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Do You Have "Diet Confusion"?

written by

Sue King

posted on

January 31, 2020

South Beach, Weight Watchers,  the Mediterranean, Zone, Atkins, Paleo, Raw Food diet, and the Macrobiotic diet to name a few. Each one has its benefits, but also has its drawbacks.


I am looking forward to this time of year again on our regenerative farm, but for now we are still waist deep in snow for at least another month. Unless that is, a good old Alberta chinook rolls in.

We have all experienced what I call “diet confusion”. I believe that we have fallen prey to these ideas for generations. Going back three generation to my grandmother I can see that even she succumbed to the pressure of thinking that what she was eating was not healthy for her.

Personally, I have struggled with being slightly overweight my whole life. My weight has fluctuated with the different seasons of life; from being a young married working women without time to cook much to my child bearing years when the extra weight I put on during each of my five pregnancies wasn’t lost right up to peri-menopause. I was never able to figure out how to come to a healthy weight that allowed me to feel good and do the activities that I wanted to participate in.

My negative view of my body image started in grade eight physical education class. For the life of me I don’t know why , but we were asked to take pictures of ourselves front, back, and from both sides. Then everyone’s pictures were pinned up for comparison. How demoralizing can that be.

As I look back over my health journey I can see how this influenced my choices. First off, I hated gym class. I didn’t want to ever wear shorts again. I was so humiliated. To this day I still prefer not to wear shorts (I am fifty-five years old). Throughout my teenage and young adult years I would bounce around to whatever diet was trendy at the time. None of them helped me lose the weight I thought had to go. Once I started having children I basically quit trying. It seemed like I would never win the battle.

Years ago now I came to embrace the fact that scripture tells us that we are all “fearfully and wonderfully made”. Our creator knows how we are designed to look and He has given us the tools to achieve that. Unfortunately most of us have never been taught that. That gym teacher many years ago must have fallen into the trap of having to look like the supermodels.


Pizza? Sure, but lets do it with our health in mind.

Pizza? Sure, but lets do it with our health in mind.

Twenty years ago I was led to study the diets of our ancient ancestors in order to help improve mine and my family’s health. From photos and conversation I knew that as a young person my grandmother was not an obese person. It was not until she reached menopause that she started to have weight issues. I knew that I had to do something before I reached that season in my life or the same thing would happen to me.

A friend of mine introduced me to the work of Weston A. Price, a doctor who studied the diets of ancient cultures. Learning about his teaching was the first step in my journey back to health.

In the next few blog posts I will share my journey with you. My prayer as I share my experiences with you is that you will find encouragement and hope as you travel the road of your journey.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t have all the answers; I am not a doctor and don’t claim to know the science behind all this, but I believe that by sharing what has worked for me I can be an encouragement to you. 

I would love to have you join me as I traverse this road that can be so confusing? Its as simple as clicking the button below. Over the next little while I will be exploring the ways that have helped me navigate this trip with success. I promise that I will never share your information with anyone.


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I would love to hear about your struggles and victories. Leave me a comment below so we can be encouragers to each other.


More from the blog

Are you Absolutely Satisfied with Store-Bought Pork?

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY PORK DISHES ALWAYS HAVE SO MANY SWEET SAUCES ON THEM? For many years this question never crossed my mind. Until we started raising and eating our own pasture-raised pork. But what lead us to start raising pigs?  Neither Larry nor I had much experience with pigs growing up. We started our married life buying all our pork in the grocery store, but then switched to sourcing it from a neighboring conventional pork producer. We were not aware that most of the pork that is available in the grocery stores comes from pigs that have never seen the light of day. They spend their whole life crowded into huge hog barns. They are fed an industry standard diet of grain with no green, living food at all. They are crowded into small spaces with many other pigs where their natural ability to move is restricted. Much to our surprise and horror, we discovered that the neighbor we were purchasing our pork from was raising them no differently than what we could get in the store. At that time, little did we know that eventually Larry would face a digestive issue from this type of pork. After certain meals he would feel sick to the stomach and end up with diarrhea. It got so bad before we clued into the cause. When we quit eating pork these issues went away. Now we had a dilemma. We really like pork but couldn’t eat it anymore. Being the DIY homesteaders we were back in those days we decided to buy a couple little pigs and raise them ourselves. We knew that we didn’t want to raise them in a barn. So outside they went. These were the happiest pigs I ever saw. They were free to roam around their pasture, rooting in the soil and wallowing in the mud while searching for whatever they thought was tasty to eat. We fed them grains from a neighbor, kitchen scraps and milk from our milk cow. When they were big enough to harvest, we sent them to the processor, not knowing if we would even be able to eat this pork. Much to our delight Larry had no adverse reaction to the meat. It was delicious! The meat was firm, not mushy like barn raised pork. It also had a richness to it that we had never experienced before.  No more bland and flavorless conventional pork for us.  No sauces required! We thought that we couldn’t be the only people who had experienced something similar and wished for a pleasurable eating experience. This success started us on a new farming adventure, raising pastured pork for sale. Encouraged by the success we had with our first pigs we decided to purchase our breeding herd. We have tried many breeds of pigs over the years and have settled on the Berkshire breed. They are a heritage pig that matures slower thus producing an excellent quality meat and the best lard fat that I think you can get. I have heard it said that Berkshire pork is the gold standard of pork among chefs. Besides that, they are very personable and entertaining to have around!  And mischievous. I truly believe from our personal experience that all animals that we raise for food need to be able to live in conditions that are natural for them and have the ability to express their God-given characteristics. When we domesticated animals, we became responsible to steward them well. We strive to do just this with all our animals. One of my favorite cuts of pork is the Boston Butt Roast.  It is juicy, tender, melt-in-your mouth meat. This is the cut that pulled-pork is made from. It is an economical cut that we also use to make ground pork and our special gluten-free, nitrate-free sausages. When you purchase our pasture-raised pork you will experience what real pork should taste like. We offer a variety of options when it comes to purchasing our pasture-raised pork.   Individual cuts to suit your needs. Pork Chops, Traditional salt-cured and smoked ham and bacon, Whole Tenderloin, Boston Butt Roasts, Ground Pork, Breakfast Sausages (Nitrate-free, Sugar-free and Filler-free). Coming soon!  Our "1/4 Pork Bundle."  Our newest addition to our pastured-pork line-up.  This bundle is perfect for a smaller family or if you have limited freezer space.  It will consist of a variety of the individual cuts, including Pork Chops, Pork Sirloin Steak, Ham Steak, Bacon, Ground Pork and Sausage. And, last but not least if you want to customize the cuts you receive, we have whole hogs available.   You can find all of these options in our online store. Do you want to try my simple Boston Butt Roast recipe? It’s so simple. I place the roast on a rack in my cast-iron dutch-oven. Add a little water. Sprinkle chopped onions on top (I used my home-grown dehydrated onions) salt and pepper. Roast until the internal temperature reaches 160F. I slice it and serve with apple sauce, oven roasted potatoes and a veggie.  You can purchase our pasture-raised pork from our online store or from us at the Grande Prairie Farmers Market on Fridays or Saturdays.