular health intact. Continue this good food, real food trend through the childhood and teen years and you grow up young adults with their cellular health intact. A lifetime of real food, whole food eating and you have a natural prescription, a recipe, for vibrant health and longevity.
The same feeding process for embryos, infants, teens, and all humans in general with processed, packaged food products and the reverse happens: cells degenerate and degenerative diseases are the norm.
Junk Vs. Real... Vibrant Vs. Degenerative Body Cells
Whole Health Lifestyle Choices create vibrant health & longevity, click to learn more.
Eating whole foods, real foods, the foods that are traditional to one's area of living and thriving on this planet is one key to healing personal (and global) health. I praise the cell enhancing and body healing benefits of a 100% whole food diet all the time.
I now want to introduce you to traditional movement, the act of simply moving your body in flexing and strengthening ways, the time honored ways people on this planet have always moved their bodies. This is moving the body in the simple acts of daily living tasks that involve using the body not auto door openers and mechanized, labor saving devices.
The farmers of Birdsfoot Farm, Canton, NY going about their daily tasks: moving, flexing, and strengthening their bodies all while creating something tangible... whole foods! Explore Birdsfoot Farm's website to see what they are up to and what they have to offer towards your healing plan!
We are a culture that simply needs to move more. Movement creates all sorts of healing effects in the body and creates an upward spiraling ripple effect to entice us to make other healing changes in our lives. When we move and then feel better... we naturally want to make even more changes to feel even "More Better!" (My kids used to use this grammatically incorrect more better making the term very endearing to me.)
We are told by the media, scientific sources, and all sorts of exercise specialists that we need to get our butts in gear, dramatically increase our heart rates for at least 20 minutes daily, lift weights to keep our muscles and bones strong, etc., etc., etc. I am not going to tell you to not engage in such activities if you are so inclined to do so. What I am going to tell you (if you are not one inclined towards hard core, butt hauling, sweat inducing, heart pumping, serious shit at the gym exercise...) is that simply getting up and moving your body, several times daily, has huge benefits for your whole body, and yes for your each and every beloved body cell!
As I grow older, I like to think common sense and wisdom is growing with me. I am one who has run miles daily (getting those miles in at 6 1/2 minutes or less was imperative), rode my bike for long and hard miles, lifted my body weight in all sorts of ways (bench presses, squats, lunges, etc.), and swam laps across rivers and lakes... I think you get the picture. In comes the wisdom (I am glad I did those things as I have always had too much energy that I needed to burn but my wisdom also tells me that some of it wore hard on my body parts)... all 4 of my grandparents lived to be just months shy of 89 years old. Not one of them ever did hard core, sweat inducing running, biking, weight lifting, swimming, etc. They simply worked hard in their tasks of daily living, moving their bodies constantly throughout the day to take care of farm animals, gardens, orchards, wood for winter fires, hay for winter feed, etc. Their exercise and weight lifting was part of life and survival from year to year.
Lifestyle Hints: walk away from the computers (Yup, me too) go for walks, even short ones, several times daily. Walk up the stairs to use your upstairs bathroom every time you need to go (Or do laps about the house, even outside, if you only have a down stairs bathroom). Drop and do some push-ups before peeing, drop and do some crunches or V-seats (boat pose) when you are finished on the pot. Stack wood (I have 4 more cords needing stacking if anyone is interested in assisting with some free movement, no gym membership fee required and I might even make you lunch!) Walk more, do work by hand instead of using machinery, i.e.: push that lawn mower instead of sitting on it (do push-ups and pull-ups before and after mowing), split wood by hand, hoe-rake-shovel-weed, do everything you need to by hand using those glorious muscles and save the drive, and membership fee, to the gym.
I am off now to do some muscle flexing-strengthening-balancing yoga, push-ups, and a walk in the woods with my dog. I will contemplate the wood stacking and lawn mowing!
Create some Movement Magic in your own life!
Sean Corn, Yoga Teacher. Image from Yoga Journal August 2015, page 23, Rainbow Light Nutritional Supplements ad.
This chilly, wet weather on June 28th has me looking for something to do in my oven. With a hankering for yummy granola and my local yogurt, the timing seems perfect to whip up a batch of...
Please feel free to assume that all ingredients are whole (unrefined), organic, non-GMO, pasture raised animal products, and as local as I can get.
I need a raise of hands here: If there was a patch of green grass in your front yard... how many people would be out there grazing?
I have cabin fever, local food fever, warm sun fever...
Here in Northern NY the winter has been brutal; longs weeks of very cold weather. It has been years since I have lived through week after week of below zero temperatures. Snow, we have had plenty of snow this year to boot.
By the end of March I am always eager for the green foods of Spring: (Spring IS capitalized here because right now, Spring is very important to me!)
To have some green nettles to chomp on, what a pleasure that would be.
It is but February 28th and I am crawling out of my skin for fresh food, food I can pluck off the vine or cut from the ground, food that is alive and vibrant with life force energy. I know it is a good two months before I am digging wild leeks. What is a girl to do when the root veggies, squash, and cabbage are no longer appealing to her? (Believe me; I am very grateful to my local farmers who work hard all season to keep me well stocked with these wonderful, winter storage veggies. I just need a break from winter; a bowl of freshness served up with sunshine.)
I am off to the Potsdam Food Coop this AM to buy organic produce
I will bring them home, park my butt in a sunny spot (it is gorgeous and sunny today, by 2 PM my front porch will have warmed to at least 50 degrees... this is like a tropical paradise to me!), and indulge in food grown far from my home. My thoughts will go to the people responsible for caring for the orange grove and the kiwi orchards (Do you call a Kiwi farm an orchard?) with love and gratitude for the work they do to grow, harvest, and pack these sun filled wonders to be delivered to my hands. Gratitude to the many hands the crates pass through and the people driving up the East Coast and across this big continent, through the nights, to bring these delectable non-local foods to my hands and belly. This infusion of packaged sunshine, vitamin C, and so many other amazing nutrients may just keep me humming along until my feet are bare with the green grass under them again.
Enjoy the sun today, wherever you are and remember the words of my youngest son when he was an 8 year old boy:
"If you lift the corner of the clouds the sun is always shining." Eli
This is a warning to you dandelions... I will be eating you!
Please share your secrets for surviving cabin fever, the need for non-local food, and the need for grass under your bare feet.
No, no, this article has nothing to do with sex, reproductive issues, and human fertility (well, not human egg and sperm fertility, per se).
Fertile fields at Birdsfoot Farm, Canton, NY
What are these two farmers sitting and squatting on?
Come on, guess....
It is soil. Fertile soil makes the world go round. Dirt is one of the earth's most precious resources, period.
How so you ask?
Read on my friend!
Fertile soil grows food that is intact, whole. I am always talking about how important it is to eat a 100% whole food diet. That whole food diet starts in whole soil; soil that is rich in nutrients and life, loamy, and fertile.
The fertility of the soil is the fertility of your body... and not just your reproductive fertility. Your body cells reproduce every day. Cellular health in reproducing vibrant, new cells is dependent on what feeds the parent cell. Read on for some soil and cell enhancing wisdom.
Soil is one of the foundations of all food, life, on this earth.
Healthy Soil = Healthy Food!
Soil + Sun + Water (and a seed or two!) = Food / Life!
Gratitude to: http://www.lappolis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Sun-Soil-Water.jpg
When we pay attention to soil, maybe that plot of garden where we grow herbs or veggies, we see a microcosm that is teeming with life. Healthy soil is a living, breathing, dynamic organism: sand, silt, clay, air, water, minerals and organic matter crawling with earthworms, moles, grubs, centipedes, millipedes, snails, slugs, beetles, ants, fungi, insect larvae, bacteria, mushrooms, and many other organisms and micro-organisms. The sum of the whole, all parts working in synergy, is a well-orchestrated symphony. Nature is truly poetry in motion and that very poetry is what contributes to the heath and wholesomeness of the food you eat.
Your food is only as healthy as the soil it grows in. Your animal based foods? Only as healthy as the soil supporting the plants that the animals are free-range grazing on.
Farmers who understand and live / work in harmony with this soil symphony are amazing people contributing to your whole health.
I have always loved dirt: playing in it, smelling it (dirt in your yard smells different than dirt in the woods...), smelling dirt after a warm summer rain. You know... when you go outside and all you smell is that damp, musky, wet dirt smell? That is a smell that always makes me smile.
Learn more about the dirt that grows your food.
Know your soil.
Know your farmer.
How does your farmer(s) interact with the soil they grow food in and on? Do they compost, rotate crops and animal in the fields, use cover crops to feed the soil... what are the soil nourishing habits your farmer uses to grow your food?
Rich soil, teeming with life and inorganic matter, grows food rich in vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, and anti-oxidants. Get into your dirt. Study the dirt that supports your health and life! Find a farmer who makes soil care a top priority. (Consumer demand for good farmers, real farmers, will create better food, better soil, and a better world!) Thank your farmer for caring for the soil.
Please, share your dirt loving stories below!
Looking for some interesting reading on Dirt? This is one of my favorite books. I read it when it first was published and it is a book I keep in my "loved" book collection.
The below kid's book on dirt was one of my favorites to read to my kids. Not sure they were so enamored with the life in our soil but I was!
Here are two questioning comments I hear often around changing the diet to a whole food and seasonally based one:
My root veggie picture,
inspiring me from the kitchen wall!
A list of winter storage vegetables available in Northern NY:
Farms and stores to purchase local (winter) vegetables in Northern NY: (I am certain this is not an all-inclusive list; investigate and find a farmer who grows good food near you!)
CSA Farms for Winter Veggies: (Again, not an all-inclusive list BUT to find more, go to www.gardenshare.com, Gardenshare's Local Food Guide and find a farmer near you who offers what you are looking for.)
OK, now for the cooking part. I am not going to put recipes here. I am more in favor of people learning to improvise in the kitchen: grab what you have and be creative based upon time honored methods of cooking and seasoning. Trust me, it is easy. Take a deep breath and just relax and let the cooking flow!
The above slaw is grated: red and green cabbage, celeriac, purple and orange carrots, and a Braeburn apple. The apple was so juicy I only added a bit of olive oil, a dash of cinnamon, and called it "dressed!"
