Day 21
One of my very best friends happens to be a psychotherapist. When my children were little, she taught them to sew, and she was always playing the funniest games with them. I count her as one of my biggest influences (and one of my children’s biggest influences).
This friend preceded me in the vegetarian journey, which she first explored because of severe chronic fatigue. She’s also thought a lot about nutrition because of her profession. Over the years, she’d been frustrated with the way drug therapies work best mostly in acute cases and then her clients would be back to square one, trying to deal with what brought them to their difficulties in the first place.
One day she announced to me that she hardly ever recommends prescription drugs anymore for anxiety and depression—even for bipolar and post-partum depression. This sounded fascinating. Instead, she said, she now recommends exercise a minimum of three times a week for at least a half an hour, plus a high intake of omega-3 fatty acids. While some people can do this with fish oil supplements (I can’t, because I end up bruising), others need to look to plant-based whole foods and some fish or limited dairy to do the trick.
The trickier part of the trick is to limit omega-6 oils, which are in many of our baked goods, in the form of liquid oils like corn, safflower, etc.
Performing the Trick
Use rarely:
• corn oil
• safflower oil
• sunflower oil
Use in moderation:
• peanut oil
• sesame oil
• olive oil (despite high omega-6s, it is otherwise very good for you)
Use daily:
• flax seeds (grind your own for freshest results; read more about their fabulousness, here)
• walnuts
• chia seeds (read more about their total amazingness, here)
• pastured eggs (read about the differences in eggs, here)
• green leafy vegetables, especially wild ones
Writing Prompt
To banish the blues, you can try “eating clean” for 30 days and see where it takes you. Eating clean means trying out a plant-rich food lifestyle, high in omega-3s and low in omega-6s, with whole foods at its center (think whole millet versus white flour products, for instance). Craft a “banish the blues” poem that helps you remember the guidelines for clean eating, then set out to explore your blues-banishing food path!
Chia Seeds
Today I ordered
a beautiful bag of
chia seeds.
I liked the purple
on the package,
though I’m not sure
what to expect
of the little black
seeds inside.
Will they bring me
the key to happiness?
Will they bring me
better poetry?
No one promised
the poetry.
But I know what
a seed can do.
