"Eclipse" Native Americans Need Weston Price Makeover!

For those of you who've visited me before, you may or may not have noticed my Edward Cullen quotes at the bottom of my blog:  This means I'm a Twilighter, as well as being a Real Foodie, and that I've, of course, seen the newest film, "Eclipse" (fours times, but who's counting).   "Eclipse" brought in some Queluete  (this is a Northern Pacific Native American tribe) tribes people from the past.  I'm sorry, but I just need to comment:

The Native Americans they showed from the 1700's--I believe that was the time period, judging from the clothing--had horrible teeth (all crooked and yellow), narrow faces (obviously aiding in the crooked teeth), and pock marked faces.  Native Americans of the past, before the advent of the white man's food, were described, in many accounts from travelers of those days, as being of strong stature, beautiful well-formed faces, and perfect white teeth; so beautiful were these people that the white people's description was one of utter awe in their meetings with Native Americans of the past.   They seemed to describe them as the ultimate in human example.

They ate all the foods that Weston A. Price discovered back in the 1930's:  Pastured animals, as they hunted in the wild, full fat meats (Native peoples threw away lean meat as unfit for human consumption), some fermented or soaked grains, and fish, where available.  Their physical appearance was one of magnificence because they ate a diet that produced the ultimate in healthy humans.

How did they know what to eat?  We know that information was passed down from generation to generation;  much like teaching life skills to the young:  Food education was of top priority to these folks due to their, obvious, cause and effect seen in their babies.  "We eat this because it makes healthy babies" was translated over and over from tribe to tribe all over the globe.

They listened to their instinct; they watched nature and other animals; they trusted in their knowledge and were rewarded for this vigilance:  Native Americans, like many other indigenous peoples, were free of many of the diseases that are rampant in today's society and had perfect teeth--no dental caries, no need for braces.

The producers of "Eclipse" were, assuredly, unaware of this very important detail:  They also were using today's Native Americans who, sadly, are just as mangled from modern foods as the rest of modern society.  Can you imagine what those original peoples looked like?  Can you imagine what we, ourselves, would look like, and feel like, if we had an original diet?

I'm not sure that feeding these healthy foods to my children today will produce those "perfect babies" of days-gone-by in one generation, but I know it's a beginning; I know that in a few generations we could be back to where we once were-- if only we would see the light and realize we could all use a Weston Price Makeover.

THANK HEAVEN FOR SACRED FOODS

Over the weekend, there was a Confirmation in our family.   The pastor at the service shared a fable about a farmer who wanted to save some money by feeding his donkey saw dust in place of his regular food.  The farmer increased his ratio of saw dust for food gradually, not noticing any ill effects to his donkey, until the rations were all sawdust.  When the donkey died, the farmer seemed perplexed with the cause of the donkey's demise, so the story went.

The pastor brought the moral down to being watchful of what one adds to their life--as in good food, good thoughts, good deeds, etc.; my husband, later sharing his view of the story, claimed the farmer was just a cheap business man who was so trying to keep all the profits, he killed the product; my thoughts hogtied the food issue, of course.  Isn't this what has happened in our food industry, I thought?  Isn't this why our food is full of ingredients we can't pronounce and devoid of any life-giving content?  And finally, has anyone taken any notice of this in this church, or anywhere, but me?

Sadly, I probably was the only one who even went to that issue when food was, in fact, the issue. Interesting to be in a place of worship when what we ingest was the topic.  Once upon a time, people all over the planet saw foods as SACRED.  Yes, sacred.  That's why there were so many ceremonies wrapped around them, why foods were usually involved in all ceremonies and festivities, and why many foods were called SACRED FOODS.

Weston A. Price traveled the world and found out what those sacred foods were--he even wrote a book about it.   If you haven't already, check it out on the bottom left.  Sally Fallon's, Nourishing Traditions (where I got my blog name idea), is a cookbook filled with many of those sacred foods.  Certain foods were thought to be sacred because indigenious people worshiped these foods by observing their blessed effects on the bodies of their children.  They noticed that with these sacred foods their babies were born healthy, had round faces with adequate room for all their teeth to come in (no need for braces--is that even heard of anymore?) and free of cavities, and robust health, both physical and emotional.

Imagine children with warm color in their cheeks, no circles under their eyes, beautiful smiles, happy dispositions, high intelligence, with no attention deficit problems or hyperactivity; children with round faces (not pointy chins, sadly, like myself and my children) with adult teeth that come in perfectly spaced, bright, pearly white, and immune to dental decay (even if you DIDN'T brush and floss); children that have perfect eyesight, great hearing with no ear infections, beautiful blemish-free skin, shiny hair, and strong, lean bodies  (without joining every sport offered).

This would be Heaven, but not Earth, you say.  This WAS Heaven on Earth before modern foods!  Please, please do yourself and your family a favor, and go to www.westonaprice.org and look at the beautiful specimens of that Heaven on Earth.  They were the Adams and Eves we thought only existed before Eve grabbed that apple.  The real evil was not knowledge, but walking away from our knowledge.  We humans had the intuitive instinct that guided us towards what to eat to keep ourselves healthy and happy; we followed these principles body and soul.  Sadly, today this knowledge seems obscured...coming around, but still quite under the radar.

This knowledge is slowly coming back into the mass consciousness, but marketing is still king, and our taste buds still rule.  As long as there are ingredients in modern foods that fool (and cheat) our taste buds, our bodies will still fall victim to the malefic effects of modern food.  Today, however, I was happily surprised to read an article on, drum roll please....kefir!  Perhaps there is still hope.

Native Americans believed that what we do today affects the next seven generations.  In fact, Seventh Generation, a green company, uses this slogan for their earth-friendly products.  Today's children can benefit, with some amazing results, from the sacred foods of our ancestors.  Perhaps the "heaven on Earth" will take a few more generations to attain the ideal we once lived; but if we can pass on one thing to the next generation,  let it be that what we put in our bodies must truly sustain us--in a sacred way.  We might even see a few more healthy donkeys.

The Cream Always Rises to the Top

There's been much to do about the movie, "Food, Inc.".  Leave it to the Oprah Effect to bring food awareness to the masses!  A million of these posts and a thousand more Sally Fallon's could never approach what being on the Oprah show can do in an 8 minute spot!
Michael Pollan, the creator of "Food, Inc.", has also written many books.  I read "Omnivore's Dilemma" and thought:  Others are finally becoming aware, writing books about it--and it's become a NYTimes bestseller!  Who woulda thunk it.
I loved all the information about the confinement cows, the corn industry, the soy, and biodynamic farmers, but put the book down once Michael started talking low-fat.  He sites Weston A. Price several times and uses the Weston A. Price Foundation website as a link (only as a farmers rights advocate group), but, sadly, he lost Weston's original message:  Indigenous peoples had less disease, perfect teeth and arches, and happy dispositions because their food was filled with amazing amounts of vitamins and minerals.  Foods that were full of fat from their meats, organ meats, seafood, eggs, butter, milk, and cream.
There are so many great sayings hinting at a time when fat was understood to be the best life could offer..."The fat of the land", "The land of milk and honey", "chew the fat", and, especially, "the cream always rises to the top"!  
Fat and cholesterol are so important to optimal health, and yet it is still demonized in our society.  Our children are especially at risk from all the low fat, no fat milks they drink.  You're stealing the intelligence right out of their brains if you're not giving them full fat, folks.  Sorry, but someone needed to say it.
This needs to be the next "ah-ha" moment in this country.  Keep reading, keep learning, and for your health's sake....eat your full fat foods!  Just like my favorite saying, this information will rise again to the top!

"Whole Foods Sucks"

Catchy name, I hope?! Nourishing, after "Nourishing Traditions", by Sally Fallon, and Nancy, after all it is my name. I was going to call this blog "Whole Foods Sucks" to get some immediate attention; not because I hate Whole Foods, other than their lowfat/vegetarian agenda, but because of another blog I read which is making a big stink about said agenda. I did use it in the title, forgive me.

The blog was by Raime Saunders, and she's on the Weston A. Price Foundation's team; Whole Foods is, for lack of a better analogy, playing offense. You can go onto www.agriculturesociety.com to read the whole (excuse the pun) article.
Whole Foods is, like Wild-by-Nature and countless other organizations, backing the ole' lowfat diet with limited or no animal products. The WAPF is trying to counterbalance that through information passed down from traditional peoples the world over. Raime is a very informed linebacker and scores several times. Raime also wrote a cool book on tooth decay called, "Cure Tooth Decay", which I read feverishly trying to fix my child's teeth that were rotting out when emerging from the gums (I can thank a vegetarian diet for that one).

I guess I'm thinking football due to all the aggression that sometimes comes with finding our way to ourselves. Everything we do, think, and act upon defines who we are and are becoming. Following the wise dietary advice of Weston A Price has been part of my journey and many others. Answering to others about that choice has always caused some hairs on my neck to bristle. There have been outright battles to stuffy feelings in my kitchen when others bring their own ideas of nutrition (or lack thereof) into my lair! And, yes, I have been known to turn into a fire breathing dragon when confronted.

I wrote on Raime's blog that we need to keep our focus on the positive, that so many people are unaware of...well, anything nutritious. Takeout IS their idea of a home cooked meal.

We tend to attract what we are focused on (some philosophy from Abraham-Hicks), I reminded Raime. You see, when this guy, named Chad, attacked Raime for "negative" comments about vegetarians, I saw the smoke venting through my nostrils. I could sense her frustration with this dude, too. Once I calmed my own ego down, I realized that that is where their conversation had gone (no offense meant to anyone here). Something I had been liable for many times before, and now could recognize in someone else--someone on "my team".

Yes, it's great to share our ideas and, hopefully, attract others to our playing field. It's fun and exhilarating to meet others whom we feel akin to, but equally exhausting to clash with others who do not greet our dietary beliefs with as much enthusiasm. It has become a "Religion of Foodies", with each group fighting for higher moral ground concerning what we eat for supper.

I feel warmly comforted by my knowledge that this diet is the diet of traditional, unmodernized people; that when America was a stronger, healthier nation, we ate pastured meats, eggs, whole unhomogenized milk (raw, as well), liver and other organ meats; and that soooo many people are turning on to this diet today. Deep down, I think most people truly are yearning for this type of diet--I know I was when I became a vegetarian and thought that was the answer. Let's face it, real food tastes like REAL food, because it is.

I have high hopes for this country, along with the rest of the world, coming back to traditional foods. I do think, though, that the path to people finding us must be won with love and patience. Seekers will always find us: We on the WAPF team. Rising above the name calling can be trying, but it must be done. Now, I sound like a pacifist with a bible in my hand....oh boy, I'll leave well enough alone.

www.westonaprice.org