More shop talk

Now that my weekend break from blogging has ended it's time I continue on with our Fun Fat Week. And I must get this blog up soon or I fear you will all start calling me Paula Dean and picture me at home licking sticks of butter in light of my last post.

My dear friend Katy has asked a plethora of questions to begin our week with. I think we will kick off this post with a few of those.

She and her husband have recently watched the documentary FOOD INC (which I highly recommend) and it has left her disgusted with the America's current food supply but still full of questions. Such as, "Now that I know all of this, where do I get my food?" The documentary ends before before addressing that very question of what to do next. Sounds like a good place for us pick up.

Katy also asks if meat and dairy are the most important place to start when beginning to eat healthy. My disappointingly unscientific answer is, "Sounds good to me." The truth is if you are eating the Standard American Diet (SAD) any change is good. Just please start somewhere. Anywhere. I chose fat to discuss first on my blog because it is probably the most misunderstood part of our diet. And well, it's fun! We will hit other American phobias including those scary carbs somewhere down the line. But for now let's get back to the fun world of fat.

If you are like Katy and disgusted by the meat and dairy products at your grocery store you are probably in search of alternatives. You may remember in an earlier post I recommended shopping in grocery stores as little as possible. When you shop at a store and buy prepackaged food, the only information you have is what is posted on the label. And in trying to read the label you may find it so full of nutritional lingo and mambo jumbo that it is about as helpful as trying to read an organic chemistry text book with no chemistry background.

Our favorite places to shop in lieu of the store are:
Texas Daily Harvest (Their products are available at Coppell's Farmer's Market)
Bear Dairy
Our local Farmer's Market
Lucky Layla's (A dairy located in the middle of Plano I kid you not!)
Martin's Berry Patch
Produce stands along back country roads
Food from friends and relatives kitchens and gardens
The forests of East Texas where my husband hunts
My in-law's farm (we harvest a cow from there every year or two)
My own backyard
True Fields
and many more I am forgetting at the moment but you get the idea.

I cannot state this often enough, I am not perfect. I still have to go to the store for a few things. And I don't think there is anything wrong with that. But we try. And with that effort about 75% of our food does not come from a grocery store.

Animals aloud to roam free and eat grass have more omega 3 fatty acids in their meat vs an animal only being fed grains (the ones at your local grocery store) which leads to meat with more omega 6 fatty acids. Likewise the eggs from free roaming chickens are also higher in omega 3 fatty acids. Did you think God intended only fish eating Eskimos up north to benefit from omega 3's? We once had a source until we decided to change the natural food chain and mass produce food.

Look for ranches near you that provide grass fed meats on eatwild.com and localharvest.org. Be sure to ask them if you can purchase a whole animal from them to have butchered. It is usually much cheaper than buying it piece by piece over the year.

If you and your husband don't hunt (wild animals are naturally grass fed) find someone who does. The south is full of trophy hunters who don't plan to eat their meat.

Ah, and then there is farm fresh milk and dairy products. I just have to let out a big yummmmmm after typing that. Aside from the fact that they taste awesome they too benefit the cows munching grass instead of grain. I won't go any further in explanation than that right now because dairy deserves it's own post. Maybe it's own week. Look for sources on the websites listed above and realmilk.org. This is another one to ask around on. Sources may be closer than you think.

As a side note, it took me forever to write this post. I have so much information I want to share but I am trying not to be overwhelming. And I have a love of science so reining in my scientific explanations is harder than one might think. On that note I think I will stop here today even though I feel like I have only written a brief introduction to the subject of fats in grass fed animals.