Sunday, October 4, 2009

Where have all the craftsmen gone?

Lately, I've been watching documentaries about food and health. This is a topic that greatly interestes me. There is so much to learn about food and how it directly effects our bodies...it's fascinating. Really, it's as fascinating as it is because we live in a culture of convenience. A great portion of the food people eat now-a-days is processed. Sometimes that is all they eat. Beyond this, most people don't even think about food and what it does when it goes down their throat. They don't think of the nutrients and benefits they are getting.....or the lack there of and damage they could be doing.

Again, we live in a culture of convenience. Blame the industrial age. There are products mass produced in bulk and processed til it's hardly deserving of the title "food". We consume more chemicals that we realize and we don't seem to care as long as it's easy, fast and affordable.

I am pressed to make the correlation between a food item and it's eater. We are a culture that is easy, fast and affordable. Or rather lazy, whiney and cheap. We are really losing something here...

Caleb and I have made a few decision based on the things that we have been learning and thoughts that have been brewing. First, we are staying away from processed food (spare a few ingredients, like chocolate chips for baking*see note). Second, we are limiting our intake of meat to only a couple of times a week, using other vegetarian sources of protien (this will in turn help our digestive system, as animal protien can be hard on the intestines and pancreas). Third, we will limit (basically eliminate) or use of refined sugars, relying on other natural sweeteners such as honey and agave nectar. Fourth, if we can buy a desired produce organically or locally we will do so. And fifth, I will be baking our own whole wheat multi-grain bread (free of corn fillers, preservatives and chemicals). I believe these changes will save us money, supply more energy and help our health overall tremendously.

*Note: there may be some processed foods still purchased, but only after a review of the ingredients. I encourage everyone to become familiar with the ingredients found in some products that you may not recognise. You may find there is something you wouldn't want in your body.
Also, it's important to keep yourself accountable. I am not opposed to a treat now and then that may not be super for you, but these things I eat seldom and sparingly. Know what goes into your body. Eat for your body and not just for your cravings or desires.

Now to talk about the last change (bread) and the actual reason I started this blog post. As I was driving home from my grocery venture today, I was listening to an interesting conversation about craftsmen on NPR. They were mentioning how the industrial age had really hurt the craftsman way of life. People stopped doing things with their own hands and machines stepped in. But there is something within us that wants to create and create something well for it's own purpose. I was thinking of how this correlated with my cooking and bread-making and how I'm excited to make it with my own hands. I'm hoping there is a revival of the craftsman in all of us. A desire to plant our own food and flowers, to cook our own meals from scratch, to build our own tables and spice racks, to sew our own clothes, to fix the toilet ourselves, to paint a picture, to knit a scarf... And when you enjoy these things, you enjoy them more because you know the work that went into them and you did it with your own hands. There is something exciting about that.

Anyway, that is what has been on my mind as of late. When I got home, I lifted all the groceries, with my own two hands up to the door of our apartment. On my way I got honked at by a couple of girls, one of which shouted to me "Lady, I love you, you're my hero."

Yes, I will lift these groceries. Yes, they are heavy and awkward, but I will do it for me and scrawny armed girls around the world....

...although, I could have done without the "Lady".

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