Sometimes you start the right book at the wrong time.
I returned Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle the other day. It is well written and well researched, and I know that Kingsolver is illuminating very important issues and problems. I know it must be better to eat off the land close to where we live. I know that eating organic foods has got to be better for us than continuing to poison the earth and ourselves with chemicals. But I am in an unsure place as an eater right now (which is a luxury in itself when there are people dying for lack of any kind of food). I had to set this book aside, because instead of making me feel educated and empowered, I was just feeling guilty and helpless.
My dad was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago. That was a few years after he had gone on a major fat-free diet. Since he wasn’t eating fat back then, he was eating lots and lots of carbohydrates. Now, he believes that he virtually made himself diabetic by stripping out the fat his body really needed and replacing it with empty, filling carbs. True or not, now he is eating mostly meat and cheese, some fruit and vegetables, and far fewer carbohydrates. He maintains his blood sugar levels very well this way and has impressed his doctors with his diligence. He won’t be happy until I, a vegetarian of almost 15 years, join the ranks of carnivores again. Dad often asks how much pasta I’m eating and sends me emails about the dangers of eating too much soy. I almost don’t know what to eat anymore.
Even if I do eat meat again, I surely won’t move to a farm where I would raise and kill my own chickens like Kingsolver. I don’t know if I could even afford to buy only organic meat. Her book wasn’t helping me to see any real options for myself but was just giving me things to fret about on a daily basis, just pointing out my own inadequacies.
So, I dumped the book. For now.
If I were ready to read about this topic, I would probably also tackle the four following books:
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods by Gary Paul Nabhan.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.
Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith.
This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow.
Pop Tart, anyone?
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3 comments:
Ugg. You gotta do what you gotta do! Eat your food with joy. If you need to eat meat, your body will tell you. And don't worry.
My sister and I both love colorful candy - swedish fish, jelly beans, licorice, laffy taffy. Can you imagine the crud in those things? So I try to limit. But I cannot pass up a banana flavored laffy taffy. Or a vanilla tootsie roll..or a...
I agree, it's a tough topic to think about. Plus in IL we don't have local for about half the year. There needs to be a happy medium, not guilt. No more guilt about food.
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