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Why a
cooking column in Gems from Earth and
Sky?
Preparing
and enjoying food can be an act of devotion,
especially for those of us whose traditions teach
that the Earth and our bodies are sacred. I love to
cook, I love to learn about new ingredients and
methods, and I relish eating tasty, healthy meals I
have prepared myself. Furthermore, I love to cook
for others-it seems the most basic way to love and
honor another person. Food is the very stuff of
life, it is the Earth Goddess's most direct way of
caring for us. To prepare and enjoy a meal is thus
a ritual of connection, repeated day after day, in
every land, since time before memory. So my love of
cooking is more than a hobby interest; it is part
of my daily spiritual practice.
This column
is written to share my own approach to cooking, and
of course my favorite dishes. It reflects my own
preferences, and makes no attempt to speak to a
wider audience. At the outset, here are some of my
own choices regarding the food I eat:
I prefer
vegetarian meals. I am not an animal rights
activist-I do not believe it is intrinsically
immoral to use animals for food. However, I am
appalled at the callous disregard for animal life
and welfare shown by the modern meat industry, and
cringe at the wasteful self-indulgence of the
modern American lifestyle which drives the
industry. The insistence on meat at virtually every
meal comes at a great cost to the environment, and
also to our health. The healthiest diets on the
planet are those based on grains, legumes, and
vegetables, with perhaps some fish, seafood, or
poultry and an occasional addition. Such diets are
also more ecologically sustainable, requiring much
less agricultural land and energy consumption. I am
not a strict vegetarian - I will eat meat if
someone has prepared it for me, or if it is the
only appealing option on a restaurant menu, neither
of which happen very often. I also have a serving
of fish or seafood once every week or so. So it is
not really accurate for me to label myself a
vegetarian; I say instead that I prefer vegetarian
meals, and many of the meals I prepare are vegan:
they use no animal products at all.
I prefer
low-fat meals. I find holding my fat intake
below about 20% calories from fat keeps my weight
down and my energy level higher. There is also a
history of heart disease in my family, and this
dietary preference also helps keep the cholesterol
down. I avoid saturated fats like the plague, and
use only very small amounts of healthy oils, like
olive oil. Low-fat cooking is easy to do when
cooking vegetarian, because meat is a primary
source of fat in most diets. As a vegetarian, there
is very little "hidden fat" in the foods I prepare.
It's there in the oil or cheese (if any), and in
fatty ingredients like avocados and nuts, but
basically absent in the staples: grains, legumes,
and vegetables. Reducing fat is not just a health
issue, either. The way I see it, we are
biologically programmed to seek out fatty foods
because consuming them helps us build up body fat
to survive periods of famine. This survival
mechanism is no longer appropriate in affluent,
industrialized cultures, where we can basically eat
whenever we want. So although consuming fatty foods
every day is something that appeals to our taste
buds, it represents an unbalanced way of living, a
kind of addiction that prevents us from having a
centered, well-rounded relationship with our food
and bodies.
I prefer
meals from unprocessed ingredients. Of
course, almost everything you buy is processed in
some way, unless it comes from your own garden or
the local farmers' market. What I mean is that my
cooking emphasizes basic ingredients, such as
grains, dried beans, fresh vegetables, herbs and
spices, rather than packaged foods with
preservatives, flavorings, and other additives.
Some people dread "cooking from scratch" for fear
that it is too time-consuming and inconvenient. But
that simply depends on what dishes one prepares,
and on sometimes doing a bit of advance planning
(such as soaking beans overnight or putting them in
the crock pot to cook in the morning). Working with
basic ingredients makes me feel much more connected
to the Earth, and to peoples living in other places
and times. I don't do things like grind my own
flour or press my own olive oil, but I do try to
keep my ingredients relatively plain and simple. I
do sometimes use processed products, like TVP and
seitan, as meat stand-ins for extra protein in
vegetarian dishes.
A common
theme in these preferences is a backing away from
what I see as out-of-control consumerism in our
culture. Although I obviously do not produce most
of my own food, I like to think that the food I eat
is something I could produce, without massive
modern technology and without qualms about animal
suffering. Modern packaged food (and fast-food
restaurant fare) is loaded up with fats and
sweeteners and salt as a kind of seduction, luring
us away from the simple pleasures of nature's own
flavors. The idea is to supplant our relationship
with the Earth, replacing it with a relationship
with a corporation. This approach to food enriches
a few persons financially, but impoverishes us all
spiritually.
I'm not a
purist about any of these things, which is why I
describe them as preferences only. I don't let any
of these preferences becomes sources of stress in
my life. I don't become anxious over trace
ingredients or which corporations own which brands.
I like my cooking and eating experiences to express
a connection with the plants and creatures of the
Earth, and with peoples in different times and
places who have developed wonderful cuisines, out
of love for delicious flavors and healthy
living.
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