It's a evil premise that eating Southern food will kill you. I agree there can be lots of butter, red meat and deep frying going on but it doesn't have to be that bad. Our grandmothers had lard and butter when they learned to cook. Can you imagine there excitement when shortening came along? And those who saw the first cooking oil probably thought they had hit the jackpot. I love an ad I saw in a vintage magazine for oleo..margarine to those younger than 40..it said "A healthy way to cook". So they threw out the natural butter and went with synthetic margarine. Hindsight is 20/20 and we now know that was a big mistake.
My philosophy is that if you eat most things as close to natural as possible your hitting a good balance. We all eat out and at times can't control what is in our food completely, but we can make good choices. As a Southern cook I try to bring all those childhood flavors and traditions to a healthier dish. I refuse to change some things because it just alters it too much, but those are dishes we have on special occasions only.
I learned several years ago that the reason I always felt ill after eating Chinese food was the MSG. I thought I just hated vegetables! When I started taking all foods out of my diet with MSG I felt so much better. Now my husband is so happy we can go to his favorite Chinese resturant. I'm happy I'm not nauseous and swollen..everyone wins!
That set me on a journey of removing added junk from my meals. The following things are not allowed in my shopping cart: products with MSG, Trans-Fats, high sugar or salt content, and items with more words I can't say than words I can. The new term is clean eating. That's what generations of people did and never had the ailments we have now.
I love to cook, feed people and eat good food. Everything we do in
the south has food involved. Sunday dinners, weddings, funeral..we know how to bring food for every event! When I moved to the Midwest I learned that food wasn't the center of everyone's life. Horrified I found out there were women my age who could not cook. And even more terrifying were those who bring pre-cooked food in their dishes to potluck. No Southern Lady would be caught dead doing that!!!! She would just leave it in the container and sweetly say the dog ate the cake her husband left on the table.....
Or that her husband ate the cake!!! Which happens! When I was in the cookie ministry, I had to always factor in the husband factor. This blog entry cracked me up!!! Very good and very funny.
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