I think there is more mythology in nutrition than any other aspect of Western life. Sometimes it's even a very detailed and elaborate mythology.
Just visit the nutrition section of your bookstore. (I hope you still have a local bookstore.)
- Gym nuts have their nutrition myths.
- Vitamin pushers have theirs.
- Vegetarians/Vegans have theirs.
- Every sect of the medical community has a myth.
- Etc.
- There's literally something for everyone if you go looking and there's surprisingly little agreement among them.
Over the course of time I've had four or five "nutrition myths" myself.
(What's the saying about
meeting the Buddha on the road?)
I don't care which mythology you are today - or even if you have no mythology at all: You won't go wrong if you remake your diet to only include foods your great-grandparents would have had available - quite possibly grown/raised/harvested AND COOKED themselves.
Within that scope, you can and should eat everything that's available to get the best nutrition. It's also hard under this "method" to eat too much of anything in a way that would be damaging. Even having cookies around isn't so bad if you make them yourself from
organic whole wheat and
high quality butter. (Unlike conventional flour/margarine cookies, sugar is the only thing in your cookies that's actually bad for you!) Laziness toward baking and cleanup is a natural limiter to how many cookies you will eat. :)
Meats, dairy, fruits and veggies all have good to contribute when eaten whole, in their natural state.
Consider this:
- Meats go wrong when all you eat is the muscle - your great-grandparents knew better. Have any kidney, liver, brain or stomach lately? How about bone-broth or tongue? Nutritionally these kinds of parts are the most valuable parts of the animal. The muscle literally amounts to junk food by comparison.
- Meat and dairy both go wrong when the animals are raised in the industrial food system - a total disaster. The price is cheap because the food is cheaply made. Corners are cut literally everywhere it's possible. Industrially produced animals (and any by-products) are a shame.
- Even plain fruits and veggies go wrong in the industrial system...ending up as GMO's, fuel, carriers of pesticides, sugar, all-purpose flour and all sorts of nasty things.
- Consider a cheap store-bought loaf of bread. It's a loaf of chemistry and powdered vitamins in a flour-paste binder. Something to be avoided.
- A home-baked loaf of bread, from wheat you grind yourself, is a nutritional powerhouse. Almost a perfect food.
- For a home-baked sandwich loaf that will make you stop buying store bread, try this book.
I tried what seemed like most of the internet recipes and bread recipes from several books....almost nobody covers
making your own sandwich bread with your own whole flour.
That book does - to the hilt!
I use either a coffee/spice grinder or a grinder-attachment for my stand-mixer to grind the "wheat berries" (seeds) to flour. No sifting, nothing fancy.
Then I just follow the book's recipe for "100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread". It requires an overnight fermentation. I skip almost all of the kneading and always use vegetable oil to coat my work surface and hands to keep the dough from sticking.
If you don't like the flavor of whole wheat, there's also a recipe for a "transitional loaf" that calls for 50% white flour. Using either spring wheat or soft wheat will also help the flavor to be more mild vs using the (more recommended) hard winter wheat.
TRY IT with 100% whole wheat at least once though....it's SO much better than any bread you've had before it could change your mind. You'll want to get a bread box to keep it in.
PM me if you try making your own bread!
