Holy Basil--Ocimum tenuiflorum--Batman!
There are nearly as many food aphorisms and adages as there are things to eat. Or not to eat. Humans have long sought specific herbs, seeds, barks, flours, shellfish, eggs, and much, much more for the decoctions and concoctions made of them as treatment or cure for far more than starvation. Theories abound regarding what is and isn’t healthful and when and why and for whom, and they swing from one extreme to another at the drop of a spoon. The only fairly dependable approach, it would seem, is to listen to one’s own body. Not such a bad thing to do, in any event, but remarkably rare among the extreme advocates of numerous dietary practices, for whom their personal insights and experiences become a matter of faith.
Indeed, faith (as expressed in religions) has long been a significant factor in shaping what is deemed good or ill at table. Religions often determine what their adherents consider healthful or horrible, sacred or profane. Many religions require strict practice of particular dietary laws, from veganism to vegetarianism to specifying what meats or fruits one may or may not eat and how they must be prepared and in what season they may be embraced. My own beliefs about foods are far less religion-driven–as you can probably tell from my food-related posts here, anyway–but I don’t think religious strictures are any more or less perfect or questionable than dietary practices developed by most other means. I would no more knowingly offend anyone’s religious dietary practices than tell them they should eat foods they’re deathly allergic to or that they must like or dislike the same food and drink as I do. And let’s just be honest here: if others say No Thank You to something I like, then there’s more of it for me!
But what is on my food-crazed mind on this particular day is the practice of finding what foods suit one’s own particular health and happiness. Aside from any laws and limitations, and of course availability and accessibility, we must make constant choices about what to eat. Nearly as long as humans have eaten with any deliberation, any sense of knowing what will kill them or preserve their lives, they have also looked at foods as capable of qualifying the degree of health and well-being they enjoyed.
Love-Apple or Deadly Nightshade?
Tomatoes, perhaps because they are members of the Solanum clan, the nightshades, were considered poisonous in some places (including North America) long after other places’ cuisines were safely and even happily employing them as food. Consciously or not, we all revisit the notion of a comestible‘s safety and health-enhancing properties rather constantly, choosing those things whose tastes we prefer or that make us feel new-and-improved in any way, and avoiding those that give us heartburn, nausea, gallbladder attacks, the Wind, loss of hair, loss of appendages, dropsy, dyspepsia or excessive whimsy. (Well, masochists aside, at least.) Herbalists and nutritionists teach us the known and purported characteristic effects of pretty much everything that can be chewed or swallowed. And ultimately, all I can do is try to learn from my own body what it does and doesn’t want or need.
That’s not to say that I will always do what I believe is best for my health and welfare, by any stretch of the imagination. And you know I have one.
What I want is to feel good. And sometimes stuff that’s not necessarily guaranteed good for me makes me feel good.
Dear Verbena, let me be candid: I may be a little lipophilic, but I'm no radical . . .
It’s really quite amazing what the things we eat and drink can do to us, in us and for us. And I’m not just talking about pharmaceutical effects. Necessarily. See, lunch affects how we feel until dinner, yes, but there’s also the general effect on mood and attitude, on what we see when we look in the mirror, on whether we feel healthier and happier or more impressive in any way. Part of me wants to believe that if I just ate the right stuff I actually would look fabulous in my long-ago orange fake-fur trench coat. That I would be suddenly as smart as I’ve always thought I was and solve all the problems of the world. And of course, that I would be the most spectacular version of myself possible and live that way for another half-century or so at least.
But really, I’m just happy when I figure out what pleases my inner workings and makes me feel pleasantly sated and really ready for whatever the next few hours bring. Oh, and doesn’t make me break out like I’ve reverted to my teens. I’ll get back to you when I’ve developed the perfect diet for all humanity. All I know so far is that it has lots of butter, salt, and chocolate in it. And that it guarantees a certain degree of both inner peace and vigorous smiling when taken regularly and judiciously.
. . . meanwhile, back in my orange trench coat days . . .
Art-Colored Glasses 
Though I live by certain dietary rules, I agree with you completely, that the healthiest way of eating is to tune in to what your body is saying… find the balance that is right for you, and you will be healthy… and of course, important to stop when you’re satisfied. Beautiful post. Your pictures are so tempting.
🙂 I keep smelling that ripe orange!
What’s really fascinating about religious and cultural dietary strictures is how most of them evolved out of genuinely specific health and safety issues, seasonal availability, peace treaties or lack thereof between tribes, you name it, and how many of those can remain equally forceful reasons after centuries of use.
Inner peace and beauty…I don’t think I’ve ever read anything more calming.
Though I must say I don’t care much for tomatos…
Maybe you have a sensitivity to nightshades–not uncommon among allergies, actually (cashews being the most common ‘offenders’ but far from the only ones). But that’s the whole thing about listening to what serves *one’s own* health and happiness best: it doesn’t have to be all fact driven to be meaningful in individual lives.
I so agree with this post, Kathryn, Well, I probably would have added pasta to your list but that’s just how I roll. And I know all to well the relationship between tomatoes & nightshade and, in particular, the evils of the latter, thanks to Max. The photos you selected are so vibrant. They make me all the more eager for Spring.
I’ll bet you can smell the basil (though I cheated for the caption, as I’m pretty sure this is regular Sweet Basil) from there. Yes, I would gladly add pasta to the list. It’s the one thing I’m having a hard time accepting that I may not be able to eat regularly when wheat seems to bother me. But I’m working on finding good wheat-free alternates, and they’re certainly improving all the time, thank goodness, because pasta is one thing I truly crave.
Aah yes, such wise words: “…all I can do is try to learn from my own body what it does and doesn’t want or need.” and so true Kathryn. Life is too short to not enjoy food.
🙂 Mandy
And anyone can tell that I *do* enjoy my food greatly, if not by my ravings then by my soft squishy middle bits! 🙂
Kath
Yes, I too have the infamous soft squishy middle bits. 🙂
Yes your right… Just sometimes we cant resist some of our favorite food. Agree!!!
And sometimes we just *shouldn’t* try to resist!! 😉 As Mandy says, life’s too short!
It’s funny about those old dietary religious rules…looking at them in the light of the time and culture they sprang from, a lot of them were simply unsafe to eat given the known slaughter and preparation methods…and, is it a coincidence that Lent falls during what would have been the leanest months of the year for food stores, right before spring’s bounty arrived to refill the larder?
Like you, I’m a huge fan of, “I’ll eat what I want, thank you very much…All you noisy, nosey Food Science People can run along and play elsewhere. Maybe in traffic…”
😉
🙂
😀
My son’s friend slept over and all we had in the fridge was ham.. bacon.. and he doesn’t eat pork. Funny how I swing to different cooking trends like that without even being aware? I love your idea of being more thoughtful about how food makes me feel and enjoying that. Although I crave sweet baking, I usually don’t feel that great after eating too much of it;) Chocolate, that might just have to be the exception to the rule.
ps I forgot to make pancakes yesterday for Shrove Tuesday.. I wonder if I can make up for it by making them for supper tonight?? xo Smidge
pps and I haven’t decided what to give up for Lent..
I may abstain from giving anything up for Lent–but then, my piety (if any) is of the very weakest sort. 😉 We were at a 3 hour rehearsal last night and went straight from school to a quick dinner out with R’s colleague before dashing back for that, so no pancakes around here either. (I suppose we could’ve substituted tortillas, having gone to a favorite neighborhood Mexican place. After all, Jesus is a great Hispanic name–I’ll bet he’d approve heartily.)
Hahaha, I hadn’t thought… is is Hispanic!! I’m sure he would:)
Oh, dear Kathryn, you are so good for my heart!!! I am sitting in a hospital waiting room today while my sweet aunt is in surgery for the umpteenth time, and as I sat here reading about your orange fur trench coat, I guffawed while everyone stared.
And my body has informed me that it requires lots and lots of dark chocolate, which we all know contains oodles of antioxidants.
Plus, it comes from a bean, so surely it must make excellent vegetable contributions to the diet. I know that if I don’t have enough chocolate to keep me going, I begin to vegetate pitifully, and if that doesn’t constitute scientific proof I don’t know what does. (Or maybe the young man I overheard telling someone quite seriously this afternoon that “our greatest scientists believe that we were ‘planted’ by aliens” has rubbed off on me. I’ll let you be the judge. 😉 )
I do hope your dear aunt will recover wonderfully. Bless you for being there for her. I don’t know if it helps, but I *think* I may have found an actual photo of that infamous coat, so be forewarned!
xoxo!–to you *and* your aunt!
Kathryn
I agree completely, even though we may not do it all the time at least we should try to consciously eat good food, (or what agrees with us) I simply do not understand why more people don’t, I am really quite bewildered by what some people eat.. c
Oh, I eat ridiculous stuff too, but less and less often. Whether I’m getting smarter as I get older or it’s just a matter of better stuff being more readily available I can’t say for certain!
xoxo
K
Butter and salt and chocolate… *swoons* I dwell in the land of picky-eaters, because all toddlers and preschoolers are genetically programmed to be averse to anything too colourful, too strong-tasting, too NEW-looking – presumably because we’re really not that many generations away from living in the trees and we all know what brightly-coloured and new means in the forest. *sigh* But, yes, let’s all just eat real food. Even if it’s butter and salt and chocolate. I think if we could get away from the artificially coloured, pressed, packaged, mechanically extruded and otherwise maligned so-called “food” products we would all be much healthier. Also? Those tomatoes are GORGEOUS. Right now in the Great White North we have sour-tasting, waxed things shipped to us from Mexico. I can’t believe I’m choosing canned over fresh for cooking these days but, seriously, they taste THAT bad.
Happy munching, Kathryn! xo
Desi darling, your halo shines all the more brightly for deliberately introducing your crew to so many great new foods on a regular basis as well as gardening and cooking with them. They and you are all fortunate that you have that insight and commitment (even if they don’t think so when occasional *certain* new foods appear!) and the more that they can influence their friends, the better the whole effort becomes.
Yes, we have the good fortune that even if we get brisk enough cold here to require Mexican tomatoes, they’re just a few hours’ truck drive away! One benefit of being a bit more southerly.
Meanwhile, when you visit me I promise there will be plenty of vitamin BSC (butter, salt and chocolate) available. 😀
xoxo
The orange fake fur trench sounds absolutely fab. Butter salt and chocolate – yum. Although I would have to go easy on the butter. I try to avoid dairy as much as possible but I still use butter when I am baking because I have never found a substitute that tastes as good. I do think it is important to give considered thought to what we eat. I try to eat as healthily as possible but it’s best not to leave me alone with a plate of freshly baked biscuits (cookies).
Biscuits/cookies would spell my doom for certain if I kept them around much!
That coat might’ve spelled my doom too, if I’d been any older than a cute little grade-school pipsqueak when I got it. Not exactly a suits-everybody sort of garment, eh!! 😉
Another wonderful post, Kathryn…we try to eat healthy, although, I do have many a “sweet tooth” in my mouth, thanks to my beloved Mom, who was an excellent cook and baker. Everything in moderation, I still believe, but sometimes, the moderation becomes a bit muddled, with emotions, I admit it! 🙂 Our family isn’t too picky, although, my daughter won’t eat tomatoes and she and my son don’t like seafood. They’re also not fond of zucchini, which my hubby and I truly love. But, I also am a firm believer that whatever is on the table is what you can eat. If you don’t like it, then that’s your choice; I don’t make different meals to accommodate everyone’s tastes…I know, I’m so mean, but that’s the way it goes~oh, and, don’t forget the chocolate. Can’t live without that, dark or milk~ 🙂
p.s. sorry for the long comment!
Ha! You sound like you cook and serve very like my mother, and I ate very well indeed, even trying everything whether I was convinced its horribleness would kill me or not. 😉
I think some food dislikes are more genetically-driven than we notice: Richard heartily disliked shellfish and some other kinds of seafood when he was young, before ever discovering he had a mild allergy to iodine, and I know lots of people are allergic to nightshades like cashews, tomatoes and eggplant. As for the zucchini, unless it *is* a real allergy or health issue, it’s flavorless enough to sneak into more than just baked goods (as if that isn’t enough). And of course, I’ve talked here about R’s being a supertaster, which makes him very sensitive to bitter and sour and pungent foods, so I can’t really complain if his own body doesn’t let him appreciate them like I do. Well, maybe I complain a *little*. 😉
Orange Faux fur trench coat sounds devine!
. . . or is it *diabolical*?! 😉
Wise words – what’s good for you may not be so good for me. I don’t use much butter but I need my salt and, of course, my dark chocolate. All in moderation. 🙂
Including, of course, moderation. 😉