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Ok, I know this has been ranted about before, but I just got this lovely little pamphlet from the prenatal clinic about dietary guidelines and even just flipping through it is making me want to laugh and scream at the same time.<br><br>
You would not believe the amount of emphasis they put on the health value of margarine. There's a whole section entitled "soft fats are good fats". Margarine the wonder-food is apparently a wonderful source of all the "good fat" that my growing baby needs, and also a great source of vitamin D (D2 is the one they put in margarines). <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><br><br>
Oh, and I should be guzzling the non-fat pasteurized milk too - at least 3 cups a day! Because we all know there are no other sources of calcium than milk products, and calcium is also the only mineral necessary for bone health, <b>and</b> it's best absorbed from denatured processed baby cow food (that baby cows die if they drink). <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><br><br>
Then there's another handout (that is going straight in the recycle and that I only read for the entertainment value) about "food safety". This one actually made me more mad than amused. Apparently it's ok to drink up to a liter of cola per day (never mind the known effects of cola on blood sugar and digestion), but "herbal teas" (like nettles, perhaps?) should be avoided because "there is no knowledge of their effects". Um, hundreds of years of first-hand knowledge of midwives and mothers of the effects of herbs in pregnancy equals NO knowledge? Oh, right, of course, if it hasn't been observed by a white educated male in an institutional setting it doesn't count as real knowledge.<br><br>
And of course there was the standard bs about unpasteurized soft cheeses, liver, etc. Maybe what made me maddest was that beside each "dangerous" food it listed the risks of eating them in a way that made you think that just thinking about them will make you sick and kill your baby. Listeriosis, etc., and then: miscarriage, birth defects (this one beside the "avoid liver" section <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll">) premature birth, etc. etc. Talk about scare tactics. But what made me maddest was the total non-inclusion of really bad crap, like fast food (from which it's also possible to get all kinds of nasty bacteria) and cola drinks, in the unsafe list. It's just so skewed.<br><br>
Of course I understand that these guidelines are designed with the average consumer in mind and are trying to protect mothers and babies from shady supplements and food that is generally produced to gain the maximum of profit and therefore is by definition at risk for unsafe processing practices, but it just comes across as very controlling and paranoid.<br><br>
It's also sad because it really drives home the reality that people are so removed from the production of their food, and from the knowledge of what <i>real food</i> even is, that they need this kind of guideline to keep them from eating something that's really harmful. Most people don't realize that raw milk from a commercial dairy is a completely different food from raw milk from a small organic dairy. Doctors don't acknowledge the difference between artificial vitamin A and naturally occurring vitamin A. Most people don't know that sea salt does not have the same effect on your body as refined table salt. Most people don't understand that so much of their food is *fake*. And that's not seen as something that needs to be remedied, it's seen as completely normal and good (because after all human ingenuity will always beat nature's own foods, etc. that have evolved over millions of years <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll">).<br><br>
Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant. It's really frustrating meeting this bs over and over again and I had to get it off my chest to someone who would understand!
You would not believe the amount of emphasis they put on the health value of margarine. There's a whole section entitled "soft fats are good fats". Margarine the wonder-food is apparently a wonderful source of all the "good fat" that my growing baby needs, and also a great source of vitamin D (D2 is the one they put in margarines). <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><br><br>
Oh, and I should be guzzling the non-fat pasteurized milk too - at least 3 cups a day! Because we all know there are no other sources of calcium than milk products, and calcium is also the only mineral necessary for bone health, <b>and</b> it's best absorbed from denatured processed baby cow food (that baby cows die if they drink). <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"><br><br>
Then there's another handout (that is going straight in the recycle and that I only read for the entertainment value) about "food safety". This one actually made me more mad than amused. Apparently it's ok to drink up to a liter of cola per day (never mind the known effects of cola on blood sugar and digestion), but "herbal teas" (like nettles, perhaps?) should be avoided because "there is no knowledge of their effects". Um, hundreds of years of first-hand knowledge of midwives and mothers of the effects of herbs in pregnancy equals NO knowledge? Oh, right, of course, if it hasn't been observed by a white educated male in an institutional setting it doesn't count as real knowledge.<br><br>
And of course there was the standard bs about unpasteurized soft cheeses, liver, etc. Maybe what made me maddest was that beside each "dangerous" food it listed the risks of eating them in a way that made you think that just thinking about them will make you sick and kill your baby. Listeriosis, etc., and then: miscarriage, birth defects (this one beside the "avoid liver" section <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll">) premature birth, etc. etc. Talk about scare tactics. But what made me maddest was the total non-inclusion of really bad crap, like fast food (from which it's also possible to get all kinds of nasty bacteria) and cola drinks, in the unsafe list. It's just so skewed.<br><br>
Of course I understand that these guidelines are designed with the average consumer in mind and are trying to protect mothers and babies from shady supplements and food that is generally produced to gain the maximum of profit and therefore is by definition at risk for unsafe processing practices, but it just comes across as very controlling and paranoid.<br><br>
It's also sad because it really drives home the reality that people are so removed from the production of their food, and from the knowledge of what <i>real food</i> even is, that they need this kind of guideline to keep them from eating something that's really harmful. Most people don't realize that raw milk from a commercial dairy is a completely different food from raw milk from a small organic dairy. Doctors don't acknowledge the difference between artificial vitamin A and naturally occurring vitamin A. Most people don't know that sea salt does not have the same effect on your body as refined table salt. Most people don't understand that so much of their food is *fake*. And that's not seen as something that needs to be remedied, it's seen as completely normal and good (because after all human ingenuity will always beat nature's own foods, etc. that have evolved over millions of years <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll">).<br><br>
Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant. It's really frustrating meeting this bs over and over again and I had to get it off my chest to someone who would understand!
