Nutty Arugula, Dried Cherry and Feta Salad

I feel like an alternative title could be “I watched What the Health and I’m blaming that for eating all the salads.” For some reason I think the SEO is a little stronger with the first one though 😉

 

But I did – watch What the Health, that is. For anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about, What the Health is a documentary that (according to their website) “uncovers the secret to preventing and even reversing chronic diseases, and investigates why the nation’s leading health organizations doesn’t want people to know about it.” To be frank it watches more like a vegan manifesto, which isn’t necessarily bad – just a little imbalanced if you ask me.

 

First of all I don’t know why I’m drawn to watching documentaries like this because the reality is that anyone can take any piece of information off the internet and twist it just enough to create the emphasis they need to drive home an agenda. And I know this. But when I was watching it all I could think was, “Holy crap, I’m killing my family with food.” Which is certainly not true, but that’s much of the point that the movie not-so-subtly hints at. It was all just very one-sided, which leads me to…

 

Second, I feel like it was imbalanced in another way in that YES we should be consuming more fruits and vegetables, but what about the error of big business behind the agriculture industry? Things like the insane use of glyphosate and other pesticides and herbicides. Or GMOs. Or food irradiation. These are all things that big food businesses use to create a higher yield in order to make more money and better support farmers, but that also have a history of being harmful (or no data to the contrary) as well. I’m not here to make a point on anything because I KNOW I need to do more research and have a better understanding of the entire process. My point is this, though: if you’re a documentary trying to persuade someone to swear off meat and/or animal products and eat ONLY plant-based foods then I think it’s only doing your due diligence to discuss the potential issues with that. Especially when said documentary is entitled “What the Health” and therefore would be considered by some as a beacon of truth in the health community.

 

Third? I kind of told myself to calm it on down a little and remember that the nature of a documentary is to state a stance and give evidence to back it up. The filmmaker did that, however one-sided it was, and that’s fine. Because while I don’t agree with every sentence and every situation and the overarching theme that we should all just stop eating anything that isn’t a plant, I DO agree that eating more plants is better than eating less. So did the movie get me to do just that? You bet it did!

 

I suppose at the end of the day I will say this: don’t take anything anyone tells you as 100% truth til you do the due diligence and research it yourself. Then put it into practice. Make changes and see how it goes, then tweak as needed. The reality is that you are responsible for YOU, and you get to be the grown-up bossy pants of your own life. We are all different, which is such a beautiful thing, and therefore different practices will work well for different people!

 

So, I made a salad. Which is hardly a recipe, but I really loved the ratio of the foods here and the fact that I could eat a whole mess of goodness without the slightest bit of guilt. Say hello to your new favorite, y’all!

NUTTY ARUGULA, DRIED CHERRY AND FETA SALAD

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 2 cups baby arugula
• 1 tablespoon each of shelled pistachios, toasted almonds and toasted pecans
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinaigrette of choice (I have a recipe for this one coming soon)
• 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped dried cherries
• 2 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

1. Directions? HA! Just mix it all together and devour!