Deep and Simple

1.11
When we choose to set up a power pantry our goal is, essentially, simplicity. Whole foods are simple; they aren't refined or engineered, and they don't contain preservatives and ingredients with four syllable names that we can't pronounce.

Simplicity has been winning for centuries... consider William of Ockham from the 1300's. He is credited with saying, "It is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer." What he meant was, keep it simple; don't use more than you need. His concept even earned him a namesake in the science world: Ockham's Razor (or more formally, the Law of Parsimony). That Law shows the simplest solution is usually the best / correct solution, and science bears this out. When we keep it simple, we win.

What does this have to do with wellness? We will always do better to keep it simple. Our industrialized food and medical communities always want to engineer and design solutions that complicate what is (or should be) really simple. Like great veggies and fruits -- they're good just as they grow, the way God created them. Processing and refining might create food-like products which last longer or 'taste better' to a wider consumer audience, but at what cost? We've engineered the nutritional benefits right out of much of our western food supply.

So here's to keeping it simple in our pantries. The less processed the better. The less refined the better; the simpler the ingredients the better. Fresh... local... whole foods... it's all good.

By the Way

I appreciate a quote from Fred Rogers on the idea of simplicity:

"I feel so strongly, that deep and simple is far more essential

 than shallow and complex."

Here's to deep and simple, in our lives and in our pantries.