Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

C gave me this book for Christmas; I wish I'd read it sooner. After reading so many books on the food industry and its politics, this was a delight!

Written by noted novelist Barbara Kingsolver, this nonfiction work reads like fiction. Chronicling her family's commitment to eat locally for one year, she leads the reader through the bountiful joys and surprising lessons learned as well as the struggles and hard decisions they faced along the way.

Kingsolver's husband, Steven Hopp, contributes sidebars on food issues and her college-age daughter, Camille Kingsolver, provides recipes and a younger person's take on the journey.

A Highly Recommended Read

I recently finished reading Anti Cancer: A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber. I cannot recommend it highly enough. 

The author was just beginning his medical career when, by accident in his own lab, he discovered he had brain cancer. He readily admits his attitude was that of the stereotypical doctor -- a stubborn reliance on Western methods of healing and health management. As the doctor became the patient, though, his eyes were opened to a frustrating world of downcast eyes and grim adherence to outdated treatments in spite of other promising options. 

The path he discovered, and followed, changed his life...quite literally because it almost certainly saved it. He has become a 15-year brain cancer survivor (wow) by caring for his so-called 'terrain' which involved changes in diet, exercise, stress management and spirit. 

Granted, that's a lot of the stuff I yammer on about all the time so maybe that's why I loved it. The book teaches so much about cancers, though, and how they take root and flourish in our bodies. Despite that part being nearly all-new to me, I found it a very easy read. If you have a family history of cancer, or even a personal one, I daresay this book will make you feel hopeful and powerful. 

Lest you fear that it will overwhelm you with the need to change everything about your life, I'll leave you with this excerpt from the final chapter:

Fortunately, we can begin to protect ourselves against the biological mechanisms of cancer without adopting all the methods that have a positive effect. The body is a huge system in equilibrium, where each function interacts with all the others. Alter just one of these functions and the whole is inevitable affected....Every situation, every person, is unique; each person's way forward will be too. What matters above all is nourishing the desire to live. Some will do it by participating in a choir or by watching comedies, others by writing poetry or keeping a diary or getting more involved in the lives of their grandchildren.

If you read it, please let me know what you think!!  

The Writing of Michael Pollan

In many social situations, I find myself talking about food. It happened several times in Vegas this past weekend. For those that know me, they know it's something I'm passionate about. For those I meet, I'm not always sure how it comes up. Maybe it's because my husband and I look younger than our years or that we maintain healthy body weights or that we just obviously feel good but when people ask, we broach the food subject gently by sharing our catalysts for change.

As I've stated before, my food journey has been a long one. I was making stealth changes in what foods came into our home as my dear husband remained a disinterested skeptic for what seemed like forever. That is, until he read The Omnivore's Dilemma  and An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan.

If you've seen Food, Inc. (which I highly recommend), you are familiar with Michael Pollan's take on our society's food supply. As is to be expected with films, Food, Inc. only scratches the surface of the knowledge found in the books.

'Omnivore's' traces four meals from the earth to the plate. The industrial conventional (McDonald's), the industrial organic (what you find at Whole Foods), the so-called beyond organic (local, sustainably farmed) and the hunter-gatherer (a meal comprised of only what the author grew, gathered and killed himself).

'Manifesto' was a response to the many people who read 'Omnivore's' and wrote to Pollan asking what exactly they should be eating. It's a very simple suggestion -- Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Before you say, 'Well, duh!' Zero in on the first sentence and ask yourself, 'What is food?' Sadly, there is precious little to be found on our country's overstuffed supermarket shelves.



So, if you're interested in beginning your journey to eating real, vital food, these books are a good place to start. Let me know what you think!