Happy Little Accidents

I'm inclined to believe that much of human progress is more about happy little accidents of nature than about humankind's intellectual prowess.  Clever we may be, but nature is more clever than we.  Oh crap- it appears to be one of those mornings when the mind feels frivolous and skips around looking for rhymes at the cost of my reputation.   My mind is all over the wonders of fermentation right now.  A friend of Philip's recommended that he read the book "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon.  Aside from hoping that Sally has a brand new photo of herself for fresher editions of this book than the really sparkly 80's picture of herself that I saw, it is an interesting book.

A few of my friends already use this book for themselves quite a lot.  I haven't really delved into because I've eaten one thing someone made from it that I didn't like and thumbing through the recipes I am completely underwhelmed.  But one thing it has taught me is a new expression: Diet Dictocrat.

Some people around here may have noticed that I am a liberal person and not inclined to root for conservative politics and that I don't condone the oppression of any people by other people.  So you might reasonably assume that if something is anti-establishment then I'm going to be all over it- right?  WRONG.  I don't like extremes.  I have extremes living in my own head and the whole reason I take medication and practice CBT is to help me become a more balanced person.

I grew up around extremists of all kinds: extremely serious pot smokers, atheists, guru seekers, new age addicts, drug addicts, child molesters, people in contact with aliens, etc.  I know the lingo of anti-establishment people.  But best of all, I have a finely tuned radar for people who are good at talking bullshit and making lots of people believe them even though they make up words.

I make up words too, sometimes, but I don't do it to sell anything.

There was a blurb or a quote from the author somewhere on the book that went something like this: Everything the diet dictocrats want you to believe about food is wrong!

And there it is.  The kind of talk that cult leaders use to convince gullible people that they have been chosen to impregnate all the virgins in the land with his alien semen to repopulate the earth with alien power!!!!  No, I realize that this book isn't trying to do evil or spread wrong information but everyone has their dietary angle and each one is perfectly capable of proving the other ones wrong.  They all have a "firm" scientific basis for making the claims they do.

In the middle of all the diet talk is a lot of speculation about what people are really evolved to eat.  Obviously everyone has their own theory on this as well.  All the theories conflicting wildly with each other.  Meanwhile- a good portion of this country's people aren't even sure yet that they believe in evolution- I can't imagine what they think about all of this!*

It is entirely possible that humans were not made to eat anything but meat.  However, our teeth indicate otherwise.  It is possible that people were never engineered to eat grains and that's why we have such prevalent health problems today.  Oh yes, and it is even possible that the human body was not meant to digest dairy products (except for the fact that we're mammals, but that's just an insignificant little detail.).

There are as many ways of eating as there are of getting it on with your partner- but that doesn't mean they are all good, all perfect for you, or even healthy.  So how do you know?

(By the way, this is not at all what I meant to go on about.)

I can't really answer that for you.  What I can do is point out that one of the facts I gleaned from watching "The Wild Kingdom" when I was a kid that has stuck with me all these years is the comparison that was made between Cheetas and Leopards.  Cheetas have been poised for extinction for a long time and for once it isn't the humans to blame.  Cheetas are built to hunt prey at intense short bursts of speed which isn't necessarily ideal.  They only eat meat.  They only live in certain regions. 

They have a lot of things not going for their survival while they're big-cat friends the Leopards are much more successful.  The reason they are more successful is because they are much more adaptable:  they can survive in different environments, they adapt their hunting skills to match the environement, and most important is that they have adapted their diets to include other food besides big game.  They will eat insects, small animals, and fish.

If humans had not adapted their eating habits to include a lot more grain, fruits, and vegetables, we would still be animals roaming in small groups across the planet.  We would not survive the winters so easily nor reproduce so carelessly.  The life we enjoy today is only possible through the flexibility of our diet. 

Why we are all fat now is not because grains are poison to our bodies.  We are all fat now because we don't have to physically work for our food.  We sit at desks all day and very dedicated people go to the gym for exercise.  We overindulge in everything.  We eat a lot of highly processed food with a lot of sugar and fat in it.  But even processed food doesn't have to make anyone fat (though it will most likely result in malnourishment) if they are willing and able to eat very small portions of it.

We are gluttons.  Food has become way too complicated.  I am fat and I know exactly what made me this way and it wasn't by following the "diet dictocrats" advice either.  I eat food in large portions, with too much fat, and I overindulge in alcohol.  This coupled with my diminished amount of physical activity has resulted in an unhealthy body.

I am making very slow progress in the changes I promised to make for myself and my health this year.  Progress has been made in a positive direction.  It's little steps for me at this point.  I was proud of myself yesterday for not eating dinner because I wasn't hungry.  I "snacked" on about a cup and a half of roasted cauliflower before dinner because it was so good I couldn't stop myself.  Then I was too full for dinner.  Normally I would go ahead and eat dinner.  Because that's what I do.  But I didn't.  Not to starve myself- but to keep myself from putting more fuel in my body when it didn't need any.  I was also proud that I finally got back to keeping a food log.  I am pleased that I had wine instead of beer.

For me, health is still about eating some of everything but learning to eat less, exercise more, drink less alcohol, and work on having more whole grains though perhaps fewer grains in general.  There is no evil food for me.  There is no diet secret.  I am going to be a leaopard and not ruin my colon or my arteries with steak every night.**   No one on earth can convince me to cut dairy out or to eat fish.  I was a pretty healthy eater for most of my life until I began to sink into the bog of indulgence that injury inspired me to lose myself in.  

Because I am really interested in learning to ferment a lot more things than I do, not for health reasons necessarily, I think I'll take a much closer look at books like Nourishing Traditions and Wild Fermentation because they have plenty of information for my curious and hungry mind.  But I'm going to ignore the fervent tenor of the writing, the urgent earnest claims that leave me certain I wouldn't enjoy talking with the authors because it would remind me too much of all the bullshitting guru-wannabes I grew up around. 

The picture above is my own happy little accident: it started off as a bottle of fresh pressed cider.  Max didn't enjoy it so it sat in the fridge.  I generally don't drink juice so it continued to sit in there.  It never got moldy but I noticed a little bubbling in it.  It started to creep through my mind that I could turn it into cider vinegar but since I've been struggling to get through some major issues around here I didn't feel I could just march into new projects.  Finally, a few weeks ago I took it out of the fridge and put it on my window sill.  I meant to take the metal lid off and replace it with butter muslin with the idea that wild yeast would find its way into the bottle.  It kept bubbling up and then calming down. 

And then one day I removed the metal cap with a great hissing of air and the liquid bubbled and bubbled and I could swear it was as fizzy as soda pop.  It smelled good too.  I didn't taste it though because I'm not a big fan of apple cider as a beverage.  I don't like to can with it either.  However, I admit that the pretty fizzy golden liquid charmed me.  I felt giddy like a kid that does an experiment that proves the theory of relativity is true and a whole new world opens up.

What will I do with it?  I will try making a salad dressing with it as someone from my flickr pages suggested.  Why not?  I've never used cider vinegar for that and it might be quite good.  If not, I have lost nothing.  Then I can try cleaning something with it or use it for my hair.  It will not go to waste.  And if I can make cider vinegar that easily, surely it will not be so very difficult to learn to make fruit wines and naturally fermented pickles- right?



*That is NOT an invitation to tell me.  I don't want to know.  It freaks me out big time that there are people that don't believe what is in front of them.  

**A no-brainer since I am a vegetarian.