While most people are gearing up to start getting rid of excess weight with the new year approaching I am going to be focusing more on the health of my entire family. I have vigilantly kept out processed sugar, processed salt and white, wheat flour and regular, non-pastured meats from our kitchen but even then I have noticed that my family still deals with seasonal illness and healthy people don't get sick. So I started reading and researching, looking for what our diet was missing. What I am discovering though is it is not so much what I am missing as what I am letting in. It is in almost everything that is prepared and pre-made, say hello to vegetable oils.
What is so bad about vegetable oils? Aren't they healthy for you? Let's take a look.
Vegetable oils from corn, soy, cottonseed, canola, safflower and sunflower seeds contain fragile polyunsaturated fatty acids that are heavily damaged by high temperature processing. The result is a product loaded with free radicals, the toxic breakdown products of processed oils, which can cause cancer, depress the immune system and impair growth.* Yikes! Well I think I may have found our problem, because it in everything store made from hummus to organic breakfast bars, things we eat regularly. What is even more worrisome is that these oils are processed with petroleum(think gasoline/kerosene) and then more chemicals are added after that and finally they have to deodorize it because the smell of chemicals and rancid oil is too repulsive. Convenience food, even the "healthy" ones, are tainted with these toxic, rancid oils. The more and more I find out the more I realize I just have to plan ahead and make all of our food, because then I know exactly what I am putting into my family and I can use traditional, healthy oils that are properly exacted and prepared.
My change this year is I am going to be replacing my rancid vegetable oils for the healthy options like grass-fed butter, coconut oil, pure extra virgin olive oil(although you will not want to use this for high heat cooking as it will become toxic like the other vegetable oils) ghee, and grass-fed lard. If any of you have been around my son recently you will know how much he adores butter. It is one of the few words he can say! This is going to mean more planning for me and less just winging it at the grocery store but I am looking for the long term benefits of health.
My other change for this year is I am going to seek out an buy only organic and hopefully grass fed dairy options for our meals. This should not be too much of a change as the only thing we use regularly that is not grass-fed and organic is cheese. I am happy to say we have found a local source and I am looking forward to using it in my meals!
With more people filling our home we have increasingly less and less room, but I have a full home and a full heart, something I wouldn't trade for anything. I want more than anything to give those precious little people a healthy start to their lives, that is why I am currently reading a wonderful book titled *Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care. I am learning so much and I hope to implement much of what I am learning into my diet and my family's diet.
If you are looking to improve your health by using the wisdom of healthy cultures from around the world then I would also highly recommend Nourishing Traditions I use my copy all the time! Loaded with information and recipes it is an invaluable resource to help you in your journey to health. I encourage you if you are looking to make health changes in the coming year, purge out the things that are holding you back from living a life that is full and exuberant as the Lord would desire for us! May 2016 be a wonderful year for you!
The Farmer in the Dell
No comments:
Post a Comment