Bread & Butter
Oops, it’s been a while.
It’s not that nothing new hasn’t happened. On the contrary, so much has shifted: I’m eating mostly grains and beans instead of vegetables, now. This definitely isn’t what the doctor —any doctor —ordered, but it’s where I’m at right now.
Trying new things is hard. Especially when it comes to food that could do you in for a night, a week, or even your life! But thanks to the bitter tincture and adjunct tea prepared/prescribed by my herbalist, my body isn’t rejecting everything I eat. I am having some itchies, but healing isn’t linear, right? We tried to add wood betony to the mix, but it made me SO itchy that I would wake up clawing at my skin. Ouch. So, we go back to the drawing table on Tuesday. My body is getting used to the gentian/motherwort mix (yay!) so it’s time to up the ante.
What am I eating these days? Well, a strange mix. Sweet potatoes and squash bring colour to my plate, as they’re the only grocery store produce I can tolerate for now. Getting to farmers markets has proved itself to be a hecking venture, folks. I’m tired.
Other than my two starchy veggies, I guess you can’t say I’m eating super local. The rest of my diet the last few weeks has consisted mostly of rice, chick peas, and mung beans with turmeric and/or cumin. For a long while, I wanted to be “paleo”, and I suppose I sort of was, minus the white potatoes. And now here I am, eating the reverse. I feel like a singular case study of how there’s no blanket diet for everyone.
The goal of paleo is to eat like some of our oldest ancestors. But how much to do we have in common left with these hunter-gatherers of yore?
I think of my most recent ancestors, from the last few hundred years. Potatoes were definitely a staple, but that’s out for now. Same for beef. This leaves me pork (which I’m wary of), poultry, wild fish, and game meat. Yeah, maybe it’s time to test some of those waters. I’ve only found a good source of chicken so far. Bear with me.
While researching traditional English/Irish/Scottish diets, it strikes me how much the generations before me relied on two things: grains and raw dairy. This was their bread and butter, literally. I suddenly feel somewhat justified in my life-long cereal fixation. So, this is what my greatgreatgreatgreatgreat grandparents feasted on, huh? I furrow my brow; this definitely isn’t what my doctor ordered. Every gut-healing protocol I came across has recommended nearly the exact opposite menu. What gives?!
It seems logical enough: before seeing my herbalist, I wouldn’t have been able to tolerate the foods I’m eating now. But whether or not they’re inherently inflammatory in their natural state (raw OR cooked), I couldn’t say. Maybe my gut is saying otherwise; I am gaining weight back, and energy with it. Despite what most naturopaths call for, what I’m eating is healing me ... you know, as long as I don’t consume anything in excess (nothing but chickpeas for three days is uh, not advisable, friends).
Still, I wonder if I will ever be able to replicate my ancestral meal plan. The first two foods I gave up were gluten and dairy, although historians admit wheat was consumed less than oats and barley. I felt infinitely better once I did. But did that have to do with the way they’re processed, or the food proteins themselves? If the latter is true, does that mean I can’t go back now?
So many questions.
My body was made for that land, and it was made from it. But it was shaped by colonial capitalism —Big Pharma, Big Farma, what have you. Buying produce, grains, and livestock from local farmers isn’t just about my corn allergy or chemical sensitivities; it’s about honouring the land I occupy as an uninvited guest. I encourage other settlers with any financial flexibility to do the same.
If we have any hope of dismantling literal toxic whiteness, we’ve gotta replace supremacy with relationship. White people, let’s look back to the hearth-dwellers and country bumpkins that hailed before us. We have our own frameworks, our own stories to draw on for guidance.
Sow what you reap.
It’s not that nothing new hasn’t happened. On the contrary, so much has shifted: I’m eating mostly grains and beans instead of vegetables, now. This definitely isn’t what the doctor —any doctor —ordered, but it’s where I’m at right now.
Trying new things is hard. Especially when it comes to food that could do you in for a night, a week, or even your life! But thanks to the bitter tincture and adjunct tea prepared/prescribed by my herbalist, my body isn’t rejecting everything I eat. I am having some itchies, but healing isn’t linear, right? We tried to add wood betony to the mix, but it made me SO itchy that I would wake up clawing at my skin. Ouch. So, we go back to the drawing table on Tuesday. My body is getting used to the gentian/motherwort mix (yay!) so it’s time to up the ante.
What am I eating these days? Well, a strange mix. Sweet potatoes and squash bring colour to my plate, as they’re the only grocery store produce I can tolerate for now. Getting to farmers markets has proved itself to be a hecking venture, folks. I’m tired.
Other than my two starchy veggies, I guess you can’t say I’m eating super local. The rest of my diet the last few weeks has consisted mostly of rice, chick peas, and mung beans with turmeric and/or cumin. For a long while, I wanted to be “paleo”, and I suppose I sort of was, minus the white potatoes. And now here I am, eating the reverse. I feel like a singular case study of how there’s no blanket diet for everyone.
The goal of paleo is to eat like some of our oldest ancestors. But how much to do we have in common left with these hunter-gatherers of yore?
I think of my most recent ancestors, from the last few hundred years. Potatoes were definitely a staple, but that’s out for now. Same for beef. This leaves me pork (which I’m wary of), poultry, wild fish, and game meat. Yeah, maybe it’s time to test some of those waters. I’ve only found a good source of chicken so far. Bear with me.
While researching traditional English/Irish/Scottish diets, it strikes me how much the generations before me relied on two things: grains and raw dairy. This was their bread and butter, literally. I suddenly feel somewhat justified in my life-long cereal fixation. So, this is what my greatgreatgreatgreatgreat grandparents feasted on, huh? I furrow my brow; this definitely isn’t what my doctor ordered. Every gut-healing protocol I came across has recommended nearly the exact opposite menu. What gives?!
It seems logical enough: before seeing my herbalist, I wouldn’t have been able to tolerate the foods I’m eating now. But whether or not they’re inherently inflammatory in their natural state (raw OR cooked), I couldn’t say. Maybe my gut is saying otherwise; I am gaining weight back, and energy with it. Despite what most naturopaths call for, what I’m eating is healing me ... you know, as long as I don’t consume anything in excess (nothing but chickpeas for three days is uh, not advisable, friends).
Still, I wonder if I will ever be able to replicate my ancestral meal plan. The first two foods I gave up were gluten and dairy, although historians admit wheat was consumed less than oats and barley. I felt infinitely better once I did. But did that have to do with the way they’re processed, or the food proteins themselves? If the latter is true, does that mean I can’t go back now?
So many questions.
My body was made for that land, and it was made from it. But it was shaped by colonial capitalism —Big Pharma, Big Farma, what have you. Buying produce, grains, and livestock from local farmers isn’t just about my corn allergy or chemical sensitivities; it’s about honouring the land I occupy as an uninvited guest. I encourage other settlers with any financial flexibility to do the same.
If we have any hope of dismantling literal toxic whiteness, we’ve gotta replace supremacy with relationship. White people, let’s look back to the hearth-dwellers and country bumpkins that hailed before us. We have our own frameworks, our own stories to draw on for guidance.
Sow what you reap.
I have so many related feels about this! I've also done the grain free (and tons-of-other-stuff-free) thing, and now am back to eating grains. I can't say I feel great, but I suspect it's lack of other good things, not the addition of grains, that's really doing it. I have a lot of Irish ancestry too, and I suspect that my relatives were coastal, because I definitely feel better when I eat fish and seaweed. But like you say, dogmatic, blanket diets like "Paleo" just don't fit my world view anymore.
ReplyDeleteAlso great points about honoring the land as settlers/colonizers, I always need more strategies for mitigating the damage I and my ancestors have done