Book Review – The Obesity Epidemic

This may seem a strange book for me to be reading and reviewing…I am not obese (or overweight), never have been and in all likelihood, never will be. Until recently, I was one of the many people who thought overweight people were either eating too much and/or exercising too little. But then I discovered the real food movement, via books like Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions, and started to get a lot more interested in nutrition and health. I discovered Zoe Harcombe’s website by accident but decided that this book deserved a read. I am so glad I read it, because it is absolutely brilliant.

If like many people (including, sadly, governments and nutritionists involved in giving out advice on healthy eating) you think that a healthy diet is one low in calories, low in fat and with plenty of starchy carbohydrates then you need to read this book at once! Harcombe systematically dismantles the myths surrounding these “facts” about diet. For example, did you know that there has never been a study that conclusively showed an association (nevermind causation!) between high saturated fat intake and heart disease? According to our own Food Standards Agency in 2009 “The ideal controlled dietary trial for prevention of heart disease has not yet been done and it is unlikely ever to be done“.

Did you think that there were studies showing the benefits of eating plenty of carbohydrate? Erm, no, it’s just that if you tell people they need to eat less fat, then they need to eat something. Protein containing foods usually contain fat, so it has to be carbohydrates then.

In this book Harcombe systematically dismantles these and many other myths that have built up around diet. Myths that are perpetuated by our governments with their food pyramids and eat well plates. She does an excellent job of making this an entertaining and often amusing read, possessing as she does what could well be described as an acerbic wit, but after reading this book I have come away feeling somewhat angry and annoyed at the years of lies and mistruths I, and lots of other people interested in food and health, have been told.

So, what is the solution to the Obesity Epidemic? Harcombe suggests replacing current dietary advice with the simple advice to “Eat Naturally; Move Naturally“. She also gives advice on how this campaign might be put into practice. I would like to be hopeful about this but when you look, for example, at the website of the British Nutrition Foundation and see that their members include companies such as British Sugar, McDonalds and Birds Eye I don’t  think that’s gonna happen, do you?

In the meantime, I shall be harping on to whoever will listen about this book and about the Weston A Price Foundation, and maybe start removing dietary advice literature from the doctors surgery and replacing them with WAPF leaflets…waddya reckon?!

I’ll end this post with Zoe Harcombe’s TV trailer about the book and suggest that you hop on over to her website, download her “20 Diet Myths” ebook, then treat yourself to some eggs, butter and real meat

Linking up this post to Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday. 

Sketch Tuesday

Do you all know about Sketch Tuesday? Barb at Harmony Art Mom sets a sketch assignment each week which you can participate in, then the following week there is a slideshow of all the sketches. It’s free, non-competitive, you don’t have to sign up for anything, and parents are welcome to join in as well as kids. Read all about it at Harmony Art Mom: http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com/p/what-is-sketch-tuesday.html.

This week’s assignment was to sketch something beginning with “S”. These open ended assignments are the ones we love the best.

Gman sketched his sunglasses:

Waif went for a selection of sauces:

And because I like to join in too, I sketched scissors:

Before starting home educating, I hadn’t sketched anything since the age of about 14. One of the best things about home educating is the chance to try new things and learn alongside your children (Harmony Art Mom has a great post that touches on this here). I’m certainly no artist, but I do enjoy sketching alongside the kids and find it quite soothing and meditative. I also think it’s important for the kids to see that learning is a lifelong process and that Mum is willing to have a go at learning new things.

Back to the sketching – Waif so enjoyed sketching the sauce bottles that he decided to invent his own range of sauces, using some made-up vegetables of his own “raters” and “turynas”:

Tea and Sunshine at the Farmers’ Market

This weekend we enjoyed a trip out to another local farmers’ market. There were stalls selling fruit and vegetables, local apple juice, free range chickens, rare breed pork, cold pressed rapeseed oil, homemade chilli chutneys, organic dog biscuits and more! The sun shone, the stallholders were cheery and friendly and we had a lovely time. We especially enjoyed sitting down and enjoying a cup of loose leaf organic chai tea, brewed in a proper teapot and served in bone china cups. Wonderful! We also indulged ourselves in gluten free brownies from a lovely lady whose entire range of cakes were gluten and dairy free. Check out her website.

The boys are now up to the summer months on their produce calendars and enjoying the promise of lots more colours!

Here are Waif’s:

And Gman is up to October with his:

A Burst of Creative Alchemy

Earlier this week I found myself in the very unusual position of having the house to myself for a few hours. Being a dutiful wife, I knuckled down to catch up with the household chores. Ha ha, just kidding!! Instead, I armed myself with cloth, tissue paper and glue and set to work creating some “paper cloth” – a process described in Stitch Alchemy.

I started with a piece of plain fabric (this is Osnaburg I think – couldn’t lay my hands on any muslin), brushed a mixture of diluted PVA glue all over it then began tearing bits of coloured tissue paper, dip-dyed paper towels and a page from an old annual and sticking those down. Here’s the cloth after the first round of tissue paper:

I fully intended to take photos of all the stages like a *proper* blogger, but erm, got a bit carried away. In any case, by the time I had stuck the first round down my fingers were covered in glue and paint, which I didn’t think my DH would appreciate me spreading over his camera buttons . So here it is all covered and ready to dry out:

This burst of creative activity is partly prompted by Hanna’s announcement that she will be hosting another DIY Postcard Swap this year. This involves making 10 postcards and sending them off to 10 other participants, and receiving postcards in return. I loved doing this last year, and made some lovely new blog friends in the process. I wasn’t sure I would have time to do it this year, but if I can shape this paper cloth into something decent to use for backgrounds then I probably will. In any case, I recommend checking out Hanna’s blog for a lovely dose of inspiring creativity. You could also look at the Flickr group to see some of the amazing art that was swapped. Last year I made a selection of cards using different techniques:

Three using transfer dyed Vilene, embellished felt and hand embroidery:

Three using painted Vilene with machine stitching and an inspiring quotation:

One with free pieced patchwork and hand stitching:

And my personal favourites inspired by the Zen proverb “Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself“:

The swap is a fabulous way to try out some new ideas on a small scale, as well as a way of ensuring you get something other than bills in the mail. Lovely

I *am* still sewing (a bit)

Readers who have followed me over from my old sewing blog are probably wondering where all the sewing has gone!

So, just to prove that I haven’t abandoned the needle altogether, here’s some evidence:

These are regular nine patches waiting to be sliced up and spun around and turned into disappearing nine patch blocks like these:

I know, it’s not a lot, but still!!

I think I only have so much creative energy, and just lately that energy has been directed towards food – like making homemade beefstock:

Yummy.

And learning about nutrition with the boys, who have done a couple more months on their produce calendars. Waif’s:

Gman’s:

I am sure my sewing flame will be re-ignited soon and I will have some exciting projects to share

Raising Renegade Kids

One of the advantages of homeschooling is that you can make sure your kids get an education in the things that really matter. And what could matter more than food? We very rarely use purchased curricula in our homeschooling, preferring a more fluid approach, but have made an exception for Food Renegade’s Real Food Nutrition for Kids. We are working our way through the chapters, doing the activities and making lapbooks presenting the information. Here’s the boys puzzling over what is real food and what is fake food:

We are now up to the chapter on produce and the boys have been really inspired by learning about what fruits and vegetables are in season. With a bit of help from this website, they have put together a chart of what’s in season when (in the UK). Then we discovered some unused blank 2012 calendars, and so they decided to use this information to make pictures to go with each month. Even though it is already February, they were keen to include January! They have completed the first three months and will continue with the others over the next few days. Here are illustrations from Waif (just turned 7):

And Gman (just turned 12):

And we all enjoyed watching the Way of the Vegetable Assassin:

This post has been submitted to Food Renegades Fight Back Friday

A Cultured Home?

In her introduction to Sandor Katz’s Wild Fermentation, Sally Fallon says:

“The science and art of fermentation is, in fact, the basis of human culture: without culturing there is no culture.”

As a home-educating parent, I think it’s important to ensure the boys are exposed to culture in the form of theatre, literature, music…so why not cultured foods?

Having been dairy free for a few years, we have recently started eating small amounts of cultured dairy products in the form of goats’ milk butter and yogurt made from goats’ or sheep’s milk. So far, there don’t seem to have been any untoward effects! As we were getting through so much yogurt and we all like it, I decided to invest in a yogurt maker. I chose this one from Lakeland:

My first batch has been a success, with Waif declaring it “the best yogurt ever” . I used a commercial sheeps milk yogurt as the starter, together with some fresh whole goats milk. It is certainly runnier than bought yogurt but has a lovely mild flavour. Here’s what it looks like:

Yum!

In addition to the yogurt making, I decided to have a go at making water kefir. I ordered my grains from Kefir Heaven and they arrived yesterday. They are currently in their jar with sugar, raisins and lemon – but I need to wait until at least tomorrow (Sunday) to taste it:

One of the reasons I wanted to try the water kefir was that gluten free sourdough expert Sharon Kane uses it for the recipes in her book, and this is something I am keen to have a go at. Watch this space for a kefir update!

I am linking this post to Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday