A Self-processed Palate

This is a long post. It covers 3 topics.

1. Intermittent Fasting

2. Biofeedback

3. Processing your own food (as much as possible)

I've been an Intermittent Faster for over 5 years now. I've been a clean food buff as well as partially locavore for MUCH longer than that.

I recommend the Intermittent Fasting (IF) lifestyle for most people. Granted, there are those of us who shouldn't adopt an IF lifestyle (check with your doctor), but most people can benefit from an IF lifestyle. There are great health benefits. Fighting Insulin Resistance is the #1 benefit. Autophagy is a close 2nd! Weight loss is only the 3rd! The 4th benefit for this sugar addict is forgiveness. There is NO WAY TO FAIL on IF. Go to a party and pig out on sweets? So what? It was in your "meal window" (the time during which you eat each day). Simply reduce your window for a few days! Can't stick to ANY plan during holidays? Again, so what? Keep your meal window as many days as you can. Shorten it as much as you can and then, get back on track when the holidays are over.

But the key is, it's a lifestyle. I will always be an Intermittent Faster. My typical day is Brunch and early Supper - a meal window of 8-10 hours. I don't typically snack between meals either. I only drink water, unsweet tea, and black coffee outside those hours. And, my brunch and supper are typically healthy (think reasonably low-carb, low-processing, but not to extremes), but I also "feast" several days a week - meaning I eat rich sweets when I want them; and I sometimes have potato chips if they're available; and I have a glass or 2 of wine at Girls' Night Out or Bowling Night; and I eat BBQ sandwiches, pasta, and all those other comfort foods when I want them - inside my meal window.

An important "disclaimer" must be mentioned here. IF is NOT a diet. IF is a lifestyle; it will not work as a diet - something you do for a "couple months". Weight doesn't "fall off". In fact, here's a picture of my weight for the last 2.5 years. Note that my weight loss is not linear! It's also important to note that the time periods when I had steep weight loss weren't "decisions" that I made. I would just start dropping pounds! And, granted, I would get excited and try to keep it going. But I didn't "choose" to "be better". Weird huh?

In the 5 years of IF, I've lost 37 pounds. I'm at my High School Sophomore weight - when I was "stretched" by my biggest growth spurt and my sugar addiction hadn't caught up to my height yet! I've reached this weight only one other time in my adult life - in my 40s when I was working out 4 or 5 times a week in the gym. (FWIW, I am NOT working out in a gym these days!)

My number-y friends (and I have quite a few of these friends) will have already worked out that's a bit more than 7 lbs a year. But 25 of that has come since summer 2023 - that's when I started training in earnest for my trip to US Tennis Assoc Over-55 Nationals (Invitational) in October 2023. The big difference in these recent 2.5 years is biofeedack. I've always been a biofeedback aficionado. (I used an old DOS/Windows application called DietPower back in my 40s.) I've been tracking MANY variables during these last 2.5 years, not just weight. Biofeedback FTW!

Those number-y friends I mentioned? They will have already worked out that my weight loss results using biofeedback was about 10 lbs per year. That's over a 40% improvement in results. Yes, biofeedback alone has given me the inspiration I needed to get a 40% improvement in results!

So, what does "processing" have to do with any of this? It's a great question. I don't have a good answer. I have a working hypothesis. But I don't have biofeedback data to prove my hypothesis. To be perfectly honest, that's my motivation for this blog post!!! I mentally process things by writing them down. I'm hoping that authoring this blog post will be the inspiration I need!

I am on the "Ultra-processed food is killing us" bandwagon. I want to stop right here and tell you 3 things. 1) I am not anti-industrial farming. 2) I am not anti-industrial food. 3) I am not in favor of regulating those industries.

There is no way the United States and Europe would have made it through the 20th century without innovating and industrializing our food supplies! The world needs industrial farming and food processing. You can't feed 8 billion people - and certainly not the 11 billion projected by the end of the 21st century - without industry. And the US wouldn't have gone to the moon; and the internet wouldn't be here and there are so many other technological wonders we couldn't have achieved without the industrialization of our food supply.

So, why am I down on Ultra-processed food then? I'm saying it's killing us. But we don't need less innovation. We need more.

Anything that you eat that has ingredients that you don't recognize; ingredients that don't sound like food; ingredients you couldn't grow yourself; ingredients you couldn't buy on the outside aisles of your grocery store; - anything that you eat in those categories is likely not making you healthier AND, is likely doing the opposite.

We are starting to see items on the grocery shelves in the "inside aisles" that aren't so ultra-processed. That is a good thing. I want to see more of it. I try to support the companies that I notice moving in that direction.

But, here's the reason for my post. In my multi-year health journey, I've come to understand something about myself. AND, I suspect that it is true for other people as well. Therefore, I want to bring it up - in the hopes of helping another person.

WHEN I PROCESS MY OWN FOOD, I EAT BETTER.

I eat better food. I eat better-tasting food. I eat food that is better for me. I eat with a better mindset. I eat with more gratefulness.

A corollary: since I'm doing the processing, I'm burning the energy (calories) that are necessary to do the processing! So, I benefit right at the start of the process!

Processing doesn't have to be hard and time-consuming. There are youtube channels, Facebook pages, TikToks and all kinds of web pages and social media outlets with recipes and "kitchen hacks". I use them.

But the more of my own processing that I do, the healthier I feel; the more grateful I feel; the happier I feel. AND, the better my food tastes.

A book that I recommend on this topic:

Beyond Labels: A Doctor and a Farmer Conquer Food Confusion One Bite at a Time: Mccullough, Sina, Salatin, Joel, Damrosch, Barbara: 9781733686600: Amazon.com: Books

Just a few of the self-processing methods I am trying:

• Growing my own salad ingredients (Bok Choi, Cabbage, Microgreens, Carrots, Tomatoes.) Some hydroponically - not particularly as a health improvement, but because it's fun and space-saving.

• Making my own dairy products from raw milk I buy locally (butter, buttermilk, mozzarella, ricotta, feta, gouda, cottage cheeses).

• Keeping hens for fresh eggs.

• Growing my own chickens; (I have "processed" chickens before and I will do it again, but I usually pay a homesteading family in my county to process several of my own chickens for me when it's time to put some in the freezer.)

• Grinding my own flour.

• Baking my own bread.

• Making my own pasta (from home-ground Durum!)

Why am I writing? Am I proud of this? Why, yes, yes I am! But also because ultra-processed food is addictive and our whole society is addicted. I think we can turn it around and make industrialized food exciting, addictive AND healthy. My self-processing is addictive! I want MORE not less!

Why am I writing now? No clue. It just seemed like the thing to do at the time (while I was making our sourdough french toast, bacon and fried eggs this morning.)