Book Review: All Natural* by Nathanael Johnson

Turns out I was reading something old and something new from the very same press last week. Guess who?

When I heard about the new book “All Natural” by Nathanael Johnson, I was immediately intrigued.  There are not many writers who delve openly and honestly into questions about whether “natural” approaches to eating, childbirth, and medicine are actually healthier. Most people come at these topics with pretty strong leanings or an all-out agenda already in place. So those of us who want to figure it out for ourselves are usually left reading two wildly opposing opinions and trying to sort it out on our own. Nathanael Johnson offers a rare helping hand that might save some of us from late night Google searches about what to put in our children’s lunchbox or how to approach our next medical question. He delves into all of these questions and takes readers along as he speaks to scientists, offers historic perspective and generally travels around with an open mind and a sense of humor.

The research is thorough and as is the full rambling title,“All Natural: A Skeptic’s Quest to Discover If the Natural Approach to Diet, Childbirth, Healing, and the Environment Really Keeps Us Healthier and Happier.” What makes the writer’s perspective so unique is that he was raised by extremely natural orientated hippies and he is able to look back honestly at what worked and did not work for him without mocking or attacking his parents approach. He is not the conservative child of hippies rejecting how he was raised, but he looks critically at each piece before he decides how he wants to raise his own family. He is honestly trying to decide which pieces he wants to carry forward based on the best available science, not values and emotions. As a bonus, his personal story compelling and very funny and he keeps the reader laughing while we approaching topics that usually make people tense and angry instead.

When I read this interview in Mother Jones, I expected to relate to the writer’s perspective as a new parent struggling to make the best possible choices between nature and technology. It turned out I enjoyed the writing even more than I expected and I was surprised to find myself learning so much about topics I have already spent a chunk of my life thinking about like nutrition, farming and natural childbirth. I am fascinated by honest discussions about why so many of us are drawn to “natural” lifestyles. I am especially intrigued when the conversation includes discussions of real pros and cons rather than being rooted in one particular ideology. I can relate to his quest since I also spend a lot of time trying to make the right choices, which can sometimes leave me Googling late into the night. In the end, I often find myself splitting the difference.

For example, I chose natural childbirth in a very conventional hospital setting with all the precautions in place.  As far as nutrition, the food in our house is mostly organic and plant based but I will allow my children to eat artificially colored birthday cake outside the home (in fact they may be doing that right now as I write). It can be lonely and uncomfortable and sometimes I worry that I am not firm enough, but I seem to remain in the gray area much of the time. Other times I remain firm but see the irony of my choice.  Once I got on the beltway to return my “not natural enough” mattress and realized in traffic that I did not tie it down that well. So, I know, we need to keep all of this in perspective with the rest of the safety questions in life like driving with a poorly tied down mattress is (duh) super dangerous.  But it can be tricky and we all lose perspective sometimes so it is great to have books like this to help lead the way.

We need more writers like Nathanael Johnson exploring the gray areas beyond what we think we know, what we believe in and what we want to be true.  He wades deep into polarized debates and listens to many sides of conversations on natural childbirth, nutrition, raw milk and alternative medicine.  He travels the country, talks to all kinds of experts and visits fascinating places including farms, hospitals and natural birth centers.  Each chapter contains exhaustive research and historical perspective.  His stories about his own childhood keep the book rooted, funny and personal.

In the end, the book put me in a better position to make the hard choices I need to make as a mother, as a farmer and as a consumer of food and medical care. And while it can be uncomfortable and lonely to hang out in the gray area, it is probably where I want to remain, and it is good to know I am not alone! By the way, Nathanael Johnson is on a speaking tour right now, maybe you will be able to catch one of his events his schedule is here.

(My disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher, thanks Rodale! My copy is now available to loan to local friends.)

Yom Ha Shoah: Remembering to Remember

Tonight is the start of Yom Ha Shoah or Holocaust Memorial Day.  I feel like whoever set up the Jewish calendar made a strategic mistake by placing Holocaust Memorial Day after Passover when everyone is exhausted and just getting back to normal. Maybe if it were in the middle of Passover it would be more widely recognized.  Passover naturally brings up thinking about the holocaust, and there are similar themes but with completely different outcomes.  In our post-holocaust era, Passover has lost meaning for many. How do we celebrate God actively saving us once upon a time, when in more recent memory, we were not mostly saved? It is a huge question.

As it stands now, Yom Ha Shoah can easily be forgotten in the US.  In Israel, there is a siren to remind everyone which I wrote about here.  I feel like now more than ever we need to elevate Yom Hashoah, and we can’t just rely on survivors telling their stories.  The day should be central and remembered by all.

I am counting the omer again this year which I think can be part of the solution.  When you are counting the days you naturally keep your eyes close to the Jewish calender.  So far this year,  I am counting on my own rather than trying to pull in my family. But there are lots of counting days ahead so there is still time. Here is  my post from last year with my homemade omer counter in case you want to learn more about it.

And here are a couple of key resources for Yom Ha Shoah. If nothing else, you can always poke around these sites and learn something to share with others.    U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum  and Yad VaShem (Israel’s museum).

The Four Grown Ups: A Haggadah Supplement

This morning I was thinking and reading a little about the four children in the Passover Hagaddah, which are usually depicted as the wise child, the wicked child , the simple child and the child who is too young to ask. Every Haggadah will interpret these children a little differently, but they all have suggestions on how to parent each child according to their needs. While not directly related, I was also inspired by this piece by the Velveteen Rabbi about parents obligations at Passover to children.  And since the children were playing with magnetic tiles for a long time this morning,  I played with the idea a bit and turned it upside down for one more version.

The Four Grown Ups

The Baster: For the parent who is in the kitchen when the Seder is about to begin and says “go ahead without me, I am basting the brisket, ” you should praise this parent on her lovely alliteration and then gently remind her that as we once fled Egypt with unbaked bread, so tonight we can eat a brisket with one less basting.

The Helicopter Parent: For the parent who is so involved in teaching the children that he doesn’t learn a single grown up thing at the Seder and says, “go ahead without me, we are making baskets for baby Moses from these grape vines we gathered,” the helicopter parent should be reminded that parents have an obligation to learn on Passover too. The vines should be gently removed from his hands and he should be handed a grown up Haggadah, preferably by Maxwell House or the New American Hagaddah Jonathan Safran Foer and Nathan Englander.

The Zealot:  For the parent who is so involved in discussing an obscure midrash that she shoves off her child who has lost his page in Sammy Spider’s First Haggadah, she should be reminded that on Passover we also have an obligation to teach and to learn.

The Auntie: For the Seder guest who is not yet a parent and does not know what to ask, we should calmly explain that each child is different. There are millions of different kinds of children and parents, so four is kind sort of an understatement to say the least.

Spring Time Hurry

- A  guest post by husband/farmer Scott Hertzberg (who tried to post this on his blog but it wound up here, he says)

 

We have had a real winter this year capped off with snow a few days into official spring. Unlike last year, I do not have much planted yet, just some onions and garlic. We have a lot of greenhouse plants ready to go out and this week the weather will finally warm up enough to get them into the ground. It will be a mad dash to do six weeks of work in three weeks.Soon after we get all the spring crops transplanted we will go right into planting squash and cucumbers. I think we will be all right. The saving grace is that I sneaked a large plowing in during a brief dry period in early March. If this was when of those non-stop rainy springs when you can not plow, we would be in a real situation.

Each year is different here in the mid-Atlantic. Last year we had all our spring crops planted by this time and were harvesting by mid-April. This year the spring crops will be much later and the spring harvest period most likely shorter. Maybe in exchange the summer will not be so brutally hot and hard on the summer crops. We’ll see. The only thing I know is you got to roll with whatever the season brings.  If we had already planted this spring we would have lost everything to frost or to plants bolting (going to seed prematurely) due to being exposed to freezing temperatures.

Keeping Children and Parents Engaged at Passover Seders

This piece originally ran in the Washington Jewish Week.

With Passover just a few days away, most of us still have a long list of things to accomplish.  Between cleaning the house, removing chametz, shopping, gathering recipes and planning a Seder, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. But if you are a parent it is worth adding one more thing to the list: deciding about how to occupy young children during the Seder and holiday.   Since Passover is all about passing on tradition, ideas abound for engaging children.

One way to engage children during the week of Passover is by taking them out in nature. Since Passover is also a celebration of renewal and the spring season, it is a great time for walks with children to look for signs of spring.  Trees are budding all over our area, spring peepers are out in the ponds and wetlands and the first garden flowers are blooming.  If you know where to look, you can even find wild plants like chickweed to gather as another “karpas” or spring green for your Seder.    Time outside can help make the entire holiday more fun and picnics with children have the added advantage of minimizing indoor matzah crumbs.

When it comes to the actual Seder, many families opt for very short, child friendly Seders which can be great for children but might leave the adults feeling like something is missing.  In our child centered times it can be easy to meet the needs of the children and forget that adults are also expected to learn from the Passover story every year too.  Adults should have the opportunity to engage in the text and ask grown-up questions.  But when adults are discussing the Haggadah or current events, children tend to get bored.  So how can we keep everyone happy?

The good news is the Jewish people have been thinking about involving children in Seders for a long time and there are already creative, hands-on activities built right into the Seder.  In fact, the Seder is in some ways one big parenting lesson which shows us how to teach our children using stories, taste, games and music. Children enjoy asking the four questions, dipping parsley in saltwater, searching for the afikomen, opening the door for Elijah and of course keeping a sharp eye on Elijah’s cup for disappearing wine.  But despite these rich traditions, there is still time for young children to get restless at a Seder.

One way to keep children engaged is with age appropriate books. There are also some wonderful children’s Haggadot available including the popular “Sammy Spider’s First Haggadah,” by Sylvia Rouss which will make an appearance at our family’s Seder.  Another wonderful book “The Mouse in the Matzah Factory,” by Francine Medoff explains how matzah is made and guarded from planting the wheat seeds through selling the Kosher matzah. These books and others can be integrated into the Seder or read ahead of time to help build anticipation.

Another idea for keeping children happy at the table is to cover part of the table where children are sitting with butcher block paper.  Parents can draw outlines for children to color in such as pyramids, a basket for Moses and Seder plates.  Children can use crayons to decorate the “table cloth” during the Seder.  Also, many children enjoy preparing their own decorative Seder plates with real or play food.  Older children can participate in reading and prizes can be offered to children for asking questions.

Since many family Seders will include children with a wide age span, think about ways for the older children to help the younger children enjoy the holiday.  At a longer Seder, many parents allow children to leave the table to play. Children can prepare a Passover play for the family, attempt to build a pyramid out of legos or recline on pillows and look at Passover books.  Costumes or simple puppets can be great additions to encourage dramatic play.  Depending on the ages of the children, a little advance planning should help the Seder be a learning experience for everyone.    Chag Sameach!