Wisdom in the Kitchen!

To eat this, or not to eat this...? That is the question. That is the question that we all ask ourselves, albeit ever-so-fleetingly, many times a day. A desire for and understanding of good nutrition does not come naturally. I believe a weakness for for the “bad” stuff is about as innate as sin itself. Thus, endeavoring to change that tendency is much like a spiritual journey. Study, prayer and application are about the only way things will ever change. 

And then... you are a freak. 

Seriously, you start eating really healthy and you’ll get all sorts of flack. You may receive some crazy looks or sarcastic comments, similar to those that non-Christians might give us Evangelicals. You may be called a hippie or a tree hugger or all manner of things! 

I have a friend who’s wife died from stomach cancer; he has researched nutrition incessantly, hoping to arm his four children with healthy bodies that will fight against any genetic tendencies. His view of eating healthy is this: If you look at how American’s eat as if it were a face on a clock...you could put the Standard American Diet (aka S.A.D.) at 12:00. If you want to eat right, it isn’t as if you need to tweak things just a bit...say towards 11:55 or 12:10...One must go in the absolute other direction. Good nutrition is at the 6, or the 30 minute mark, in total opposition from mainstream America.

I hope that visual made sense. 

So, where am I going with this? Well, as part of the TOS Crew I received a Sue Gregg cookbook, Introducing Whole Foods Cooking for Health and Hospitality, by Rich and Sue Gregg. This is like a cliff-notes version of a nutritional Encyclopedia.

Actually, I have the full-size version of the “nutritional encyclopedia” already: Sally
Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions. It is a wonderful resource/cookbook but it is almost overwhelming in the amount of information it contains. I have vacillated with what I have learned and the actual application for several years. I was certain that there was probably some simplification that could be done, but hadn’t the time to experiment and figure it out. When Sue Gregg’s book arrived I was thrilled to see that she and her husband Rich have incorporated and UNCOMPLICATED the very things that are taught in Nourishing Traditions!

I have had some previous exposure to Sue Gregg’s cookbooks. When I bought my flour mill, years ago, a friend shared one of her Sue Gregg cookbooks with me. I still have many of the recipes. Although they were nutritionally “current” (low fat, whole grain, and using yogurt instead of sour cream etc.) they were nothing like the fundamental nutritional facts found in Sally Fallon’s tome.

When I started reading the Introducing Whole Foods book, I was so happy to see that Sue and Rich Gregg had found and incorporated the truth’s in Fallon’s book as well. This was not the Sue Gregg cookbook of years past. The Gregg’s have learned and evolved in their nutritional expertise and are now passing on their secrets to eating truly healthy (way down there at the “30 minute” mark) to the rest of us.

Introducing Whole Foods for Health and Hospitality is a perfect introduction to taking steps towards solid nutrition. The fact is, healthy eating has been going on since creation; it has only been in the last 100 years or so that things have gone haywire, causing all those nasty “Western” diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. What nutritional knowledge have we lost? 

The answers begin in books that teach how foods should be prepared, how they have been prepared in generations past. Thankfully, truly healthful food prep is not a completely lost art, but it isn’t something you’ll find in the latest issue of “Eating Light” or “Healthy Living”. Yet the ways of our ancestors have been preserved by a few and are slowly being practiced by more people.

It is a process of re-educating ourselves. And, as I said, Introducing Whole Foods is a great place to start. Sue and Rich Gregg do an excellent job discussing what true nutrition looks like and how to incorporate that into real life. They take the “scary” out of the process of using grains properly, and they give you recipes that really do taste delicious! Furthermore, through their genius idea of using your blender for a mill, you can enjoy hard-core nutrition in very doable ways. In fact, the “Blender Batter Pancakes” are the best pancakes we’ve ever eaten (and we have had stacks and stacks...). Tip: if you ever make these, cook on lower heat for a longer period, these babies are thick and will stay gooey in the middle if you aren’t careful!

Where does wisdom for right relationship to our food ultimately come from? The Word of God, of course. Recognizing this fact, the Greggs have also included Bible studies on the use of food, the way food brings us all together and how we can glorify God through what we eat, as well as how we eat it. They take spiritual food and natural food and show how closely the two are related.

Introducing Whole Foods for Health and Hospitality is a terrific way to take the first step towards truly eating right. It is also a wonderful little home-ec/Bible study course that you can do on your own, with your children or even in a co-op setting. What could be better than getting together and baking bread with a bunch of friends? (Yes, ok, coffee at Starbucks is right up there).

Once you get comfortable with the easy recipes in Introducing Whole Foods, there are many more cookbooks that the Greggs have written that delve further into the nutritional realm. One feature with this cookbook that is just fabulous is the inclusion of a CD that takes you step by step, using photos, through the recipes, removing all the mystery out of preparing food and eating right!

Sue Gregg has a tremendous website, with some recipes you can try before you buy, allowing you to anticipate the great things to come in the cookbooks you order. You can visit the Gregg’s website by clicking here. Introducing Whole Foods for Health and Hospitality sells for $23. In this day and age, it can be hard to decipher the latest nutritional craze and buzz-words...turn your back on all that and get back to basics with the sound nutritional guidance in this cookbook! The money you'll save in the long run by eating healthy now is well worth your time and money.

Below is a picture of a healthy coffee cake recipe that I made several times, much to the delight of my family! I doubled it to make a 9 x 13 pan to feed 12. It did!