Real Food in an Unreal World 5-22-08

Real Food

Every week on Thursday at 2:07 until 3:00 PM, Central Time, you can tune into my live radio program on KWTO at www.radiospringfield.com. You can call in with questions.?

REAL FOOD IN AN UNREAL WORLD

C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.

Considering the fact that at lest 80% of all food consumed in the U.S. is junk or highly processed and loaded with chemicals and poisons, what can you eat that is reasonable??? Since I travel a lot, that issue has been a major concern for me for over 37 years.

At home, we raise most of our vegetables and fruits. We can mostly and freeze a bit. We are fortunate enough to have reasonably nearby range fed chicken, turkey and beef. For the past 4 years I have been fortunate to get in Alaska salmon and halibut. The Seventh Day Adventist Church in most communities brings in citrus fruit all winter. When we run short we order thru them. We buy bananas at the regular grocery store and buy some frozen strawberries. At the grocery store I also shop for caned shitake mushrooms, artichokes, Smuckers ?peanut butter, canned garbanzos and some canned sweet peas, yogurt, butter, Cabots cheeses, Luzanne tea ( I make my own Earl Grey by adding bergamot), evaporated milk, eggs ( I generally just get the best brown eggs available), Half and Half (generic) and Whipping Cream (generic), milk and buttermilk, occasionally grapes and apples. I stock up on canned pink salmon (it is wild Alaskan, as pink does not freeze well), tuna (limited use not more than once a week). I do buy some peaches canned in pear juice and some cranberry juice. When possible after Christmas, if the store has cranberries on sale, I stock up and make my own cranberry juice.?

I order some dried peaches, chia seeds, Gano coffee, Tart Cherry Juice from Brownwood Farms, and from Bobs Red Mill I order non-gluten oatmeal as well as sorghum and arrowroot to make gluten-free bread. I order cashews and almonds from wholesalers. I am about to experiment with true sourdough at home, as there is some evidence that really letting it ferment a decent time at least overnight removes most or all the gluten. More down the road on what I think of this approach! We also order a Baby Swiss cheese from a creamery in Ohio we have used this for well over 30 years.

Traveling I take with me or purchase on the road salted cashews and/ or almonds and eat these one or two meals a day. Sometimes I am lucky enough to be in a place where I can get Smuckers peanut butter. I use fresh fruit or bottled fruit juice with the nuts. For breakfast, I eat what is available in the hotels (or my nuts and fruit)? and I eat the best possible at restaurants—ordering mostly fish, salads and veggies. I often take with me my 70% Santander dark chocolate for one oz a day. I NEVER go to a fast food restaurant!!!

Basically, this is the best I can do and I do not worry about any of this which is not perfect. Overall, it seems to keep me healthy. I do not eat soy. To me protein consists of eggs, good chicken, turkey, fish, beef and occasional pork, cheese, yogurt, supplemented with some chick peas, sweet green peas, peanut butter and nuts. Dont sweat the small stuff!