My daughter eating a genip fruit, growing on the island of Montserrat, Caribbean.
We have been on the island of Montserrat for almost a week now. This small island in which the capitol of Plymouth was destroyed by volcano in 1997, has slim pickings in the small grocery stores scattered throughout the island. My kids would love to have the candy, chips and other junk imported from all over the world at high prices. However, we have made the choice to drastically change our diet. I call it “deprogramming” as junk food and packaged and canned foods are the norm in American culture and it makes us sick!
Diabetes and obesity are at epidemic levels in children and adults in many countries besides the US. Just the other day I read how kids are receiving coupons to turn in at farmer’s markets to eat fresh and local. How did we get so far from nature? Corporate food and agro-industry is the answer, sa well as a lot of advertising and social propaganda. I was no different. Trying to live and work as a single, widowed mother, I didn’t have a lot of time to cook, nor the desire to cook alone, so my kids started eating poorly when I reached for the convenience foods. I’ve realized that mistake, and am committed to spending more time cooking. That nothing is more important than your children’s health and education! Capitalism can wait. So I hope you find more time to cook and spend with your family.
With my son’s poor eating habits and daugther’s ADD, as well as my own stress from eating poorly, I knew we had to make this big change to our diets. Here in Montserrat, there is so little civilization, you really can deprogram your life and start over. Nature is everywhere, and you begin to slow down and not worry so much. We buy the fresh vegetables on the side of the road, such as onions, ginger, green beans, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes and potatoes. (We had a delicious ginger beer drink, non-alcoholic, the other day). We have made fresh soups, salads, rice dishes and omelettes. I would do more vegan, however, with the slim pickings we eat what we can! Tofu, tuna and dairy are imported, but available. We even got some goat cheese from Vermont! I brought along some quinoa and mung beans in my suitcase. These are all simple basic foods that you can learn about and experiment with your family to make healthy meals.
Where we are staying at a friend’s villa, there are abundant fruits all around. Fresh bananas, mangos, starfruit pineapples and coconuts are collected and fun to eat. We have made fruit salads every day. We discovered an amazing fruit called the genip today. So sweet and delicious! As it’s quite hot and humid here this time of year, pitta is the word for ayurveda. Eating the fresh fruits is cooling for pitta, and so are the light salads. It’s important to eat cooler foods in the summer, especially if you are pitta, as my son is, and I’m tri-dosha.
Fresh also is the word, rather than canned. In fact there is a sign in Montserrat that encourages people to grow their own food, and with the fertile volcanic soil here, it’s rather easy. Another sign reads, “Eat from the Land, Not from a Can.” Fresh cooked food has more prana in it. And it’s fun to cook with kids, and doing so gives them a relationship to their food, rather than wasteland from a can. My son had a hard time at first, even refusing to eat, and complains he’s hungry all the time. But he has lost five pounds and is slowly eating more of the fresh food, because, well, there is nothing else to eat! Eating healthy is an educational opportunity in itself, and should be part of your home education curriculum for sustainability and self-sufficiency. Each food we look up and read about each food’s nutritional value and learn a lot that way, too. He’s even started reading about the different types of sugars and understanding how it affects his body.
Kids getting ready to look for bananas in the banana tree grove, Montserrat
Eating local, fresh food and gathering your food from your backyard and being able to offer it to family, friends and your community, is also so satisfying, more than any reward of capitalism can offer. It will change your life, and you don’t have to be so drastic as to move abroad to do it. Just start. Start throwing out the garbage in your kitchen today. I mean throw it all out! Fill it up with the basics. Your kids may groan, but you’ll get used to it and they will slowly deprogram and be a lot healthier and thank you in the future!
Sunset, Montserrat, Caribbean. Nature is the greatest healer, and its loss is what makes children, families and adults alike sick.
My daughter said, “local and healthy.” Key vocabulary words you want your children to know! Start today! Start now! Don’t wait!
Namaste, and have a healthy and magical day.
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