Eat more butter and eggs.

Throw away your margarine and eat butter. Try to have 3 tablespoons of Olive Oil a day. Eat more eggs. Stop eating pork and shelled fish. Stop using antibacterial soap. Play in the dirt more often.

These are some of the ideas provided in the two books I just finished, Good Fats and Oils & The Maker’s Diet.

My sister Krista is doing a nutrition course right now and I borrowed one of her books called Good Fats and Oils. Interesting stuff. It’s a great summary of which oils and fats are good for us and which ones aren’t and how to practically use them everyday.

Stuff that was new to me:
The book explained why trans-fatty acids and hydrogenated oils are so bad for us. I am avoiding them now as much as possible. Check out wiki.
Butter is way better for you than margarine. Margarine for the most part contains these bad trans-fatty acids. But don’t burn butter or any other oil for that matter, because that’s when they go from good to bad. It often results in the creation of trans-fatty acids. Check out the smoke points to know what temperature to keep it under.

Eggs do not raise your cholesterol! Seriously, eat more!

Shortly after reading Good Fats and Oils I read a book called The Maker’s Diet by Dr. Jordan Rubin. Here’s a snippet from Amazon’s description.

After facing an "incurable" disease, Dr. Rubin baffled conventional doctors by discovering a cure - by turning to "man's first - and only - true health plan" using the dietary principles found in the Bible.

It’s always a huge claim when people try to say your health will be changed forever. So I was trying to take it all with a grain of salt. I couldn’t help but agree with many of the principals the author suggests though. Basically, the old adage of “garbage in, garbage out” holds true when it comes to our diet and we have become so far removed from the process of getting our food and preparing it that we don’t even really know what we are ingesting anymore. The author, Dr Jordan Rubin suggests that if we focus more on the foods we eat and the quality of what we eat then disease and sickness will diminish. I’ve always been a bit of a tree hugger so I have no problem agreeing and wanting to go organic and grass-fed and buying local and free range and all that jazz. The critics will say that just costs a fortune, or how can you guarantee it’s actually organic. Good question, but besides the cost, I don't think it would otherwise hurt to use less pesticides, feed animals what they would eat if they were in the wild, support our local farmers and stop keeping animals all cooped up! I told you I was a bit of a tree hugger.

Anyway, it’s an interesting read. Check it out. I’m already trying to follow along with some of his diet. There is no way I could stay on it living on the road but I’ll try to get close.

So that’s it for my dietary reading for now. With Krista doing that course I expect I’ll be into another one before long.

GL