Bisonlike drawing red…© Susan G. Holland
A NEW ADVENTURE IN EATING….STAY POSTED!
Deerlike drawing
Mama stubborn, Daughter persistent, Igluk to the rescue.
Stay posted… Mama moving from modern to primal… feeling like Jane.
My past several weeks have been spent in a sort of gastronomical time warp. After resisting, questioning, and criticizing the seemingly whacky diet my daughter has been touting, (and she has become so very thin and model-like and her husband has become so trim and un-diabetic looking) and having told my daughter “Enough!”, and having my daughter look crestfallen and sad, saying “Ok, but I’m giving you gold, and you’re trashing it, Mom,” ….after all that angst I did some research, including the all-important checking with my doctor.
Well, two doctors, actually. The first one who has been a lovely person to me, but not at all proactive about finding out what’s the matter with me, waved off the concept, told me to eat anything I wanted, and that I was fine because I was not fat.
The NEW doctor is, indeed proactive, quite well-spoken of in the medical community, and supportive of the paleo/primal diet idea! She said what I had been trying to find out for sure, i.e., “it’s a legitimate diet and may be a real help to you.”
SO! Out goes bread and toast and peanut butter. Out goes sugar in my coffee and syrup on my waffles. Out go the waffles!
The idea is that Igluk did not find farmers cultivating grain or growing legumes, nor did he find manufacturers crystallizing sugar from beets or cane. He did pick berries, and leaves, and fruit, however, and he did hunt and eat animals. He found roots and tubers and ate them. And he worked hard to find his food and to keep warm. So did his wife. (Jane, maybe?)
So instead of dousing our systems with carbohydrates — sugars and starches — we are now going to eat primal food only. This will teach our bodies to draw on the fats and proteins and fiber and nutrients of earthy, basic, primal edibles for the energy it needs. And to quit drawing on sugars and starches. You stop sugars and starches (yes, pasta, pizza, pie) and start on things you have resisted for health’s sake for years and years and years. BACON! EGGS! Cheese! Butter! Steak! And some things you avoided for years for your own preference’s sake, like liver, cabbage and collards, and turnips. The one potato you can munch on is sweet potato..it’s a tuber, so that’s okay.
Well, there are other frills, like not eating anything but raw milk products, and not eating beans! (the musical fruit, we call them.)
I’m not going that far– my milk will come from the supermarket. Tarzan discover fire; Jane heat raw milk over fire, get pasteurization. Jane believe pasteurization good. But my much loved cheeses often come from raw milk — and even caves in Switzerland!(** see addendum) That is so wonderful to be able to eat them and feel virtuous!
No colas, and no orange juices– full of the wrong things to swig down. NOT JUICE? Nope, too much sugar to introduce. Eat fruit sparingly, like I used to eat cheese. Hmm.
As I type I am sipping on a soup I made that turned out so surprisingly delicious I have my housemate craving it. Sweet potatoes, onions, chicken, a bit of dandelion broth!!!!, some tomato sauce, lots of chicken broth, a bit of white wine, and even a few sections of tangerine! Spices to make it savory and a bit of lemon juice. I top it with a lovely sauce of thin sliced cucumbers in plain yoghurt with a LOT of dill weed and some scallion rings. It is absolutely yummy.
Not everything I have made is yummy. The dandelion broth, for instance. I had to add some maple syrup (straight from the tree) to it and freeze it to debitter it some. But the stuff is great for adding in small amounts to give character to a meat dish, and the dandelion turns out to be a fantastically nourishing green. Maybe I should go into selling fresh dandelion greens and roots? I’ve got plenty to share in the convenient patch outside our house that used to be lawn.
Yes, I have apparently lost four pounds…and I notice it gone from the spots that seems too pudgy to me. My belly and waist are noting the difference, though I was not aiming to lose weight.
I was sick this winter…really. I couldn’t seem to get better. Now I am actually getting better! I actually am not sleeping all day and getting short of breath and feeling light headed and getting every ailment that comes along. I can do work again! I can think about filling orders for art objects again.
Is it all the diet? Yes, I do think that has made a huge change. Like my new doc said it would. She said not to bother worrying about LDL and other such chronic worries; that it would all align properly once my body got used to the new regimen.
Am I happy? So far, I am surprised and surprisingly happy! I am pleased to tell my daughter that she was right on. She is smiling a lot, and sharing recipes. She out-stubborned me, and got me to try it. Imagine!
Old Swimmer (Jane)
** Addendum: Imagine my delight when I discovered THIS TREASURE while looking for a really good gruyère to put in a home made French Onion Soup! It was in my lone grocery in a remote town along the Olympics side of the Hood Canal! Who would have thought? Well, it was ten dollars a pound, but it’s so very very very yummy.
On my cave-aged gruyère cheese find: CLICK
Weightless in Water 