Living Holistically, How I Started

Live Holistically is a multi-author site.
This post was written by: Susan Blue

My Family Gave to Me

What we learn in our families are skills we take into life. Many families pass on learning’s of animal care, carpentry, gardening / farming lore and more. The more skills under your belt, the better your survival, was a typical philosophy of children raised by Depression Era parents .

My Mom was a social worker before she married my Dad. She had worked in New York, then in Salt Lake City. She was a wealth of information about nutrition, balanced meals and diets, food preservation, home health care and first aid. I learned cooking from scratch; canning our fruits, jams, jellies, pickles, relishes and veggies. Even my brother knew how to run a sewing machine, mend a sock and sew a button on a shirt. Both my sister and I learned to break down, clean, shoot a rifle and hand gun. We also learned to change a tire and the oil. Good beginnings, very diversified for a girl.

College and Getting Out in the World

He was the older college student with life experience. He was also macrobiotic. Expounding on philosophy and theory as he demonstrated macrobiotic cooking was a Saturday dinner extravaganza. Better than the local drinking holes and other doings of college students. I was among his group of wide eyed admirers. Having peas with my hot dogs was my idea of a balanced cheap meal.

Macrobiotics as the Vehicle for Knowledge

Macrobiotics introduced me to food as balance for health and your personal pharmacy. It also introduced me to the early politics of food. Smaller farms and orchards were being sold out. The life style didn’t pay; competition with corporate farming and imported foods under cut the cost of the local farmers/ranchers expenses. An increasing population was being housed on prime farm land. You could get more for house on a lot than several acres of farm land. This was the late 1960s. Nothing has changed, there is just more of it.

That lead to an interest in herbs. Back to Eden, Jethro Kloss’s text of herbal and natural healing opened a new world for me. Herbal teas came loose and in bulk form. Most of them in the health food stores and catalogs were medicinal. Kloss inspired me to become pro-active with my own health care. It also gave me an alternative for health care as I didn’t make much money at the time.

Notations of Research as an Awakening

I married that older macrobiotic student. While he was finishing his degree; he worked for an international outdoor program during the summers. Many of the instructors were less than well at the end of the season. Their diets consisted of Army rations and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Needless to say, their dietary needs for high altitude living were not met. He lobbied for dietary changes as only a philosophy student who studied logic and ethics could. He was awarded the research to revise the diet.

I did a lot of the notations on the research. I was introduced to Adel Davis and Prevention Magazine and the politics of the Sugar Industry. I learned then that the preservatives used in foods were carcinogenic and/or toxic. The methods used to refine foods (like regular white flour) were toxic processes in themselves.

Labels Tell Me What I Need To Know

I have been looking at labels since. Sadly, over the years, many products have changed to adding chemical ingredients that once didn’t. The good side of that is the growing, harvesting, distribution, and manufacturing of organic and “natural” products. No longer having to order by catalog or buy only at a health food store makes my day.

Scary Hospital

Dad and I prepared for #1 baby and delivery by reading Mexican (yes they were from Mexico) birth and child care literature. It was the only thing that we could find at the time that was practical relevant information. We learned what to expect with pregnancy, delivery, recovering from birth for both mom and baby. It also gave some good tips on possible complications.

That birth was in a hospital. Dad was denied access to the delivery room, but he could watch from a window. I had to make a scene with the nurse to get my baby brought to me to nurse. They wanted to wait until my milk came in. I was across the room where they circumcised the baby boys. Just two nurses and a doctor. Those baby screams made my skin crawl. I think that small act of physical trauma done so early in life with no mother or father present creates a wounding in the psyche of our men.

My Commitment for Natural Healthy Baby

Not many women nursed at the time. Often I would wind up in a rest room nursing. Older women and women from other countries would stand and keep me company, cooing over happy suckling baby. My family had formula that they gave #1 when ever I had my back turned. They were so afraid of him becoming retarded. They had children at a time where there was no testing to determine if mom’s milk was giving adequate nutrition. Baby formula to my folks was all about having healthy infancy and babyhood.

I only used bought baby food when we traveled. There were several that I wouldn’t buy because of the ingredients listed on the label. A blender and sieve worked very well for making my own baby food. I used ice cube trays to freeze a small stock to keep on hand for variety and convenience.

I am deeply grateful to Meryl Streep’s campaign to remove preservatives from baby foods. I am also grateful to the inventive people who created a food grinder that you can use at the table for your baby.

Raising Children in a Culture in Love With Chemicals

Dr. Bronner’s soap was our body wash and for a while, shampoo. Health foods stores have free hand outs about many education topics. One of their great services has been the paper on chemical and plant based ingredients used in hair, skin and cosmetics. That helped me avoid a lot of toxicity for the kids and for the home.

Immunization was avoided until #1 was 7 years old. The state that we were living in had a mandatory law of immunization for school age children. The fine and jail term was beyond the meager means of the time. #2 is 15 months younger, so his immunization started then.

Organic popcorn could be had fairly easily. I popped tons of it for treats. Brewer’s Yeast was one of the major flavoring agents. I baked bread, cinnamon rolls, cookies, but no pies. Fresh fruit was always available.

As the kids grew older, they were involved with dinner planning and shopping. We had some general rules. One was no more than 3 poisons per day. Preservative and sugar were in the poison category. It was more difficult to negotiate the family dinners and holiday times. Luckily, my Mom could understand why I chose a different lifestyle and felt that it was in the interest of health for my family. She included many of the ideas she was introduced to. Eventually, Mom became a very fine vegetarian cook.