Freedom from Fibromyalgia

My grandmother Jenny was born in rural Nova Scotia in 1890. Her father was a blacksmith and the family had many children, not all of whom lived.

I often wonder at the difference between her lifestyle and our own.

While still a teenager, Jenny left home and took the train out West to become a teacher. After a few years, she married my grandfather, Thomas, and he began to farm in southern Alberta. They had five children. (My Mom was the youngest). Growing and cooking and preserving food was a big part of each day.

They didn’t need to call it ”organic” back then. 

Today, though, we all consume a frightening amount of what I call “fake food.” I am certain that the way we’ve been eating for decades is a huge contributor to this “epidemic” of conditions like fibro and chronic fatigue.

So one of the ways back is to educate ourselves about food and to make better choices. But, honestly, so many writers on food and nutrition take themselves so seriously. Now along comes Michael Pollan, who’s fast and funny on food. Take a look:

Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims. They’re apt to be heavily processed, and the claims are often dubious at best. Don’t forget that margarine, one of the first industrial foods to claim that it was more healthful than the traditional food it replaced, turned out to give people heart attacks.

When Kellogg’s can boast about its Healthy Heart Strawberry Vanilla cereal bars, health claims have become hopelessly compromised. (The American Heart Association charges food makers for their endorsement.) Don’t take the silence of the yams as a sign that they have nothing valuable to say about health.

 The excerpt is from his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which was chosen by the editors of ‘The New York Times Book Review’ as one of the 10 best books of 2006.

For more of Pollan’s prescriptions, visit the GI News blog (GI stands for Glycemic Index) or read the reviews at Amazon.

And while you’re there, watch the video interview with Michael Pollan on Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher. Very cool.

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