FROM CONVENIENCE TO CONSCIOUSNESS - MY FOOD JOURNEY

Growing up, I gave little thought to where my food came from. 

As a child of the 1970s in Los Angeles, most of what I consumed was, what we now call, ultra-processed food. Breakfast was a “fortified” sugary cereal, followed by a sandwich on impossibly white Wonder bread for lunch, all finished off with a prepackaged TV dinner as the latest episode of the Brady Bunch played in the background. To me, food came from the grocery store, its history before it reached the shelves was not interesting. 

It wasn’t until I reached my teenage years that I started looking more at the food I ate. However, the lens through which I analyzed it was not one of curiosity, but rather of fear. Driven by the immense pressure to meet unrealistic beauty standards, I began a cycle of restricting and binging, praying that my growing rumination on my diet would lead to the shrinking of my body. 

At seventeen, I reached a breaking point after a particularly difficult year. I had gained fifty pounds and felt overwhelmed by anxiety and depression, often unable to leave my bedroom. It was then that I sought help and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for intensive care. This was a pivotal moment in my life— a time when I began to truly understand the deep connection between mental health and the way we nourish our bodies.

When I became a mother in the 1990s, I vowed to offer my children a balanced diet - filled with whole grains, organic fruits & vegetables, and non-fat alternatives to our favorite foods. 

We were a healthy family until we weren’t. When he entered high school, my oldest son started getting debilitating migraines. After exhausting traditional Western medicine remedies, we visited a homeopathic doctor who suggested that Charlie was allergic to gluten and sugar. Removing these from his diet eliminated the migraines, and soon after, both our daughter Leila and I were diagnosed with a gluten allergy as well.

This led me down a rabbit hole that caused me to research how the food we were eating was grown and manufactured, before its pristine unveiling on our grocery store shelves. Article after article illuminated fundamental flaws. Poisonous chemicals sprayed on grains during the harvest process, industrial lubricants repackaged as healthy vegetable and seed oils, food dyes outlawed in other countries, factory farmed meat - all of these factors I never considered before that were wreaking havoc on our health and the health of our planet.

Determined to take control of what we were consuming, I started growing our produce and raising chickens for their eggs. Anything I couldn’t grow myself, I bought locally at our town’s farmer’s market. 

When we moved to Patina Farm in Ojai, CA, the presence of our sweet farm animals made a diet without animal products very appealing. I swapped dairy and meat for their plant-based alternatives and began eating a vegan diet. But after several years, my health took another nose-dive. I began experiencing severe brain fog, persistent body aches, and waves of debilitating overwhelm. So I began researching again and discovered that I was not alone, and many of the people who were experiencing the same symptoms reversed them by eating a meat-based diet and eliminating all grains. I knew I needed to try it, but I also knew that I couldn’t support the inhumane factory farms that our food system favors. So I turned to regenerative ranchers who raised their animals on lush pastures with dignity and respect. As I introduced this meat into my diet and eliminated grains, I noticed a drastic decrease in my inflammatory symptoms.

Over the past few years, my education has continued to deepen, and I’ve become increasingly concerned about the quality of our food supply. As consumers become more aware, corporations are beginning to use buzzwords like “regenerative” and “pasture-raised” as marketing ploys without adopting the practices that these terms denote. 

Because of this, we have decided that the most humane way we can consume meat is by raising the animals ourselves. 

I understand this decision may surprise or even unsettle some of you. I wrestled with the same questions: “How can I care so deeply for my animals and still choose to eat meat?” This choice was made after much thought and with a deep commitment to raising animals ethically and with care. None of the animals we raise as pets are being raised for food. They have other roles on our farm—providing rich manure, pasture, and forest trimming, as well as laying eggs. However, we do have a few heritage hogs and sheep that will become part of our diet after living a life eating the fresh grasses that grow in our pastures. Raising our meat animals allows me to honor them and give them the respect they deserve. 

I felt the need to be transparent about my food journey. I know it may disappoint some of you, but I believe everyone has to listen to their own body, and this is what is best for mine. I invite you to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments. I only ask that you keep your comments constructive.

This journey has been transformative, teaching me to listen closely to my body and be more intentional about what I eat. While it’s an ongoing process, I’m grateful for the lessons learned and look forward to continuing this exploration. I’d love to hear about your food journeys and the challenges or discoveries you've encountered. Let's create a space where we can share and support each other.

xx

Brooke