Our Mission
Nourishing Thoughts…
Buckminster Fuller said it best: “The Whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. This statement is unequaled in significance as it relates to my natural foods cooking school. When taking this statement into the food realm it might read more specifically as… The Whole Food is greater than the sum of its products.
The benefit found in eating whole food can not be matched by any of its nutrients alone or together. There is a synergy in whole food that is not yet fully understood by science. The food industry has changed the way we are eating and much of what we are eating today is not food. They are what author Michael Pollan calls Edible food like substances. His advice is to: Avoid any food that has been processed to an extent that it is more the product of industry than nature. There are some 17,000 new foods or food like products a year being brought to the market place, and there is some 32 billion dollars a year put into marketing them. Avoid foods that make health claims. Whole foods do not need to make health claims, because there health is simple given.
A study that I found most enlightening was done in the 1930’s by a man named Weston Price. He looked at isolated cultures of people to find what they were eating that kept them from contracting western diseases. He was looking for that common nutrient that gave them health. Surprisingly he didn’t find many similarities in these cultures at all, other than they do not eat store food.
Store food is food designed to be stored and transported over long distances. These people all ate fresh local whole foods. If we are to eat fresh local food we must support local growers!
When choosing your foods you may find these thoughts to be helpful:
Industrial Foods. Eat food that is as close as possible to its natural state. If you are buying a packaged food, look at the ingredients list. Ask yourself, if I had the time to make that product, would you use those ingredients?
The Health of the Soil… It stands to reason that a chemically simplified soil would produce chemically simplified plants. Organic or Natural farmers grow their crops using organic composts which releases a wide range of plant nutrient. When a plant has access to more nutrients it will have more nutrients.
Eating Animals…What the animal is eating affects it just like what we eat affects us. So we should care what they are eating if we want to eat them.
Atmosphere …Where and how we eat has an influence on how the food digests. I believe when eating we should not be doing other things. Being present, tasting, chewing focusing on the bite that is in your mouth, not the next bite that’s on your fork will make a huge improvement on digestion.
Food is not something that simply keeps us from being hungry. It is like love, an elemental human need. Food nourishes us, providing fuel for our bodies and hearts to grow. We are not machines; we need a connection with our fuel. I invite you to come and be introduced to a wide array of whole foods, and simple ways of preparing them.