Tucked away in the mountain parks near my home are a number of homesteads that have been preserved. I like walking around and wondering what life was like in those remote quiet places, especially, of course, what kitchen and cooking life was like:
No electricity, no running water, no cool lemon juicers (or lemons!)
no King Soopers down the street for missing ingredients, no Instant Pots,
no cooking shows or cookbooks, no All-Clad pans . . . .
. . . and yet people got food on the table day in and day out. Nothing fancy but it kept everyone as healthy and energized as possible with the limited resources of the time.
Fast forward to the 21st century and our fabulous wealth of cooking aids:
Big beautiful kitchens ~ electric ovens and stoves ~ pre-cut chickens
~ food processors, blenders, mixers and now air fryers ~
a bounty of foods from around the globe all at a grocery store within a mile
~ vegetables and fruits all washed and pre-cut or frozen ~ the finest knives and pans
~ cookbooks and recipes by the 1000s ~ gadgets galore
for every cooking task imaginable ~ running water ~ dishwashers . . .
. . . and yet, we can’t seem to make and eat meals that keep us healthy.** Which leads me to the best gifts we can give ourselves and those in our households this holiday season (and really all year round):
Time and Oomph
As for Time, the holidays can demand a lot of it–but only if we grant permission. It is within our power to devote time to making a simple, vegetable-rich meal and, e.g., only attend a holiday party for half the time, install only half of the Christmas decorations, encourage friends and family to skip the gift-buying frenzy–and spend time making and sharing a healthy meal instead.
As for Oomph, which is another word for zip, gusto and get-up-and-go, that’s something we have to generate ourselves. But here’s a happy fact: Generate even just a spark of gusto and you’ll be whirled into an upward energy cycle that will whoosh you along on its own momentum.
In other words, the more you make and eat better meals, the more energy and enthusiasm you’ll have to make more health-giving, energizing meals.
A Perfect (and FREE) Way to Spend Some Healthy Holiday Time for Yourself
Dr. Bauman’s Weekend of Winter Wellness
Friday, Dec. 17 to Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Handy PDF with schedule and class descriptions
Link for Registering through EventBrite
(Note: Register for any one event and you get a single Zoom ink that works for all the sessions
This is “full-spectrum” health event sponsored by Bauman Wellness, with talks on everything from laughter yoga, mindful meditation and women’s wellness to holiday cooking and even stories and music. There will also be several “new thinking” talks, including the following one by yours truly (me!)
Why Are We So Bad at Feeding Ourselves–and a New Approach
Exploring a New Kitchen Culture with Mary Collette Rogers
Decades of healthy eating advice and admonitions have largely failed turn the tide of obesity and chronic disease. Could there be deeper-rooted causes that have gone unnoticed over the years? Join longtime Healthy Kitchen Companion Mary Collette Rogers to explore how damaging cultural shifts have produced a healthy eating crisis, and the path forward to achieve a more nourishing relationship to self, food, and meal making.
Hope you’ll join me and the Bauman Wellness team.
** Footnote for “We can’t seem to make and eat meals that keep us healthy.” According to recent research: “The gaps between what we’re supposed to eat and what we do are striking.”
- Nearly 90% of Americans eat less than the recommended amount of vegetables.
- 81% don’t meet the recommendation for fruits
- 98% fall short of the recommendations for whole grains.
- Nearly two–thirds of Americans exceed the current guidelines’ limit on sugar consumption. About three-quarters eat too many refined grains. . . .
- “Ultra-processed foods make up about 58% of American’s daily calorie intake,”
- Snacking has dramatically increased over the decades [from 1977-78 to 2017-18].” **
Taken from “What Americans Eat,” Andrea Petersen, The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 8, 2020, p. A13