Weston A. Price Foundation - Tracy

[Tim Elston]

Tracy, I read around at the Weston A. Price Foundation website. It is a good site.

They have an emphasis on the consumption of animal fats. I'm wondering how you have found whatever balance you have achieved to affect weight. I know they are not saying to gorge on fat, and I presume that they mean to consume animal fats instead of polyunsaturated fat and hydrogenized vegetable oil, and that seems intuitively correct. The hullabaloo about eating beef has never made sense to me, so I am not at all, and have never been tempted to be, a vegan or vegetarian or white-meat only eater.

But I'm just curious about your experience with your diet. Tell me a little bit about whatever balance you have found works for you and your family. How strictly do you adhere to the Dietary Guidelines and shun the Dietary Dangers? How has whatever you do dietarily affected your vitality and health, in contrast to your previous eating habits? Did you move to the farm in order to support the diet or did the diet ensue in the aftermath of the move?

What would you say are the five or ten most important dietary changes that you have made? What would you most recommend to city dwellers whose diet is bound to foraging the grocery aisles and slaughtering the cellophane package?

[Tracy]

I am so glad you are enjoying the articles at the WAP website. I'll answer your questions a little at a time. I've been working like a dog this evening making ice cream, yogurt, sourdough bread, sourdough pancakes, and cooking supper!

Your question about weight is an interesting one, because when we changed our diets to a more traditional diet, I was a bit wary of what would happen to us in the weight department. The good news is that we are fine! After months of eating this nutritious food, our weights are very, very good. My weight has fluctuated some, and I'm not sure what to attribute that to. For awhile I was underweight, which isn't good. My weight is up some now. It could be muscle! I've worked hard on the farm over the last year--chopping briars, moving wood piles, shoveling and hauling manure, digging dirt from the woods and hauling it to raised beds, hoeing, planting, weeding, cleaning the barn stall, etc. I've been trying to increase my strength. The whole family seems to be maintaining healthy weights.

There is a book that I haven't read, but would like to, called, "Eat Fat, Lose Fat." I think it is written by Dr. Enig--a reputable scientist who was proclaiming the dangers of margarine long before the mainstream caught on.

I'm not sure I can identify our balance though. Maybe giving you a better idea of how we eat will help. We eat loads and loads of free range eggs, cream, whole raw milk, coconut oil, chicken (dark and white meat), fatted chicken broth, whole milk yogurt and ice cream and cheese and butter. (I make yogurt, ice cream, butter and cheese from our cow's milk, but we also buy it--I can only do so much! lol) However, we also eat lots of vegetables, fruit, and soaked grains that I grind myself (rye, millet, whole wheat, buckwheat). We eat nuts too.

Also, it is important what we don't eat. As a rule, we don't eat potato chips, store-bought cookies, pastries, or breads, soft drinks, etc. We try to avoid corn syrup, MSG, hydrogenated oils, yellow oils (corn, canola, soy, cotton seed) and processed foods. These things do find their way into our diets, but they are minimal. For example, when one of us gets a cough from sinus congestion, we drink some sprite to stop the cough. lol. Sometimes I buy pie crusts, and those have loads of hydrogenated oils in them, and sometimes I will buy a frozen pizza. We just try to let the bad foods be rare and minimal. I think weight problems stem from corn syrup, white flour, white sugar--those sorts of things, and they are in practically everything. I cook nearly all our desserts--that way I can control what goes into it.

I try to lean towards the fermented foods also. I've made sourkraut, and I like porridge soaked overnight in yogurt. I've made kombucha, but it didn't ferment enough; I need to try again when I have another starter. The flour for the pancakes that we will have in the morning is soaking right now in yogurt and sourdough starter.

I also take cod liver oil. (bleh) We use pure maple syrup, and I make all our jams and preserves and apple butter; I also make our pickles--thereby avoiding the corn syrup that is in those items when purchased from the store.

The kids are used to eating this way and don't see anything odd about it. I simply do not buy junk food, therefore it is not in the house for them to eat. Tonight, for example, both of my children are eating homemade chocolate fondue that I made for them: semi sweet baker's chocolate, fresh raw cream, butter, and vanilla (no added sugar)--all warm and melted together. My daughter is having it with a banana; my son is just eating it straight I think. lol. (As I was making it he said, "Put extra butter in mine." And of course, I did! ha) He later had an apple to finish out his snack.

That is a lot to read, but maybe it will give you an idea. I am very pleased with our health. We'll probably all get sick now that I am talking about it (ha), but we seldom get ill. When we do, I work like a crazy woman to buttress up the patient. For example, I have frozen individual servings of chicken stock/bone broth that I have made from the chickens that we raise. When someone is sick, I just start thawing the broth and feeding it to the sick person! Most of our immune system is in the gut, so I like to push yogurt when sickness comes, to increase the good bacteria that is fighting the bad.

I think that the best things we have done are raw dairy products, home-grown chicken and eggs, and lots of vegetables and fruit and butter, but also and just as importantly--what we aren't eating, as I listed above. The industrial diet is deadly--sucking health and vitality from those who eat it. But it is all people have to eat, unless they try very hard to get food elsewhere. Our plan this summer is to raise a hog, thereby adding in healthy pork and lard (lard, by the way, has gotten a bad rap! It is not a bad food. If I remember correctly, it is much like olive oil in its chemical composition. But the industry would rather you buy their margarine and yellow oils!)

Are you still reading this? This turned out very long , but I just get carried away. I'll type some more tomorrow and answer some more of your questions. I think the best part of such healthy eating is the robust, sturdy health that it generally brings. I really believe that we are giving our bodies what God intended for them to have--eating traditional foods close to their original form. This is not to say that we won't become sick, of course we will--but I think it will be less frequent, and I hope to avoid the modern diseases that have increased along with the mainstream diet of idustrial food, ie. diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, etc.

Fasincating stuff

Blessings,
Tracy

[Martha]

Tracy, you said: "and I make all our jams and preserves and apple butter;"

Since you don't use white sugar and I assume no artificial sweetener, how do you make your jam, preserves and apple butter? I made fig preserves and apple butter this summer using Splenda but I'd love to find a way to make them without anything artifical. Any ideas? Maybe you could post your recipes on the other board.

Thanks!

[Tracy]

Hi Martha,

I wish I did know how to make those items without white sugar; I don't. So I use white sugar in them. I did mention that white sugar is something that I think causes weight gain, but I didn't say that we don't eat it, because we still do lol. What I avoid by making our own jams and preserves is the corn syrup that you will find in practically all store-bought varieties. So, we still eat the white sugar. The good news is that I know how much is going in, and I am using fresh fruit in them. This summer I canned apple butter, blackberry jam, strawberry jam, and peach preserves.

I do not use artificial sweetners--those things scare me silly. Some people use white grape juice in their preserves; that would be better than white sugar. I have introduced some other sweetners into our diet though. Date sugar, which is just powdered dates, works very well in breads and desserts. It is healthy, because it is fruit. Too much still isn't good for you, but it is fruit at least. Also I use unrefined cane sugar. This is what white sugar is before it has been processed. Being unrefined, it still has the minerals and goodness in it. I really like it. Honey is also something that we eat--much healthier than white sugar. I wonder if I could make preserves with honey?? Have you ever heard of anyone doing this?

[Pastorbps]

Tracy:

I am fascinated reading your posts about your farm life. I haven't been on the farm in a long time but my grandfather was a farmer in Arkansas and reading your posts reminds me of early childhood memories (and smells lol!) I'm from S.C. also. Does your family live in the upstate or low country? Also, how did your kids handle the transition to milk straight from the cow?

Pastorbps

[Tracy]

Tracy:

I am fascinated reading your posts about your farm life. I haven't been on the farm in a long time but my grandfather was a farmer in Arkansas and reading your posts reminds me of early childhood memories (and smells lol!) I'm from S.C. also. Does your family live in the upstate or low country? Also, how did your kids handle the transition to milk straight from the cow?

Pastorbps

Hi Pastorbps,

My kids went crazy for the milk!! They love it!! It really is so creamy and sweet and rich. So different from the pasteurized & homogenized milk from the store. The kind of milk cow that we have makes a difference as well. She is a "Jernsey" cow--part Jersey and part Guernsey, and they are the two kinds of cows with the highest cream content in their milk.

I am from Kentucky, but I think the flag symbol on Jude2 is very similar to that of S.C. I love being in the country. My grandparents were farmers too, and we live right on their farm. That makes it special.

Did your grandparents raise hogs? Raising a hog and growing strawberries will be my new projects this summer, God willing. I don't know how to do either, so I have a lot of research to do.

Blessings,
Tracy

[sweetpea]

Tracy,I don't really know,but my dentist told me that the first year the strawberry plants do not produce fruit.

[Mona]

Haven't tried it yet, but maybe this summer.STRAWBERRY JAM MADE WITH HONEY


Friday, July 27, 2007 2:43 PM CDT







Ingredients:4-1/2 cups prepared fruit (about 2 quarts ripe strawberries)

1 box (1 oz.) powdered fruit pectin

7 cups mild-flavored honey

Crush fully-ripened strawberries completely, one layer at a time. In a 6 to 8 qt. saucepan, measure 4-1/2 cups prepared fruit. Add powdered pectin to fruit; mix well. Place over high heat. Bring to full, rolling boil, stirring constantly. At once, stir in honey. Bring to full, rolling boil again. Boil hard 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; skim off foam with metal spoon. Alternately stir and skim for 5 minutes to cool slightly and prevent fruit from floating. Ladle into hot sterilized glasses. Let stand at room temperature until set (which may take up to 24 hours). Freeze. Makes about twelve (6 fl. oz.) glasses.

[Tracy]

Tracy,I don't really know,but my dentist told me that the first year the strawberry plants do not produce fruit.

That's what I think, too. I think you may get one here and there the first year, but they don't really produce until the second and following.

That is delayed gratification!! lol.

[Tracy]

Haven't tried it yet, but maybe this summer.STRAWBERRY JAM MADE WITH HONEY


Friday, July 27, 2007 2:43 PM CDT







Ingredients:4-1/2 cups prepared fruit (about 2 quarts ripe strawberries)

1 box (1 oz.) powdered fruit pectin

7 cups mild-flavored honey

I see, this is freezer jam. That makes sense, since you are using honey in it. That's a lot of honey, isn't it!!

Thank you!

Tracy