Farmer Tom Stockdale goes for home grown, home cooked and varied.

Those who suffer from chronic diseases should read everything that is available and discuss it with anyone who is prepared to listen. Just because a particular disease obstinately refuses to respond to treatment this does not mean that there is not someone, somewhere who has the knowledge and experience to provide advice that will either alleviate or cure even the most intractable condition.

How is it possible to obtain perfectly constituted food?

The simple answer is to grow it in your own garden or to purchase it from a reputable source and cook it at home.
In one of his poems Rudyard Kipling advised anyone who was out of sorts to go and dig in the garden, and someone else has claimed that God is in the garden. Even the most unpromising piece of ground can be persuaded to produce something to eat. Last year our six gooseberry bushes provided a bucket and a half of fruit, which was full of nutrients and was made into delicious puddings during the winter.

The best advice on nutrition is to consume a widely varied diet and to eat it as close to its natural condition as is practical. Individuals and families should submit themselves to the discipline of sitting at a table for a meal at least twice a day. Fast, manufactured or tinned food should be avoided, but substantial amounts of fruit and vegetables should be eaten. While meat is not an essential component of a healthy diet it should be remembered that we have evolved as omnivores and that meat concentrates in a readily digestible form the goodness that is dispersed in fields and pastures.

Liver and kidneys are an especially good source of nutrients that should be eaten occasionally. Sea foods are an important source of minerals, vitamins and polyunsaturated fats and should be eaten several times a week.

Most tap water is drinkable, free of toxic additives and very cheap. There are now many alternatives to tea and coffee in the form of herbal teas and infusions, which avoid the temptation to add sugar.
It is not unreasonable, however, to add sugar to tart fruit so as to improve palatability, but until relatively recently everyone got on quite well without adding this unnatural and mildly addictive substance to their food.

Product quality

Today we all live in a high cost capitalist society and farmers are no exception. In order to meet the escalating costs of land, labour and capital imposed upon them by the rest of society, farmers have had little choice but to maximise their output by any means available. This has led to them sometimes adopting practices that are incompatible with the production of high quality food.

One consequence of this is that modern foods contain fewer minerals than fifty years ago. New varieties of wheat have enabled yields to be doubled or even trebled, while dairy cows, as well as giving more milk than in the past, are grazed more intensively.

Some authorities are of the opinion that the recommended dietary amounts for some nutrients are insufficient to meet the needs of pregnant women, rapidly growing children and the aged, but a diet containing most of the features outlined above should satisfy most of the requirements of most of the population.

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First Publidhed in 2009

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