We've just covered the cells in my human anatomy class – our bodies are made of 75 trillion or more of them. As I teach about their structures, how they have organelles (little organs) whose jobs are to take the products from metabolism and turn those products into useful or not useful tools in our bodies, I am reminded how significant the last two and a half years have been for both Matthew and I. It was two and a half years ago that we evaluated our lifestyle and food choices and gave our kitchen and diet a complete overhaul.

Our friend says we have “Super Cells” and that stuck with me. We do have super cells. Most everything Mati and I eat on a daily basis is useful to our 75 trillion cells. Our cells are happy to utilize so much of what they need from the high nutrient foods we eat and then manufacture those materials' building blocks for a long and healthy life. We have super cells. Isn’t that cool?


I’ve been remiss to write lately about our lives around food because frankly there’s so much confusion around nutrition and “diet styles” that I found myself wanting to move away from any analysis about what we eat.

I’ve found that to try and express the science around our “diet style” is confusing. It’s not that the material itself is difficult but who cares? If you’ve already tried and read a thousand different authors and heard a thousand different news stories and experts telling you what to eat, you don’t want to hear it from a couple of little dumb asses with a blog telling you to do it “this way”. I understand that. I realize I’d rather not tell you what to do anyway. Unless, of course, you ask. In that case, I’ll be happy to boss you around the kitchen!

In addition, I’ve always had a strong aversion to labels. So I’ve found myself becoming increasingly reluctant to talk about “our food”. Or to explain that we do indeed eat animal products - just not regularly (by not regularly, we mean once a week) and only certain unadulterated animal products if possible and in very small portions. That, no we’re not vegan and not vegetarian and no we don’t eat for our blood types or low carbs or high protein or for weight loss or gain or like our ancestors and no we’re not master cleaning ourselves.

The sheer number of distinct and different conversations I’ve had recently around what people eat and why has been an eye opening experience that reveals the true confusion around what is best for us to put in our mouths. Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who we get a significant amount of information from, would say we’re nutritarians. He coined that phrase. It’s a good one, but I don’t intend to call myself that either. I’ve always had a strong aversion to labels.

So like I said, I’ve been remiss in writing recently about our “diet” because I hadn’t found a manner to express what I want to say. I have a deep respect and reverence for the food we eat and the meals we create in our lives and eat together at mealtimes, so it seems disrespectful to always be analyzing the science and the why of it all when sometimes the textures, the colors, the beauty of what’s on my plate and the understanding of how it got there just takes my breath away.

It seems disrespectful to talk so much about the science of food and why we’re eating it. It’s like talking during the symphony. I’d rather, for now, for this blog post, just pause to appreciate that for the last two and a half years, I’ve been feeding this organism I live in, called a human body the most excellent stuff I can gather. And that is enough.

So lately, I’ve been more quiet and prone to celebrating nature’s bounty. People who grow things for us to eat are heroic. I’d like to honor them. The produce that magically shows up on my doorstep on Tuesday mornings is unimaginable to me. When you don’t drive a car anywhere and you live in a place that is so spread out that its difficult to not have one, I realize how overwhelming certain things are. Growing something to eat and growing enough of it seems hard. Most of us don’t grow everything we eat so we can’t really wrap our brains around the idea of that.

We get a box of organic produce delivered to us once a week. It’s called the Monster Mix from an organization called Farm Fresh To You. And it’s gorgeous. It’s all organic local farmers’ produce. This week we received a huge bounty. The farmers send a note with farm news and recipes and things happening in the community. The farmer said that he hopes we enjoy our boxes this week since the beginning of fall is in them.


Thaddeus writes in his newsletter: Fall Shower …“Rains do not all smell the same, and the first rain of the season always smells the best. There is a musty, earthy, life-building smell in the first rain – a smell that compares to the smell of freshly baked bread, a good cup of coffee on a cold winter day or the fragrance of the spring’s first citrus blossom. I stood under the cover of the house porch breathing deeply, feeling calmed and refreshed with my existence.”

This week the farmers delivered a huge bouquet of green chard, 4 baby bok choys, a large bunch of carrots, lettuce, plums, apples, pears, figs, lemon cucumbers, beets with the greens attached, radishes, zucchini, potatoes. And us, we have the privilege of eating what their love and mastery of the earth has created.

So today, what I want to say is this. It’s the simplest and most artistic thing in the world to reclaim the health and beauty that your human organism wants desperately to express. It’s simple though, only after you’ve fallen in love with the idea of changing your life and it's only simple after you’ve made and given yourself over to the commitment – like a good marriage. And your local farmers will be glad support your commitment.

And that’s as scientific as I want to get today. I’ll save the rest for the students in class tonight.

Until next time,
Be well little cell