More eating wisdom from Helen Nearing’s Simple Food:

“Simple eating need not be monotonous. Every meal of every day can vary if you like, but don’t be afraid of sameness. If you find a good thing you like, stick to it. Variety is not necessarily the spice of life, or of cooking. Appetite is. If you have excessive variety you eat too much. You flit from one thing to another and go back to the first, starting all over again and eating more than you need. All goes slopping down in quick time, with little chewing. In cooking as in eating, give your attention to fewer items and learn to appreciate them.”

“Simple foods (fruits, nuts, vegetables), simply grown (organically), simply prepared (with little peeling or cutting up), simply cooked (lightly braised, blanched, steamed or baked), simply garnished (with chopped up tender greens and no sauces or gravies), simply served (from stove to table in saucepan, with one wooden bowl for each person for the whole meal), or, better still, eaten raw: What could be simpler, unless you eat standing, and pick from the trees?”

from Simple Food for the good life, 1980/1999. Ostensibly about food and recipes, Helen Nearing’s book is really about simplicity and the mindful life. I’m rereading this book, and I continue to be amazed at how profoundly simple and useful her ideas are for the pursuit of a healthy and full life.

Here’s a sample (p. 10):

“The food I prepare and serve is meant to build healthy bodies, not to cater to corrupted taste buds that urge one to eat unhealthy things long after the claims of hunger have been satisfied. Enough is as good as a feast: better, in fact, because if you don’t overeat, you don’t get sick or fat.

The more appetizing foods are made, the more is eaten and the worse for the health of the body. If you wish to grow thinner, diminish your dinner, someone has said. If you eat twice as much popcorn when it is heavily buttered and salted, why butter and salt it? Eat a moderate amount of plain popcorn and then stop. If you are not hungry enough to eat unsalted popcorn, or bread without loads of butter and jam, or salad without a spicy dressing or sauce, why eat at all? Why not wait until you are hungry, without craving extra stimulants? If salt and seasoning makes you eat more of a food – leave off the salt and seasoning and eat less of a food. Its as simple as that.”

Simple but profound words of wisdom. Helen Nearing lived to be 91 (she died in an auto accident). Her husband Scott Nearing lived to be 100 years old. They both lived full, vibrant and healthy lives.