The Diet Wars

The battle lines are clearly drawn.

On one side, we have the traditional foodies. Cool, calm, and sophisticated, they have decades of science and some of the highest authorities in the nutrition world on their side. They are the zero-calorie, non-dairy, lowfat, aspartame kind of crowd. "Proven" science and weight loss diets are the weapons of choice for traditional foodies, but don't think that means they won't stoop to some low-blow marketing tactics when it suits them.

On the other hand, the rebel eaters are becoming stronger and more numerous. Hippies, stay-at-home moms, political activists, and yes, even a few potheads make up this group of health food miscreants. With aggresive guerilla warfare and a focus on the natural, these bloggers and eco-villagers don't need science to tell them what they already know - but they've got plenty of it. Join the army of the rebel diet, and you will never look at food the same way again.

Weaponry in the Arsenals of Lifestyle Dieters 

Ask who you will, the fact that your diet is part of your lifestyle is unanimously agreed upon. The makeup of a quality lifestyle diet, however, is radically different between the two groups.

Foot Soldiers All Use Green Bullets... 

The concept of "green" living is an important one, and it can vary from person to person. The traditional foodies' idea of green and healthy lies somewhere between a solar-powered skyscraper complex and a suburban community garden. Some of their strongest weapons are simply misguided truths.

Counting Calories 

You have to use more calories than you consume each day to lose weight. Use exactly what you consume to maintain a healthy weight. Traditional foodies will even tell you to get "the most bang for your buck" by choosing foods high in protein, calcium, and other vitamins and minerals, and low in sugars and fats. To them, healthy often boils down to the Nutrition Facts. But how can rebel dieters count calories when most of the food they eat doesn't even have a nutrition label?

All Sugar is Created Equal 

So say the old school nutritionists. When sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, turbinado, and even sucanat - sugar as close to the originial sugar cane as you can get it - all add calories to your diet, it's better to use zero-calorie chemicals like aspartame and saccharin. When you're more concerned about counting calories than an elevated risk of cancer, that is.

Low Fat Foods Make Low Fat Bellies 

Fat is stored in your belly, hips, and buttocks to save for a rainy day. Conventional logic has it that if you eat less fat, your body will simply store less fat. But fat, especially saturated fat, actually helps your body's metabolism. The saturated fat found naturally in meats, butter, and full-fat dairy products are vital for a healthy brain, heart, liver, and even bones.

...But the Rebels' Bullets are Naturally Green, Not Dyed That Way 

The rebel dieters' view of Utopia is a little different. It's a world entirely free of chemicals in the food supply and in households. It's a world where we work with Mother Earth rather than forcing her, like a slave, to work for us. And it doesn't require any math.

Additive-Free 

Try to convince a rebel that a lowfat 100-calorie cookie snack pack is better than 300 calories worth of their homemade oatmeal cookies, and they'll look at you like you're off your rocker. Those homemade cookies may have lots of calories and will only last a few days, but you can throw in flax or chia seeds for extra protein, use healthy fats like coconut oil or real butter, and substitute applesauce, honey, or organic sugar for the ultra-refined sugar. The 100-calorie cookies are full of chemical fat substitutes, bizarre fillers, and a myriad of artificial preservatives. Not to mention, fresh-from-the-oven homemade cookies taste way better.

Homegrown Organics 

It's not that rebels refuse to eat conventionally grown fruits and veggies - it's just that organic is always better. And like the ingredients in homemade food, we have control over everything that goes on the foods we grow at home. While traditional foodies are happy to leave the details of their food to the corporations, rebels know that homegrown organics bring more power to the people.

Non-GMO

Want to reduce your risk of food sensitivities, digestive problems, and at least a dozen different types of cancer, all hile putting money into the hands of small companies trying to make a difference rather than huge corporations trying to make a buck? Cut out GMOs.

Heavy Artillary in the Diet Wars 

Every strong army has a secret weapon at their disposal, and the armies in this war are no different. The strongest and most persuasive nutrition bombs are at their fingertips.

Weight Loss Dieting 

Everybody wants to lose weight. Traditional foodies promise that the pounds will melt off if you adhere to their strict guidelines. And when you gain it all back within a month, it's because of your deviation from a dietary lifestyle that you've never been passionate about.

Your Health is Determined By Your Diet 

Rebel dieters don't diet simply to lose weight. The conerstone of any diet, rebels know, is not your weight but your health. Eat to stay healthy, and the weight loss will follow. The rebels use food for energy, for relaxation, even for medicine. We've treated everything from seasonal allergies to staph infections to life-threatening illnesses with the foods we eat - and the foods we don't eat. We're not afraid to question the doctors, to challenge the FDA's appalling lack of regulation in the food industry. We breastfeed our babies and raise our children to know how to forage. And as long as we keep fighting the diet war, we are the future.

The Sordid History of Refined Sugar Merchants

Once upon a time, refined white sugar was considered a luxury item. To enjoy a slice of cake or a cup of tea with real white sugar was a commodity that only lords and ladies could afford. As far back as 300 BC, when Alexander the Great discovered the well-kept secret of sugar cane in India and brought it back to the Persian Empire with him, sugar was considered a priviledge of the upper class and may even have been used to try to fight infections in war, although the evidence for that claim is rather inconclusive. Soldiers were fed sugar to give them energy before a long battle. And, unsurprisingly, when governments around the world realized just how valuable this "white gold" was, they began taxing it heavily.

For centuries, the investors and corporations behind the industry have touted the benefits of sugar to the general population. When the British tax on sugar was finally abolished in the 1800s, the price of sugar became so low that it wasn't hard to convince people to buy it. It was so cheap, in fact, that an attempt was made to feed sugar to livestock in an effort to fatten up cows and pigs without the high cost of the grains that animals need. Needless to say, the attempt was unsuccessful, if not downright disastrous.

According to the book Sugar Blues by William Dufty, the "sugar pushers" have used several tactics even within the past 100 years or so to convince people to buy their product. In the 1920s, the caloric value of sugar was considered a huge benefit - sugar is nothing but calories. Consumers were urged to use more sugar in their diet as a way to get enough daily calories at a cheap price. It was also advertised as being "pure", which is still on labels of refined sugar today. As Dufty put it, "So effective is the purification process which sugar cane and beets undergo in the refineries that sugar ends up as chemically pure as the morphine or the heroin a chemist has on the laboratory shelves." It has also been lumped into the category of "carbohydrate", making it sound like a necessary nutrient, and was even labeled "made from natural ingredients" during the age of the hippies in the '60s and '70s. Read an excerpt from this compelling book at the Global Healing Center.

The Dangers of White Sugar

Today, refined sugar is generally regarded as safe in small amounts, and there is no distinction between "pure" refined sugar, or sucrose, and other forms of sugar, such as glucose or fructose. In an era when counting calories is used to lose weight rather than gain energy, sugar in all its forms is advised to be taken in moderation. WebMD quotes nutrition professor Rachel K. Johnson as saying, "A calorie of sugar is a calorie of sugar, so whether you're getting it from white sugar or some other type of sweetener, you're still adding empty calories to your diet," referring to other sweeteners such as honey or maple syrup.

From a purely caloric standpoint, of course, Johnson is right. What she fails to grasp, or at least fails to mention, is that sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, or even coconut sugar have not been stripped of all redeeming nutrients, as refined white sugar has. Dufty explains it this way:

"Sugar is worse than nothing because it drains and leaches the body of precious vitamins and minerals through the demand its digestion, detoxification and elimination makes upon one's entire system. So essential is balance to our bodies that we have many ways to provide against the sudden shock of a heavy intake of sugar. Minerals such as sodium (from salt), potassium and magnesium (from vegetables), and calcium (from the bones) are mobilized and used in chemical transmutation; neutral acids are produced which attempt to return the acid-alkaline balance factor of the blood to a more normal state."

In other words, the sugars found in natural sweeteners like honey come with the nutrients needed to digest them. White sugar is devoid of nutrients, so your body has to pull these nutrients from other sources to make it usable.

Dufty mentions another reason why refined sugar is detrimental to health, aside from its inherent need to deplete the body of necessary nutrients. When taken with other carbohydrates, such as the wheat used to make cakes and cookies, sugar causes these carbs to break down improperly. The same is true of sugar taken with protein. In essence, refined sugar, which does not linger in the stomach when taken alone but goes straight to the small intestine and from there into the blood, causes your food to ferment in your stomach when it is forced to stay there with starches and proteins. Carbon dioxide and alcohol are two of the many by-products of such fermentation - ingredients that are not supposed to be in your body and lead to indigestion, excess gas, and stomach upset, among other things.

Sugar Pushers Today

With nutritionists claiming on renowned health websites that honey and maple syrup are no better than refined sugars, it is easy to see why the majority of Americans still keep white sugar in their pantries. Add to that such organizations as Sugar Knowledge International, or SKIL, who make the refining process of sugar cane and sugar beets look interesting rather than deadly, and the problem is even further compounded. SKIL has even claimed to be environmentally friendly, using leftover fiber from the sugar cane (bagasse fuel) to power sugar factories:

"When a large power station produces electricity it burns a fossil fuel [once used, a fuel that cannot be replaced] which contaminates the atmosphere and the station has to dump a lot of low grade heat. All this contributes to global warming. In the cane sugar factory the bagasse fuel is renewable and the gases it produces, essentially CO2, are more than used up by the new cane growing. Add to that the factory use of low grade heat [a system called co-generation] and one can see that a well run cane sugar estate is environmentally friendly."

Modern sugar pushers are just as cunning and decietful as the bigwigs who sold sugar centuries ago. Publicly advising that sugar should be taken in moderation, claiming to be good for the environment, and skimming over the fact that the phosphates used in the bleaching process are possibly linked to cancer, sugar pushers today are also just as successful.

But, all in all, the use of refined sugar in any home is a recipe for disaster. While its use does not guarantee obesity, gastritis, diabetes, heart disease, tooth decay, or any other health problem, the risk for all of these increases significantly in homes that have a bag of sugar in the pantry. Natural options like honey, maple syrup, stevia, and coconut sugar are more easily digestible by the body, and provide nutrients rather than stripping them away. Yes, they may still add to your calorie count for the day, but they are infinitely more healthy and nutritious than the refined sugar that is the emptiest calorie of them all.

for the bees

 The early morning light creeps slowly over a green field in springtime, the bluish hue of dawn fading into gold as the sun awakens. In the hive, one among thousands stirs as the day breaks and invites her out once again, beckoning with the promise of a lovely and productive day. She stretches her wings and shakes out her body before heading out.

A field of clover is nearby, and it is here that she will work, flitting from cloverhead to cloverhead, collecting the food that will feed her queen and keep the babies thriving. Clover, she knows, will keep her strong for the weeks of work ahead, less susceptible to the illnesses that sometimes sweep through a hive. Clover, she knows, will make good honey.

Clover is also good for humans, although the honeybee doesn't realize this. Full of Vitamins A, B, C, and E, along with potassium and calcium (among others), both red and white clover can boost the nutritive value of a classic side salad tremendously. All of its parts, from the flower head to the roots, are edible, and can be used dried, fresh, or even cooked. Collect the leaves in the early spring to add to salads, serve steamed as a side dish, or even eat raw. Use the flower heads during the summer as an edible garnish, or add them dried to cookies and cakes for a unique sweet flavor and aroma. Both the leaves and the flowers can be steeped into a clover tea to help relieve coughs, colds, and even minor eye infections.

The honeybee hastens through the field, happy to do the work that will help provide for her hive. Then a nearby plant catches her attention, and without hesitation, she turns from the clover to collect the nectar from this new herb.

Tiny white flowers erupt from the thick green foliage of a basil plant. An herb renowned for its medicinal properties as well as its minty, peppery flavor, basil is also a favorite among bees of all kinds. Keep basil in your arsenal of medicinal herbs for its ability to reduce fevers; relieve the symptoms of colds, flus, and bronchitis; soothe sore joints and arthritis; and reduce swelling. The herb is even beneficial for cardiovascular health, and may be helpful in lowering cholesterol. Mixed with the strong, natural honey from local bees, its juice can help you naturally pass a kidney stone.

Moving from flower to flower, the honeybee notices that there are more flowering herbs nearby, all of which can benefit the honey and the hive. The puffy purple flowers of bee balm, the bluish-purple of sage, the pale pinkish-white of catnip, and the bright yellow of calendula peek out from the green around her. Of course, she can't see the colors, but she recognizes the plants and the nectar that will make fine honey for the winter. She doesn't mind that she will never get to enjoy the finished honey that she is working so hard to help make - she is only happy to know that the hive will benefit.

Beekeepers know that what you plant directly affects the flavor, quality, and consistency of the honey. The nectar of medicinal herbs can also produce medicinal quality honey. But even if you aren't a  beekeeper and will never get to taste the honey that the bees in your yard or garden make, there are other reasons to plant a few extra herbs in your garden this year. Bees of all kinds are needed to keep your plants producing. Allow them to flower just a bit - while tough pruning is necessary for a good yield, you may consider allowing one plant of each variety to go to flower to keep some bees in your yard. Even the clovers, dandelions, and wild mint that tend to plague lovers of a traditional green suburban lawn can actually improve your yard when they are allowed to flower, at least for a few days.

This bees' garden is just what our honeybee needed. The nectar from just a few of these flowers can do incredible things, working to keep the hive strong and healthy, help the queen produce more workers throughout the summer, and even protect the hive from invaders that might try to steal the honey.

The honeybee works tirelessly as the hot summer day progresses, gathering nectar and inadvertently spreading pollen along the way. The shadows finally start growing longer and longer, bringing her long day of work to an end. She flits to one last flower, then turns to head home with her sisters, all flying work-worn but content back to the hive. Tomorrow will be much the same but she doesn't mind - she is an herbalist and an artist, and nothing could delight her more than to spend her days nestled in flowers.

The Gluten Experiment

There are few things more comforting to me than baking bread. There is a certain warmth in the smell of the yeast, a half-remembered familiarity in the rhythmic kneading of the dough. I'm not sure if it's the amateur mathematician in me or if it's because of my OCD tendencies, but I love the predictable formula that makes every loaf of bread, from a simple white sandwich bread to a complex-tasting honey wheat or crusty French bread. Mix, knead, rise, shape, rise, bake.

It has been a long time since I baked bread on a regular basis. Two children make it difficult enough to find time for such olde world pleasures - and when you learn that one of them can't even eat the bread you make, it rather deflates the satisfaction that comes from the end result.

Mix. You will start with yeast, warm water, and sugar. Let these sit for about 10 minutes, then add in your fat, a touch of salt, and your flour. You can substitute honey for sugar, and use butter, margarine, shortening, or any number of oils (I prefer coconut) for your fat, but what really matters is the quality of your flour.

It happened a few months ago that I stumbled upon an article which described how so many people who were gluten intolerant in the the US were able to eat wheat in other countries. The main differing factor in American wheat? Nearly 80% of comercially available wheat in the US is harvested by being sprayed with Round Up, a well-known weed killer. The Round Up kills the entire field of wheat at about the same time, making harvesting easier and possibly slightly more efficient. Throughout the European Union, and in many other parts of the world, wheat treated with Round Up is illegal. Interestingly enough, America has the highest percentage of gluten intolerant residents in the world, with the numbers still rising, while countries that ban Round Up are seeing a much slower increase in the number of gluten intolerant residents. I should also point out that the US also allows the use of potassium bromate in its wheat, while the European Union bans that as well.

I did what any good crunchy stay-at-home mom with an affinity for bread-baking would do. I bought a bag of King Arthur's flour (which, although people online claim that it's European flour, states "made from select 100% American wheat" right on the bag. It is, however, unbleached and unbromated - check out King Arthur flour's commitment to non-GMO quality here.) - and I started making bread.

Knead. When you feel like working out those biceps, start kneading a "soft dough." When you want to work your triceps, too, look for a recipe that makes a "stiff dough." Kneading until you can actually feel the dough working against you (this is what they call "elastic") is extremely important. Overknead, and your dough will rise quickly. Underknead, and your dough will never quite rise properly and come out of the oven harder than you wanted it to.

Before I introduced the King Arthur's flour to my son's diet, I had to wait two weeks to make sure any trace gluten from another source wouldn't skew the results of my experiment. The rash around his mouth was completely gone and even the last of his remaining tongue sore had healed up by the time I fed him his first slice of King Arthur bread. He looked at me uncertainly when I offered it to him, at two years old already accepting of the fact that everybody else could eat bread but he couldn't. Then he opened his rosebud mouth, took a tiny little nibble, and beamed at a pleasure that he thought he would never again be allowed - Mama's homemade bread.

Rise. Although I always rise my bread in the bowl I used for mixing (which you're really not supposed to do), I still grease the bowl really well, and make sure to turn the dough over to grease the top. Then I pick the little bits of old dough out of my stick of butter, cover the dough with a dishtowel to keep the heat in the bowl, and go about my business while the well-kneaded dough ball rises. If you kneaded the dough well enough, it should be puffy and ready to shape in about an hour, maybe an hour and a half if you're making two loaves at once.

Over the next few weeks, King Arthur flour made its way into cakes, pies, muffins, cookies, quick bread, and even a batch of bagels, all of which I gave my gluten-intolerant son with growing confidence. And between homeschooling my four-year-old and nursing my newborn, I found time to work my biceps (and occasionally my triceps) and make bread.

Shape. Always push out the bubbles in your dough before you shape. When you roll out the dough then roll it up into a loaf shape, take care to get out as many bubbles as you can. The better option, I've found, is to knead them out.

Sometimes, as much as you want to, you just can't make bread that day, even though your husband needs bread for the sandwich that he'll take to work for lunch tomorrow. Sometimes, you just have to buy bread.

I realized somewhat belatedly that since wheat is not technically a genetically modified food, all I needed was the the little green USDA Organic seal to be sure that a loaf of bread had not been "treated" with Round Up or potassium bromate. Certified organic bread is hard to come by in Wal-Mart, but I found a loaf and tried it out. We ate the entire loaf in about three days, and my son still showed absolutely no reaction to the gluten.

Rise. The second time you let the loaves rise, you want to make sure you put them in the oven at just the right time. When the bread has definitely doubled in size and it feels like it's pushing back when you gently press a finger into the side, you know it's time to toss it in the oven. Any longer, and your bread could have the rather bizarre lingering taste and smell of yeast.

My son hadn't shown any symptoms of having gluten in his diet despite his nearly four weeks of eating bread almost every day. Unbelievably, his rash was still gone, his tongue clear, and he hadn't complained of his stomach hurting once. Just to make sure he hadn't somehow been miraculously cured of his condition, I gave a few non-King Arthur crackers to him and let him eat a piece of questionable wheat laden pizza. Like a post script in lemon juice that's been exposed to heat, a few rash bubbles appeared on his face shortly afterward and a sore spot spread across his tongue a few days later.

Bake. I had, for many years, a bad habit of pulling the bread out of the oven before it was quite ready. I was always afraid the crust would burn. Let your bread stay in the oven a little longer than it seems like it should. Nothing ruins a good loaf of bread like a slightly doughy center and a crust that's too thick.

About every three days, I have to make another loaf of bread. It's best with dinner on the the first night, on a sandwich for lunch the next, then as breakfast toast in the following days. My son eats it every day, with no symptoms, still. For him, bread is the food, not that made him abnormal in his family, but that made him normal again. For him, there will always be something soothing about the smell of freshly baked bread, the slightly springy texture that is the mark of a good loaf, the butter that gets on your fingers from the crust if you eat a slice before it has cooled. For me, well, there are few things more comforting than baking bread.