"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

I am experiencing a renaissance of interest in being outside this summer, which has led to number of changes in (or the addition of one) philosophy.

This year, now that we have a yard, I want to make it sing. It's a great space, and it's slowly becoming what I want it to be. At the heart of it is a garden of a few vegetables, one whole bed of tomatoes, and another of only herbs just outside the kitchen window. I feel fortunate that I have been able to eat several side dishes of my lettuce and my swiss chard already this summer. The benefits of working in the yard are limitless in my mind- I am getting both physical and mental exercise, which helps my depression and anxiety, to be sure.

Gardening has led to reading books about gardening and food, notably Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (AVM) by Barbara Kingsolver, In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan (from which the title of this post comes), and another one by him called Second Nature: A Gardener's Education.

AVM is a book about Kingsolver's family- they all commit to a year of eating what they could produce on their farm, or what they could get within 100 miles of their home. It's impressive enough to say that, and more impressive to note that she has a 19 year old and a 9 year old who also jump on the bandwagon. Her family does it too, and doesn't seem to miss their old life- too much. Her husband and daughters also participate in the writing of the book, expressing thoughts on some of the peripheral issues that tend to come up in discussions like these: CSAs, humane treatment of animals raised for food, and simple recipes using local ingredients. Even though Kingsolver is on a farm, her book made me feel that becoming a locavore (someone who eats foods only grown/produced within 100 miles of my home) is possible.

Michael Pollan is teaching me to see food in ways I never have- as little complex organisms that contain what we need to eat AS THEY APPEAR IN NATURE. This is different from other takes on food that insist we need to get this nutrient or that nutrient. Pollan's contention is pretty interesting: in processing food to insert a boost of or a dose of any given nutrient, we have lost the nutritional benefits of the food as a whole. This in turn is causing more disease, obesity, and general health problems. His mantra: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." encourages us to embrace food as it originally came to us, and perhaps we can sidestep the nutrition "issues" that our society focuses on, and concentrate on the benefits of unprocessed, naturally healthy food. In fact, one of his suggestions is to avoid foods that your great, great grandmother wouldn't recognize.

Here's the "so what": I have decided to do this, along with my husband, as a daily thing. We are eating down the contents of our pantry, fridge and freezer to get rid of anything processed. We joined a CSA to get local produce, and we are buying our meat from local farmers at the Farmer's Market. We pick up anything we don't get from our CSA at the Farmer's Market. I know now where to buy seeds so that I don't contribute to creepy corporations who are trying to monopolize cross-pollination (!).

Did I buy some potato chips and Cheez-It's the other day? Yep. Am I trying to stick to what's on hand? Absolutely. I don't pretend that I am not going to slip once in a while. But Kingsolver and Pollan have convinced me that making this committment is essential to my health, and helpful to our local farmers. We have made a decision to honor the little guy in all this by cooking and buying food that is as chemical-free as we can get. Hopefully, this will work- and we will turn out healthier in the process.