Hey! It's me! Ryann!
What exactly is your whole deal anyway?
I like to eat. I just don’t like to eat what you’re eating. Let me make it myself and we’ll all be happy. Also, don’t try to feed my kids anything, cuz I will END you.
Too harsh? Ok. How about this: I feel like human beings (especially us Westerners) have completely lost sight of what it means to eat. The overarching purpose of food is to nourish our bodies. Food is energy and should ultimately lead to better body performance. Modern food systems have created a multitude of epidemics: childhood obesity; Type 2 diabetes; societal obsession with body image; unnecessary environmental strain; and greater socio-economic disparity, to name but a few. But the issue that scares me the most is the utter disconnect the majority of the population has with the substances they are taking into their bodies every single day.
To quote the late, great Whitney Houston (this used to be a joke, but then she went and fulfilled my sarcastic prophesy. No one ever said cocaine wasn’t a helluva drug. Also, I am sorry, I have a prophesy problem), the children really are our freaking future and they are the ones who are going to clean this shiz up when most of us have inevitably turned into zombies after years of consuming factory farmed, anti-biotic infused, bleach soaked flesh and genetically modified corn products. Real, whole foods, people. It’s the way of the future.
What about humanely farmed animal products? They’re cool, no?
My credo is if I couldn’t look a creature in the eyes then kill, de-skinificate (that’s a word. ask a hunter) disembowel, dismember and still rejoice in eating the remains, then I have no business purchasing pretty little innocuous squares at the Happy Times Farmer’s Market. Or any other farmer’s market, if you don’t happen to have a Happy Times in your area.
Beyond that, it is simply not feasible to feed our entire planet the meat based diet they’ve become accustomed to using environmentally sustainable and humane farming practices. Humans, with our freakishly long digestive tracts, function better on a plant based diet anyway. Try it! I promise you’ll like it!
Seriously, though. You miss bacon and cheese. Don’t even try to deny it.
That’s not even a question.
Called it!
I have nostalgic memories of my Nana cooking bacon in the motorhome or greasy nachos from Fast Eddies in Nanaimo, but the reality of the damage done to satisfy my momentary glut crushes any warm fuzzy feelings those thoughts might conjure. Human beings do not need animal products to live. Period.
So are you basically a dirty hippie then?
Pretty much. But I shave all my bits and pieces.
Have you read all the studies that say we have teeth so we need meat and soy will make you grow a second set of boobies and most people fall asleep at like 11am if they don’t eat animal protein, and milk: it does the body good?
Totally. All of those. But my body tells me that a balanced diet of fruit, veggies, whole grains and legumes makes me feel better than anything: physically, psychologically and morally.
You do know your kids are going to get it somewhere else if you don’t give it to them, don’t you?
My job, as a parent, is to educate my children about the world around them. I am honest with my kids about where and how food gets to the grocery store and why things are the way they are, but, ultimately, my babes are human beings and free to make their own choices. And I am free to disown them. It goes both ways, you see?
Why isn’t there any succulent, succulent Earth Balance or any other oils in your recipes?
I understand that humans need fat in their diets to digest certain vitamins and minerals and that this is especially true for children. But I prefer to get fat into our bodies in whole rather than processed forms. Nuts, olives, avocados and seeds versus over-processed oils. Also, I, personally, am a fat-a-phobe. Blame society. I do!
