Today is a windy, snowy, snuggle into the moonchair and read spring Sunday. Yesterday was a warm, bright, daffodil blooming, manure flinging, fennel planting spring Saturday. Yesterday was a time for action, today is for reflection. This is the third nudge I've had from the universe this week to take up the pen.
I love to read, but feel insignificant when set before the blank page. Hence, often when I write it takes the form of defensive egotistical ranting if not self effacing over divulgence. So anyway, now you are warned, here goes..
This week I am suffering from yet another bout of internet research induced feelings of betrayal by our industrial information based society.
We as a family have been eating mostly whole grains for at least 15 years. True, it did offer some improvement in our health once we began grinding grain immediately before cooking. However, I just kept feeling like I wasn't getting the nutrition I needed. I've been through all kinds of ideologies; macrobiotic; we were vegetarian for a couple of years, blood type (which for a household of differing parents and the ensuing possible combination of eight offspring is chaotic at best), ayurvedic dabblings, Dr. Christopher studies, sugar free (for a few months), acid- alkaline balance, raw-sprouting additions, weed eating, tea drinking, supplement taking and even a quasi paleo-diet. One might think we were bound to encounter the spring of eternal youth with all this crap. I kept thinking it shouldn't be this complicated to nourish our bodies.
As usual each ideology offered something of benefit, none could deliver the panacea that ideologies are wont to. It could be argued that I was not rigorous enough or that I did not stick with one long enough, but how long do you have to stand in quicksand to know that your situation isn't improving?
The health food and 'science' industries echo a New Yorker article I read recently about Madoff and the Ponzi Scheme-'too good to be true'
We yearn to be on the side of genius, cheat the order of the natural world, fly with the wings of Icharus or in vampirism drink blood to seize upon ever elusive immortality.
The myriad cults of diet have similar earmarks of scheming. We are susceptible fools. And why are we so susceptible? Because we do not know what an honest apple or tomato is supposed to taste like and so have no comparison. We are pale and wan, bleary of sight, wandering in mind and know not who or what to blame. We have been nourished based on maxims of 'maximize profits, minimize expenses' and 'always improve the bottom line'. It is the grandest ponzi scheme of all. Cheat the masses out of substance and soak their money in the process. Churned out from board rooms, concocted in labs, packaged with convenience and stamped and marketed with celebrity. Yes, there is product, but substance is drained more every year.
There is nary an honest tomato (or apple) to blow the whistle and we are accomplice to our own defrauding.
So finally to the point of my betrayal for this week. It seems that I have not been getting enough nutrition from my food, mainly in the forms of calcium, magnesium, zinc and iron; all deficiencies that I have noted over the years, and hence supplemented for. The reason is that whole grains, while containing these vital elements at the same time, contain phytic acid, or phytates, that bind up the nutrients, making them bio-unavailable. The purpose of the phytates is to hold the seed in stasis until it encounters favorable conditions for growth.
While sprouting for quite a while as a way of feeding our beloved troupe on leaner times, I have noted that when I eat my sprouts my body seems to utilize calcium more effectively (less muscle cramps, less tooth sensitivity, less joint pain or cracking, fewer craving for sweets
etc.).
This is at least partially because I have become leery of information that I cannot personally verify. I can afford very little chasing of ideologies at this point in my life. I must have substance and results.
I have encountered this phylate conundrum previously, though I had not encountered a viable solution. Our diet is built around whole grains for economic reasons and health reasons, taste, convenience and simplicity. The solution came from How to eat grains.