Book Reviews by Chris (my husband)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – A Year of Food Life

by Barbara Kingsolver

Serving local foods is the hottest trend in the restaurant world right now, but can you imagine having every ingredient in every meal you make come from within 100 miles of your home? The Kingsolver family was tired of their suburban life in Santa Fe and how they had lost touch with where their food came from. So they gave it all up, moved to their farm in Virginia, and embarked on a journey of eating local for an entire year.

In today's global world it is not an easy task to find foods raised so close to home. And you can pretty much forget foods raised in more tropical climates such as Bananas, Oranges and many other fruits. It also means eating seasonally – lots of greens in the spring, tons of zucchini and tomatoes in the summer, and apples and root vegetables in the fall. These limitations encourage you to be more creative with what you eat and to plan ahead and 'put food by' so you can eat it in the off-season.

A book with such a lofty goal could easily turn preachy and turn off a reader. But the joy the whole family takes in the endeavor and experiences they share keep the book very interesting. Besides the fact that upfront the family allows themselves each an exception, which they use on items such as spices and coffee (fair-trade of course!) making the goal more realistic.

Even if you don't have a desire to give up your current life and give it a go living off the land, there is a lot to learn from this book. The most obvious are the benefits of eating local sustainably raised foods. Not only do you help the community where you live and work, but you also reduce the energy consumed in growing and transporting your food. In addition to how much better tasting your food will be then the industrial agricultural products you see in the supermarket.

In our grocery stores you can basically get any food item all year round thanks to California and importation from overseas. But near your home each fruit or vegetable tends to have a pretty limited window. However when a food is in season you are rewarded with its abundance. Which means you need to find many different recipes for each and learns ways to store them for the off-season. A great perk of eating seasonally is how excited you are as each season comes up. Whether is asparagus in the early spring or Blackberries in summer, the taste of eating fresh after a long offseason is well worth the wait.

This book will give you a newfound respect for the food you eat and where it comes from. Read it then head out to your garden or your local farmers market and try your own local diet.

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Plenty – One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally

by Alisa Smith & J.B. Mackinnon

Alisa and J.B. were hosting company in their very remote house in Canada when they realized they didn't have enough food to cook a respectable meal for their guests. So they set out onto the land around their house to catch a fish, gather mushrooms and pick fruit from the abandoned orchard. They brought all this back, cooked it up and had the most enjoyable and memorable meal of their lives. Making such an incredible meal from food they had to scrounge up made them start to think about what must be missing from their normal meals to make this one so much better. When they returned to their apartment in the city, they did some more research on food and its sources. They learned about all the problems with most grocery store foods (it is less nutritious, more harmful for the environment and lacks taste) so they decided to embark on a voyage of eating all local foods for the next year.

Since the couple lives most of the year in an apartment, they didn't have the ability to raise much of their own food - they would have to buy it. The book follows their adventures in finding and meeting local farmers and learning what does and does not grow near them (you will be amazed to find out how difficult it was to locate wheat something that shows up in many things we eat). As they do their research they learn about the wonderful benefits that small variations can cause in each food, such as how what flowers bees feast on drastically changes the taste of their honey. Through their research they even decide to give up a long life of being vegetarians after they learn how different sustainable raised animals are treated than their industrially raised counterparts.

In the end, this book is interesting and an enjoyable read. However, I didn't find it as inspirational and interesting as the Kingsolver book that we also reviewed. Even though the concept of buying all food locally (as opposed to actually producing most of your own food) is more feasible for me and most readers, hearing the dynamics of how food is raised really helped the story come home for me. So definitely read this book, but start with Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Turkey Day

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching I began to think about the most talked about guest at the dinner table – The Turkey! It is estimated that 90% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving, totaling 45 million turkeys. There is so much time and energy that goes into the turkey postmortem, I wanted to take a look at the Turkey’s life before he gets Stuffed!

Most turkeys start out on a farm, if you could even call it that. They are subjected to live in cramped quarters without access to the outside world. Their living arrangements have taken on the name CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). In these cramped factories the birds have had their toes and beaks cut, so as to not injure their fellow roommates should a fight break out. The turkeys that fill our grocery store refrigerator bins have also been bred look appealing. Through selective breeding the turkeys we have all come to love, and eat, have more breast meat than their wild counterparts and are all white. Turkeys are bred to have white feathers so there are no dark spots left on the skin, which some consumers might see as unappealing. The Broad-Breasted Whites (BBW’s), the most prevalent commercially raised turkeys in the US, have been bred to have so much breast meat they often have trouble standing (due to their top-heaviness) and are unable to reproduce naturally. On a BBW approximately 70% is white meat. Compare that to a Heritage breed turkey, indigenous breeds recognized by the American Poultry Association, which has proportionally more dark meat then white.

Does that turkey sound a little less appetizing now? I’m not saying we should change this nearly 400 year tradition, but there are other alternatives. Stuff a chicken? Probably not, most of them are raised in similar conditions. I am talking about Heritage Breed turkeys. These are the turkeys you have probably always pictured in your mind -- dark feathers wandering around the farm. They are most often free-range and are fed or forage for organic food. Although they have a smaller breast it is usually more flavorful due to the extra layer of fat they have produced. The fat is what makes moist and tender when cooked. Heritage breeds build up this extra fat because they take longer to mature. BBW’s are ready for slaughter around 3 months of age, where the heritage breeds take more than double that amount of time.

These birds are a little more expensive but considering they actually have a taste and you can buy locally (in turn helping out a local farm) I think it is well worth the cost. You can buy these birds from some local farms.

What's In a Name

When I decided to start this blog I had a ton of ideas and topics whirling through my head. The toughest part seemed to be coming up with the name. I asked my husband if he had any ideas. He reminded me that it took him two weeks to name his dog back in elementary school -- I guess I was on my own here! I wanted a name that would encompass all that I wanted to share. I am really focusing on leading a healthy life and helping my family do the same but I also want to focus on all-around well-being. So that's how the "Healthy" part came about.

I have found that with all things in life, if something isn't achievable or poses too much of a challenge many people, including myself, seem to shy away. In the always on the go world that we live in people don't have the time or energy to make drastic changes. I like to think of the lifestyle changes I write about as merely adjustments. Nothing radical, nothing far-fetched, just ideas to hopefully help you make good decisions. If you know starting off that something is not going to work for you, then try taking bits and pieces that do fit. This is what lead to "Sustainable" part of my blog. I want these changes to last, to sustain, even when challenges present themselves.

I hope you can sustain the healthy lifestyle you want!

Organic: To Buy or Not to Buy?

Organic. That word seems to be everywhere these days. I guess that is a good thing, but it is definitely not a black and white issue when it comes to buying organic. There are many things to consider: price, environmental issues, effects on the human body, shelf life.



The first place I started was wikipedia. I wanted to find out just what Organic meant. Organic is a form of agriculture which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, plant growth regulators and livestock feed additives. This farming method is very beneficial to the environment, as it does not allow harmful chemicals to leech into the soil and ground water. However, it is not just the environment that benefits -- the consumers do so as well. If pesticides and chemicals are not used on fields then we are not ingesting them.



Often organic products can cost significantly more than their non-organic counterparts. In many instances it will cost you almost double to buy organic. So, until farmers find a way to grow money on tress, organically of course, you may not be able to go strictly organic. So, what should you do? In my opinion, there are definitely things that you should try and buy organic, and other products I would buy conventionally. My ideas are from a human consumption standpoint -- of course I would say buy all organic considering the benefits to the environment!

Food I would definitely buy Organic:
* Root Vegetables: not only are they getting the pesticides sprayed on them, but they are also absorbing the water and runoff that has the chemicals in it.
* Fruit with Edible Outside: these would be your apples, grapes, cherries and other fruit that has an edible outside. The chemicals are sprayed directly on them.
* Beef, Dairy & Poultry Products: not only are these fed organic foods but they are also not treated with any hormones or antibiotics. We consume a lot of dairy products (milk, cheese), beef and poultry products and studies have indicated there may be a link to antibacterial resistance in humans when they are treated.

Foods I would not necessarily buy Organic:
* Fruit with a Hard, Non-Edible Outer Coating: these would be your bananas, kiwi, mango, avocado, etc. The coverings on these foods actually act as a barrier when they are sprayed.

My A$$ Fell Off!!!

About six months ago I went on a wheat-free, gluten-free diet. This of course was not by choice! My son, who was breastfed at the time, was diagnosed with a wheat allergy. This meant he and I had to eliminate all wheat products. At first the task seemed a little daunting, but now I don't really mind. Do I miss some food? DEFINATELY! Have I learned to get by without them? Yep!

The hardest part for me was the planning. It seems that all of the quick, on-the-go foods contain wheat. So I had to plan what I was going to eat, when, and where. If I was going out shopping I might bring along an apple or some carrots. Apparently I get kind of grouchy when I don't eat, so this was very helpful!

Surprisingly, there are many alternatives out there for wheat and gluten-free products. I am still able to eat pasta (it just happens to be made out of rice). I can also have frosted flake cereal (they're just made out of corn). I can even have a homemade cake (it just leaves funny aftertaste due to the garbanzo bean flour).

For me there have been many positive aspects of going wheat-free. One of the most noticeable changes has been in my physical stature. I no longer have a BUTT! It's not just small, it is non-existent! Most people would see this as a big plus, but it would be nice to fill out my pants a little. Another bonus has been my increased level of energy, this is especially important since I have a one-year old to chase around! I feel energized and my complexion has also improved. By avoiding foods with gluten I have also increased my intake of fruits and veggies -- a benefit in and of itself!

So, if you would like to feel more energized, have clear, glowing skin, and could stand to lose a few pounds... try cutting out gluten! Don't worry, you can still have chocolate!

Why Am I Here?!?

Coming upon this Holiday season I felt a small void in my life. I needed a cause, an outlet. So here I am. I'm not sure if my purpose is to help others, or maybe myself - hopefully both! By no means am I a guru about healthy living and I am sure I will be learning a lot as I go. I'll be sure to post my new findings and discoveries!

Part of my quest has its roots in my son. Around 6-months of age he was diagnosed with a wheat allergy (which we hope he will soon outgrow) and I had to cut all wheat and gluten products out of my diet. Around this same time my husband was reading "The Omnivore's Dilenma". The two events seemed to coincide and in strange ways parallel each other.

For the past 20 or so years I was a consumer. I simply consumed what I ate without much thought. Sure, I tried to eat healthy and well-balanced meals, but I never really thought about food -- where it came from, how it was treated, its impact on the environment. But thanks to my husbands ravenous appetite for books I began to really think about food and all it entails.

So, I hope you enjoy the journey and you learn something along the way.