Having been a rebel from as long as I can remember, I have lately been forced to look at tradition. Leena went to the dentist a couple of months back and the dentist discovered cavities. After my usual round of guilt, I started reading “Cure Tooth Decay”, by Ramiel Nagel, and excellent book on ideas about how to reverse tooth decay. I came across Weston Price, a dentist who researched indigenous cultures in 1930s and related modern diet to physical as well as moral degeneration. I am reading his absolutely stunning book “Nutrition and Physical degeneration” now.

My recent reads bring back many memories which were buried in me as I was growing up. Mom saying, “always soak lentils” or “take the froth out of the top of the boiling lentils”. Such tips were disregarded and then forgotten, but now come back to me with new meaning. I have some regrets that I didn’t follow these very useful ideas that are key to proper handling of foods. But it is also upsetting that the “why” was lost in my (and probably most) primitive traditions, causing me to disregard these ideas as antiquated. It would be nice if cultures documented their reasons and trusted the intelligence of their future generations rather than just passing down a set of rules.

As I read more and dig deeper, conflicting data appears. My vegan friends just told me about “China Study” by “Colin Campbell” which has a dietary suggestion that is completely at odds with a Weston Price style diet. Since the stakes are high (my kids’ health), our diet decisions requires that I assimilate all data and use my conviction based on judgement and courage.

And I thought dinner just meant half an hour in the kitchen!