We produce a lot of beautiful food on our farm. From raw milk to red meat to rendered lard to herbed salts to organic vegetables to fresh fruit. It's all here, all for the taking. Natural. Uncomplicated. Unprocessed. Just food.
Would you believe that our entire journey here on our farm began with my babies?
When our first-born Georgia was just a wee bairn, this raging Mama Bear came out of me. I didn't even know she was in there – alive, gaining strength, waiting for her moment. As a Mama Bear, I was willing to fight the dangers, shielding my cub with my life , and reigning terror on those who dare venture too close.
That was my method of protecting my littles from the outside-in. But I was equally as aggressive at protecting my cubs from the inside-out.
For us, this meant a steady diet of food choices that would nourish their bodies and allow them to avoid as many of the pitfalls of a bad diet as possible. And (good news!) there are many that are avoidable.
A lot isn't in our control. But some is. And I'll take what I can get.
So raw milk for the weaned children led to sourcing it from local farms – which led to buying a cow – which led to buying a farm – which ultimately led to the homestead as we know it today. And here we are.
The days of my cubs being fully under my control is shrinking. They are growing up – rapidly! And while I used to be able to control each bite that they enjoyed, now, they face the consumption of the world more each day. A world that is telling them up is down, black is white, pain is pleasure. A world that is shoveling garbage down their throat in gilded packages and telling them it is good.
It's not good.
This has come up over and over again in our home, as I have recently taken notice of the ingredients in a few new food items we brought into the home. Some lunch meat. A box of snack bars. Little portions of hummus. A bag of chips here or there. And, turns out, do you know what an ingredient is in all of them? Highly processed hydrogenated oils.
It encouraged me to dig deeper, but turns out, it's really not complicated: food manufacturers can produce these (often GMO) chemical-laden “vegetable” oils for very cheap and can replace the cost of high-quality fats in any recipe. Hydrogenated oils are an inexpensive, knock-off version of healthy fats.
We aren't limited on vitamin-rich and health-enhancing options. Fats that are proven to beneficial to our health. In fact, historically, the majority of calories in traditional diets came from fats like coconut oil, butter, ghee, duck fat, bear fat, tallow, lard, cold-pressed olive oil, blubber, etc.
You most likely won't see these good fats in any form of processed food. Even organic ones. Instead, you'll see highly processed hydrogenated oils that are heated, bleached, and chemically altered to provide a “cheap” alternative (I say “cheap” because it's only through government subsidies that such farming is possible, but that's another blog post).
But what is hydrogenated oil? Well, let's say we have a bazillion sunflower seeds. Most seeds don't have enough oil to be pressed. Instead, manufacturers use toxic chemicals and heat to extract the oil from the seed. In this process, most all of the nutritional value of the oil is destroyed. An oil that began as very fragile is now broken. This oil will go rancid very, very quickly. In order to make the oil last, food scientists began mixing and exposing those oils to hydrogen. This turns liquid oil (fat) into a solid oil (fat) and by rearranging the chemical structure of the oil, we have now created an oil that is comprised of mostly trans-fat.
Not only are these oils linked to heart disease, digestion issues, and cancer, they also do something quite awful when heated. At the point of heating (each fat has a different temperature at which this happens), the chemical compound of the oil begins to once again change. This results in a new chemical composition and new compounds – many of which are found to be carcinogenic to the body.These oils are openly linked to heart disease, inflammation, fertility, genetic disorders, and hormone disruption.
I know. I'm sorry to go all scientific on you. And (obviously) this is not the blog for that. I'm just a homesteader. There are plenty of people who have covered this topic with passion and thoroughness. But it's worth recognizing.
Here's my point: I don't want that garbage. It is in everything. In fact, our consumption of these toxic oils has gone up nearly 1000% in the last 25 years (that was 1996, ya'll).
These oils are in cookies. Chips. Crackers. Snack bars. Dressings. Margarine. Marinades. Any deep fried food. Spreads & dips. Ya'll – I'm not kidding you – these oils are in everything. (I know this because I've been trying to avoid them like the plague and it's almost impossible.)
Maybe it's not a thing for you – and that's okay. I generally try to do well by my body, my children's bodies, and our food choices (without letting such choices burden my heart). After all, these choices aren't of eternal importance.
I'm just a mom, farmer, and human, desperately trying to do well by the people in my charge. I want my cubs to enjoy the benefits of a healthy body and mind as much as possible. Burdens come in this world. Unavoidable burdens.
I'm happy to spend my efforts to help them avoid the ones we can.
For those of you out there who are laboring in your kitchens, over your stoves and tables, take heart. Your efforts are worthwhile.
It's okay to be weird. Drive the old car so you can spend more on the groceries. Unapologetically cut out all the crap. Eat the pastured red meat. Drink the raw milk. Celebrate the sauerkraut. Drizzle it all in butter.A healthy body is able to be of great service to those around them.
Health is a hard-earned gift. And it is worth fighting for.
Lacy
Dammit Shaye, you hit the nail on the head. Thank YOU for reassuring me that is OKAY to be that person. It is OKAY to have high food standards and buy the good stuff and advocate for our family, because the food manufacturers do not care. Another reason to really dig in to eating local and seasonal and ditch the processed crap.
Michele
Thank you! You are an excellent person to speak to this. You have a large following and people need to know these things! Some people are all about the bucolic aspect of homesteading and cooking but don’t understand how difficult it is to buy real food without producing it oneself. I’m currently aggravated by this fact. I decided to buy lard at the store and it contains crappy preservatives. Alongside it sits duck fat and ghee which I did not take the time to investigate, but I’m sure they contain junk also. It is extremely frustrating. My husband farms and I’m currently writing my own blog post about the seeds and chemicals shoved down our throats by corporate consolidation of agriculture. We are a small, family-owned farm. My husband is the 5th generation to farm this land homesteaded by his ancestor in the 1800s. We don’t want to lose our livelihood and land so we play the game planting GMO seeds and using chemicals to try to make a living. It’s depressing. And to quit doing it this way would most likely result in bankruptcy. That’s the reality of family farming today. And I’m angry about it.
Jillian
Michele, have you ever read Dirt To Soil, by Gabe Brown, or watched any of his videos on YouTube? I highly recommend it. He and his family have been very successful farming “unconventionally”.
Ellen Mohler
So…I find another person in the same shoes as I am. We are playing the game as well. We hate it but don’t want to lose the farm.
Jami
Ellen, read Jillians comment about Gabe Brown’s book! My dad still farms conventionally also, and has always been busy with educating himself on how to do it better. I think a lot of people removed from the conventional system demonize the people doing it, thinking they are evil or naive.(I don’t feel that from Shaye’s post at all, though. I love it.) But get your hands on Gabe’s book! There are trainings all over the country these days to hop out of that system and take care of the soil. I’m so pleased to see awareness of that possibility in this community. Yay Shaye for facilitating it!
Sandy
There is an excellent book by an English shepherd titled Pastoral Song by James Rebanks, just released in 2021. It’s not a how-to book but tells the story of his multi-generational farm, and the circle they have made using old world methods with his grandfather’s generation to being swept up with the modern, conventional way of farming (just trying to keep up and stay afloat), and now more recently, working to find a regenerative balance between the two. He talks about the devastating impacts that can only be seen years later from the conventional, more toxic farming, and he really does a good job of speaking on behalf of farmers who feel stuck in this system. I have a much better understanding and compassion now about the struggle farmers face, and being stuck in a system where they don’t want to lose their farm and are often struggling to hang on financially, but also don’t want to continue farming this way. Society tends to want to blame the farmers, yet we are complicit in this whole system too by expecting cheap food. It’s a good read!
Christie
I’m right there with you. Farming the way we always have, with the balance to striving for better for my family. It’s very tough on my husband who wants to change from conventional farming practices, but can’t see how to do that. I’ll take a look at Dirt to Soil and we’ll pray about it and search for the change we CAN make…until then, homesteading and growing our own food to do best by our family one day at a time, one meal at a time. Thank you ladies!
Casie
Thanks for this post!
I needed to hear this and be reminded of it. It’s so easy to just pick up a package of this or that. But- like you say all the time- I want to do better! ☺️
Lindsay k Cresta
Thank you so much for this post you must have been feeling my worries because it came at the perfect time. I just listened to people tell their grocery budgets and mine is more than double for my smaller family and I got worried I was being reckless with my families money and thought maybe I will just buy conventional and then your post came across my feed and my spirit is renewed! I am doing the right thing and my efforts are not for nothing!
Carrie O
Sadly, this may be the last post I read. Trans fats are only found in partially hydrogenated oils, not fully hydrogenated.
You may prefer foods in their most natural state, but these oils are not unsafe. This is fear mongering.
PHOs were banned by the FDA.
Elizabeth C
Bottom line we should still avoid hydrogenated oils. Just because it hasn’t been banned by the FDA doesn’t mean we should still consume it at the rate we do. I appreciated the reminder to do better.
Lori
Dropping processed food is definitely a step in the right direction. Although, Westin A. Price, Keto, Paleo, and other animal based diets are proven to be highly inflammatory and disease causing diets. Whole Food Plant Based doctors have proven extensively in research studies and in their own practices with their patients, that animal foods (meat, eggs, and dairy), whether organic or pasture raised, are the cause of the majority of the standard American diseases like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, autoimmune diseases, atherosclerosis, alzheimers, and many forms of cancer like prostate, colon, kidney, breast, and the list goes on. A Whole Food Plant Based diet is the only diet scientifically proven to not only prevent but also reverse disease. While animal based diets like the ones listed above may help short term because of the absence of processed foods and the addition of fruits and vegetables, in the long term the consumption of animal based foods will lead to inflammation and disease in the body. For more information refer to Dr. T. Collin Campbell (The China Study book), Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn (How to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease), Dr. Dean Ornish (Reversing Heart Disease), Dr. Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live), Dr. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai (Neuroscientists/Alzheimers), Dr. Michael Klapper, Dr. John McDougall (The Starch Solution), Dr. Michael Greger (Nurtritionfacts.org), Dr. Brooke Goldner (Goodbyelupus.com). All cultures throughout all of history who ate a predominately plant based diet have avoided the common diseases listed above (refer to the “Blue Zones” the longest lived people in the world). Once animal foods are introduced into the diets, health declines. Growing our own food and avoiding processed foods is a wonderful things for our health, but animal foods (meat, eggs, dairy) have never been a scientifically proven source for prevention or reversal of disease.
Lori
Westin A. Price himself was actually a very remarkable man, but the Foundation today has seriously distorted what Westin A. Price was all about. The Westin A. Price Foundation is funded by farmers. I love farmers, but no one at the Westin A. Price Foundation is a scientist, nor do they submit their research for peer-review. They recommend a high animal fat diet, which is actually scientifically proven to cause disease. They even claim cholesterol is a nutrient. W.A. Price Foundation is very critical of any person, research, or science that goes against their ideas that animal fats are healthy. Furthermore, the majority of animal foods come from factory farms. The majority of people are not able to raise their own pastured animals or afford to buy pastured animal foods. Therefore, the majority of people in America are eating factor farmed animal foods/fats (exceptionally unhealthy, diseased animals). That is where the money is at. People have been given unscientific, faulty information about what is healthy and what is harmful for our bodies because of the monopoly of the meat and dairy industries. The true science and research always proves that a Whole Food Plant Based diet is the way to not only prevent but also reverse diseases (but that doesn’t make the meat/dairy industry, hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and even government money). The addition of animal foods (meat, eggs, dairy), whether factor farmed, pasture raised, or organic in the diet harms rather than heals the body.
Ann Elizabeth Watt
Thank you for this, Shaye. So true, and important to be aware of. And then, there’s my own, personal big bugaboo, High Fructose Corn Syrup…
Ellen Mohler
So…I find another person in the same shoes as I am. We are playing the game as well. We hate it but don’t want to lose the farm.
Evanda
YES! Thank you for this reminder! It burdens my heart to see how far we have come from eating things in their natural state. Eating in the season & preserving foods the way my ancestors did. I feel it is something we all can get back to, one thing at a time.
Sonja
Amen & it brings joy to my heart to see young parents diligently working to live & eat wholesome, natural foods. The human body thrives on what God created.
Angela Anthony
A year ago, I had a liver transplant. During my illness leading up to it and recovery afterwards, I watched a lot of YouTube and found the community of homesteaders and enjoyed your videos. When I started my own blog to talk about my experiences, I found this blog. Homesteading is in my future (by faith), but I have begun the journey of healthy living. Thank you for all of the information you have put out there. I’ve found it helpful!
Sherry
You are amazing 💗 we should ALL be working towards this and stop buying the rubbish that’s killing us 💔
Lady Locust
Thank you for putting this out there. The more people who hear it, the better. I’ve quit trying to educate people on what they don’t want to hear (shame on me.) This post is a true story! Good job.
Amber
I just listened to your CEO of the Threshold podcast and came searching for this! I sent the episode to all of my newly grown kids. My husband was just told he has cancer and his Dr immediately told him the best thing he could do is stop sugar. That started my deep dive into changing the way we eat. Thank you for this post and that podcast. Please continue to do podcast and posts like this. I don’t think any of us really understand that we are being fed poison in just about everything.
Lori
So sorry to read about your husband. Getting rid of sugar is a good start, but if you don’t mind I’d like to recommend you look into the following doctors. The typical medical doctor gets little to no nutritional training in medical school, therefore, they do not know the role nutrition plays in disease prevention and reversal. The following doctors are spending their lives researching, practicing, and teaching the benefits of a Whole Food Plant Based diet for prevention and reversal of disease. Here are some of the leading doctors – T. Collin Campbell (The China Study book), Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn (How to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease), Dr. Dean Ornish (Reversing Heart Disease), Dr. Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live), Dr. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai (Neuroscientists/Alzheimers), Dr. Michael Klapper, Dr. John McDougall (The Starch Solution), Dr. Michael Greger (Nurtritionfacts.org). I would also highly recommend Dr. Brooke Goldner (Goodbyelupus.com) who is reversing the vast majority of diseases through hyper-nourishment using her green smoothies. I know that sounds crazy, but she has spent the last decade using science and research to perfect her protocol for her patients. This is after she reversed her own Lupus of twelve years using high amounts of raw cruciferous vegetables (kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage), flaxseed & chia seeds, and lots of water. She has made it very easy to consume through smoothie form instead of eating it. Dr. Goldner has a wonderful YouTube Channel called Goodbye Lupus that has hundreds of short videos describing her protocol and disease prevention and reversal information. Just start by adding in a blender full of her green smoothies a day and he’ll begin to see benefits almost immediately. Please be aware that animal foods (meat, dairy, eggs) are the main culprit of all the standard American diseases including cancers. When those foods are eliminated from our diets diseases reverse at a very rapid rate. Our bodies are programmed to repair themselves if we give them the correct nourishment. The average medical doctor is not trained or interested in learning the science behind nutrition. The science and research is there proving how nutrition prevents and reverses disease, but it’s not monetarily beneficial for doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies to tell you that. I hope this may be of help to you and your husband.
Joanna
Do you have some good sources for your research? I too am investigating seed oils but I have a hard time sifting through the material. Everyone seems to have an agenda. I struggle with not becoming cynical about food because it seems that everyone is always telling me that something that I am eating is “toxic.” But, I give it to God and pray that His wisdom will guide me through this journey.
Vivian Little
When I was in college (203-07) I did a research paper on hydrogenated oils. My findings were that it possible other diseases caused by these man made oils include diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, MD, and many other diseases that stem from the brain function are from these poisonous man made oils.
Just think of it this way, God created our bodies & also provided all the nutrition we need when He created the world. Nothing EVER that mere man has developed can compare to what God has provided for us from the beginning of time.
Anything we put in our bodies that is manufactured by humans is a foreign object & our bodies will attempt to protect our bodies the same if it’s foreign fake food or a heart transplant. Our bodies don’t know what to do with fake food, so it is shuffled around in our bodies, causing destruction to our vital organs.
Thank you for sharing your findings to the fast audience you have access to.
Noni
Read “A Bold Return to Giving A Damn” by Will Harris of White Oak Pastures in Georgia. He’s turned his farm away from corporate farming methods and has regenerated his soil, grown his operation and is doing so successfully. It didn’t happen overnight but it’s the only way to regenerate the soil in this country that has been completely ruined by chemical farming.