The Low Down

The human body is a metabolic marvel comprised of dozens of little systems connecting to create one complex system. Food is the fuel, the input, for the systems. Our metabolic machinery evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to function optimally on select fuels. These fuels were the original, Primal foods of the human organism. Over these hundreds of thousands of years our Big Game Hunting, small prey capturing, scavenging, foraging, gathering, opportunistic ancestors accumulated experience and wisdom about nourishing themselves. The learned to preserve and predigest foods to maximize the quality of their metabolic fuel. Eventually they learned to cook foods without destroying the important nourishing properties of the food, and then they learned to heal the human body with food. Only recently in the human evolutionary experience, have we abandoned all these hundreds of thousands of years of accumulated epicurean genius. Now we fuel our marvelous, complex metabolic machinery with crap invented to create profits for agribusiness. We have become dumb eaters. As we regain our eating intelligence it doesn't make sense to move back to the savannah and put out our fires or climb into our cave and pretend there is a glacier next door. It makes sense to fuel our bodies with all the primal human foodstuffs, prepared and preserved with accumulated ancestral wisdom and served up for the undeniable desires of the human taste buds. Primal, paleolithic food choices, handled according to ancient food ways resulting in outrageously good food.
PRIMAL. SMART. DELECTABLE.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Winter Solstice




Today I will not write a long post about all the types of hunger that don't have to do with food, but there are a bunch. Nourishment has to do with many aspects of life. Satisfying our most innate desires is important so that we don't compensate later. Today is the Winter Solstice and acknowledging and celebrating this day makes huge contributions to some of that non-food type of nourishment. The Winter Solstice is an extremely Primal moment in the year. This 24hr period is the longest stretch of darkness we will experience in the year. Cold and dark. Two of the original human challenges. We need visible, feel-it-in-your-gut type enemies, like coldness and darkness. These are human challenges that unite us in our attempts to overcome them. For those of you with experience living in cold places you are familiar with that slight euphoria that precedes a big Nor-easter. Everyone runs to the store for batteries and bread and laughs and jokes and shakes their heads together. As a society we don't have those moments very often. Some of my most memorable moments from when my children were very little involve battling the weather with my Circle of Mamas. Leaving the house to be together, to make soup together and to mother together was a big adventure in the winter. I remember one cold winter day where we congregated at my friend Katy's house for some sledding. The Moms joined forces to keep the kids mittened, booted and warm, but while the fun was going on there was a little thaw so that the icy driveway became even slipperier. When the sun headed down over the horizon everyone went to go home and my friend Deb couldn't get out of the driveway. Her old SUV was of the type that did not engage 4WD unless it could move a little. An entire crew of tired Mamas and kids worked to push, shovel, innovate and sand to get Deb's vehicle free. Unite and fight together against an enemy that is real and not another human!! Cookie swaps were less about cookies than about a little human contact in that long stretch of cold and dark. Fire takes on an important role at the Solstice too. Heat from a fire is warming like no central heat system can ever be. Kids love fire (like most adults). Let them light candles and poke the back yard Chiminea. Teach them to build a fire. If they burn their fingers give them some ice and aloe and they will have grown smarter in the process. Fire is dangerous, challenging and incredibly rewarding. Of course cooking food on your fire makes it better. Keep it simple. Four Christmases ago my family and I spent the holiday in the Chiricahua Mtns. Santa found us there, but I forgot to pack any knives or silverware! We cooked over an open fire with sticks and it was hilariously challenging. Amazing how inept and useless we all become without out little crutches! Following a Primal diet should not be done out of context. Notice your seasons, your weather. Provide yourself and your family with some of those other aspects of primal living that are just as nourishing as food. Celebrate the Winter Solstice.

No comments:

Post a Comment