Diabetes isn’t the only problem. If you’re on the *path* toward diabetes, your body is suffering right now. You’re at increased risk for autoimmune problems and many of the diseases of modern life. Here’s an article about how Insulin affects your body. It’s long, but worth reading. If you want to get to the juicy parts, use “Find on this page” and look for “Insulin.”

So if you’re walking down the path with the rest of the people, the path that leads to diabetes and other illnesses produced by the collective choices we’re making, how can you veer off that path and on to a better one? Simple. Start making changes.

If you want to know why I refuse to eat white flour, white rice and sugar, check out that article on insulin. Diabetes runs in my family, and I know I’m at real risk for all the health effects. But what to eat instead?

I’m convinced that the best diet is competely natural, without refined sugar at all. And that maybe if I ate that way, the occasional honey wouldn’t hurt me. But for now…

I gave up aspertame (Nutra Sweet, and others) a few days ago. I’m convinced by what I’ve seen that it’s truly poison. I haven’t given up Splenda (sucralose) yet, though. I’m not completely convinced that it’s poison–I think the jury’s still out–but besides that, it’s a crutch. It’s *vital* that I not eat sugar, so I allow for the possibility of Splenda as a lesser evil. But transition is all about gradual improvements. I’m sure I’ll drop Splenda too, eventually.

What are your crutches? Your lesser evils?

We can only change so much of our diets and our lives at one time. So what changes are urgent, and what can you put off for a while? How do you decide which “vices” you can hang on to? It’s a very individual choice, isn’t it? And the big question for me has been whether if I hang on to some “vices,” I will get gradually better, and be able to give them up, or whether I’m just fooling myself. My body used to tell me that the best possible food was either cookie dough, (butter and sugar, with a touch of refined flour for balance) or cinnamon rolls (butter and sugar, with a touch of refined flour for balance). I know that in the past, I’ve switched to artificial sweeteners (the epitome of industrial food) and later discovered my sweet-tooth was as strong as ever. Soon, I was back to the cookies and cakes I’d thought I was free of.

Now, I’ve given up almost all sweets, but hung on to a few crutches. Mainly choco-perfection chocolate which is sweetened with a natural fiber-based sweetner that doesn’t affect blood sugar or insulin. I’ve been diluting them, by melting a small chunk of the chocolate in some coconut oil, and then cooling it in the freezer. The other day, I was at the grocery store, and bought myself a bar, and ate a piece straight. And you know what? The sweetness of it was really unpleasant. I discovered that I’ve actually freed myself of the desire for super-sweet tastes. What good news!

The moral of this story is that if *I* can get to the point where the idea of eating cookie dough is *gross* — anybody can.

Over the next few weeks (now that I’m back) I want to talk more about the process of transitioning away from industrial food toward real food. How do you decide which sweeteners to give up first? What about convenience foods? Is organic more important, or local?

If you have tricks you use to wean yourself off industrial food, or vices you still cling to, leave a comment!

Today, he told me “I just figured out what Into the Wild was about. It’s about not being owned.”

All this time, I haven’t been able to find a way to say it. He nailed it.

By the way, we’re doing this strep throat thing without antibiotics. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I do know that this time I got a quart of cream and a pint of half-and-half from 1.5 gallons of milk.

Anyway (more…)

I tried to be responsible; buying Basil is just silly. There will be tons growing in my own garden before long. But I couldn’t resist. It’s the call of the pesto, don’tcha know? And boy, was it yummy!

The first picture shows chicken grilling with a bit of green onion (not too green, but springtime onion). The second is when I added a bunch of chopped spinach. And the third is everything all ready to go on a bed of lettuce.

The Pesto Dressing

• A big wad of Basil. Maybe enough to fill a 2-cup pyrex, if you stuff it lightly inside.
• A couple of tablespoons of Parmesan
• A couple of tablespoons of nuts. (I actually used some ground almonds I had left over from making a curry.)
• Oil or dressing. I used the olive-oil mayonnaise I sort-of-accidentally made a while back. Perfect!
• A little salt, depending on the dressing.

Stuff the basil leaves in your mini-chopper and whirr. I filled it once, processed, then stuffed the rest in. It doesn’t make much, once you grind up the leaves.

If the nuts aren’t chopped yet, add them next, and grind a bit more. Less grinding=more crunch, more grinding=more smooth. Then add Parmesan and oil or creamy stuff.

The finished product

Put a bed of spring lettuce on a place, and serve up the chicken and spinach on top of it, still warm. Then pour (or glop) the pesto on top.

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the dish, because I was too busy eating that wonderful plate of springtime. Heavenly!