Be Nature, Eat Nature

| 15 Comments

Being Primal is about more than limiting the diet to certain food groups and eliminating others, adjusting macronutrient ratios, exercising every day, and living a simpler, less toxic life.

Being Primal is about being a part of nature.

I know that’s hard to do when we live in cities or large towns, where we have to drive long distances just to spend a few hours in the forest. Most of us are lucky to go hiking once a week or meet up with friends for a picnic in the park once a month. But I don’t think this separation is healthy, for us, for our children, for our community, or for our earth.

The longer we are away from nature the more distance we put between ourselves and the world which we were designed to inhabit.

When we don’t see our food growing in the ground and we have no relationship with the animals we eat, we are more prone to shop for meats at the supermarket and eat steaks at restaurants where food is served only for appearance and profit and not for nutrition and with respect.

A feedlot steak and a grass fed steak look pretty much identical on a plate sitting beside a bed of colorful veggies, organic or otherwise. But the reality is, they’re not the same. One came from a sick animal which hurts the earth and hurts our bodies, while the other came from a healthy animal and nourishes the earth and ourselves.

Maintaining a connection with nature helps us remember to eat responsibly.

It’s just about summer now across the country – the perfect time to go hiking and rock climbing, to swim in a lakes, climb trees with our kids, and walk barefoot across big fields. It’s time to reestablish a relationship with our roots and experience the real Primal world. It’s time to remember how animals are supposed to live.

I think it’s also important to visit local farms to learn even more about where our food comes from and how it is cared for, to remember that grass fed, and not factory farmed animals, are what we should be eating. If you’re not sure where one is in your area, check out EatWild.com for a listing of farmers. Call them up and take a tour.

Connecting with nature comes pretty naturally to me. Being in the city for too long feels oppressive and so I frequently seek out the quieter, less offensive world of the mountains, fields, and beaches. City people with all their attitudes, schedules, and mental problems are tiresome and nature is a perfect escape from this. But I have to admit, visiting farms takes a bit more planning. When we lived in California, we did it often. Since being in Colorado, however, and all the craziness that we’ve been through since we got here, we have only visited a farm once in these two years.

I am going to make an extra effort to visit some farms this summer. I hope you do too. We will probably hit up one or two as a family and I will also post a meetup event on the Denver Paleo Meetup that I started last year.

Let’s not forget where real food comes from so that we don’t get sucked into living the American food lie.

For inspiration, I’ve posted some grassfed farm pictures I took in California juxtaposed with pictures of the stuff you find in restaurants and supermarkets. Which kind of animals do you eat?

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15 Comments

  1. Farm-raised Jersey steer steaks are the best! I get some every now and then and I’ve never had steak that tasted that good.

  2. Nice visual with the photos. Some people need that. Some you just can’t through with words alone. Thanks for the great post. :-)

  3. Great article, Peggy! It’s so refreshing to hear the thoughts of others who are understand the importance of purchasing and consuming locally, sustainably (pesticide and GMO free) farmed sources of food. Educating people about the benefits of grass fed cows, and pastured pigs and chickens is such a crucial part of the primal lifestyle. Thanks for helping to expose feedlot and factory farmed meat and dairy for the horrible, inhumane conditions they create for the animals (and consequently, the negative impact that it has on our health.) I enjoyed reading this while sitting outside in the fresh air and sunshine, with my son, while he does his homework :)
    We’re visiting 2 local farms on a tour next weekend – really looking forward to it!

    • That’s great! Visiting farms isn’t just educational, of course, it’s so much fun, especially if you have kids. Have fun next weekend!

  4. We just visited our family farmer a couple of months ago! We all loved it! Such a lovely place to be and such healthy surrounding for the animals!

    http://dirtundermynails.com/2012/03/11/the-importance-of-knowing-where-your-food-comes-from/

  5. Thanks for this great post Peggy. It’s all too easy to become completely removed from the food, which is very sad!

  6. Great article! We moved to north Denver area last year and are making some farm trips this year. Tomorrow we are checking out a raw milk cow share farm and I am super excited. I would love more info on your Denver paleo meet up!

  7. Hey Peggy…great post! Random question completely unrelated…do you own a Squatty Potty? Does it give you enough of a squat? Thinking of ordering one but it seems to not give quite the squat I was used in China. Just wondering if you have personal experience with it.

    • Pretty random, yeah, except that squatting is natural, sitting on toilets not! :) Anyway, I do have one and it is absolutely the awesomest thing ever. My toilet is on the shorter side and I got the taller one to accommodate the full squat. I am going to write a post on it really soon because I love it so much.

      By the way, my six year old loves it to. She won’t go in her own bathroom anymore because she wants to use mine. Have you ever wondered if little legs dangling in the air might contribute to potty training difficulties?… I imagine that’s just about the weirdest, most unnatural feeling.

  8. Too late…I already ordered one (off your site, natch)…I figured little squat was better than none :)
    Thanks! Pascal is TOTALLY stoked to try it.
    Yes, I have thought that dangling legs inhibit pooping. One thing, I also recommend is putting phone books under little feet on the little potty. Works wonders.
    However, I’m also shockingly starting to wonder if all the potty troubles (mostly pooping) is due to…um, grains, flour and sugar. I know, I know…it’s a stretch…

    My potty training business is decidedly becoming Primal Potty Training. Talk about a niche…

  9. I’ve always wondered if the depression epidemic in this country might be due (in part, at least) to eating (presumably) unhappy factory-farmed animals. Thanks for this post, and will take the initiative to sometime visit the farms that my meat comes from these days, too! Great idea.

  10. hey peggy. so a weird thing has happened. after reading about your lifestyle and eating habits, i have added raw meat (grassfed lamb and lambs liver) to my diet for about a week. i guess it could be coincidence, but ever since i’ve been feeling a bit strange: very aggressive, and emotional. depressed, even. i’ve had these problems before in my life, well, depressed, not aggressive, but they havent been this bad for years. i guess i’ll go back to cooked meat, and then try again some other time. but.. have you ever heard of something like that? its pretty extreme. also ive had a bit of stomach pain and diarrhea- could all of this be a detox or something? i’m still eating cooked food- is it a bad idea to just add more raw food and meat to a cooked food diet??

    • Lea, I have run into this before a couple of times and have even experienced it myself.

      If you are having diarrhea suddenly when you started this and you don’t normally have it, it may be related. I have had instances where I was quite sure that I was not digesting raw meat well. I have found that if I eat just raw meat and nothing else, it doesn’t digest well. It goes through too fast. If I add some cooked starch, I don’t have this problem. I believe it is just the diarrhea that causes the aggression and anger. I’ve found that adding raw meat to the diet is fine, but eating a totally raw meat diet is not fine… for me.

      Have you just been popping some raw meat for a meal? If so, try eating it with some cooked starch. If that’s not it, try raw fish and see if that makes a difference.

  11. peggy, thank you for your advice. i have been eating mostly raw now for a few weeks- the mood swings have disappeared, as well as the diarrhea, and i’m actually feeling really awesome. i have a questions, though- i’ve been looking and it seems that most raw meat eaters dont eat raw pork. do you think its dangerous across the board? i’m raising some pigs in my backyard and would be super disappointed not to eat them… thanks!!

    • Lea, pigs can harbor a worm called trichinosis which can cause a lot of harm to humans if ingested. But the thing is trichinosis isn’t considered a problem anymore and honestly, there have only been a handful of reported cases in many years. Do some research on it and make your own choice. If you don’t feed your pigs raw meat, and if they don’t have access to any scurrying little animals like rats, your pigs are probably fine. Here is a little article on the debate.

      http://www.chow.com/food-news/53540/will-i-get-trichinosis-from-eating-undercooked-pork/

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