The last two books I read have been my favorites so far this year. The most recent was In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan – the book I mentioned in my post about attempting to eat more real food instead of processed food. He gives a really good explanation of how the Western diet came to be. He has a lot of examples of how food scientists and nutritionists put emphasis on individual nutrients – first one nutrient is considered “good,” then they discover this other nutrient over here is even better. Pollan argues that if people just ate “real” food, they wouldn’t have to worry so much about which processed food is fortified with which nutrient, because you’d already be getting everything you need.
The other book, also nonfiction, was See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America, by Logan Ward. Logan, his wife, and their 2-year-old son left their home in New York City and moved to a farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley for a year – and they lived as if it were the year 1900. They didn’t have electricity, running water, or a car. They cooked and heated on a wood cookstove, used an outhouse, and grew and canned their own vegetables. I’m always inspired by people who decide to do something out of the ordinary like this, just because they want to know what it’s like. This is an excellent book.
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That second book sounds freaking great. When I was a kid I read My Side of the Mountain and became OBSESSED with survivalism. I even joined girl scouts, only to find out that to my disgust they don’t do cool Indiana Jones stuff at all, only stupid crafts and “merit” badges and religious stuff. I wanted to live outdoors, grow and kill my own food, and subsist in the wilderness. I also wanted to carve out a giant tree and have my own kid sized cabin inside it.
Unfortunately, east central Kansas, while providing a much more interesting landscape than western Kansas, isn’t so heavy on the giant Appalachian trees one needs for that sort of endeavor.
I think my parents just considered it weird. And thinking about it, there is a part of me that STILL would like to move somewhere and live like a colonial person or a homesteader. Not that I could afford to give up my career to do that, you know?
I’m going to check out your first recommendation. I’ve read “The China study” and that book basically advises the same, but also promoting a animal-free diet. Since we eat a 90% whole foods diet we’ve had so much fun with cooking and tasting different flavors, trying new vegetables.
The woman that runs rikkis refuge in VA pretty much lives that way. It’s gotten better over the years, but (I believe) they had an outdoor toilet and no running water when they first started.
Personally, I couldn’t do it!
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