Hot Off the Press!

It really is amazing to live in a town where my diet is front page news.

But seriously, who doesn't like being in the newspaper?

I'm flattered, really, but I have to say, I take umbrage with the phrases "stone age", "paleo", and "caveman diet", because in truth, I eat nothing like a paleolithic caveman from the stone age.  I think these adjectives are misnomers to describe our meat and vegetable diet.  Yet for lack of a more accurate term, even I use the phrase "paleo diet" when discussing our food choices.

The best description I've read of an actual paleo diet came from a history textbook we used a few years ago: The Story of the World. The first chapter of volume 1 discusses the first nomads to become farmers in the Fertile Crescent, and vividly describes a fictional nomadic girl who catches lizards while the women in her tribe are foraging.  Her mother makes a stew with them, presumably with some foraged roots and greens.  I have yet to find a good recipe for lizard stew, or convince my children to go out and catch some lizards for dinner.

The closest I've come to actual "paleo" food is eating wild trout caught by George.  However, he drove a motorized vehicle up to a mountain stream to fish, used a fly rod he researched and bought online, then prepared the fish using a recipe he found via Google.  I doubt our early ancestors ate fish basted with lemon, butter, and cilantro.



I also doubt our early ancestors ate such elaborate salads, recommended by friends via Facebook, originally published by The New York Times.  (Thank you Rashael! Can't wait to try the other 100 salad combinations.)  But as I was gathering blueberries for our salad from my backyard last night, I felt a slight connection to my foraging ancestors.  Fortunately, I wasn't on the lookout for predators while picking (though my chickens would have alerted me to impending danger - they squawk like mad when the blue jays threaten our cherry trees.).  We've come a long way, haven't we?  If it wasn't for modern technology, I wouldn't know nearly as much as I do about nutrition, growing my own food, and food preparation.  100% of the information and inspiration to change my diet for the better came via the internet, which I believe makes my diet progressive, modern, perhaps even revolutionary.

I've strong armed persuaded my family to take our diet up a notch with a 30 day challenge, beginning this Friday.  We're going to clean up our diet just a little bit more and eat only "yes" foods.  I'll go into more detail about "yes" foods in my next post, but in the meantime, if you're interested in a challenge of your own, make a list of all the foods you feel good saying yes to.  Omit the foods you feel you should say no to.  For me, it's ice cream and that second glass of wine.  The point is, for the next month, I want to feel positive  about every bite that passes my lips.  How privileged are we to be such picky eaters?