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Eating During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond
Debra Redalia
First Post
I wanted to start this blog in October 2017 when I moved to Sonoma County, California and the way I started eating radically changed. I have many unpublished posts I’ve written, but life intervened in various ways.
About a month ago I was finally ready and then the Covid-19 shut-downs began.
And now I see the real need for this blog.
If your food situation is anything like mine you’ve had major disruptions in the way you eat. Here all our restaurants are closed, and even those who advertise take-out are not answering their phones. Last week it was Larry’s birthday. Usually, we go out to lunch on our birthdays, but we couldn’t even get take-out beyond a deli sandwich from a supermarket.
The week shelter-in-place started I couldn’t buy the particular organic brown rice that we prefer, and it hasn’t been on the shelf since. Other organic brown rices which we were buying for $2.50 a pound is now $10 a pound!
And last Sunday when we walked in to our local supermarket to buy organic rainbow carrots, half of the produce section was empty.
A major meat production plant was closed down this week with 800 cases of covid-19. And farmers are now being told to stop farming.
I’m not panicking because I know what to do.
The End of Industrial Food and the Rise of Wholefood Cuisine
This is actually my third food blog. About fifteen years ago I published a food blog called Sweet Savvy, in which I explored all the natural sweeteners that were coming on the market, but nobody knew how to use. There was nothing different about the food philosophy, I just took regular recipes and worked out how to substitute refined white sugar with honey, agave, stevia, and other natural sweeteners.
Then I did a food blog called Toxic-Free Kitchen, with the idea that all the food and cookware needed to be toxic-free.
But then in June 2015, my left eye suddenly went blind. I had been diagnosed diabetic since 2000, and had been unable to control my blood sugar, though I had done everything doctors had told me to do. I had been on the standard low carb paleo diet for years and my blood sugar was going up and up. I was forced to go on insulin. Even all the natural remedies didn’t work.
And then my left eye went blind. Blood vessels had burst and the retina had detached. Though I had a year of treatment, including three surgeries and many laser treatments, I lost my left eye. It is now permanently blind.
When I announced this in my newsletter, one of my readers, a retired ophthalmologist, wrote to me and said, “You must try this diet. It will save your life.’
But all he sent me was a journal article that had no instructions. I then had to go research this diet and piece together the information from obsolete sources. But from the very first day my blood sugar started going down and my body began to lose weight, something that wasn’t happening on the paleo diet.
It was a specific version of a high carbohydrate diet. But a strange one. I thought I would update it, so I went to my natural food store and bought a whole cart full of food products made from whole grains and whole beans. Things like brown rice crackers and black bean pasta. But every one of them I tried made both my blood sugar and weight go UP. What was going on?
Since eating brown rice in its whole grain form made my blood sugar and weight go DOWN, but eating brown rice crackers, tortillas and pasta made my blood sugar and weight go UP, there had to be some change happening in the processing of the food. It was then that I noticed that all these products were made from the whole grains ground into flour. For the first time I saw that there is a major difference in the way processed food acts in our bodies, simply from the processing.
Here we now have stores filled with organic food products that seem to be good for us because they are made from organic ingredients and don’t have additives, but most of them are made from processed ingredients.
When I discovered this, I immediately started eating only foods in their whole, unprocessed natural state. I prepared all my meals from scratch using whole organic ingredients. And in thirty days my blood sugar went down 100 points and my body lost twenty pounds.
Since then various life interruptions made it difficult to stay on this diet 100 percent. However, I found that every time I went off the diet, my blood sugar and body weight went up and every time I went back on it my blood sugar and body weight went down. Larry had the same results.
From this experience I developed the idea of “wholefood cuisine”—the creation of a cuisine made up of only whole foods. I love to eat. It just doesn’t satisfy me to eat an apple and a bowl of plain brown rice for lunch. The food needed to please my joy of eating as well.
I had this whole plan of what food needed to evolve into—a shift from processed industrial food to organic whole food—and then our world changed. Overnight, covid-19 ripped our food routine out from under us.
While this may seem like a crisis, I see it as an opportunity. I no longer need to convince you to give up industrial food. The industrial food system is falling apart on its own.
The New Way to Eat, Now and in the Future
For the past 100 years or so, there has been a steady increase of separation between the growing and preparation of food and the eater. What started out as canning food for preservation became cake mixes and lunch meat and TV dinners. Now many people don’t learn to cook at all, but instead simply eat take-out food where they have no control whatsoever over what they put in their bodies, or knowledge of what it has been made from. It has even been suggested that it is not “economical” for people to prepare their own food because they can make more money working long hours and have someone else do the cooking.
But now, the covid-19 pandemic is forcing us to restructure how we eat. To me, this is a blessing, albeit, perhaps, in disguise.
Our bodies are not designed to eat processed industrial food. We humans are a species of the Earth, which has been largely forgotten in our industrial world. Our bodies are designed to walk through our local ecosystems, find the foods that grow there, and prepare them into tasty nourishment. That is the healthiest way to eat.
And that can be done today. Larry and I have been eating this way for more than two years now and we are happy with the food and getting healthier every day.
To eat this way requires some knowledge and skill but it can be learned.
Now it’s not an option to learn it, it’s imperative if we are to eat at all.
What we need to learn now is;
- Where to source organically-grown whole foods
- How to clean and store them
- How to prepare them into dishes we want to eat
- How to plan a continuous supply of food that is available each day
- How to make time to cook (and how to prepare foods in a way that doesn’t take a lot of time)
All of this is known. It doesn’t have to be figured out. It just needs to be learned and practiced.
We can feed ourselves. We have been feeding ourselves since the beginning of our species. Until two hundred years ago, all families prepared their own food.
We can do this too.
At the moment, it looks like we have to do this if we are going to eat at all.
The timing of your email and sharing your experience and changes are very helpful for me. Thank you. I look forward to more emails and updates.
Thank you so much.
Great! More to come. 🙂
Thank you for sharing this. Can you give more details of the diet that has helped you lower blood sugar levels? I understand the basic principals, but more specifics would be helpful.
A few years ago, after undergoing surgery & regular infusions for genetic immune deficiency, I gained 25+lbs. I hadn’t changed my diet at all, and actually getting more exercise in a balanced way. After discontinuing the treatment, I finally stopped steadily gaining weight, but nothing I did to lose it was effective. I had been following a paleo/autoimmune diet, all organic, whole food, gluten & dairy free.
Then I was diagnosed with SIBO and changed to a low FODMAP diet, which included some whole grains (mainly brown rice) and other foods I hadn’t been eating (still all whole, gluten-free, etc). Without changing anything else, I gradually lost almost all the extra weight — and felt much better overall.
Now I am again transitioning how I eat, and would appreciate hearing more of what you’ve learned from your experiences.
Thank you.
Yes it’s all coming. 🙂
Yes! You are taking important steps toward real health.
When my doctor introduced me to a Whole Foods Plant Based diet I was skeptical. It’s been two years and I have personally met hundreds of people who have gotten off their blood pressure meds, cured their type 2 diabetes, reduced their risk of cancer and prevented heart attacks by adopting this diet. A good place to start is watching the movie “Forks Over Knives”. I found much support for this way of eating once I knew to look for it. There are YouTubes and cook books to help. You will inform and encourage many people who’s lives may be saved with your help. Thank you.
Actually what I am about to present goes beyond Forks over Knives and the usual “plant-based whole foods” diet.
Much of what is recommended on these diets is not actually whole.
We’re going to take a deep dive into “whole” on this blog. But Forks Over Knives is a good step in the right direction.
Debra,
Thank you so much for this new newsletter.
This is the food blog I have been waiting for!
Blood sugar issues have affected my family for generations.
Welcome. We’re going to handle blood sugar here.
Just an indicator of success I’ve had…for years my eyesight was getting worse and worse. Since starting this way of eating about three years ago, the sight in my remaining eye has stayed the same 100%. No increase in eyeglass prescription. Between that and blood sugar numbers going down, I can see it’s working.
One of the famous quotes of health food nuts (of me 50 years) is YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.
Many people have been cured of terrible diseases, including cancer, by drinking whole food
juices, lot of greens, carrots, etc. and eating as much raw food as possible. Many teach have
raw fresh juices everyday, raw salad for lunch, huge, and any cooked food for dinner.
Stay healthy. Diabetes cannot live on this diet as long as you control your fruit intake – no more
than 2 per day. Avocados only 1/2 per day because of the high fat even though it is good fat.
I understand what you are saying, but actually, my diet allows a lot of fruit. My ideal breakfast calls for two cups of raw whole fruit, among other things. I put no limit on fruit.
been around a long long time and many health food long timers who ate lots of fruit and dried fruits etc. got diabetes when they got close to 60. That is a fact.
The man who wrote MORE THAN A MILLION, or something like that, a total purest health food wise, announced that he now has diabetes. There is so much to learn and sometimes it takes a lifetime and then it is too late, in that
we made mistakes thinking we were eating, drinking healthy but sugar is sugar, whether it is natural or man made, it affects the pancreas . So many health food people eat health things that also turn to sugar: like granola, some breads, juices, and fresh fruit. There are facts to prove this.
As always, life is about balance, but too much is hard on the body. One person ate watermelon and even watermelon juice, that goes right into the blood stream. The whole food is always better than juice because it slows down sugar vs. pure juice. If your diet works for you that is good, each bodyis different, but green vegetable and many vegetables are better than lots of fruit.
And huge vegetable salads for lunch, only natural dressings if you have to have it but making your own with apple cider vinegar and lemon juice. etc. avoids oil.
I also love the book PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE BY Dr. Esselstyn – not sure how to spell, he also wrote FORKS OVER KNIVES – MEANING CHANGE WHAT IS ON YOU FORK AND YOU WON’T NEED A SURGERY – KNIVES.
i believe he was a heart doctor. He says you cannot even eat olive oil (which I used to eat tons of) because it has saturated fat in it too. It clogs the veins to the heart etc.
So even “good” things can be bad for you. In his book he shows pictures of veins of patients before they changed their diet, and what they look like after they changed. Then if they started cheating later, the trouble came back. The conclusion over the past 50 years of research and mistakes, is to live very very simple in eating. Less is better. Plain is better. Lots of pure water and exercise, and sunshine and prayer.
Best wishes marianna
I agree with eating very simply, and that will be emphasized in this blog.
I agree with big salads for lunch and plain dressings.
I don’t agree “sugar is sugar.” There is a HUGE difference between refined sugar and whole sugar in fruit that is present with all it’s co-factors. And real honey is actually a superfood.
I’ll be writing more about this in this blog.
Diabetes is NOT caused by sugar. New research in the last few years is showing this. And I observed this in my diet.
In fact, after three years on my diet my body is actually deeply healing, so that my body responds differently to foods than it did three years ago. It’s actually pretty amazing how much wrong information is out there, particularly on the internet. But my diet is working for me, even though it is directly opposite to what is being recommended.
You said “many health food long timers who ate lots of fruit and dried fruits etc. got diabetes when they got close to 60. That is a fact.” Well, it may be a fact that many health folder got diabetes at age 60 but they ate other foods beside fruit. I don’t think you can make the association between fruit and diabetes at 60.