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A personal blog. I am an: Award-winning writer. Non-profit entrepreneur. Activist. Religious professional. Foodie. Musician. All around curious soul and Renaissance man.


Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Organic Grandmother--or not?

My grandmother's lifestyle would be the envy of many "natural living" advocates today. Her diet consisted entirely of organic and pasture-raised foods throughout her youth, living in a rural village in Slovakia after the turn of the 20th century. After coming to Cleveland as a 17-year old, she eventually settled in rural Ohio, raising much of her own food on a family farm.

Fresh produce and pasture-raised meats and eggs were the mainstay (the animals were partially grain fed, but still had significant pasture time). She ate a diverse diet, her family ate the whole animal, organs and all, and grew a plethora of fruits and vegetables. "Organic" was not a luxury, it was just the way it was. Later, they introduced pesticides on the farm and she started eating more store-bought items as an elderly person, but she had decades of predominately organic living before that.

She worked hard all her life, and even as an elderly woman had a constitution that amazed American doctors.

Yet, she developed diabetes later in life. It caused her great difficulties, and probably caused her to die sooner than she otherwise would have (she still lived to age 83).

It is always dangerous to refer to anecdotal examples. The experiences of a single person can always be attributed to random circumstances and may not indicate an applicable trend for everyone. Still, her example should bring us pause. If even she developed one of these "modern diseases", even while still living a lifestyle far more traditional than most people, what hope do the rest of us have of averting that fate with natural living choices? Most of us would consider ourselves lucky to eat organic foods sporadically--perhaps a few servings a week. Yet, organics were the norm for my grandmother for entire decades.

Yet, it is curious that diabetes was the disease she developed. I believe it is associated with refined grains and sugars. She did eat a lot of white bread, peeled potatoes and pastries. Perhaps that is what happened. The fresh produce and naturally raised meats kept her heart healthy and kept her cancer-free, but the refined carbs took their toll. That is my hypothesis.

One of my earliest memories is seeing her among the other church ladies, throwing another load into the potato-peeling machine. For a person who lived such a "whole foods" lifestyle, there was a significant error when it came to refined grains and starches. I don't know how often she ate whole grains or peel-on potatoes, but I believe the reverse was the norm.

It would be irresponsible to draw any firm conclusions from this sketch, but it raises questions. Is a few servings or organics a week enough in light of this? Are our occasional efforts at regular exercise and natural foods just a drop in the bucket? Or was it really the refined sugars? Maybe she developed diabetes from a whole host of other reasons. Maybe her life was every bit as long and healthy as it should have been. Maybe the era she lived in brought her exposure to chemicals that have since been regulated.

I don't know, but I do wonder.

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