Turkey Tracks: Balance: A Philosophy of the Nourished Kitchen

Turkey Tracks:  May 5, 2014

Balanced:  A Philosophy of the Nourished Kitchen

 

Here’s another quote I like from The Nourished Kitchen by Jennifer McGruther:

Balanced:

There’s a deeply pervasive disconnect in the collective relationship with food that persists in American culture:  We often view healthy eating as synonymous with restrictive eating, and we likewise view joyful eating as a guilty pleasure, something that begs for strict limits.  I believe that real food allows us both the gift of nourishment, and the gift of pleasure, without unnecessary restrictions.  Eating a diet of traditional foods helps us to develop a positive relationship with our food, not one born out of guilt and denial; rather, the traditional foods movement teaches us to purchase, prepare, and enjoy our food with intention.

Real, traditionally prepared foods offer nuanced flavors, subtle differences in texture or aromas that change continuously as the seasons of the year wax and want.  Enjoy meats and fish.  Relish grains, breads, and pulses.  Take pleasure in good fat and take a mindful approach to sweets.  The multidimensional flavors of traditionally prepared real foods bring a complexity of different notes and textures to your tongue, and even a small amount of concentrated foods like butter from the raw cream of grass-fed cows, or a lovely single varietal honey will bring deep satisfaction that is otherwise missing from industrialized foods with their single notes, cloying sweetness, or overt saltiness (3-4).

Note that McGruther works with ancient grains and fermented sourdough breads.  The former do not have the gluten content of today’s wheat and the latter mitigates further the impact of gluten and the phytates in grains.  So, if you do not have a gluten-intolerant gene, like me, McGruther’s bread recipes are wonderful.