My beef with gluten (recipe included)

Trying to figure out what to eat is a daunting process.  As Americans, we are constantly flooded with messages regarding what's appropriate (and what's not appropriate) to consume.  Swap whole fat yogurt for low-fat.  Substitute butter for margarine, or is it margarine for butter, or is it I Can't Believe It's Not Butter? High carb is the way to go.  Lay off the meat.  Actually, it's Weight Watchers/Jenny Craig (depending on the celebrity spokeswoman of the weekend).  Perhaps eating Subway sandwiches will bring the key to being healthy.  Acai is definitely the only way to get a flatter belly.  Without a doubt, we are a nation of fads, willing to pay lots of money to put in as little effort as possible when it comes to health.  If we don't lose ten pounds in the first two weeks, magazines send messages that we are failures at being fit and thin, and we quickly fall of the wagon.  It's all quite disheartening and confusing.

For the past several months, I've been trying to define what health and healthy eating means.  And I am starting to realize that eating food in it's most natural state is the best way to go, but I don't think it's always easy to understand why or to always follow through with it.  Part of the problem stems from the fact that (and I speak for my 20-something generation) we've had pretty bad information about healthy eating.  What has been defined as 'healthy' has been designated by companies with clever marketing campaigns.  Counting calories as a means to weight loss and health was always the (most recent) preferred method to measure health success, and it was easy for companies to exploit the calorie outlet.  100 Calorie Packs -- you little demons.  For years, you convinced me to eat a pack or two of you a day.  I greedily scarfed down those buttery Lorna Doones and those Mister Salty chocolate covered pretzels.  Chocolate + salt + carb = magic, I thought.  These little guys were the key to my health and happiness, and would make me thin.  It was the best of both worlds -- I could eat crap and still look great!  Blessed Nabisco for such a great product. 

Gosh, I was so ignorant and ill-informed.  I counted calories, bought packaged products, trusted things like Smart Choices labels, believed I was doing the "right thing," and never saw much permanent change in my body.  And I certainly didn't feel any different.  Check out the nutrition information for Lorna Doones here.  Quite honestly, I'm not really sure I know what's in Lorna Doones, but I still ate them.  Was I healthy?  What does healthy mean?

Through everything I now read (I owe everyone some major Michael Pollan blogging!) and the more time I spend musing about my health, it's clear to me that humans are intended to eat foods found in nature.  Wonder Bread came into existence in 1924 and Lucky Charms was first marketed in 1964, and while I might not have my dates right, it seems like people were able to eat before the inception of such food products.  Like, a long, long time before.  So, why should I think there is something wrong with the foods that people ate earlier, before the creation of McDonalds?  Why should I get my vitamins and minerals from fortified Lucky Charms when I could get it from something like, I don't know, spinach and apples?

When I decided to attempt to cut gluten out of my life, I really don't know if I could tell you why I did it. And yes, there are days when I think I want nothing more than a fudgy brownie.  But should I replace processed gluten-filled foods with processed non-gluten foods?  I really don't think that's the best answer.  I think my beef with gluten is less about gluten than it is about processed foods.  And let's face it, most foods with gluten are highly, highly processed (and yes, pasta counts as highly processed).  And right now, I don't feel a need to eat barley and oats.  It's getting off the Oreos that's hard, but not impossible, and actually quite rewarding.  Study after study proves that no matter how you package it or size it, processed foods are not the answer to health.  So, that takes me back to my original point: getting to be healthy is about eating food that looks and tastes like natural food.  And that's my goal.

(recipe for this butternut squash is below!)

And with that said, the more and more I think about food, the more my perspective on what constitutes good, delicious food had changed.  I am forced to consider food purchasing and preparation more carefully and have had to broaden my food horizons to keep my taste buds interested.  And through all of it, I find that I'm definitely more of a foodie than just someone who eats Hot Pockets because it's the convenient package in the freezer.  I'm redefining "fast food."  And, through it all, I'm starting to enjoy food a whole lot more.  But more on this to come.

Musings:  check out this link from the Summer Tomato about Whole Grains vs. Intact Grains.  I found it informative and helpful, and it solidifies my belief that processed foods are no good for our us.

Secondly, my husband and I have finally decided to make eating grass-fed meats and farmers' markets produce a part of our food lives and are musing with the idea of starting our own herb and vegetable garden.  More to come!

And finally, this new lifestyle has forced me to be much more creative.  Last night, I made butternut squash that we had purchased at the Winter Farmers Market.  To make it, I used what I had on hand: olive oil, sea salt, ginger, and cinnamon.  After peeling and dicing the squash, I put it in a bowl, coated it with olive oil, sprinkled on cinnamon and ginger (mostly cinnamon, although I wish I had had more ginger), popped it on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes, took it out, sprinkled it with sea salt, and voila!  Veggies for dinner were done.  

Alright, I've been mostly known to kill plants, not get them to grow.  But what foods and herbs should my husband and I try to grow in our tiny backyard garden?

Why Primal?

Lately, I've had some peers come up to me to ask me about my weight loss.  "What are you doing?" and "How did you do it?" are the common questions that I've gotten, and it makes me giggle to think that I unlocked some kind of magic formula to a healthier lifestyle.  In some ways, my eating habits and exercise routine have been pretty magical and intuitive, but I'd never describe the road as inherently easy.

I digress.  Anyway, I normally give a brief overview of what I've taken away from a Primal diet.  This is perhaps the easiest way for me to comprehend Primal eating, courtesy of Mark's Daily Apple:

I, however, am not that disciplined of a person, so I have adapted these principles as best I can.  I do my best to eat protein, healthy fats, lots of vegetables, fruit, but I do eat dairy (usually in the form of Greek yogurt and cheese with some half and half and sometimes milk).  I'm hardly the perfect example of Primal eating -- I do eat the occasional rice, soy and sweet potatoes and I have gluten in moments of weakness.  I'm a sucker for a decadent brownie or a good piece of cake, although for reasons I'll discuss later, my body is happier to avoid it.  And perhaps my biggest downfall of all is sugar (often in the form of honey).  But, my Primal lifestyle is a work in progress, and I'm figuring out what my body can and cannot handle.

After I explain the basics of a Primal diet to the inquiring party, I'm inevitably asked, "how could you give up gluten??  Why did you go Primal?"

That's a great question.  And it's a question that I don't have a single answer to, but I'll do my best.

First, I'm pretty sure I have an obsessive personality.  For awhile, I tried writing down everything I ate, whether that was in a food diary or online.  For me, it was disastrous.   Every single forkful I put in my mouth, I scrutinized and repeatedly beat myself up if I felt I was eating too much.  In the end, I rarely ended up losing weight, and I'm sure I wasn't getting enough nutrients/calories, etc.,. I needed.

After I got married and had gained back weight, I was putting in lots of hours at the gym, and trying to eat healthy (which included grains), and I wasn't losing any weight.  I was now in a vicious cycle, and I knew I needed a change.  I was at a breaking point of frustration.

When I started reading more about a Primal/Paleo lifestyle, it seemed liberating.  No counting calories/grams of fat/weighing food!  As long as I followed the main principles of Primal, I wouldn't need to have such a destructive system of recording my diet, and I stopped sabotaging myself, both mentally and physically.

For me, eating Primal is about eating clean.  It makes sense that I shouldn't put processed food and other junk in my body.   Eating fruits and veggies and meat makes sense to me.  Eating foods that are chock-full of hormones just doesn't seem right in my eyes.  If "you are what I eat," I'd rather be broccoli and chicken than McDonald's and high fructose corn syrup.  And historically, it does make sense to me that our bodies weren't meant to process grains.  Evolution is a long, long process.  And if we were, why are gluten-free diets and menu options becoming a mainstream part of our culture?  Maybe gluten-free is the current fad, but between celiac disease and other gluten allergies, there has to be some validity to leading a wheat free life.  (I know, I know, the same argument can be made for lactose intolerance.  But we can discuss that later).

I'm sure many people feel healthy with gluten in their diet, and in some ways, I am a little envious.  But at the same time, when I avoid gluten, my environmental allergies subside, and I don't have any GI or stomach problems that I typically have when I do eat grains.  I feel healthier.  And that's important to me.

And I think what finally made sense to me is that eating Primal is a lifestyle choice.  When I tried the Special K/Lean Cuisine/Fat Flush Plan diets, I found that it was all about dropping weight, and then reintroducing foods and calories.  But the moment I brought "normal" foods back into my diet, I gained weight.  For me, it isn't realistic to "diet."  Primal really allowed me to make a change holistically, for the better, and I do view it as my lifestyle.

I'd love to hear from you! Have you tried going "Primal" or another kind of diet/lifestyle change?  What foods make you feel healthy? What foods do you avoid (or try to?)