Saturday, January 16, 2010

Nourishing Traditions

Hi Marjorie!

I laughed ruefully at your reports of the holiday feeding...and I definitely agree with you that the older generations are way more relaxed. My only moments of being on the receiving end of harsh disapproval about my kid's diet have been at the hands of "well-read" mothers my age and medical professionals. On the topic of reading, I thought I'd post a review of a recent book that shares some common ground with the themes of this blog.

I know that both of us are readers of the culinary magazine Saveur, probably the best mainstream media source of food anthropology. Every January the magazine publishes a "Top 100" list of all things food-related: selections range from ingredients, to techniques, to geographical regions. I was surprised to see the inclusion of a book that recently came on to my radar screen: Nourishing Traditions by S. Fallon and M. G. Enig. I had recently checked it out of the library in the interest of research for this blog, after having noticed it cited as a source several gardening manuals and cookbooks.

The essential argument of the book is that we need to reject the modern wisdom of "nutritious food" and go back to eating the traditional foods that nourished our ancestors. The authors describe many worthwhile kitchen techniques (i.e. making yogurt, stock and salad dressing) and make some compelling arguments against highly-processed foods. One of their more interesting literary flourishes is to include sidebars featuring a laundry-list of ingredients and asking you to identify the various store-bought products that they represent (i.e. granola bars, whole-grain crackers). I was quite interested that they champion animal fats over processed vegetable oils, arguing that animal fat is a traditional "whole food". My eyebrows began to rise when the authors promoted meat eating to the point of hostility: at one point the text insinuates that children of vegetarian mothers have lower IQs!

Let me warn you that the writing can be gimmicky and intentionally provocative -- just look at the subtitle: "The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and Diet Dictocrats". For all of their many claims to be rejecting mainstream wisdom, the authors also endorse several heavily marketed health food store products (i.e. Noni juice, blue green algae) that have little science to recommend them. Overall, I struggled with the credibility of the text: the citations are old, often circular (i.e. citing an article previously written by the authors themselves) and usually not from a peer-reviewed source. Some of the health claims (both original and cited) verge on the offensive: the authors argue that "the deadly AIDS virus" emerged because we abandoned lacto-fermented foods, and they cite another author who reports that the doubling of the teenage suicide rate is largely due to soda pop and spaghetti.

The section on the feeding of babies shocked me. After emphasizing the importance of breastfeeding, they include two recipes for homemade formula in case it becomes necessary. One of the recipes is meat-based and the other one features raw milk! Now, am I a "Diet Dictocrat" for being concerned about feeding a newborn raw cow milk? I am uncomfortable that they advocate feeding a product potentially loaded with pathogens to a vulnerable and weak immune system. Of course, these concerns are dismissed as the work of "public health propagandists" and the reader is confidently reassured that "your nose will tell you if raw milk is contaminated".

Finally, I couldn't help but roll my eyes when I read yet another sentence admiring the healthy "native" practices of "African tribes" or extolling wise "Oriental" cultures. These continents of wise natives seem to exists only in the netherworld of self-help books -- I'm sure you noticed that pregnancy and childbirth manuals are littered with similar references. Where is the reality of famine, of crop failure, of poverty and epidemics? I shudder at the image of myriad American mothers earnestly "going native", blithely ignorant of the horrifying industrial food practices blossoming all over the globe, usually at the expense of a majority of the population. Lest you think this cultural reductionism is aimed only at our darker-skinned brethren, there is also a passage admiring the"stalwart physical development and high moral character" of "sturdy Alpine mountaineers" who have "developed on Nature's primitive foods". Is there a way to be interested in traditional cultural practice while avoiding this dangerous naivete?

As we have learned from our attempts at research, there is scant first-hand knowledge in the published literature regarding baby feeding practices. Most of what I have found is similar to the dreck published in Nourishing Traditions: second-hand reports of the aforementioned "African native" or the "sturdy Alpine" ancestor. Do you and I believe in this mythical healthy ancestor? We must, if we believe in going local and emphasizing unprocessed foods. Or maybe it is less about health and more about frugality and the ecosystem and general daily simplicity. Again, I ask you, can we be interested in this without pigeonholing "native" cultures into this static box of traditions? I hope so! Part of this is just recognizing that traditions can morph and that traditional practices occur in the context of modern realities. There must be a way to preserve varied regional practices and avoid converging on a monolithic new "tradition" of Gerber!

Abbie

P.S. You asked about my son's favorite foods. At two and a half years old, he loves pasta with pesto or tomato sauce, rice and beans, homemade pizza, vegetable potstickers, and anything involving fruit. He won't go near a potato or shellfish, and only agrees to meat every now and then. And, lest you think that he has no vices, even this young he has a serious love of chocolate and ice cream.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Relaxed Relatives

Hi Abbie!

Happy 2010! I enjoyed your post and especially loved the idea of the Muslim practice of tahneek, where a respected family member gives a baby the taste of a sweet date in the hopes of imparting some of their own admirable character traits. I also long for some interesting and meaningful ways of marking my son's eating milestones with my family. Actually, it would be disingenuous for me to pretend that his eating habits weren't a key part of my family's holiday entertainment! He was like a little prince sitting in his daddy's arms at meal time with everyone watching him gobble up mouthful after mouthful of squash, peas, potatoes, pears. He's a great eater, but I have to admit that my overflowing pride was tempered with a dash of annoyance at the endless suggestions and advice.

After five months of parenthood, I expected the onslaught; what took me by surprise was its direction. I had already steeled myself against what I thought would be disapproval over his very early introduction to a wide variety of solid foods (a list that still doesn't include the "traditional" cereal). What I got instead was relentless pressure to introduce MORE - things like my grandmother's "mallow-topped sweet potatoes" (6lbs potatoes, 6 cups sugar!! literally!) or the walnut-cranberry sauce ("for some great faces!"). I went to fill my water glass and returned to find my lactose-intolerant son happily eating Bavarian Cream Doughnut off of his uncle's (probably unwashed) fingers!

How ironic - I, who have been trumpeting the merits of the permissiveness of certain other cultures, who have been poo-pooing the tentativeness with which we Americans approach the feeding of our babies, I found myself playing the role of the over-protective mother, denying the party-trick food requests ("can I feed him this bacon?"), snatching my son out of his uncle's sticky, doughnut hands... It makes me laugh now thinking about it - oh, what a lesson. My point is: my family on the whole was much more relaxed when it came to the feeding of a baby than I expected them to be.

Of course, not all family members are created equally in this situation. Obviously, a childless uncle makes less of an impression than a mother of four, grandmother of eight, and great-grandmother of three and counting. But, it got me thinking. Maybe this obsessive, ultra-careful feeding-of-American-babies stuff is less pervasive than it would seem from my over-educated, literature-saturated mommy groups (clearly true). Alternately, it could be a real but very new phenomenon resulting from the mountains of information available to the typical, modern American parent due to better access to health care, online resources, numerous tomes written on the topic, etc. Obviously, there are lots of pros to knowing more. I am comfortable with my decision to hold off on the walnut cranberry sauce because of all I have read about early nut introduction (though I still find this a confusing issue!). However, I'm also fine with my son's latest new food addition (chicken!), which he started just shy of his six-month mark. My family's laid-back attitude helped remind me to keep relaxed and just follow my instincts and my son's cues. He's surviving, and thriving, so far!

Hugs to your little guy! What have been some of his favorites lately?
Marjorie

PS You asked me if I came back with any new family baby food recipes or ideas. The answer is not really. I think the next trip home will probably uncover some new things, but with solid food still relatively new, we're still pretty much sticking to steamed, pureed foods on their own. One exception: chicken, which I bake, cool, and puree with some water, seems to be too dry on its own, so I mix in something else like prunes (this is actually really delicious!). I'm unwilling to add too much water to the puree, because my little beanpole needs the calories. I'm also unwilling to use his formula instead, because I think it tastes gross. In general, I like the idea of not mixing things up too much, so my son can taste the individual flavors. But, as with all of my "big ideas," this concept has gotten much more relaxed :)

Saturday, January 9, 2010

First-feeding traditions continued

Hi Margie! I hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday season! I enjoyed the interview notes about Indian baby food traditions. I showed it to a colleague from Pakistan, and she reports that Sandra's answers are very similar to her own. She brought up two additional baby food traditions from Pakistan: ghutti and sooji (these are the spellings she gave me, forgive me if they are incorrect). Sooji is a semolina pudding that is a traditional first food in Pakistan, and very popular with young children. It seems quite similar to the "Cream of Wheat" cereal that I grew up eating.

Ghutti is a bit more complicated, and is in a similar vein to the annaprashan tradition that I posted about previously. My colleague described ghutti as a ceremony of first feeding, where a very young infant is given a taste of honey from a respected relative. She said she was so nervous about giving her newborn honey that she sent her husband all over the city looking for a pasteurized form. When I looked further into this tradition, it is actually described as part of a general family of "pre-lacteal" practices, meaning that the newborn is fed something prior to tasting mother's milk.

I found an interesting article for medical providers that describes the various ways Hindu and Muslim families observe these ceremonies. One example from the article is the Muslim practice of tahneek: "A softened date is rubbed into the infant's upper palate by a respected member of the family in hopes that attributes of this individual will transfer to the child". This hints at another aspect of this practice: the taste of sweetness is the goal -- I don't think anyone expects a newborn to swallow fruit. As with my prior reading on annaprashan, I was surprised by the variety and richness of the ceremonies worldwide that mark an infant's first feeding. From my reading, I most appreciated the general emphasis in all of these ceremonies that food is a way to transmit both values and health. How far this is from the day to day approach I witness in my community!

What is your son eating now? Any new discoveries into his likes and dislikes? I know you went to see family over the holidays...did you learn any new baby friendly recipes?

Abbie