Monday, February 13, 2012

An Experiment in Eating

I've been doing a lot of thinking about diet lately. This summer, when the flood kept Duane from working any overtime, our grocery budget shrank to about $300 per month for our family of 7. I became very creative with rice and beans, followed a strict menu, and made sure that nothing went to waste. It was great experience, and I learned a lot from it. When Silas was born, one of our Mennonite neighbors gave us a copy of Rachel Weaver's Be Your Own "Doctor" as a baby gift. It got me thinking about living a more natural life, not only through the use of herbal medicines, but also in our diet. About two months ago, Duane decided to start following a low-carb diet again. As I searched for recipes that he could eat, and the rest of us would also enjoy, I kept running into whole foods sites, and gluten-free recipes. I've been wondering for some time why so many people are being diagnosed with celiac disease, or gluten sensitivities. Is it caused by changes to wheat that we've engineered in the plant itself, the processing it goes through that removes all nutrition, or have we just finally developed a name for a range of symptoms that always existed but wasn't understood? I have many Facebook friends who strive to maintain a healthy, organic diet, and share articles and experiences. Finally, I began reading a book called Why Christians Get Sick by George H. Malkus. He discusses the extreme processing that most of the food at the grocery store goes through, among other things.

So, with all of these ideas fomenting in my brain, I have decided to try an experiment. For the next two weeks, (excluding Sundays, when it's too difficult to control what we eat at lunch) our family diet will be free from refined sugar and gluten. After that, we will be switching to whole wheat and other grains, and soaking our grains before use. I hope to eventually buy a grain mill to grind our own grains, but the one I have my eye on is about $450, so it may be a while until I can save enough to get it.

Our first meal went well. Normally, we would have waffles with lots of syrup, malt-o-meal with butter and syrup, or oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon sugar for breakfast, but this morning, we made polenta with bananas and honey. The kids didn't love it, but it was "ok," and I think they'll appreciate it more as we have it more often. They are often slow to warm up to new foods. For lunch, we'll have chicken and rice, and meatloaf for supper, both favorites of the kids.