Eat First, Then Breathe

It's been a long time since I've gotten excited about food. Most of what we buy at the grocers is enhanced with either color or flavorings of some kind. The more I look at how our food comes from farmer to table the less inclined I am to eat at all. Naturally, eating is an integral part of living. Much like breathing, we need to eat in order to survive. The problem is, every time we turn around, something we eat regularly is discovered to be detrimental to our health.


Back in the 90's there was a "fitness guru" with a program she called "Stop The Insanity". Susan Powter claimed that she had lost a great deal of weight simply by changing what she ate that made her fat, to a regimen of whole grains and fresh vegetables and fruits. Whether one believes she actually was ever fat depends upon which members of her family you decided was truthful. I never could make up my mind whether I believed her brother's claim that she was never fat, or her Dad's claim that she was. My interest in what she had to say waned due to the controversy surrounding her claims and now I'm kicking myself because of it. Essentially I should have overlooked the weight loss claims and focused on the issue of healthy eating. Had I done so, I'd be much farther ahead health wise than I am now. It may be that the current trend towards Whole Foods and Organic eating finds it's roots in her program. Much of what I am learning is what she was saying 20 years ago.

I figured that there wouldn't be a single thing anyone could find wrong with eating more whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables. Add to that the lowering of fat and I should live to be 100...right? Here I am well into the new habit I've acquired of eating a bowl of either steel cut or old fashioned cooked oats every morning when I find out that might not be as healthy as I thought. The problem seems to be that I'm eating American grown oats. According to this article I read the other day, oats are pure white. What I'm eating is sort of an ivory color. That color in my oats comes from mold. Mold that is intentionally caused simply to create color. I'm supposed to be eating Swedish oats from some company that doesn't create mold for color in their oats. Mind you, those oats cost upwards of $8 a pound plus shipping and handling, and are only available through mail order, online. I'm gonna get right on that. Suuuuure I am.

I look at it this way, so far, after having eaten moldy oats now for close to 5 months, I haven't accused anyone of casting a curse on me. I'm not seeing the devil in my coffee cup, nor am I hearing voices from the bag the oats come in. I'm not feeling that the mole, with the hair growing out of it, that has appeared on my elderly neighbor's face is any indication that she's a witch. I'm not feeling that anyone is out to get me, nor are my brain waves being altered by anything I need to wear a tinfoil hat to protect against. Bonus! The neighbors dog isn't telling me to kill anyone.

I don't have a runny nose. I'm not sneezing, coughing nor do I have a rash anywhere. I'm not tired all the time, I'm getting pretty energetic actually. I do have the normal joint aches that accompany arthritis, but I had those before I started consuming cooked oatmeal for breakfast. Not hardly anything that is being caused by mold. Plus I'm only spending $4 a pound for my oats.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one not paying attention to Susan's admonitions to "stop the insanity" To make up for my lapse, I am paying attention to another one of her catch phrases. "Eat, Breathe, Move". I've eaten, I'm breathing and now I'm moving out to check out a farm where I might be able to purchase grass fed beef, pork, eggs and poultry. I said that if such a place existed in our county, I'd find it. Who knew it might be a mere 15 minute drive away? Now, that's exciting!