Set Point

In last night's class, I talked a bit about set point and how real food can play into finding yours. This is something I believe in so strongly that I thought I'd write about it here as well.

If you've never heard that term before, the quick explanation is that everyone's body has a weight/body-fat ratio that is most desirable for optimal functioning. It is the point at which we feel our best, look our best, are most fertile, etc. (Read more here or here.)

It is not the point at which you are the thinnest you've ever been. If you've ever been so lean or thin that people said you should gain a little weight back, you were likely below your set point. The set point is where your genetics lead you to be, or more simply, the way God made you to look.

The FDA Food Pyramid Collapses...

...as well it should. It was a worthless 'guide' whose recommendations were brought to you by bloated corporations with monstrous lobbying budgets. 

What we now have is this graphic...

It's pretty. 

It's easy to read. 

Accurate? Mmmmm....I don't think so but, then again, I believe God gave me instincts to tell me what to eat. The government?? Well, I'm grateful that it paves the roads I drive on and somewhat educates our country's children but I couldn't care any less what a bunch of Beltway fat cats say I should feed my family. (And that, my friends, is about as political as you'll ever hear me write...)

So, goodbye Food Pyramid. Someday my grandkids will think you look oh-so-quaint and delightfully retro but, to me, you've always been outdated...

The Best for Guests?

A friend posed a question to me on Facebook tonight that really got my wheels spinning. She asked how I felt about serving/not serving one's usual local/organic foods to dinner guests whom you know eat conventional/industrially processed 'foods'. Is the expense of doing so justified for those who don't care (with 'care' meaning without the knowledge, means or determination to eat differently.) I've certainly pondered that myself and thought it might be an interesting question to pose here.

My answer is that I serve guests exactly what I serve my family. So much so, in fact, that I worry that others may not like it. After all, fresher, mindfully-grown foods do taste different. For the most part, they taste better but sometimes they require a palate adjustment.

The cost of feeding a group the foods we eat is certainly a consideration. Meats, especially. As our diet has changed, so have some of our eating habits. For instance, we don't consume nearly the amount of meat we used to. For me, that's easy. I don't really crave meat. My boys are a different story. They could eat it at every meal but, thankfully, they don't complain about vegetarian meals as long as there aren't too many consecutive ones.

Another opinion on meats is that I cannot justify supporting the industrial meat processors. While a vegetarian may argue that no meat processing is humane (with which I won't necessarily argue), the life of the animals we consume is of great importance. Since I am a carnivore, I care deeply that the animal that gave its life for my supper lived in the manner for which it was created -- it breathed fresh outdoor air, basked in the warm sunshine and ate what God intended.

But I digress...

For a crowd, I'll often make things in which the meat in dispersed throughout such as lasagna or soup as opposed to burgers or chicken breasts (the latter runs about $7 per serving - even for just our family of five, that's a pricey homemade meal.) But, again, that's the way we eat so I'm not really doing anything different for company.

My reasoning behind this is twofold. First, I'm a southern girl who loves to love people with food. Just as I make recipes I'm confident about, I use ingredients I trust. Secondly, I'm passionate about food and the way the health of the plants and animals it comes from manifests itself in our own health. If someone can come to my house and leave feeling truly nourished and a seed of change is planted, then that makes me very happy.

All that being said, I do not think about all this when I'm a guest in someone else's home. I'm food nerd not a food snob.

In the end, it's really as simple as this -- I eat a certain way at home but, when eating out or at someone's home, I'm just grateful to get out of dishwashing duty for a night!

Do you have thoughts on this? Please share!

Sunscreen Safety

I admit...I've long been a worrier over sun exposure. I'm fair skinned and I don't want more freckles. I couldn't care less that tan 'looks healthy' or was 'in'. If God wanted me to have darker skin, He would have made me that way. Besides, I'd rather not look like a leather purse when my 40s and 50s come along.

My recent reading about cancer, though, actually really helped temper my paranoia about skin cancer concerns for both me and my children. (My husband will lay out and bake to a beautiful brown any chance he gets. That and his Diet Coke consumption are the only things we haven't 'worked out' yet. ha-ha) After all, people lived skin-cancer-free for centuries before sunscreen was created.

Then, this news comes along that most sunscreens contain oxybenzone, a proven endocrine disruptor. Now, I'm not terribly school in the workings of my endocrine system but I don't think I need lots of help being a 'disrupted' person and I sure don't want chemicals messing with my growing kiddos.

I thought I'd share with you a website that tests and ranks not only sunscreens but tons of products that are used topically. Considering that skin is our bodies' largest organ, it's worth knowing what I'm slathering on every exposed inch of my family.

Other recommeded reading -- this list of sunscreen facts.