The Best Things in Life Are Free

So what exactly are the healthiest foods to eat? It is indeed a question on the mind of every health-conscious person out there. Most people would venture a guess pointing to pricey organic produce sold at the local health food store or the latest “superfood” product. No doubt, these are good foods to consume, though the most ideal foods for us do not come from a package or store shelf. They’re local, they’re abundant, and they’re free for the taking. I’m talking about WILD FOODS!

Food is all around us. It’s in your backyard, along the sides of city streets, in the forests and meadows, by the lake or stream, in a park, in the city, in the country, literally everywhere. Problem is, we’ve lost touch with our natural surroundings. With the advent of global importing and exporting, the modern supermarket, and agriculture, we’ve dismissed ourselves from the integral daily practice of our ancestors: hunting and gathering food. These historically essential survival skills have become unnecessary today as our modern-day societies, in the never ending pursuit of technological innovation, efficiency and “advancement”, push cheap, mass-produced, convenience food that is severely deficient in nutrition. Most of us have no clue where our food even comes from anymore. How crazy is that? Did you know that tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers have all been bred from a tiny, poisonous wild berry called the nightshade? Did you know that the carton of conventional milk you buy from the grocery store contains a mixture of hundreds of different cows’ milk, from all over the country? This is crucial information! We seriously need to reconnect with our food, and eating wild is the perfect prescription.

Wild food is our original food. It is the stuff we’ve been eating for thousands of years. A traditional aboriginal diet in southern Ontario consisted of such things as berries, herbs, roots, nuts, seeds, fungi, fish, insects, and wild game. This is indeed a very appropriate diet for us to follow today, though the typical modern diet is a far cry from such. Wild mammals, the base of the diet and the primary source of calories, provide essential fat soluble vitamins including vitamins A and D, along with iron, zinc, calcium, phosphorous, and vitamin B12. Saturated fat and cholesterol, Omega 3 fatty acids, and complete protein are abundant. In comparison to domesticated, factory-farmed animals, wild game is leaner, more densely mineralized, and free of growth hormones and antibiotics. Fish, along with the aforementioned nutrients present in game meat, provide essential long-chain omega 3 fats DHA and EPA.

Herbs such as dandelion, stinging nettle, wild lettuce, and watercress are abundant in our environment, and are far more nutritious and medicinal than any kind of salad green sold at the supermarket. Compared to say, spinach or kale, stinging nettle and dandelion greens have far more calcium, iron, protein, and trace minerals.

Berries are abundant in the summer months, including blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and serviceberries. And they will grow just about anywhere. A good place to look is at a park, along a path, or in your neighbour’s yard. Wild berries are an excellent fruit to consume, as they are low in sugar and contain high levels of vitamins and antioxidant compounds.

So where does one start? Though the task of gathering and foraging for your own food may seem daunting, like any other new endeavour, start small! Take a walk in a forest or around your neighbourhood and observe the plants and trees that inhabit the land. Pick up a wild edible food guide or go online and search for edible wild plants of your geographic location. Experiment with different plants and find what you enjoy. If you are seeking meat, make friends with honourable hunters, or better yet, learn the way of the hunt yourself! The more wild food we can include in our daily diets, the healthier we will be.

Eat local, eat wild! Because the best things in life are indeed free.

Cholesterol!

For the typical “health-conscious” individual, the word cholesterol has STEER CLEAR written all over it. From doctors to diet gurus, food packaging to TV advertisements, we are constantly being advised to keep our cholesterol levels low by avoiding the notoriously cholesterol-rich, saturated fatty foods such as eggs, red meat, and butter. After all, how could we not be concerned when claims issued by government health officials, food corporations, and pharmaceutical titans state that “high cholesterol is the primary cause of heart disease and atherosclerosis”? Is cholesterol really the deadly plague we’ve been taught to abolish? Let us take a closer look...

Perhaps it would be wise to begin by briefly breaking down this mysterious substance. Cholesterol is a steroid metabolite, in other words, a small molecule found in the cell membranes of all animals. It is an essential bodily component of life. Cholesterol is especially crucial for infants, as it is the chief material required for building a healthy brain and nervous system. Mother’s milk, in fact, is among the highest food sources of cholesterol, which is why it is so very important to receive breast milk as a baby. Among its primary roles in the body are the production of sex hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, synthesis of fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A and D, and manufacturer of bile acids which are essential for the digestion and absorption of dietary fats. Cholesterol is also required for the proper functioning of serotonin (the “bliss” chemical) receptors in the brain. Very low cholesterol levels have been linked to conditions including anxiety, aggressive behaviour, and depression. Our bodies are constantly producing cholesterol, and we would indeed be unable to survive without it.

Another key role of cholesterol that has been largely under-represented is as an antioxidant. Antioxidants are primarily responsible for reducing the body's levels of inflammation via "free radicals". If one's body becomes rampant with these free radicals, excess cholesterol is automatically synthesized to help counter the damage of oxidative stress, thereby elevating our total cholesterol level. High cholesterol in itself is not a problem, but rather a possible warning sign that the body is overloaded with free radicals and is in need of some help.

Throughout history, different cultures from all over the world have subsisted largely upon saturated fats and high-cholesterol foods, yet have somehow managed to escape the clutches of heart disease, cancer, and arteriosclerosis. The traditional Masai of Africa live on a diet comprised of milk, blood, and flesh, yet have a low rate of heart disease, as well as cholesterol levels averaging half that of the typical North American. In northern India, 17 times more animal fat is consumed than southern India, yet heart disease rates are 7 times lower (Fallon, Nourishing Traditions). Even the infamous Okinawans, renowned for their extreme longevity and plant-heavy diet, consume fairly high levels of cholesterol-rich animal fats.

From the scientific evidence-based standpoint, a famous study was conducted from 1983 to 1987, led by world renowned American cardiovascular surgeon Michael DeBakey. The purpose of the study was to take a closer look at just what causes arteriosclerosis. By 1987, DeBakey had concluded that there was indeed no link between high cholesterol levels and the rate of arteriosclerosis. Another study of his even deduced that smoking, high blood pressure, and a high fat diet are not the direct causes of arterial plaque.

Clearly, there’s been a misunderstanding. For how can diets fully loaded with cholesterol and saturated fat, produce such vibrant health and longevity? The answer lies in the SOURCE. As I’ve stressed in previous posts, it is the quality, the integrity, and the state of the food that truly determines its effects upon the body. Cholesterol is indeed, no different. When we consume saturated animal fats in their natural, unheated, unoxidized form, the fat-processing enzyme lipase is kept intact and is able to properly break down the fat into free fatty acids. When we ingest rancid or hydrogenated "trans fats" however, the lipase enzyme has been destroyed and these highly unstable fats first of all, cannot be properly broken down, and secondly, spawn a slew of free radicals. Some of the notorious offenders include margarine, vegetable oil, canola oil, pasteurized, homogenized milk, powdered eggs, and deep fried meats. These foods are the true culprits behind the massive free radical damage, arteriosclerosis, and heart disease pandemic we are facing today.

The verdict is in: cholesterol is not the enemy. Whole, natural, unprocessed animal fats are an important and healthful part of our diet. Cheap, modern rancid oils and high-heat, oxidizing, light-exposing processing methods on the contrary, have no place in the human diet. Treat yourself, EAT REAL FOOD!

Carnivorous Confusion Continues

To eat meat, or not to eat meat, that is the question! Well, for many of us this question has indeed crossed our minds at one point or another. With the increasing popularity of vegetarian diets in this day and age, along with the “red meat advisories” that we hear and see all too often, it’s gotta make one think, “Gee, is meat really all that healthy?”

Perhaps first and foremost, the distinction must be made between meats that are commonly consumed in Western society, those being the factory-farmed animals, versus the wild or grass-fed animals that were traditionally eaten. Just like any other food, it all comes down to QUALITY.

Supermarket meat comes from cows, pigs, chickens, and fish that have lived a very unnatural life. From the moment of birth, they become part of the “assembly line” if you will. They are confined to overcrowded rooms where they have little or no space to roam and develop their muscles as nature intended. They rarely, if ever, see the sunshine that is so essential to any animals’ proper development. Their natural foodstuffs of green grass, roots, seeds, and insects are replaced with soy pellets, corn, and refined grains, causing a very unnatural growth and increased bodyweight. To top it off, the animals are injected and fed antibiotics daily, required to keep them alive in their stagnant, excrement-filled pens. (For a more in depth look at factory farming check out the recently released documentary, “Food, Inc.”) Considering all of these factors, there is absolutely no way that such a meat product will promote health upon consumption.

Traditionally, meat was obtained from wild animals, or those that had been raised on farms and fed their natural diet. They were free to roam and graze under the sun, and got plenty of exercise in the process. And accordingly, they grew up healthy, strong, and disease-free. Grass-fed or wild meat is typically much leaner and lower in total fat. Their tissues contain much higher levels of Vitamin A, E, CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid – a very healthy, hard-to-get fat), and especially the Omega-3 fatty acids which are so crucial, yet so lacking in today’s standard diet. There is absolutely no question that a natural diet is required for an animal to produce a food of nutritional worth.

Another practice so common in industrialized societies is the exclusion of anything other than muscle meats. Much like the refining of wheat and sugar, stripping away different bits and pieces until we are left with an isolated product that is far inferior to its whole, we have narrowed the majority of our meat consumption down to select cuts of boneless, skinless, fat-free, muscle meat. Again, this is a very modern idea and was indeed, not practiced by our ancestors. In fact, muscle meats were often fed to the dogs, as they valued much more the concentrated nutrition found primarily in the organ meats. Funny to think that this practice has been completely reversed today, where we now feed these “meat scraps” to our pets. Native peoples were known for using the entire animal in their dietary, consuming the fat, organs, brain, eyes, tongue, hooves, blood, and bones. In doing so, they received a vastly superior nutritional profile. For example, healthy animal livers are a very concentrated source of protein, Vitamins A and B12, as well as iron, copper, folate, and zinc. Bone marrow is an excellent source of quality fat and minerals. Brains are one of the most nutritious of the organ meats, being an exceptionally rich source of DHA, an essential long-chain fatty acid that supports neurological health. Such foodstuffs make many of us squeamish, which is simply further evidence of how far we’ve strayed from the nutritional wisdom of our ancestors.

So here’s my advice: steer clear of factory-farmed supermarket meats, for they offer little nutrition at the cost of your health and vitality. Seek out grass-fed meats from local farms or markets, or better yet, find a source for wild game and fish. Broaden your horizons and experiment with other parts of the animal besides the muscle meat. Vegetarianism is not a requirement for great health, nor is the avoidance of red meat. It all comes down to QUALITY.

Pause Button

So it has indeed been a while since I posted. Got the next one just about done, though booked a last minute trip to Jamaica for a week. That being said, the next post shall be up in a week. Adios amigos

Carnivorous Confusion

Perhaps one of the most controversial topics in the nutrition world is whether or not we should be eating meat, and this controversy is for good reason, as there are so many different factors that affect whether meat should be, or shouldn’t be, consumed. For many, it comes down to a personal decision based upon moral and ethical values, and sympathy for the animals. Others have practiced vegetarianism for centuries as part of their religion, including many Buddhists and Hindus, or abstention from specific animal meat like pork in Judaism and Islam. And then there are those who believe that meat consumption is unnatural and unhealthy, for a variety of reasons. As there is no clear-cut answer to this “meat or no meat” question, let us take a look at this area in greater depth.

A common argument against meat-eating posits that humans, sharing our biological makeup very closely to that of vegetarian mammals such as chimpanzees and other primates, are natural herbivores. This argument, although fairly accurate, does have serious flaws. For example, chimpanzees and other large primates are not 100% plant and fruit eaters. Chimpanzees will occasionally hunt small rodents, monkeys, and wild pigs. As well, they consume insects that are naturally present on the leaves and fruits that they eat. Though this percentage of meat consumption is very small (roughly 3%), chimpanzees are NOT strict vegetarian creatures.

From a biblical perspective, there is the classic argument of the “Adam and Eve” diet in the Garden of Eden, consisting of “every seed-bearing fruit and herb” being man’s natural, intended diet. I do believe this would be our ideal diet; that is if we still lived in the Garden of Eden. Twas a “paradisiacal diet for a paradisiacal place”, if you will. Unfortunately, we no longer live in such a place, and accordingly, we cannot continue to thrive on this diet.

Throughout history, man had to survive on whatever foods were abundant and available within his ecosystem, and of all the places in the world, very few have subsisted without the inclusion of meat in his diet. Regions of India are an exception, and this is due to religious abstentions. Depending on the location, the percentage of meat in the diet varied drastically, as did the animals that were consumed. Eskimos of northern Canada have traditionally lived on a diet comprised almost solely of seafood, including seals, whales, and fish. In such a barren, frozen land where very little edible plant foods grows, it would be impossible for these people to live and thrive without meat. On the other side of the world, in the Fiji Islands, fruits and herbs grow abundantly. The climate provides fresh and readily available plant foods all year round. However, the islanders realized the importance of animal foods in the diet for those hard-to-get vitamins and minerals that plant foods lacked, and consumed quantities of fresh seafood including crabs and fish. These are just two examples of the thousands of different peoples and places of this world who have innately consumed animal flesh as part of their traditional dietary.

In this day and age, industrialized civilizations need no longer follow their “traditional diets”. The world of foods is at our fingertips. The advent of the supermarket, global importing/exporting, and modern-day food preservation technologies have allowed us to eat whatever we want, whenever we want. Here in southern Ontario, we can survive off of fruits and vegetables all winter long if we choose to do so. In generations past, this diet would be simply impossible. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not against the evolution of technology, but I do value the ancient wisdom that our ancestors have given us when it comes to natural foods for our specific ecosystems. Winter climates are unsuitable for a strict vegetarian diet. Not only are most plant foods unavailable during these cold, snowy months, but certain nutrients we require are missing too. For example, Vitamin D is plentifully supplied throughout much of the year by the sun. However, from around November to late March, daylight gets shorter, the sun’s rays are less potent, and we are generally not outdoors as much. Yes, our body can draw upon its reserved Vitamin D to carry us through a month or so, but then what? Well, long before synthetic Vitamin D tablets, we obtained this vital nutrient from animal organs and oily fish.

I feel as though I’ve taken off on a tangent, but the point I am trying to make is that a strict vegetarian diet is not our “natural” diet. It is virtually non-existent throughout history and is, in fact, a very recent dietary experiment that, in much of the world, is only possible because of modern-day technological advancements.

Ok, so next post I shall actually delve into what I was intending to delve into, some nutritional information concerning meat.