Dismissal, Introduction, Reinstatement and Substitution

While implementing changes into our diet we have developed a few supporting approaches: dismissal, introduction, reinstatement and substitution.

Coming to a conclusion that a certain product or habit is undoubtedly harmful for us we try to dismiss it from our life. This way we stopped reheating leftovers, avoid irregular snacking and eating late. For the same reason we now skip heavily processed products like flavored pop-corn, candies, sausages or hams.

Sweets and cured meats had never been staples in my parents’ household. And even in United States, as our American friends confirm, traditionally such things were mostly eaten on holidays.

Not too much processed food on this table

Freedom from Want

Norman Rockwell

The history of food industrialization and introduction of chemicals went hand in hand with increasing affordability of processed products naturally leading to their more widespread, casual consumption.

So, comparing with our parents and grandparents we challenge our genetics in two new ways: consume too much of inflammation triggers (like saturated fats and sugar) and stuff our bodies with chemicals.  

Scientists already figured out that each chemical alone is not good for us, but how these jolly fellows collaborate inside us is still a subject of future studies. We shouldn’t be surprised though, if their mutual impact turned out to be deadlier.  

With this picture in mind I now easily pass certain counters in the supermarket, and the sight or smell of former tempting foods does not trigger my cravings anymore. Instead I immediately imagine itchy acne all over my face. 

We gradually incorporate new products, habits and activities that promise making our lives healthier. 

Inspired by Victoria Boutenko, the matriarch of the Raw Family and relentless promoter of green smoothies, who also happened to be my husband’s former classmate (both of them, left), we started drinking these smoothies just in addition to our usual diet.

My husband makes them in our old noisy mixer which he moved to the garage to spare my ears. He puts there a generous bunch of leafy vegetables, occasional dandelion from our lawn and few bananas for taste.

For those who might be interested: the effect was felt almost immediately in more energy, faster reached feeling of pleasant (but light!) satiety and in visibly stronger nails.

Sometimes we reinstate old things or habits giddily given up during our first years in America for the sake of convenience. A good example of that would be the old-fashioned cooking from scratch versus packaged and precooked easy dinners.

Honestly, I am not Martha Stewart! I just use my “six ingredients” rule and make simple things, like salads, stir fries, or one-pot meals.  

My favorite approach to life improvement is substitution. Learning that a certain food is not particularly healthy, but still having strong attachment to it, we start looking for better alternatives. This is actually fun!

For many years my breakfast included conventional farmer or cottage cheese, with all the milk hormones and antibiotics in it, plus inevitable additives and preservatives. When I ate my chocolate cake and learned my lesson, I started using avocado instead.

We both enjoy crunchy snacks like chips and crackers. In search of healthier option, I once tried radishes and became totally addicted. I guess, they fed some serious nutrient deficiency, because for almost three years I ate them two bunches a day, all year round. My radish munching made me a butt of jokes for the entire family and my radish-stuffed plastic bags not once startled supermarket cashiers.

Sometimes they asked:

- What do you do with all of them? 

- Nothing much – I smiled - just eat.

They had all reasons to think I was crazy.

One thing I am still struggling with is bread. Shatalova is a fierce opponent of yeast-based bread, especially black rye. She is convinced it is the major contributor to many types of cancer. Her arguments pressed me to reduce bread consumption to a morning toast, but once a week I still have my sunny-side-ups with black rye – the bread of my college youth in Leningrad, Russia.

My husband needs no sacrifices here – he never cared much for bread or pasta. 

After reading books of Victoria Boutenko, I tried to replace bread with raw organic crackers. Unfortunately, this I failed to do. All raw crackers I could find were either sweet as snacks or openly nutty. None of them even remotely resembled real bread.    

The major element of any healthy diet today is organic. I was really excited when such products became available in Michigan. For financial reasons we did not dare to buy them for quite a while. But every time I was passing an organic apple and buying a conventional instead, I told myself “Some day, when my budget allows, I will go completely organic”.

We delayed it for years, until we realized that organic produce was not a luxury but the only hope to survive in the modern, chemical-contaminated environment. 

Many people think that organic fruits and vegetables are simply free from pesticides and herbicides. In fact they are also not treated by radiation (as conventional potato) and genetic-engineering-free.

Victoria once told us that she preferred eating organic produce unwashed: “I am more afraid of chemicals than of parasites.”

I share her point wholeheartedly. (In fact, when I was younger I often did the same, but was hiding this habit as untidy). Benefits of earthy bacteria aside, we have been adjusted to parasites throughout the human history, while chemicals are our very new enemies. Our bodies not prepared by evolution are defenseless against them.

Today many sources still try to convince us that in terms of nutrition organic and conventional produce are equal, but I think we just need to wait a little until enough scientific evidence is accumulated in favor of uncontaminated food.

With great interest I have read in the Green for Life by Boutenko the following:

…dead plants get consumed only by particular bacteria and fungi. Plants “know” how to attract to their own rotting only those microorganisms and earthworms, that will produce beneficial minerals for the soil where the plants’ siblings will grow.

Again, this amazingly sophisticated mechanism is only true for natural, not chemically treated soils and plants. Where chemicals are involved all the precious intricate relations between the plant and its soil are broken.

Still I often hear people saying: “organic is too pricy, I can not afford it” or “an organic label is not a 100% guarantee of a clean product, so why wasting money?”

And some stay away from organic for political reasons, because they associate it with rich folk’s liberal-socialistic fancy (?!)