Pastor Annette's Blog
"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC |
"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC |
February 11, 2020
Beloved: In an ongoing discussion with my nurse practitioner about post-menopausal health, we’ve talked a lot about diet and nutrition. Apparently grandmother bodies prefer holding onto weight we once shed more easily. “Protein in the morning,” she emphasized, “every single morning.” Based on a separate conversation, I added two cups of crushed oyster shells to my hens’ feed, and egg production doubled within days. Turns out that, while they are still laying, my girls are not spring chickens either. Their systems also need a dietary boost, calcium in this case. So, as much as I prefer toast or cereal with fruit, protein in the morning it is. I scramble, fry, and boil it, depending on the day. This morning I made egg sliders with ham, cheese, and leftover rolls from the freezer. The recipe works for both my doctor and the SNAP budget experiment I’ve been doing lately.* I recently heard a different doctor say that the healthiest food we can eat either was pulled off a tree, grew in the ground, or had a mother (a description I especially love to use when talking to kids about eating healthy). The problem is, of course, that the healthiest food is also the most expensive. While poor diet is only one factor in health outcomes, poverty has repeatedly been correlated with poor health outcomes such as obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes — all of which are directly connected to diet. Sadly, wealth is definitely better for your health, a reality that as a society we have chosen for ourselves and our poorer neighbors. We’ve done so by supporting the subsidy of one crop pretty much to the exclusion of all others. Do you know it? Indiana is famous for it. 40% of everything sold in a supermarket contains it, including plastic packaging, soaps, and detergents. It’s eaten by most of the meat we eat. It fuels the trucks that drive our groceries to the store. It’s corn. High fructose corn syrup. Hydrogenated Corn Oil. Polylactic acid. Ethanol. And so many other names. I’ve no beef with corn whatsoever, though almost all beef is corn-fed and shot full of antibiotics — to deal with cattle’s digestive intolerance of corn. I was raised on and love the taste of summer corn as much as the next Hoosier. My beef is with a culture prioritizing corporate profit over human health when we could choose otherwise. With our dollars and our votes, we could choose to subsidize a biodiverse food industry, an industry of food pulled off a tree, growing in the ground, having a mother. We could choose healthy people over outrageous profits, not only for ourselves but for all our neighbors too. No doubt it’s a challenge, but certainly not undoable. The very beginning for me has been to eat more thoughtfully, more intentionally. And also to read. Last week I mentioned and here quoted The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Another older text that is important to me is The Journal of John Woolman, an 18th-century Quaker who lived deeply conscious of the economics of his faith and how others were affected by his choices. I am considering it for our Lenten reading group. I pray the day is kind to you in every way. ~peace & prayers with much love, pastor annette *local organic eggs are sometimes available for free at Mother Hubbard’s cupboard but likely too expensive on a SNAP budget.
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I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC. It is also posted here.
Enjoy! Pastor Annette Copyright
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