Earth is the Source of ALL Food and Medicine: Foundation 3
Because no one today gathers wild plants or hunts animals for all of their personal needs it is difficult for us even for those that are secure in the wilderness to realize the depth of knowledge acquired to live comfortably in aboriginal California. Indigenous plant and animal gathering was carried out under an intricate system that took into account life forms, species, plant properties, environmental site criteria, cultural use, and strategies of cultivation. When combined, the levels of ethnobiological knowledge become exceedingly complex. Only by following the daily routine of a Hupa fisherman, a Yokutis salt grass collector, a Yahi hunter or a Kumeyaay weaver we begin to fully appreciate the keen memory, knowledge of reproductive biology, attention to environmental cues and mimicking of animal behavioral that was practiced by harvesters to live directly from the land. Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources. by M. Kat Anderson
Everything we ingest into our body, including the products we use to nourish and cleanse the skin, provides one of 3 things to the functioning of our physical forms:
Vital Nutrients for growth, synthesis, and reproduction function in the body;
Medicine in order to assist with absorption and/or elimination of toxins and “food” properties that are not useful to the system;
Poison serves no purpose to the structural form and may cause numerous challenges when consumed in certain amounts. It may even be said to be poisonous to the system like cigarettes, alcohol, sugar and the chemicals used in processed and packaged foods, and those used in the processing of animal “foods”
When a “food” has been through a process that is intended for monetary gain; when its impact on the earth outweighs the nutritional value it has on our bodies; when it may in fact be a contributing factor in the ever increasing “food” related disease epidemic, then can we still consider it “food”? At this point, we can say that it is no longer food but rather a poison debilitating our health and overall wellness. Evidence to support this notion is indicated by the staggering increase in numerous health related diseases including physical, mental, psychological & ultimately spiritual–furthermore, this increase is directly correlated to the increase of mass produced, chemicalized, processed, packaged and transported “food” products.
In other words when the intention of the producers of that food product is to make money, then we can almost be ensured that the nutritional value has been greatly comprised. Our food sources were intended to work in symbiotic relationship with our natural form, with the elementals, nourishing our physical body for optimal functionality.
The only real answer to this dilemma is to return to traditional and traditional like foods, ultimately to decolonize our foods in the deepest most complex sense of this consciousness. We are all now responsible for figuring out how we do this in the unnatural Westernized linear monetized structure that we live in.
Wellness starts in the kitchen!
The very fact that we need to nourish our physical bodies to grow and maintain order within its systems, provides adequate evidence to support the concept that Food Is Medicine. And given all considerations for life stage, style, culture, and environment, everyone must eat. Except perhaps those very few individuals who have adopted a lifestyle and way of understanding where they do not eat food, or they eat very little as with breatharians. However, for most of us who live in industrialized countries, we have been conditioned, primarily through oppressive circumstances, to adopt prescribed practices for food consumption.
Advocates for healthy lifestyles conclude that home cooked meals are much healthier, however, US trends in food consumption indicate that more people are eating out thus, the quality of the food, its contents, sources, salt & sugar additives, is often unknown to the consumer.
Lisa Personal Reflection When I first started my Food as Medicine journey I was living in between numerous places, and mostly in my vehicle. I left my position at the university, packed my vehicle and went from the campground, to friends and family homes for short visits. I was invested in my health and needed to simplify and prioritize my life. I carried my kitchen in the trunk of my 1997 Crown Victoria. It was complete with a vita-mix, a large cutting board, and a culinary statues chopping knife. When I would visit my youngest daughter who was in her early 20’s and living on pizza and beer with her friends. I would open the trunk of my vic and whip up a healthy treat, or a complete healthy meal. It gave me great pleasure to pull up to my oldest daughter and son’s off-grid homestead in the forest, and my grandsons would come running to my car to see what delicious delights I had with me. I lived this way for about 8 years, give or take a few very short settled stints, just to pack up and go again. I had to get good at planning ahead, because I could not carry too many fresh things without them going bad and I did not want to succumb to going out all the time. I loved exploring new places and new food co-ops. I made a regular trek covering the entire Southwest and beyond. I hung out with my daughter and her herbalist friends who made a lifestyle of living off the land and knew about wild plant food and medicines. I engaged my own hands-on research and perfected the art of cooking on the road. I would have to conclude that I learned how to prepare truly nutritious food (home cooked) food while living in my vehicle. I never quite kicked the coffee shop habit, especially when the pastries were decadent and I needed to get a lot of work done on my computer. I suppose we all have a vice. I organized my stops around local food coops and campgrounds. Since I was not paying rent or all that goes with maintaining a home, I ensured that I had a delicious food offering everywhere I went. My friends and family were excited when I visited because this meant they would get the recent superfood delight I was into; shakes, juices; all organic; and all with so much love, superfood mania it was. I had no intention of living this way, it just happened and I found myself completely content. Now that I have a home of my own, I still travel a lot, I continue to take my food on the road when I go. This has been a long journey and many lessons about cooking, but at the end of the day, the food that I make is far more nutritious than anything I can get at a restaurant-well, most restaurants anyway. I have found some amazing organic food spots in my travels. Now I always organize my travels around where and what I will eat–-packing my food to ensure the highest quality snacks. After many years of traveling and studying plants on the run with amazing herbalists, teachers and friends, I am now being more intentional on my solo trips, stopping to harvest horsetail, nettles, megall, trying to make mineralizing teas to keep myself hydrated and connected with the wild plants around me.
Ana Personal Reflection Lisa is got it down when it comes to traveling and eating really well! In the photo above, we are sitting in the back of Lisa’s truck eating tamales my mom made after my wedding ceremony. Lisa became known for always having yummy organic treats in the back of her car! She could whip up a meal in a flash right from the back of whatever vehicle she happened to be driving at the time. One of the biggest lessons I have learned from watching Lisa all these years, is that it really does take a concerted commitment and effort to make the right choices (beyond continuous education & increased awareness) the sustainable choices, the ones that communicate to our body that we love it! Plus, once we start eating really well for a period of time, even in a few days, you start to feel really good, happy, energized. Beyond that, when our digestion, Agni, is strong and able to eliminate toxins and absorb nutrients in the proper way, we feel so great! I started to really think about, how much I love my body? It was a direct reflection of the food choices I was making, because why would I intentionally put things in my body, that would cause me harm? We love our bodies so much that we would not put poison into it, not intentionally, right? We realize and learn what poisons we can begin to eliminate from our body, and choose foods that will support not only detoxing from poisons we have already been ingesting, but nourishing our bodies to function optimally with the right foods at the right times. It doesn’t mean that we have to be perfect all the time. There are spaces where I just might not be able to access organic foods or even local farms, so what do I do? I get the best that I can find and wash it really well and pray over it! We would not expect poison to run our body properly right? Our body begins to respond to poison in a very visceral way. For me, it was reacting to gluten & dairy—feeling bloated, anxious, tired, frustrated, irritated, uncomfortable, gassy…inflamed, really unpleasant way to be for a long period of time. My sensitivities were guiding my way to finding the best foods for my body. Saying No when someone offers me food is still such a big challenge. Being trained in the idea that saying no to someone is disrespectful, there’s still a part of me that wants to appease these customs. But when it comes down to what I really believe in, and what I truly know is good for my body, saying No, is a necessity–choosing Yes for our Body, and saying No to pesticides, GMO corn, toxins (as many as can), the preservatives of overprocessed and overpackaged foods. There’s still ingredients that sneak into my body that are not that good for me. So then I ask myself, can I add more good things in? What are the really good things that I can take to support my body? How long does it take me to get back on engaging my life practices that help me feel really well in my body. This is my life journey and every day I seek to learn more and do better, loving my body to health and well-being and giving myself space to be human at the same time. I am in it for the long haul and I really want to be vital as I age.
Eat Mainly Whole Foods, Mostly Fresh Vegetables in Season.
Eat mostly whole foods or at least foods that are minimally processed with few ingredients. It is additionally important to note that no fortification of vitamin content into processed food can come close to that which is obtained through conscious whole food selections. Nor will “vitamins” provide what is missing in the long run. Vitamins may be helpful, and even necessary where certain deficiencies have surfaced, they should always be looked at as a treatment, and not as a solution. It is always best to ask ourselves, is there a food choice that would fulfill the need? Oftentimes the foods we eat are the culprit behind the physical challenges we have, and we may need to consider cutting them out or drastically decreasing the amount we consume. Certainty, the answer to that question includes compounded issues of education, access and resources.
In our long conversations about food, we are often talk about how astonishing it is that seemingly “whole foods” have high fructose corn syrup and canola oil in them–2 very toxic substances. Even “organic dried berries” in the bulk section may be soaked in high fructose corn syrup. Canola oil among many other oils goes rancid quickly (do your research! Healing with Whole Foods goes into more depth on rancid oils, rancid seeds, rancid nuts and rancid grains). The entire production process from beginning to end has the potential to create rancid oils in these food products. Canola oil in particular is one of the highest in saturated fats and rapidly rancidifies. Many of my favorite crunchy chips contain seed oils in the ingredients and it took a while for me to actually be able to taste the rancid oils! It is so disappointing! There is an actual grieving process I started to go through with even the thought of having to let go of my favorite healthy treats. I can now actually taste the rancidity in every bite, and I have to say, I stop taking more bites once I taste that rancid oil.
I get to decide then, am I really going to keep putting rancid oils into my body? Really? As I think about what that must be doing to my digestive system and circulatory system and brain function, & cellular function, it begins to be less and less appealing. Especially as I consider all the other toxins we are daily exposed to that I may not have control over. Imagine having a weak digestive system and putting volumes of rancid oils, nuts and seeds into it. The fact that I am actually putting more toxins into my body with my so-called Organic healthy dressing (which by the way has expeller-pressed Canola oil as the first ingredient), it’s been challenging to really accept. Marketing is such a powerful tool and the education we must go through to retrain ourselves is undoubtedly overwhelming. I will remind us all that we are all in this journey together and we are all at different stages and phases of this journey.
Every day I get better and better. Every day I make better choices for my body. Every day I learn new ways to apply myself and support my body for sustainable and vital functioning.
Consider adopting some standards of processed food selection. We all must decide for ourselves, how deep into the Food as Medicine journeys we want to go. Mostly, I try to stay with whole foods, but I do admire those who are strict whole food only eaters and I aspire to that standard.
The following are some standards that I have (mostly) adopted in selecting processed foods.
No More Than 4-5 Ingredients More over, if you do not recognize the ingredient, don't purchase it. Most labels have long lists of ingredients that don’t tell us anything, for example if it has “Natural Flavoring” it’s not natural, its actually a chemical–in fact we are not really sure what it is, or how the product industry gets away with that (perhaps profit has something to do with it).
No More than .05 Salt Content Per Serving (Recommended by Mark Hyman in Food: What the Heck do I eat) refined table salt-no) –this eliminates the majority of processed foods and almost all canned food. Salts are necessary for vital functioning so choose your salts wisely-Himalayan Salt, Black Salt is preferred. We are now finding trace particles of plastic in Sea Salt. Follow up with your research regarding salt consumption and types of salts available.
Always Choose Organic I can still hear my (Lisa) daughter's voice as we walk the aisles of the food co-ops. “Mom, read the label! If it doesn’t say organic, it’s not!” This standard also narrowed down my food selections. And today, words like “organic”, “freerange”, “humanely treated” are buzz words in the sales industry. Ideally, you know where the food came from, how it was grown & harvested and whether or not it was treated with pesticides.
Know Your Food Sources & Read your Labels
Be conscious of where your food is sourced. Especially with animal products. Many of the common companies utilize inhumane methods that may in fact be causing physical, environmental, and even psychological challenges for those who consume them, not to mention the trauma caused to the animals who provide them. Mass food production is focused on selling a product, they fund research that promotes limited information in the forms of new breakthroughs in science to promote their product.
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
Lisa’s Personal Reflection Where I (Lisa) grew up-on an Indian reservation, we were grateful to have commodity foods handed out to us each month. US Indian Reservations are prime examples on a microcosmic level what the end result of mass/processed/packaged food consumption looks like. How were we to know that the canned meats, cheeses, and vegetables were heavily laden with chemical preserves and high fructose corn syrup. The creator has always provided what we need, through nature, and now people who once roamed free, living on the land, are laden with numerous health issues. We now see what we did not know then. The government food program certainly allowed us to sustain our bodies, but the program was not designed to nourish our bodies in a sustainable way in harmony with the land. After centuries of Westernized mass food consumption (e.g. restaurant foods, processed foods) pharmaceutical addictions, and fast paced lifestyles that we need to pause; turn back to Indigenous Wisdom, sit with the natural order and rhythm of life, and sink deep into determining how we will proceed into the future in a way that promotes wellness to our bodies and to Mother Earth.
We are all Indigenous and it is time that we all step up and live in a way that respects the Earth.
We now know that the majority of the diseases suffered by Native Indian people today could effectively be alleviated through an Indigenous or Indigenous like diet, in other words, a diet that better resembles that of our ancestors. A time when the communities nutritional needs were met through the natural cycles of seasons; the rain; the sun; and the moon cycles. In fact, Food Sovereignty is fast becoming the new intervention for addressing the numerous health issues that plague Native communities. Leading this cause is the Nations Development Institute (First Nations) and the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin (Oneida) for co-hosting multiple national Food Sovereignty Summits that promote the building of healthy food systems within Native American communities.
I see this type of information sharing as the wave of the future for Native and Indigenous people who are seeking to address the issues that have been created through Westernized food systems and medicines. I also see this work as extremely important on an individual level, whether or not your intentions are to jump on the “CHANGE THE FOOD SYSTEMS” bandwagon or simply to get a hold of your own challenges surrounding food to be the best you you can be.
Ana’s Personal Reflection
It’s been a long journey from experiencing my initial gluten and dairy sensitivity in 2009 and learning all about what the sensitivity meant in my body, to what I have learned up until now on food is medicine. There are so many food habits that I really can’t justify continuing anymore. I recall Lisa’s daughter sharing all that she was learning on rancid oils years ago, and I just wanted to ignore her and ignore the facts, close my ears and hummm…lalalalala… Just stop telling me because I can’t make any more changes right now and I don’t want to know what other food I am not allowed to have anymore. Ultimately, it meant I would have to change more of my diet and I could not bare changing that much. It was too hard to change and I couldn’t fathom restricting my diet further when I had already been forced to eliminate cheese and breads. Every Mexican dish that has ever been served (almost, but not ALL) includes a corn tortilla and queso or crema. Giving up cheese was the most difficult thing at the beginning of my food sensitivities. Its now been years since then and my digestion has improved, my habits have improved, I am more familiar with how much of something I can eat, and I don’t necessarily restrict myself to foods if I really want to have it. Sometimes I eat it, knowing the consequences will be coming, and others I just say not today. I find it hard to resist my mom’s home made cheese enchiladas, they are just delicious! I no longer have the same reactions to gluten and dairy and I can consume it in small amounts—but after my last 7 day juice cleanse, I noticed I had a reaction to corn tortillas—and I realized it was the GMO corn. My body speaks to me, how well do I listen? What will I change? Every day we get to make choices for our highest physical expression and overall wellness.
Reflection: What are your thoughts so far on your food is medicine journey now? What are you thinking now? How is this vibin’ for you? What are your thoughts about applying these concepts for your life? How are you feeling? Resonating, yes, no?
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Reflection: What is in your Kitchen? How often do you cook at home? Describe your kitchen and the time you spend in it, and any other thoughts you have around cooking your own food.
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Activity & Reflection: Find your favorite packaged foods in your own kitchen! Read the labels, look up the ingredients, reflect on what you found!
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