Our Family's "Food Manifesto"

Since the joining together of our two lives as one, Jonathan and I have found ourselves increasingly burdened to deepen our understanding of food and its impact on human health. To some degree, we had each been interested in health before, but in the last 19 months as we have wrestled through health challenges that our family faces and as we have sought to better determine the values that direct the way we farm, Jonathan has come to the point where he believes that a large part of the dominion work God has given him is not just to grow food, but to help others pursue wise stewardship of the health that God has given them. Of course, any time you get involved in reformation work, it must begin at home. As a result, we sat down and wrote out a basic guideline explaining our understanding of food and it's impact on the body based on the study we have done. My next goal is to start mapping out the baby steps we plan on taking to help us reach our goal.

I wanted to share with you what we've written. A lot of these principles are based on the work of Weston A. Price, Mary Enig, and Sally Fallon.

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As Christians we are called to be wise stewards of the bodies and resources God has given us.

In respect to diet this means seeking to nourish our family's health using foods in their most nutrious and natural state, as directed by wisdom.

Basic Standards and Guidelines

• Dairy - Enjoy raw (milk, butter, cheese, etc) and fermented (yogurt, kefir, cream, etc). Avoid pasturized, homoginized and low-fat. Pasturization kills beneficial bacteria; homoginization exposes fats to rancidity and oxidation. Low-fat usually contains powdered milk as a thickener; powdered milk is processed using high heat and high pressure, conditions leading the the development of free radicals which damage DNA/RNA.
• Animal Protein - Grassfed, free-range, pastured (some grain feed is fine). Avoid heavily grainfed, confined animals as these often have E.coli issues, Omega 6/3 imbalances and transfats. Use fats from pastured animals (duck, goose, chicken, lard and beef tallow) for high temperature cooking as they are saturated fats which remain stable at high temperatures.
• Grains - Whole form and properly soaked (to help break down phytic acid). Avoid refined grains as these have been stripped of their nutrients and "fortified" with synthetics whose safety has not been proven.
• Oils - Use expeller-pressed, unrefined oils (such as olive and coconut) as this method of extraction protects them from rancidity. Avoid oils processed at hight temperatures and pressures (i.e. canola oil, etc). Avoid dhydrogenated fats (shortening and margarine).
• Sweets - Enjoy fruits in moderation. Stick to minimally processed/refined sugars (such a raw honey, rapidura/sucanant, maple syrup). Consume only minimal amounts of fruit juice. Avoid refined sugars (white and brown, corn syrup).
• Preservatives/Preservation - Use preservation methods that protect the food's nutrients (such as lacto-fermentation, some canning, freezing, dehydrating and cold storage). Avoid foods preserved with nitrites and nitrates (such as commercial lunch meat) as they have been linked to cancer of the esophagus, stomach, large intestine, bladder and lungs.

As in everything there are/will be some inconsistencies and practical restraints in application (such as budget!).

Organization and the (infamous) ToDo List

The “ToDo List” and I tend to be the best of friends and worst of enemies. Since I am not the task driven, Type A personality, well organized kind of person I need a list to keep me focused and organized. Being the artistically-organized-wanna-be that I am I tried putting together a “Housekeeping Notes” journal but, while it may be useful to some people, I tend to hardly look at it, there's too many dividers and various notes that I find overwhelming. I've tried make notes on scrap pieces of paper, but those seem to either get lost or I forget to throw them away when I am done which leaves me with useless, messy paper piles - particularly on my night stand.

Enter the "1 Subject, 70 Sheets, College Ruled Notebook"! It fit well within my budget (a whole .50 cents!) and my personality. I just make up my daily todo list, which I don't lose since it's bigger and heavier than a single piece of paper and then I get to it. I don't have dividers for the books I want to read, projects I hope to accomplish, company I need to have over, menu planning, etc. because although those are good, I tend to get lost in so many categories. I am better off just looking at my bookshelf for something to read, looking around my house for my never ending list of projects, flipping through the church directory or walking around the 'neighborhood' for people to have over. The one category that I do have a separate paper for is menu planning. While I am still working on learning exactly how to menu plan successfully I am convinced that it is a worthwhile skill and that it will (eventually) save me time and money. 

How do/does you/your family stay organized?

If you are the "keeper of your home" what does this look like for you?

If you are a daughter, how does your mother do it? How would you theoretically like to implement the principle of organization in your own home some day?  

Take the Challenge to have a "Missional Homemaking" Perspective

One of my favorite homemaking and natural health/living blogs is "Passionate Homemaking".
Lindsay Edmonds, a woman passionate about glorifying God and speaking the truth of the Gosple.
I love reading what she has to share, I am always inspired in my role as a wife, mother and homemaker. The care and graciousness with which she communicates what she has learned and is learning about being a wise steward of what God has intrusted to her is uplifting.

Recently Lindsay spoke at a women's conference on "Missional Homemaking".
I highly encourage you take the time to listen to it and then go and seek wisdom from the Lord as to how you can apply the 12 points she outlines.