Page 7 - Summer2010
P. 7
Letters
the soil than is emitted in the process of I am wondering whether the prac- to thrive.” Personally, I think she died of
producing these foods. Wow. Talk about tice of storing water in clay pots in- malnutrition. We had oleo in our home
eating crow. . . so to speak. creases the mineral content of the water when I was growing up, even though my
Ironically, my essential belief and food? Those elderly people who father had grown up on a farm. I think
remains fundamentally the same as it remembered told me that you could not my parents believed the information that
was almost four decades ago: all three fall sick if you drank that water; they was becoming available in the 1950s
evolutionary paths, those of human, ani- said it brought “strength and coolness” about saturated fat and heart disease. I
mal and Gaia, are, in fact, a single road. inside you. can remember my mother telling me not
But exactly how that road has unfolded I myself have tasted water from a to eat the fat on the meat I was eating. I
in front of me has been a humbling and surai—they are still available though wanted to eat it! But I cut it off.
exacting process far different from what plastic bottled water from the refrig- Later, when more manufactured
I expected! Thank you all again and erator has become common today. The food was available, my parents bought
again for keeping this information alive water is delicious. fat-free cheese, fat-free mayonnaise and
so that one day I could finally hear what Suri Raj skimmed milk. My mother used artifi-
both my body and the Weston A. Price Delhi, India cial sweeteners. I remember one time in
Foundation have been saying for years! the 1990s when I visited their home and
Joanie Blaxter No doubt the clay pots served several looked in the refrigerator. I didn’t see
Oak View, California purposes. They kept the water cool and anything in there that looked like food
probably added minerals to water and to me.
EARTHENWARE POTS broth. They may have also served a I found out about the Weston A.
I am of Indian origin. After read- disinfecting role, as the pores in the pots Price Foundation after my father died.
ing about traditional foods, I have been can harbor beneficial bacteria. I told my mother about it, but she was
seeking whatever I can glean from already experiencing enough mental
elderly relatives as to how foods confusion that she could not take in
were cooked in their day. One the new information or make any
thing that struck me was the use dietary changes. I finally had to
of clay pots and vessels for storing come to terms with the fact that she
water and cooking. Bone broths, (to had made the decisions about what
which acid in the form of tomatoes she would eat many years before,
and tamarind were added), were had firmly believed she would need
traditionally cooked in these pots, long term care, and therefore, the
very slowly, pretty much like a responsibility was hers. This real-
crock pot. ization was painful for me, because
In the hot climate of India, I thought proper food would help.
water was stored in special earth- My mother had osteoporosis and
enware vessels called surai and had experienced numerous painful
covered with a clean wet muslin vertebral fractures. She lost eight
cloth. Being of a porous nature, inches of height and forty-five
the pot kept the water inside it cool and FAILURE OF FAT-FREE pounds. I suspect the drugs she took for
also imparted a great taste to the water. My mother died last year at eighty- the pain did not help her mental capacity,
Eventually the pots themselves wore out two years of age. The cause of death not- but she needed them. She was practically
and were replaced frequently. ed on her death certificate was “failure skin and bones.
SUMMER 2010 Wise Traditions 7