Page 7 - Summer2010
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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
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