Wild Rice

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Minnesota. The lakes, the rivers, the trees, the hiking, the canoeing, the Twin Cities. The list goes on.

I also love trivia: state tree, norway pine; state pickle, dill; state flower, ladyslipper. I could go on all day. But one of Minnesota's best is also a macrobiotic treasure, and Minnesota is one of the only places you can get it in its natural form.

I'm talking about Wild Rice, Minnesota's state grain. Boo ya ka shaw.

Wild rice was the staple in the diet of the Chippewa and Sioux Indians, native to the north central area of America. Like brown rice, the grain is actually the seed of an aquatic grass plant. Since wild rice grows in cold water and cold climate areas, its seeds (wild rice) need to store enormous amounts of energy to germinate in the spring. Because of this need, wild rice is high in protein, the amino acid lysine and dietary fiber, and low in fat.

Lucky me, growing up and living in Minnesota for most of my life, I have had the opportunity to harvest and roast my own rice on several occasions. I feel a all of the harvesting work behind every bite I take, I remember the clear days in the canoe, the click of the harvesting sticks, the itch of the seed husks on my skin and the splash of the guide pole in the water. If only all the food I ate had as much positive energy behind each bite...

While some commercial wild rice is grown, its best and tastiest form is still hand harvested, mostly in Minnesota's lakes and rivers in the traditional method.

Mixed Messages

The last post that I made and the resulting conversation got me thinking: Am I getting mixed messages? The goal of any new macrobiotic is to understand your body through experimentation with foods and lifestyle until you've done enough trial and error to gain a basic understanding of what your body needs at any particular time to feel "in balance." And sometimes, macrobiotics is frustrating because it is hard to really pin down these yin and yang, acidic and alkaline, contractive and expansive, energies in the foods that we are putting into our bodies, and thus the energies and feelings that those foods are affecting on our bodies. I'm saying I'm still not there. And I would like to be.

I am getting better - I'm becoming more in tune to what my body needs, definitely. But some things still don't make sense: Why, if my body is in an extreme yin state just before my period, do I crave sugar, chocolate, and baked flour, if those are just the things that are going to make my period the miserable experience that it has always been? (Actually, I think that my period is a beautiful cycle and I become more and more grateful for it as I study the moon cycles and the feminine experience, but the headaches, cramps, and nausea, I could do without.) and why, when I haven't eaten for about 5 hours or so, does my body go nuts telling me I need that muffin/yellow cake from the store around the corner from my office, when what I really should have is some brown rice & steamed vegetables?

I believe the sugar cravings are my body's effort to increase my blood sugar - and because sugary things are what I have always used to get that increase, that extra boost of energy, that is what I crave. I have found that I can combat these cravings by planning ahead - by making sure that I have good quality carbohydrates providing my body with a constant flow of energy. I also keep some dried fruit in my desk drawer, and some rice crackers, which I can go to in a moment of panic. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I'm also quite certain that my sugar dependency was leading to my chronic headaches and common stomachaches. Without exaggeration, I have had a headache 1-2 times per week for the past ten years or so (and these headaches are lay down in a dark room with no noise for hours kinds of headaches), and since going macro, when I am being very careful about what I am eating, I have had none at all. It's about extremes - and keeping the body in balance. If your body is in balance, it will tell you what it needs - but if your body isn't in balance, it doesn't even know what it needs - so how can it send the right messages to your brain for how to get into balance?

AH-HA! After re-reading the last paragraph, I think I know the secret after all: continuing to hone my intuition requires continuing to maintain balance. It doesn't mean I can't give in to those cravings once in a while - but it does mean that if I am having those cravings, I'm probably not in balance -- so a little more thought is required as to my next nutritional choice.

**image courtesy of jdthinker on flickr**

Rice In The Fast Lane

A brown rice fast, a balanced body.

In medieval days, sages treated illness directly with dietary changes, oftentimes prescribing a ten day brown rice fast to balance the body and rid it of impurities..

It sounds a little too easy to 21st century ears where we have over the counter drugs far stronger and varied than any medieval sage could have imagined.

With three months of macro behind us, we decided to give it a try, modifying it to a four day go.

And quite honestly...it's weird. Come on, a brown rice fast? I'm still having a hard time explaining to my friends that I don't eat cheese, and that yes I'm ok, and no I'm not sick...
So, whipping out the bowl of brown rice I had been eating out of for 4 days wasn't exactly good advertising for macrobiotics, at least in the circles I move in.

I've been in Minnesota for the last few weeks, away from Kerstin, and we thought this might be a good way to stay connected through macrobiotics even though we weren't eating together (something I miss terrrrrrrribly).

While I've had a hard time understanding and accepting the yin-yang philosophies of the macrobiotic lifestyle, I can attest that eating brown rice does bring one to a sense of great balance and harmony. I already have a big crush on brown rice, so my opinion is biased, but you've got to take my word for it.

Just like Kerstin wrote, I was a very satisfied, craving-free, happy feeling macro for four days. The nutrients, minerals and protein in rice is astonishingly satisfying. And after three months of diluting the sodium and sugar from our bodies and letting our tastebuds heal, eating something nourishing tastes nourishing and actually feels nourishing. I gladly ate my meals of rice all day every day. Heck—I'll probably do it again.

Confessional

Alright - I admit it. Today, I cheated. Well - I didn't technically cheat because our three months of strict macrobiotics is over and there really isn't any "cheating" in macrobiotics - it is about balance, and knowing what your body needs to be in balance, and honoring that, yada yada... but today - I knowingly, willingly, bought a muffin from the shop just around the corner from my office - the "cinnamon coffee cake" muffin - full of white flour, refined sugar, and probably some knock-off of "real" cinnamon. I have my reasons and I could go through them with you, and I had my rationalizations which I could also bore you with - but the point is. I bought it. I carried it guiltily back to my office hoping no one would see me, and I ate it. Most of it... and about half way through I realized what I was doing and how it was already affecting my state of mind... and I kept eating... And now... I feel absolutely gross. Sludge. It's all swimming around in my stomach, mixing with the acids in there, forming more acids, it's going to go on to give me a stomach ache, and the sugar rush that I have provided to my bloodstream is already pulsing through my brain and causing the very beginnings of a headache. (I have suffered from chronic headaches for about a decade, and since going macro, I can count the number of headaches I've had -- well - post first-week macro -- on zero fingers.) Great. And I thought I was helping my problems by satisfying that intense craving for something buttery and sweet - turns out... not so much. And, I may have just as well bought a cupcake, for this "muffin" probably came from a Betty Crocker box (who, by the way - if she would have existed when she was first dreamed up - would have never baked a cake out of one of those boxes...), for all I know.... yuck. chemicals and sugar and throw your body all out of wack-ness...

There - I feel better. I've confessed. Although all of the books and things that I've read about macrobiotics made it seem like my transition into macro would be a huge thing for my body - I would "desludge" and see the effects of the process ... quite honestly, I didn't experience all that much "desludging" side effects. The first few days giving up caffeine and refined sugar were difficult because I had an addiction to these things - so I had headaches... but after a few days those went away, and since I have just progressively felt better. There wasn't any day that I woke up and had "that macro feeling" as Jessica Porter describes. I've just felt progressively better - more balanced, more alive, my body feels lighter, and it just feels good to eat foods that are nourishing both to my body and my soul. But today, with my little post-strict-macro splurge to the muffin/cake world that I used to cherish so dearly - I realized that my world has been drastically changed by this. My tastebuds are more sensitive to each flavor - and that muffin was WAY too sweet (I'm not sure I've ever uttered such words -- way too sweet) ... chips are WAY too salty ... macrobiotics has taught me to cherish subtlety in food, to enjoy the nutty flavor of quinoa and the perfect sweet of a date - the smokey, salty taste of shoyu, and the bitterness of kale... all brought together in balance with one another in a meal.

I can't say this was my last yellow-cake-processed-refined sugar-muffin... but it was a learning experience - one I'll be trying to balance out for the rest of the day.

Could Popeye go Macro??

I've spent most of my time in this blog touting the benefits of a macrobiotic lifestyle... I feel great: my body feels light, I am more focused on life activities than before, and I am truly becoming intuned to what my body needs to feel healthy.

However -- I can't help but be concerned about articles that I have read cautioning the strict macrobiotic to find ways of getting B12, calcium, and iron, thus to avoid mineral and vitamin deficiencies. Nutritionists warn that the lack of animal protein can lead to such deficiencies, and there are many studies that show that children on strict macrobiotic diets have growth retardation in 6- to 18-month olds, lack of energy, and deficiencies in protein, B12, calcium, and riboflavin. The breastmilk of women following macrobiotics strictly had abnormally low levels of B12, calcium, and magnesium. As a woman, I am also intimately aware of the necessity of adequate iron-intake and folate to maintain my body's health and balance, physically and hormonally, especially given that I lose a significant amount of iron each month through menstruation (link to a newer post dealing with that happy female monthly blessing).

So.... my question is, "Could Popeye go macrobiotic?" and would he stay the strong, fit, spinach-eating gentleman that he is, if he were to take that dietary route? Well, I'm sure that he could... but he would have to find some alternative methods of getting the vitamins and minerals that he gets from Spinach (as spinach is very acidic and thus discouraged as a regular part of the macrobiotic diet).

A few things that I have done to make sure that I get the vitamins and minerals that I need: (1) I use rice milk that is enriched with vitamins B12, A & D, and has the same calcium content as cow's milk; (2) We try to eat a lot of dark green leafy vegetables like kale and chard, which contain iron, magnesium, and calcium (as well as really high levels of Vitamin A and Vitamin C); (3) We also eat a lot of broccoli, which is a great source for vitamins C, K, A, folate, iron, calcium, potassium, riboflavin, and manganese... (4) and, of course seaweed (click the link to go to a post of Jacob's about the benefits of macrobiotics), which I need to learn to be more fond of, contains mucho-nutrients necessary to the macro-body (and any body).

I also am of the mind that "strict" is the key word in the studies that I referenced above. As we've explained throughout this blog, and taking from Jessica Porter's philosophy of macrobiotics (who just recently posted a series of her cooking classes on her website here), macrobiotics is about balance - and tuning in to what your body needs at any given time. If it feels like it needs an organic grass-fed hamburger with a sprouted whole wheat bun and some sauerkraut to help with the digestion -- by all means, go for it!

When we initially began this macrobiotic adventure, it was with the intention of being strict about it for about 3 months, and then to reassess... what I have learned is that a diet that focuses on whole grains nourishes both my body and my soul, and that the way we were eating before, although pretty healthy - didn't allow me to feel nearly this good. But it's about balance, and sometimes I may want one of those happy hamburgers... or some really good organic cheese - but it is about making food choices that are informed with what the food is going to do for your body (as opposed to to your body), and what it is doing for farmers and families who are in our communities.

The answer to my question? I think Popeye could go macro - but it would be a challenge, and he'd have to work at it... but he would feel great.

Slow Food

Many of us have heard the term "slow food movement" by now... and this past weekend we ate at a restaurant in Minneapolis that dubs itself as "an organic restaurant focusing on great food grown locally using sustainable methods" (Cafe Agri, 4300 Bryant Ave South, Minneapolis), and also a partner with the Slow Food Movement. We had a lovely meal -- a wonderful beet ribbon salad with dates and walnuts, seared maple tofu with heirloom rice, and fennel-ginger tempeh with sauteed leek tops and red quinoa. The meals were fresh, inspired, and satiating. Especially to the two of us, having eaten plenty of midwestern delicacies like cream and eggs throughout the weekend, Cafe Agri was a welcome oasis. The restaurant has a few things to iron out (they won't be serving wine until later this month, and the service was a bit intrusive for our tastes), but overall the atmosphere was clean, simple, inviting, and the food was top notch - at least to the macrobiotic pallates that Jacob and I have been cultivating.

All of this slow food led me to ponder what, exactly, "the slow food movement" is all about... Obviously, the name of the movement gives away one of it's motivations -- to combat the notion of "fast food" which really began to take off in the late 1980s. So I set off on an internet research adventure, beginning with Slow Food International's website. Here's what it says, "Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world."

Hmmm.... ok.... but it's still a little vague to me. What does it mean to subscribe to "slow food"?? Moving to the "philosophy" page, I start to get the picture... It falls into the lines of Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle premise that we all need to be more connected to the food that we consume. "Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work. We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process."

Things are becoming clearer now.

One of the greatest things about the Slow Food Organizations (SFO) is that they work to preserve heirloom varieties of foods... perhaps fodder for a future AGAD post... the heirloom rice that I had at Cafe Agri, coincidentally, was top notch - The SFO also work to celebrate local cuisine, helping to define local cooking where there aren't any identified "specialties" -- thus increasing awareness for locally-grown and locally-created dishes. Very much in line with macrobiotic values. And here is a blog from Slow Food USA which provides daily updates on major issues in food as they relate to the slow food philosophy.

I'm still not sold on becoming a member, or anything - but I do agree with the major principles that food should be something that we, as humans, connect with one another around. Growing up, my family made a serious effort to eat dinner together every night, no matter what was going on - and it has left an impact on me to this day. The daily conversations around the dinner table were not always the most joyful or loving, but they provided structure and a time to share life with one another. Today's culture of TV dinners, McDonald's on the way to the next destination, and general lack of "dinnertime" just doesn't seem healthy to me.

The food Scheme-amid

So everyone has been bombarded by the "Food Pyramid" since oh, elementary school? It's on cereal boxes that we read in the morning while we mindlessly munch on sugary cereals, it's hanging in lunchrooms all over this nation, and in doctor's offices, and in nutrition-counselor's offices, and it is touted as the diet that everyone should follow for good health. Today, I'd like to examine the Food Pyramid from a macrobiotic standpoint. And - I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist, so please take this post with a grain of salt, if you are the author of the all-important Food Pyramid, or a strong proponent thereof. I happen to believe that the Food Pyramid is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's big trick on the American public.... but here goes.

The First Food pyramid was developed in the 1960s. Before that, in 1894, the USDA published its first dietary recommendations. In 1916, Food For Young Children was published, outlining 5 food groups: milk/meat, cereal, vegetables/fruits, fats/fatty foods, and sugars/sugary foods. The idea of Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA's) for Americans didn't come around until 1941 with President Franklin Roosevelt. The "Basic Four" was introduced, to help people deal with shortage of food supplies during the war, outlining the four categories of foods to eat: milk, meats, fruits and vegetables, and grain products. Fats, sweets, and alcoholic beverages were added in the 1970s when Americans began developing more chronic diseases like strokes and heart disease -- the USDA recommended that these new foods were to be consumed "in moderation." The Pyramid itself came out in 1992, and nutritional labels on foods didn't come in until 1994!

Now, where the first food recommendations contained the four food groups milk, meats, fruits and vegetables, and grains, it seems that priorities were seriously skewed in favor of economic gain. If the U.S. government is putting out recommendations for healthy eating, many Americans are going to pay attention to what they are saying. Some have even said that the food pyramid correlates to obesity and chronic health problems. The current Pyramid, which has been renamed, "MyPyramid," to allow the hip Americans to really take ownership over the thing, says that we should have the following: 6-11 servings of grains, 3-5 servings of vegetables, 2-4 servings of fruit, 2-3 servings of dairy, 3-5 servings of meat (or alternatives -- for those who are "opposed to" meat)...

Now, the problems come when we think about what would be allowed under the diet. I could wake up, have for breakfast: a McMuffin (1 grain, 1 dairy, 1 meat), and drink an OJ from McDonald's while I'm there (1 fruit); for snack: a few baby carrots (which don't really exist, but are big carrots mushed up and compacted back into smaller carrots by big factory machines) (1 vegetable); for lunch: a burger w/ lettuce, tomato, mayo, cheese, and a white hamburger bun (1 meat, 2 vegetables, 1 grain, 1 dairy); for dinner: a steak, baked potato, some corn, a glass of milk, a glass of wine, and a piece of apple pie (1 meat, 2 vegetables, 1 dairy, 1 fruit)... and I've stayed well within my limits on meat, dairy, and accomplished my goals on vegetables, fruit, but I've slacked a little on grains...

I'm not saying people shouldn't eat meat - I'm not even saying they shouldn't eat dairy (although I have found that not eating meat or dairy has allowed me to feel 100 times better than when I was eating those foods)... I'm saying that the U.S. government is contributing to the decline of our nation's health by promoting this sort of a diet to the millions -- considering the bottom line for the meat and dairy industries rather than the health implications for citizens... One particularly disturbing piece of information on the initial Pyramid is that the Department of Health and Human Services, the nation's leading agency in American health, did not participate in talks regarding the guidelines, but instead the USDA developed them - the USDA being primarily interested in the dairy/meat industry and their pocketbooks, I suspect. Just food for thought - I'd love to hear your insights - leave a comment!

The Need for Seaweed

Hijiki, wakame, kombu, nori...usually if I can't pronounce it, I don't eat it. But in the case of sea vegetables, I have to eat my words.

Like most normal people, when I think of vegetables I think of tractors and dirt and farms and all things earthly. Being macro has challenged that paradigm for me by opening my mind (and mouth) to the fruits of the sea.

Since we have cut out or dramatically reduced meat and dairy products and heaped up on whole grains and vegetables we have been enjoying more varied, complex proteins and carbohydrates. The thing that vegans and macros need to watch out for is deficiency in essential minerals and proteins. Whole grains cover many of these, but tacking on sea vegetables to your diet can give true balance to a no-meat and dairy diet.

Seafood is ancient, one of the first forms of life on earth, according to some, and is full of many of the bountiful minerals the ocean stores. According to Sundance Natural Foods, 1/4 cup of cooked hijiki contains over half the calcium found in a cup of milk and more iron than in an egg, important concerns for vegans, those who refrain from eating any animal-based products. They also contain vitamins A, B1, C and E, as well as protein and carbohydrates. The Eden Foods wakame sea vegetables we buy give us 100% of our iodine, 8% of our calcium and 30% of our magnesium in just one serving—plus it's a natural source of unprocessed sodium.

One of seaweed's most astounding and valuable health benefits is its ability to remove radioactive strontium and other heavy metals from our bodies. Sundance Natural Foods reports that whole brown seaweeds (not granulated) including kelp contain alginic acid which binds with the toxins in the intestines rendering them indigestible and carries them out of the system.

While it definitely pushes my comfort zone at the moment, eating more seafood is something that I am committed to. The first step toward change is knowledge, and with this valuable information, it will be hard to NOT eat more seaweed.

Inspiration

We went camping this weekend, in Vermont's Green Mountains. It was our first time macro-camping. We cheated only a tiny bit by having some baked beans cooked over the fire. Jake made some amazing roasted vegetables by cutting up onions, garlic, carrots, yellow squash, and zucchini, throwing on some olive oil, a little salt, and lots of spices. He wrapped them up really well in aluminum foil before we left, and then (smartly) put them in a ziplock -- because the olive oil leaked out a bit. He threw the pockets of deliciousness into the pit of hot coals & we had a delicous meal with some brown rice. It was fabulous. For breakfast we had oatmeal, and we ate lots of sunflower seeds, dried fruit & nuts for snacks.

Anyway -- The trip reminded me that not only is macrobiotics about eating in a way that honors the earth and our bodies, but it is about living that way. The Green Mountains were absolutely divine -- filled with fresh water lakes & streams, little waterfalls, and big billowy furry tree-covered mountains that, as Jake said, "just seem to smile at you." We went to a lovely little beach in the Groton State Forest which was nestled in a host of these magestic peaks, and was, hands down, the best fresh water beach that I have ever been to. Driving through the valleys of the Green Mountains filled our souls with the kind of green, clean, simple energy that we were both craving after spending too much time in East Coast cities. We found ourselves dreaming of a simpler existence -- one where we'd wake up to landscapes of mountains, trees, meadows, and streams, rather than sirens, loud cars, booming bass, and run-down neighborhoods.

At a little bookshop in St. Johnsbury, I picked up a copy of Barbara Kingsolver's best seller, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, not realizing that it was the perfect book for our current state of mind. We started reading it in a little park in St. Johnsbury, after a greasy breakfast (which we came to regret -- and led Jake to vow off the greasy breakfasts, seemingly for good), and with a cup of chamomile tea to calm our systems... Started reading only to find that it was the perfect companion to our dreams of simple life, spent in connection with the earth & community. We're about a quarter of the way through the book by now, and it's not the same reading it on our front porch as it is reading it in the peaceful quiet of a mountain city, but we are enjoying it immensely. The premise is that the author & her family of four decide to take a year and eat only locally grown foods. They plant a huge lot of crops, forrage for morel mushrooms, and buy from their neighbors. It is spiritually satisfying and fun to read -- and for two ever-more-committed macros, it is the perfect early summer story. It talks about food with a reverance that we should all have for it - and that macrobiotics is teaching us to have. We highly recommend it. And, we also recommend the Green Mountains - simple life - and gardens. Here's hoping!