From spinach and sprouts to butter and broth the story behind it all.... part 1

Welcome, and to a few, welcome again.  As some of you are aware I developed a blog about a week ago with the name "spinach and sprouts" but since, I have talked to an established blogger whom I deeply respect and received a few pointers... thus a different blog entirely.  But, it's all for the better.

As promised here is the story behind the name, I felt it appropriate to start off with an explanation, as it's a window into who I am, what I have struggled with and the successes along the way... lets get up close and personal. 

From spinach and sprouts to butter and broth.... it's a long story, a story filled with many mistakes and lessons learned.  I do not say regrets because I know the Lord allows everything to happen for a reason, so instead of regretting the past 6 years and the choices made I am taking the opportunity I have to learn, grow, share and maybe even help others along the way.

Six years ago when Salt and I got married (if you are curious about my husbands peculiar name see the side bar to the right "meet the Herbs") we ate like most anybody else, pretty regular with the exception of using rice cheese and soy milk.  You see, a year prior to that I did a research paper on "milk for human consumption" in my college anatomy class.  The reason I chose that topic from my list of options was because Salt's mom used rice cheese and did her best to limit their families dairy consumption.  I am naturally very curious, when I was young I would ride in the car for hours on end with my dad and never run out of questions... it's a good thing he's a science teacher... I think the Lord ordained that just for me :-).  So I am always trying to find how why, why, why...that lead me to researching milk.  My paper was doomed to fail from the beginning since I didn't even realize people drank raw milk, so I demonized it and did a pretty darn good job of convincing my class that milk was basically "of the devil".  Now, I do not think milk is bad, it's awesome, but that is raw milk from grass fed cows or goats, not the stuff you buy in the grocery store....more on that later.

In short I wrote the paper and became a soy milk drinker myself.  Salt and I got married, drank soy milk and used rice cheese.  My mother in law recommend a book called "The pH Miracle" by Dr. Robert Young, it blew my mind and I literally stopped eating ice cream the day I read it.... yup, that was huge, just ask my dad, I used to eat ice cream out of the container like it was going to be out-lawed.  But I am very all or nothing, if I feel something is wrong I just can't do it...for the most part anyway.  I went all out and implemented as much as I could from the book, we gradually went meat free, totally eliminated all dairy, and started eating sprouted grains.  My husband was fantastic, he read the book and was all in, we thought we were such good little eaters.


Around this same time my daughter Basil was born and as she started on solids we of course gave her the traditional starter foods but soon noticed constipation, dark circles under her eyes, itchy, bumpy rashes all over her tummy and diaper rash, none of which was present prior to starting solid food... I think it's safe to assume she was having an allergic reaction.  My mother in law suggested gluten being a possibility so we cut it out and all of her problems disappeared.  Instead of just her going gluten free our whole home did and Salt reaped some significant benefits from that change as well, his chronic acne was almost non existent and best of all the need to clear his nasal passages with snorts and sniffs vanished, the mucous was gone, he could breath again !!

Salt and Basil drinking their morning green drinks

Any way, one book lead to another and another, all in the same basic genre, never reading anything else, all the while having a haughty attitude about how much "better" we eat than others.  Not judging them so much but really dealing with a lot of pride.  You know the Bible verse.... (prov. 16:18) 
"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."  Yup, it's true.

But our "fall" didn't happen just yet....  there is more.  We were vegetarian for a while still eating fish and meat here and there but we gradually went vegan.  Vegan sounds pretty extreme doesn't it... it is !!  But wait there's more... really there is.  My readings led me to more extreme views on food and we slowly and enthusiastically became raw vegans, we legitimately thought it was the most ideal way to eat and did so with gusto.  I am pretty good in the kitchen so our food wasn't terrible but really, you can only eat raw veggies in all their possible purred, soaked, dehydrated and other adulterated forms and resulting textures for so long without disdain welling up inside, not to mention hunger !!  We were raw vegans for about 8-9 months until we just couldn't take it anymore and went back to being vegans.

Basil helping make raw zucchini bread, and yes, if you are wondering it was gross.

Along the way I started questioning whether this really was the right way to eat, my husband was chronically skinny no matter how faithfully he lifted weights or how much he ate and he ate A LOT of food, I tell you what!  I was losing weight and rapidly approaching too skinny, not to mention a whole host of other physical problems I was experiencing and slowly developing along the way.  I was 25 and literally felt about 75 years old some days.  I will explain the physical and mental consequences in the next post since it would just get too long and even I might stop reading.

Because we were having doubts with our vegan lifestyle we decided to do an experiment and I added fish two to three times a week for my husband, normally his post work out meal because he craved meat like a thoroughbred carnivore.  We also added raw goat milk cheese, about 8oz a week...now we wouldn't want to get carried away or anything!!  But just those few changes made it so Salt gained a few pounds and his numbers went up in the weight room, not much but it was undoubtedly due to the change in our diet.  After seeing these results I started to dig deeper into the possibility that maybe we really were not created to eat a vegetarian or vegan diet and sure and hell not a raw vegan diet.  I read a book called "The Primal Blueprint" by Mark Sisson - a fantastic book, I whole heatedly recommend from a nutritional standpoint, it's easy to read but gives loads of information.  However a small disclaimer, I do not agree with his evolutionary beliefs that are interwoven throughout the book. After Salt and I read that book we did a 180 degree turn and literally went from spinach and sprouts to butter and broth.... thus the title.  The second part of the tag line, "to butter and broth" we'll get to next time.

Bethany