I'm really passionate about food. If you've ever met me, you can probably guess that from the size of my waistline. But for me, its not just eating too much food and eating junk, I'm really interested in the quality of food and what really goes into creating a meal -
How does it grow?
How is it prepared?
How is it cooked?
How is it presented?
What is the nutritional value?
What vitamins does it contain?
What other effects does it have on the human body?
Is there a cultural history behind a certain dish?
(Lets be honest...) Am I willing to spend money on this?
All of this is so incredibly fascinating to me. I know not everyone will get as worked up, but I wanted to give you a taste of why Mixins & Fixins is so important to me.
If you find yourself like, "I also find this really interesting, where can I learn more?" I recommend an audio lecture series. I found it on Audible. "Food: A Cultural Culinary History" by Ken Albala. It's part of a series called "The Great Courses: Better Living". For my Deaf friends, there's also a PDF attached with all his notes, graphs, and a near-direct one-to-one of the lecture. But it goes through history through the lens of food. Certain cuisines developed because the natural vegetation vs the trade industry... I'm only a third through currently but loving it.
The Girl Can Cook
I first learned how to cook packaged ramen on the stove when I was five years old. I learned how to read young and I never had a fear of the stove so I was always of the mindset that if I can read the directions, then I can figure it out. I wasn't one of those kids who was left home alone all the time. But I was just a determined little girl who knew how to read and follow directions. I usually would ask a parent or grandparent if I did it correctly, or the day when I asked my mom what sautee meant because I had just read it in a cookbook, but I really loved experimenting in the kitchen. Combine reading random collected cookbooks with "This smells like this would taste good" and imagining that I'm hosting a tv cooking show. That was a normal afternoon at my house.
We also almost always had a garden in the backyard where we would grow vegetables. I thought it was the coolest thing to be able to help plant that seed, water it over time, watch it grow, and then be able to eat it!
I think I was in high school when I started making meals for my family. Sometimes I would just help out by cooking the noodles or steaming the veggies and mom would cook the meat. But often, both my parents would work late and I would make Hamburger Helper and I would add mushrooms or broccoli or whatever.
But I distinctly remember the feeling of when friends would come over after school and my mom would cook something amazing and the friend would love the meal. If I made dinner, my dad would do this little happy dance if he enjoyed it. I didn't know anything about love languages then, but I knew then that feeding people was a big love language for me.
In college, I lived in the dorm for two and a half years. We were fortunate that our buildings were essentially groups of 4 people in 2 bedroom apartments with full bathroom, full kitchen, and living room. I didnt have a job, but I had an allowance and went grocery shopping for my own food. My first year, I because known as the chef of the building.
Background info, I majored in Deaf Studies and studied American Sign Language and Deaf Culture. My entire building was filled with Deaf students and students of Deaf Studies. All of our buildings on campus were divided by majors so it actually made it convenient for study sessions and walking to classes. Part of Deaf Culture, we would leave our dorm rooms open to the hallway as an open invitation to come visit.
People would smell my cooking down the hall and come investigate. Even though we all had kitchens, not everyone knew how to cook. And whatever I had usually smelled better than ramen.
Can't tell you how many times our building had smoke alarms go off and we would all have to evacuate because the Deaf person couldn't hear the timer, forgot to check it, and burned something.
I would invite poeple in and say, "If you can help me chop vegetables, or are willing to learn how, then you can have some of the food."
My second year, my roommate, A, and I cooked a lot and shared meals and had things like "sheperd's pie competition" and fun things like that. But I was just transitioning from cooking Hamburger Helper to using whole foods.
When I came home from college, my dad was working crazy hours and my mom was home on disability and I ended up the main cook for my family. I also had a lot of free time on my hands so between food network, pinterest, and youtube, I got to learn and practice a lot.
My History with Food
I was born with allergies to chocolate and citrus, to the point where a baby wipe containing citric acid would break my little baby butt into a rash. So I've always had to read labels. But at the time, it was just "does this product contain my allergens or not?" and no further thought. Both of those allergies faded when I was 12 or 13. So from then until I was 20 or 21, I thought of myself as "able to eat anything" and was never a picky eater.
But I struggled with my weight since puberty and tried diets through high school. Those were purely calorie restrictive and I wasn't looking at the quality of the food. I would limit myself to carrots and celery for lunch and then binge on junk food later. I loved the taste of butter and fats and honestly had a hard time stopping once I started eating.
Gosh this feels like a food therapy session. Sorry, folks.
In college I was determined to lose weight. And Roommate A was super into fitness and eating healthy. That's when I started learning about actual nutrition, not just calories and the food pyramid, but like... organic produce vs regular American produce, how food is processed, and how certain foods contain vitamins, minerals, and chemicals that effect our bodies in both positive and negative ways. I didn't fully taking it in and apply it to my life yet, but the knowledge started.
I went to the doctor for my regular checkup and at the age of 20, I was on cholesterol medication and I was diagnosed with a fatty liver. It hit me the amount of fat I was putting into my body with fried chicken. I started understanding the amount of sodium that was in boxed food and the effect it had on my heart and cardiovascular system.
One of her best friends at the time, and still one of my best friends now, was just diagnosed gluten intolerant. I literally didn't know what that meant. I just knew that she would visit our dorm but she couldn't drink beer with us.
It was in my third year that life had to pause. I won't get too into it now, but I had a mental breakdown, I ended up dropping out of school, and my life essentially came to a halt for about 15 months.
Honestly, because of this period of mental turmoil, a lot of my memories from 1st year of college in 2009 until about 2015 are really fuzzy, but I do my best in recollecting what I need to.
Somewhere in 2012 I noticed I was getting an upset stomach at soft cheeses like feta and bleu cheese. So I limited those and that was pretty easy. But between then and 2015, I started having a consistent increase in just digestion issues. And by that I mean every single meal was leading to cramping diarrhea. I was so embarrassed. There was Boyfriend D during this time and then there was this guy I had a major crush on and I'm trying to be cute and dateable and I was constantly running to the bathroom and the cramping would keep me there for like 20 minutes at a time. I just blamed it on "the family curse" because both my dad and his sister have big bathroom trips after they eat.
I know, TMI. But it's part of the story.
Around 2015, I had gained back the weight I had lost in 2011 and was ready to try again. I asked a friend about the weight he and his wife had lost. He told me about the Virgin Diet. No, it doesn't have to do with virginity. Her last name is Virgin. Basically, it is an elimination program to help you figure out what foods are bothering your system. I didn't even tell this friend that I was having cramping diarrhea, but the program addressed it directly. Literally within 3 days of cutting out gluten (among other things), my gurbley tummy was completely settled! It was during this time of testing if my body reacts to dairy, I had coconut milk in my latte and realized I am allergic to coconut.
Once I realized this is what was going on, I had to clear my pantry. I was living with 2 roommates from church and we each had a shelf of the cupboard. I emptied everything onto the floor and only put back the items that didn't contain gluten. Whatever my roommates didn't want, I donated to a food drive.
I know it sounds crazy, but have you ever stopped to think about what foods contain gluten? It's not just bread and beer. Gluten is found in wheat, barley, and rye. Some other forms of those are spelt, farina, bulgar, couscous, seitan, durum, semolina, farro, and a handful of others. Some basic ingredients like maltose (malt vinegar, malt flavoring) is made from barley, and soy sauce (any asian sauce) is made with wheat. Many sauces use wheat flour as a thickener. Flavoring and seasonings often have wheat fillers. Literally they just want a cheaper product so they add wheat to a seasoning packet.
I felt like there was nothing I could eat. I was frustrated because I would crave so many foods, but I knew if I gave into the temptation, I would be miserable for the next 3-6 hours. The price wasn't worth the pleasure.
Side note: at the apartment, I didn't have room for growing vegetables, but I did have room for herbs. So I learned how to grow herbs. I got that same satisfaction as with vegetables being able to go out on the balcony and snip a few basil leaves from the pot and put it straight into what I was cooking.
I moved back with my parents at the end of 2017 and was again the main cook for my family. But now I had to not only consider the gluten in everything, but my dad had started dialysis. I had to consider every ounce of salt and which foods had high potassium and phosphorus. We are a family that eats together and if one person has a need, everyone eats to accomodate.
It was in 2018 when I made another discovery about my gluten intolerance. I accidentally bought a bag of organic bread. I misread the label and thought it was gluten free. I got through half the bag when I realized the mistake. But my stomach wasn't having the cramping diarrhea. I still got grumble tummy after standard flour or soy sauce or other gouten products, but I could now have organic and unbleached wheat! My theory is that my body is intolerant to the processing that modern American/Western society does to food.
In Sept 2022, I was diagnosed as diabetic. Both of my grandfathers have/had it. Both of my parents have it. My dad's sister and my mom's brother have it.
This is starting to feel like The Skywalkers with the Force...
I felt like I was a ticking diabetic time bomb and I never knew when my body would go off. So the day I was diagnosed, I wasn't necessarily shocked, but it was still difficult to deal with.
Through my food choices, I had essentially reversed my fatty liver and cleared up my cholesterol so I wasnt on those medications anymore. But my pancreas still had the bad genetics lined up. I'm able to manage my blood sugars pretty well with Jardiance (not an ad, just letting you know what works for me), with walking and physical activity at work, and with making good choices in my food.
Spiritual Food
Since 2015, all the way up until now, while I've been wrestling with which foods I can eat and which foods I can't, I've had this revolutionary thought process:
God made the plants.
God made the plants to grow where they do
God made the plants to taste the way they do
God made the plants to have all the vitamins and minerals and chemicals that He intended
God made the human need for food.
God made my body to have certain needs.
God is with me. Always.
God wouldn't put me through this intolerance alone.
He has a plan.
I need to trust that He will provide for my needs.
God gave me this life and part of honoring Him is through honoring my body.
Which lead to:
What did people do before factories made food into boxes?
This is what they mean by real, whole foods
If I can read it, I can figure out how to make it too!
So here we are, back full circle.
I'm still just a determined little girl who knows how to read and follow directions.
I grow vegetables and herbs when I can. I buy fresh produce and organic dried herbs otherwise.
I make what I eat and purchase organic when I cannot make it.
I consider the salts and sugars and fats and how that will effect my body.
I want to honor God by taking care of the body He gave me.
I will use the flavors that He gave to this earth to feed my body.
I will enjoy the food and savor the experience, not just scarf down junk.
I will love and serve others by feeding them.
I will teach people about whole foods and how to use real flavors.
댓글