I want to acknowledge the privilege, particularly white privilege, but also privilege around money, pervasive income inequity, that often dictates how and what we eat. There is a set of beliefs that say if we don’t have a lot of money then healthy eating isn’t available to us, that it is only for those with money and time. That it belongs to politically correct, yoga pants wearing, white, rich liberals that are ridiculous enough to pay more for something that says “organic” on it. And there is certainly truth to that, but it is also true that the right to food that is NOT contaminated with toxins belongs to everyone. The right to real food belongs to everyone. The right to a healthy body belongs to everyone. If we can’t afford organic food or “superfoods”, or we don’t want to pay more for them, if we don’t have a lot of time to cook, if we don’t know how to cook or what to make, if we don’t have easily accessible options, then we have to do the work to create that for ourselves. And that may feel like an unfortunate truth, but it is also a doorway into transformation and a healthier mind and body. And it doesn’t have to be as hard as it may first seem. We just have to find a roadmap in.

Culture says that fast food is cheap and easy, there are even “healthy” options, though we are unlikely to get them when we can smell french fries… It often seems like fast food restaurants have become the only easy choice, along with supermarket fast food aisles filled with faux foods offering empty calories that make us sick, all the heavily processed foods, like white bread, frozen dinners, chips, soda, cookies…. We’ve come to expect ease and fast around food. But these things aren’t food, they are just calories, with no genuine value or nutrition, they do not truly feed us.

I feel like food culture, agri-business, is a form of patriarchal control that we’ve come to believe, making it true to a certain degree, that we now need to undo and make untrue. These food systems are a form of oppression that keep us reliant on others, keep us attached to medications that hurt our bodies because we are eating foods that take from our bodies and make us unwell. These systems of industrial agriculture are poisoning the foods we eat, destroying the health of our soil, polluting our water supplies, our rivers and streams, and the air that we breathe. They are particularly uncaring about polluting around communities of color and low income neighborhoods. Run-off from fields as they’re being irrigated, and rain, send fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides into our waters, the degraded topsoil that isn’t held by plants is continually washed away, drift from sprayed chemicals find their way into our bloodstreams and lungs – it is real. There are recent court cases that have been won by people who have cancer, who are dying, because of spraying “harmless” and “helpful” chemicals, namely Round Up. The methane from cows crowded together in feedlots contributes to our current climate catastrophe, the dust they raise clouds the sky, and our lungs. Bees are dying because of fields and yards being sprayed with Round Up and other chemicals. We have decimated the soil on our planet in such terrible ways that scientists say we have 60 harvests left. The giant agri-businesses and chemical companies that are creating these insidious harms do the safety studies on themselves that deem them “safe” and they pay for studies that say the world can only produce enough food to feed a quickly growing population using GMOs, fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides that they themselves are producing.

And then these foods that have been sprayed with these poisons are ingested by us. Maybe you don’t get sick, at least not right now, but the accumulation of these chemicals may slowly make you sick over time. If you are doing the spraying you might get sick more quickly. How do we mitigate this? How do we protect our families and children from harm? We eat whole unprocessed foods that we mostly cook ourselves with simple go-to recipes we know by heart, we buy foods that are less likely to be dowsed in chemicals, we avoid especially porous conventional fruits and veggies that are sprayed, we support local farmers using regenerative, sustainable and organic farming practices, we bless our food, we thank it, and we ask that it nourish our bodies.

Here are the conventional fruits and vegetables to AVOID or BUY ORGANIC when possible:

Fruits and vegetables you do NOT need to buy organic:

Food grown in regenerative, sustainable and organic ways should be what is sold, period – it should simply be food, not an “organic” label to seek out. That should be what food is, what is available to buy. It is what our grandparents ate. Everyone should be able to afford to buy clean and healthy food, it shouldn’t feel special or unattainable, or attached to privilege. No one should have to eat food that has poison in it, herbicide, pesticide or fungicide residue that will affect our bodies, our immune systems, over time. No one should have to drink water with chemicals and toxins in it. We need to find ways to step away from the current systems. Food is a form of activism, it always has been. I dislike the idea of using our dollars to influence systems because it seems like it is just another way to feed into consumerism. But, it is true that organic and regenerative farming is frequently more labor intensive, crops are more diverse and harvests therefore smaller, so it does make organic produce genuinely more expensive. When we buy sustainably grown and organic foods we are supporting health for people and planet. Though what I also see happening is the creation of a giant “natural” food industry devoted to more expensive organic products, not affordable ones – they’ve realized that organic food is in high demand and it has swiftly become a multi-billion dollar industry.

Luckily we do not have to eat organic or “superfoods” to eat healthy, we do not need to buy prettily packaged and processed “healthy foods” to take care of our bodies – we just need to pay attention to which conventionally grown foods are safe. Realistically we can’t do this all the time, but to do it within your own home or most of the time, is a great way to start. We don’t need to eat the newest fad or buy-in to the latest trend. We just need to eat whole, unprocessed foods. And we need to work to dismantle inequity around food.

When it is doable buy organic, but better yet, if you have a yard grow your own organic vegetables and fruit, if you don’t, get to know neighbors with backyard fruit or vegetables who don’t spray, plant a tomato plant or herbs on your windowsill, become part of a community garden, visit your local farmer’s market and find out who is growing with regenerative practices or organically and buy what is in season and affordable, buy bulk organic dry beans and grains. We can make soup to feed ourselves, our families, all week long with beans or peas and veggies that is wholesome, nutritive and easy.

We are all longing for vibrant health, for bodies that will carry us reliably into an elderhood we can enjoy, which means right now is the time to make any necessary shifts, to do what we can to protect our planet and step away from the industrial model, doing whatever we can to make sure all people, regardless of economics, privilege or color can access real food, free from toxins.

Soup is Good Food! You can throw together a simple soup with your bulk beans and organic, in-season veggies! Sundays are good for making soup (if you have the day off), soak beans in the morning, cooking them for an hour or two in the afternoon, and as soon as they are done, not soft, start adding your veggies. There are a few ways to go about it; throw in chopped raw veggies and simmer until tender, or roast veggies and toss them in (along with last weeks leftover cooked quinoa or rice), and of course spices, right at the end. I always like to top soups with goodies too. With a black lentil stew, I’ll sprinkle on crunchy sunflower seeds that have been toasted with a little curry, spirulina and coconut oil, a wedge of lime for squeezing, chopped cilantro and some fermented sriracha. With black bean and butternut squash soup, I’ll top it with shredded purple cabbage, goat cheddar, avocado, cilantro, lime, toasted pepitas and maybe even some plain goat yogurt. I love add-ons and condiments. They can seriously make anything delicious.

Simple Soup Outline:

Beans or peas – you can use whatever you like, preferably organic and inexpensive from the bulk bin at your local health food store – black beans, white beans, kidney beans, lima beans, blackeyed peas, green or yellow split peas…. Or if you don’t have time for soaking and need a shorter cooking time, use red, green, black, or French lentils, or split mung beans.

Vegetables – whatever you have, need to use up or like!

Spices and fresh herbs – again, whatever you have or like!

Broth or water

Clean and sort beans or peas. Put them in a cooking pot and fill with water or broth, and make sure water level is at least 2 inches above beans/peas.

If you’re making beans soak them in your water for around 4 hours or overnight. If you get gassy from beans, try soaking for a full 24 hours. Pour out your soak water, especially if your beans aren’t organic. If you have a hunk of kombu seaweed, add it to the soaking beans, as it helps make the beans more digestible.

If you’re pressed for time, just give them a good cleaning and then put in your broth or water and start cooking. You’ll probably need to simmer for around 2 hours. Or, use peas, split mung beans or lentils, as most cook up within 20 minutes or so.

Here are some basic soups that are delicious and easy:

Thai-style red lentil soup – In your soup pot, put in 2 cups of red lentils and 6 cups water or broth – bring to a boil, then lower temperature and let them simmer for about 20 minutes until nice and tender. In a separate pan saute onion, grated ginger and garlic in coconut oil. When they are getting translucent, add cubed and peeled sweet potatoes and butternut squash. When everything is close to cooked through, add red curry paste to taste – usually 2 to 3 tablespoons – a dash of coconut sugar and a dash of fish sauce or tamari or Braggs. Add your veggies and a can of coconut milk to your lentils and cook for a short while so all the flavors come together. And that’s it. Serve with a wedge of lime, and garnish with chopped cilantro and toasted cashews or peanuts. If you have the time you can caramelize the nuts in a pan with coconut oil, coconut sugar, salt and sriracha. Sometimes I’ll add Thai basil, galangal, lemongrass and/or kaffir lime leaves to the cooking lentils if I have them.

Black bean and butternut squash soup – soak black beans overnight (with a piece of kombu if you have it), get rid of soak water (makes a nice dye) and then cook in water or broth with some salt, garlic, and a bay leaf. When they are soft, but not mushy, add Mexican oregano, ground coriander, cumin and smoked paprika. Add diced onion, diced bell pepper and peeled, seeded and cubed butternut squash. Add a can or two of diced tomatoes. Simmer until tender then adjust spice. I often roast the veggies in the oven with olive oil and all of the spices mentioned above, except the bay leaf, or saute them together, and just throw them in when the beans are done. I like to top with all sorts of goodies – take your pick – goat cheddar, toasted pepitas, shredded cabbage, a squish of lime juice, chopped jalapenos and/or onions, avocado, chopped cilantro….

Mung beans and rice – this is a standard recipe used widely by the yoga community, especially kundalini yogis, that I love. I first started making it about 14 years ago when I was doing the kundalini yoga teacher training at Golden Bridge Yoga, often as a mono-diet for cleansing. You can do a short soak of the mung beans, 2 hours or so, with kombu if you have it, to overnight. The longer they soak the more easily digestible they are. I like to do about a cup of mung beans and a cup of brown basmati rice. Clean both well, separately, until water runs clear – and make sure to pick out any suspicious bits that could be tooth breaking rocks. Cook the beans in about 10 cups of water until they are soft and splitting open. In a saute pan, using coconut oil or ghee, cook a couple of diced onions, 2 to 3 inches of fine grated ginger, 6 to 8 cloves of minced garlic and cook until translucent, then add a couple teaspoons each of turmeric and coriander powder, a teaspoon of coriander seeds, teaspoon of cardamon powder, teaspoon of black pepper, a tablespoon of salt and some red chili flakes to taste, and let all the flavors come together. Add the cleaned rice and everything from your saute pan to the pot of mung beans. Lastly, add 6 to 7 cups of chopped veggies. I usually add them in the order that they cook, like celery first, then carrots and yams, then broccoli and finally zucchini. You’ll need to stir often to avoid burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan and might need to add a little extra water or broth. Cook until done. I like to top this thick soup with a little ghee, a dollop of goat yogurt, chopped cilantro, toasted cashews and fermented sriracha.