Books are what really got me started down this path of wellness and health. They are the ones that made me want to start growing my own food.
Not gardening books, but books about food, health and the environment.
Here are four food quotes from books that are eye opening and can really get you thinking.
Ideally, a meal should be enjoyed at the dinner table with friends and family, instead of gulped down in front of the television.
From Shift Your Habit
At one time I was definitely guilty of doing this. I’d rarely eat at my kitchen table. Instead I would pull a tray in front of the couch and watch TV while I ate.
It’s easy to get caught in the trap of this. It often leads to mindless eating, as there are a lot of food ads constantly run. This also prevents discussion to possibly happen during the meal. You also don’t focus on the meal as much either because you are focused on the television.
A lot of people eat their food on the run from one activity to the next. Food and meals are seen as a task instead of nourishment.
When you sit down at the kitchen table and eat your meal, it’s your chance to slow down, get grounded and fully appreciate the meal before you.
Is it just a coincidence that as the portion of our income spent on food has declined, spending on health care has soared?
From In Defense of Food
If we were to look at our eating habits over the past 100 or so years and our health, there is definitely a correlation between the two.
I’ve been called a conspiracy theorist by some when I talk about the food, pharmaceutical and government, but in looking at what is going on, it’s hard for me not to think that.
People are more willing to spend money on cable TV or their cell phones than they are on food. People are also willing to take as many medications as they can that their doctors prescribe.
Instead let’s shift that spending to food that nourishes and keeps us healthy rather than puts us on medications.
Growing food was the first activity that gave us enough prosperity to stay in one place, form complex social groups, tell our stories, and build our cities.
From Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
This is one that I often reference in one form or another as to why you should grow your own food. Look back at the early cities and civilizations. They were built around fertile land and access to water.
Food brought people together on so many levels and fostered communities. We are far from that these days and our culture is suffering because of it.
Despite eating more than ever before, our culture may be the only one in human history to value food so little.
From Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally
This is another quote that I reference often as well. We are very fortunate to live in a time where we don’t have to rely on growing our own food or sourcing it locally. The global agriculture system takes care of that (or at least it’s supposed to).
At any time on any day we can go to the grocery store and pick up nearly anything that we want to eat. That is a luxury that we take for granted. There is no appreciation for food and what it takes to get it to our plates.
Not only that, but people are eating cheaper food like products instead of real whole foods. This goes back to the quote above about the healthcare spend.
These are only four of my favorite quotes regarding food. What are some of yours?
My favorite food quote is the very well-known one by Michael Pollan…
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
It’s just so simple yet very meaningful and appropriate.
I just started reading “The Kind Diet” by Alicia Silverstone. No awesome quotes just yet (but a great read, nonetheless)!
What great quotes. Here’s another that I love “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food”.
Another one from Michael Pollan-his books are filled with them!
I had my quote all ready to post, and the only other post up here has the same one! 🙂
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” ~Michael Pollan
“Don’t eat anything that won’t rot.” Or something along those lines. Michael Pollan I loved reading all of his books as well as Animal Vegetable Miracle. America’s Food and Twinkie Deconstructed are good as well. I want to read Plenty. 🙂
Never read America’s Food. I’ve read Twinkie Deconstructed, which was interesting, but after chapter 4 it seemed a bit repetitive.
Word. That’s another good one.
True because my grandmother was raised in the era where processed foods were becoming big.
Lemme know how that Alicia Silverstone book is.
This one is too true: “Despite eating more than ever before, our culture may be the only one in human history to value food so little.” And now I’m hungry.
Don’t go starving yourself now.
It’s sooo true! I recognized that my nephews didn’t value food a year ago, when I told them that I had done a veggie and an herb garden. They called me stupid and said that it was “weird” cause I lived down the street from a grocery store! LOL! I can remember being their age in our family garden working to make sure we ate that season! I think that the more we expose our kids to “the world outside” that we are actually training them to be like my nephews – not valuing the food they eat and the effort that went into it! Sure eating out is nice! But growing your own veggies, watering them daily, harvesting them, preparing them and sitting down to eat them as a family…..whoa! THATS BIG!
That’s what family and food is all about.
If people accuse you of being a conspiracy theorist, you can imagine what they call me. My two children and I are all allergic to corn and soy. When your health depends on knowing where every trace of hidden corn lies, you’ll find out some horrible things about America’s food system. Did you know that fortified dairy, enriched grains, iodized salt and filtered water contain corn? What about vinegar, pectin, alcohol and refined oils? The list goes on and on and includes items from every room of your house…..you’re probably wearing corn by way of several personal products right now. Avoiding food additives is just the beginning for us. Trying to find corn-free staples so that I might cook all our food from scratch is quite challenging.
I know much more about meat processing than I ever wanted to know, but it was necessary for me to learn so that I could even begin to find safe meat. (BTW, grassfed beef that is sold in individual cuts will almost always contain corn derivatives from the processing and/or packaging because of current USDA guidelines. We must buy a large enough portion of the animal that we can have it custom butchered using only water.) Substances used strictly in the processing or packaging phase of manufacture are not required to be listed on food labels per the FDA and USDA. This is why citric acid and lactic acid used during processing of grass finished beef will not be listed on the label, nor will the cornstarch coating the cryovac package.When you can only eat local produce because the “global agriculture system” revolves around corn wax, citric acid and ethylene gas (all GMO corn derivatives) as a way to preserve that tasteless produce, your way of shopping and eating is no longer driven by a philosophy, but necessity. We actually do not have the options that most people have all year round. Peaches are sweeter when you can only get them in summer, tomatoes are treasured when they are only safe from local gardens and only in summer. Convenience is no longer one of the criteria when deciding on meal choices. (There quite literally is nothing in the average convenience store that is completely corn-free and that includes fruit, bottled water and medicine. There’s not much in the grocery store, either.)When you see this “global agriculture system” and the industrial farming complex in America through our eyes, you start to understand just how dire a situation our current policies have placed us……GMO corn crop failures would cause a social and economic crises that would likely ruin our country. Grocery stores, pharmacies and fast food restaurants would have to close their doors. The GMO giants are selling our citizen’s health for a profit and have lined the pockets of everyone necessary to keep this stranglehold on the finances of this country. Our great grandparents knew not to “put all your eggs in one basket”, but that is exactly what we’ve done with corn.Like everyone else, I hoped for change when Obama took office, but I knew as soon as he announced his choice for Secretary of Agriculture that it was not to be. If we can’t wake up and shut down the political shell games revolving around ethanol, “food safety” laws and subsidized crops, we are doomed to be the great democratic experiment that failed miserably.
One more thing to think about: Before the industrial revolution hit our food system, most of our food dollars went right back into our local economy via farmers and family owned restaurants and butcher shops. Now, almost none of the profit from the sale of food goes to the farmer who produced it and large food “manufacturers” reap most of the profit. If food safety legislation goes unchecked, most of my family’s only safe food options will be illegal (or so onerous that farmers/small scale meat processors will be unable to justify the risk of continuing) and we’ll have to move to another country to survive.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Ohhhh, i gotta read shift your habit. Read the rest and loved them all. Especially Plenty (which is called 100-mile diet here in Canada) and Barbra Kingsolver’s gem. What I could do with a green hill in the mountains…. Dare to dream!
Amen to that.