When “Clean Eating” Becomes Poison

…we women should seek first the kingdom of righteousness in making ourselves efficient users of those things around us, things we can be bountifully supplied with at all times, before we aspire to become users of articles that come from distant parts and are not always easy to get.  -1905

Healthy, “clean eating” websites can be a little wearisome nowadays.  The recipe may look delicious, but then you try wading through a complicated ingredient list–

• lard (home-rendered from grass-fed organic heritage pork fat)
• milk (raw, organic, A-2 spring milk, preferably)
• mayonnaise (imported organic hand-pressed olive oil and organic eggs–brown shelled are best)
• honey (raw, local) and my favorite,
• pastured eggs (because eggs like to roll in the grass under open skies as much as anyone else)

Anything less than the finest quality ingredients will result in irritable bowels, a leaky gut, and cancer (or worse!), so we’re told.

Of course we want to provide our families the best of everything.  But sometimes, the best is cost-prohibitive, out of season, or simply not easily available to us.  Only in recent history have we had access to food sourced from all over the world. If we could afford it, I don’t think any of us would decline a juicy, garden-grown tomato for one of those dry, tasteless ones shipped in the winter from parts unknown.   

It’s not as if we intentionally bypass cheap, raw, grass-fed milk available at every convenience store in town to drive to the next county intentionally to buy a farmer’s expensive pasteurized, homogenized, antibiotic-laden skim milk. 

We women often feel pressured to supply our families with the very best quality ingredients at any cost.  To those of us struggling to maintain grocery budgets, health experts advise, “What you don’t spend in quality food now, you’ll spend in medical bills later!”  How discouraging is that? I hardly think that a cause of death has ever been attributed to “consumption of imitation vanilla.” Not even due to “protein powder deficiency.” 

Stress causes health problems, and maybe, perhaps, the pressure to eat perfectly increases stress?

Clean Eating in History

No one can guarantee a formula for perfect health. In ancient times, absolutely everyone ate organic, free-range, non-GM, locally sourced food. But Jesus had no end of people that needed healing. And Hippocrates had enough business that he became known as the “father of medicine.”

Take heart, housewives.  We’re all doing the best that we can in our own ways.  You shouldn’t let someone make you feel guilty or that you love your family less because you don’t have the resources someone else has. Your life doesn’t have to look like someone else’s.  The American pioneer women didn’t have cassava flour, avocados, coconut aminos, or even multi-level marketing drink powders tucked into their covered wagons. Yet somehow they managed to muddle through life.  They made the most of the limited variety available to them. It must have been adequate enough, because thanks to them, many of us are here now.

It’s very simple, really.  Learn the basic principles of cooking and eating healthily and be content with doing your best with what you have at hand.