Real Food by Nina Planck Read Free Book Online Page A

animal fat. Something else must be to blame
     for our own poor health.
    What might that be? The culprit is industrial foods. Sugar and hydrogenated vegetable oils raise cholesterol and triglycerides.
     Eating oxidized— or damaged— cholesterol leads to unhealthy oxidized LDL in the body. The main, dietary source of oxidized
     cholesterol is powdered skim milk and powdered eggs, commonly found in processed foods. Finally, other factors are vitally
     important. Exercise, for example, keeps you thin and raises HDL. You can bet that Inuit seal hunters and Evenki shepherds
     get more exercise than most Americans.
    The experts are right: our diet is killing us. But traditional beef, butter, and eggs are not to blame for obesity, diabetes,
     and heart disease. The so-called diseases of civilization are caused by the foods of civilization. More accurately, the diseases
     of industrialization are caused by the foods of industrialization.

2
    Real Milk, Butter, and Cheese
    I Am Nursed on the Perfect Food
    ON THE DAY I WAS BORN, at home in our big house on 84 Russell Avenue in Buffalo, New York, my mother and I had everything
     we wanted. That afternoon she rested comfortably on the couch in our sunny front room, in no particular hurry for anything
     to happen, with her family checking in occasionally. March 29, 1971 fell on a Monday, but my father didn't go to work and
     my sister and brother stayed home from school. The doctor was just taking off her coat when I arrived on a schedule known
     only to my mother and me. Then my mother fed me the perfect food from the perfect container. Later, she fed herself some real
     food: mail order organic beef liver from Walnut Acres, one of the pioneering organic brands.
    I was a lucky baby. My mother gave me real food in my first hours and nursed me on demand until I stopped asking for fresh
     raw milk three years later. If possible, a woman should nurse exclusively for at least one year, or, ideally, until the baby
     loses interest. Though it's uncommon today among working women, nursing longer than the usual six or twelve months is natural.
     In modern hunter-gatherer societies, nursing for three years is typical and four to six years is not unheard of. UNICEF and
     the World Health Organization advise breast-feeding for "two years and beyond."
    Breast-feeding cements a profound bond between mother and baby. When things are going well, by all accounts, it's a very nice
     sensation. Mothers describe loving, trancelike feelings when nursing, and babies will suckle long after they are full. In Fresh Milk: The Secret Life of Breasts, Fiona Giles collected memories of nursing from young children. "It was comforting and relaxing," said an eight-year-old boy.
     "I looked forward to it." A twelve-year-old girl was more blunt: "The word addictive comes to mind." An older sibling who had been weaned acted out her own farewell as she watched the new baby nurse. She would
     cover her mother's breasts and say, "Bye bye, delicious milk."
    Breast milk is our first food, the best food, the ultimate traditional food in all cultures without exception. That's why
     nature made nursing satisfying: to encourage mothers and babies to do it.
    Because it was designed as the baby's only source of food, breast milk is a complete meal. If the mother is well nourished
     on real food, her breast milk will contain just the right amount of protein, fat, carbohydrates, and all the other nutrients
     for the growing baby, including essential vitamins, with one notable— and interesting— exception. The milk of all mammals
     lacks iron. Moreover, milk contains the protein lactoferrin, which ties up any random iron that does find its way into the
     young. There is logic in the missing iron: iron is necessary for the growth of E. coli, the most common source of infant diarrhea in all species. A breast-fed baby rarely needs any additional iron before one year;
     bottle-fed babies may need iron sooner because infant formula