mogga: great article - thankyou, it I can own up to picking the odd dandelion weed in my lawn and munching it raw - and every house I have lived in I have grown grow a rosemary bush, whose needle-like leaves I include - chopped finely - in many dishes - also other herbs like marjoram, parsley, sage etc.
I also believe we should eat more seasonally, rather than this huge mix of foods from all over the planet, much of it picked early, refrigerated, transported etc.
The grandparents who got old in my family (both died at 90) both were always busy as I remember them when a child. They were peasants (and retired when I knew them), also kept goats, had veggie garden, two fields for potatoes and poppies (edible - for poppy seed) - grandmother did all the field work, grandfather fixed all sorts of things, including clocks, made wooden clogs and other things on a simple bench, which he often put up in the large livingroom/kitchen - and they walked lots in the hilly village they lived in - meat was eaten only on Sundays.
When the mushroom season was on; grandmother was an expert at knowing where they grew and she picked them - often with me in tow when I was there at the end of summer holidays - eventually drying large quantities, some of which made their way to our home in Vienna in 1/2 kg (linen sacks) lots. Diet was definitely seasonal, yes grandma drank coffee - I had to get freshly-baked white rolls from the baker at 7 o'clock in the morning for her coffee, otherwise the bread was the typical grey rye-bread; she never had Alzheimers nor any form of dementia, neither did granddad.
Lots of potatoes cooked in various ways, one was delicious dumplings made from raw grated potatoes, (still haven't mastered the art of making them), but also delicious sweet things made from them also: in particular thick noodles, rolled in a ground poppy-seed/sugar mix, or sometimes same potato pastry as dumplings including delicious prune plums or apricots, also with the poppyseed mix on top . (I have just bought some prune plums at the local market - treat happening this week)
Also; regularly Sauerkraut, some of which made their way into you before it was cooked (which is better - I always begged for it) with the Sunday roast, which was mostly pork; sometimes a large chook - sour milk was also on offer when fresh berries came in from the woods in autumn; soups, lots of them.
But essentially, a fairly monotonous diet, but eaten at regular intervals and nothing in between, but with seasonal changes - they also used legumes a fair bit, I remember a kind of thick lentil sauce, which I liked. Cider and wine for the males on the weekends and grandfather owned lots of pipes, which he smoked sitting out front of the small house on a bench and chatting with passers-by.
Most importantly; very little stress - they still live like that in that village, except the local 'castle' has begun to put on shows and concerts and elegant people come from all over the place to attend - so things will change.
Alas looking back on my life, I can definitely say I had my fair share of stress, so did my husband, which gave him an early death - in fact modern life would be impossible without stress, its endemic.
I will try and pass that article on to my girl in England who is dying from cancer - it might be too late, but stress was and still is a huge factor in her and her family's life, lots of it self-imposed and it also works like a drug - I suspect. We get addicted to stress like we get addicted to sugar - I know I did.
Taurisk
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