[QUOTE=pulykamell]
I don’t believe raw pork is the danger it once was–heck, even I’ve even raw pork before when seasoning a sausage after a pig slaughter. Raw chicken, though, would squick the hell out of me, although apparently there is such a dish as chicken sashimi.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, Alton Brown says that the days of serious danger from trichinosis (I think that’s it?) in pork are past. And if you can’t trust Alton, who can you trust?
[QUOTE=Alan Smithee]
The mother believed in minimizing the drinking of water, saying that we hydrate by consuming fats.
[/QUOTE]
If I recall, she said water was a “solvent”, it is bad for you and will dehydrate the body.
[QUOTE=Alan Smithee]
The mother believed in minimizing the drinking of water, saying that we hydrate by consuming fats. (I know fat digestion does produce water, but not enough for a human to live off of, right?)
[/QUOTE]
Eeeh? It’s been a long time since Biochemistry class, but breaking the fat into “fatty acids + glycerine” requires water, does not produce it. The first step in breaking up any high-molecular-weight component of food is always hydrolisis, “cutting it with water”, which consumes water.
There may be other fat-related reactions that produce water, but digestion isn’t one.
Here is more about their ideas and diet (from her manual on the ABC website)
**
…If we don’t eat every 5 hours each of their bodies will go into an anorexic state and start eating itself…**
At one point she says this…
** Living on a farm makes cleaning difficult anyway because we’re always bringing in manure and bacteria on our shoes and clothes. I’m never bothered by it though because we believe bacteria is our friend! We love it! It cleanses our bodies and builds our immune systems.**
And then this…
**We are very careful to clean each cow teat before milking so that manure, hair or other foreign bodies don’t get into the milk. **
As for school…
**We don’t send our children to school. We don’t home-school them either. We “unschool” them. “Unschooling” allows them to choose and pursue the subjects they’re interested in instead of being bored by pointless spelling tests and math workbooks. **
[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
Local news video. The reporters were quite diplomatic, I think.
I’ve seen several farm families on Wife Swap and Trading Spouses, and none of them live like the farmers I know.
Edited to add – the video says the city wife only stayed a couple of days. Is that right?
[/QUOTE]
Did the reporter on that video say that they had “sheeps” - with an s?
Hell to the naw!
I’m not the neatest person in the world, but I would have disinfectified my whole body after stepping foot in that house!
:gag:
And what the hell was up with her trimming her armpit hair with scissors? She must have had Don King AND Buckwheat under there if she required SCISSORS!
I was flipping around and saw this show, and was hoping that they would say where in Iowa they were located (as I recall, they didn’t).
We discussed this at work, and we were all pretty disappointed with the show (and Hollywood in general) always portraying Iowans as these slackjawed yokels. They live in IOWA, so they live 90 minutes from a city, of course! Ugh. Believe it or not, most Midwesterners are relatively normal people and they certainly don’t support this type of thing.
I was most disturbed by the lack of schooling, and in particular this phrase from their guidebook:
The kids did not seem socialized at all. They work well with the family, but the family men both had total breakdowns (screaming, crying) upon dealing with a stranger that didn’t agree with them 100%. How are these kids going to function? Are they going to stay on the farm forever?
I don’t see anything wholly wrong with a rural lifestyle, and trying to be self-sufficient and be aware of the food you’re eating. The raw food thing was bizarre, but they probably do have a point regarding the phobia against bacteria and over-using anti-bacterial stuff. Fine. But it’s the isolation from the world and the grinning ignorance (school is boring, kids!) that bothered me most.
Okay - I am not a proponent of raw meats, or of “unschooling” your children (Yikes!) but I cannot get squarely behind calling the the lady from California “the normal mom”. Do any of you scrub your kitchen floors with bleach daily (or more?). Eating out 4-8 times a week is hardly average. That family seemed overly concerned with appearance and fashion brands, too.
I’m sure when pairing people up the producers are looking for the most dramatic contrasts, but this seemed almost cruel.
Is it legal in Iowa to not educate your children? I understand the motivation to homeschool (though am not inclined myself), but to simply not address it? What do they expect those kids to do as adults? Where will they work? Will they find people to date or marry who won’t mind being awakened at 2:30 for kefir and raw eggs?
fluiddruid I don’t think anyone watching thought “must be an Iowa thing” or even “a midwestern thing”. The general assumption is more likely to be “It’s a whackjob thing”.
[QUOTE=fluiddruid]
I was flipping around and saw this show, and was hoping that they would say where in Iowa they were located (as I recall, they didn’t).
We discussed this at work, and we were all pretty disappointed with the show (and Hollywood in general) always portraying Iowans as these slackjawed yokels. They live in IOWA, so they live 90 minutes from a city, of course! Ugh. Believe it or not, most Midwesterners are relatively normal people and they certainly don’t support this type of thing.
[/QUOTE]
I agree with gwendee…I don’t think anyone is holding this against Iowa as a state!
Yes, since when is socialization unnecessary? That is just the weirdest idea.
You know, I have a real respect for people who are self-sufficient, even to the extent of “living off the grid,” and I agree with you about the rural lifestyle…we as a society are too quick to judge rural people as yokels, I think. And I also agree with you about over-disinfecting everything…it is true that exposure to a certain amount of germs is good for our immune systems and our digestive systems. But this idea that bacteria can’t hurt you is a dangerous one, IMO. Probably the greatest advancement in science, in terms of keeping people alive longer, is the understanding that germs make us sick, and that sanitary conditions help control the spread of those germs. Now, I’m no clean freak, by any means, but I certainly don’t think it’s going to hurt anything to spray a little Clorox Clean Up on the counter after I’ve been cutting up raw chicken, and it just might keep everybody from ending up in the hospital with salmonella poisioning! And the thing that probably worries me the most is that too much exposure to different bacterias in your food can lead to much more serious health problems down the road. For instance, in Japan and other Asian countries where raw fish is eaten regularly, they have a high incidence of gastric cancers, which are pretty rare here in the west. Granted, they don’t tend to have heart disease as we do, which goes to show, I think, that there is a happy medium for everything, and making blanket assumptions that ALL bacteria is good for you is just not a good thing.
As a (mostly) lifelong Iowan (or “Iowegian,” as we’re called by some), I wish I’d have seen this one.
I didn’t, but I did see references to it on the late-night talk shows. So, I’ll offer the few observations that I have…which have mostly already been posted by others.
Because I’m bored.
This family is NOT representative of Iowans in general (even southern ones…AntiePam’s dig notwithstanding…yes, I know you were kidding…see, the difference between southern Iowans and northern Missourians is that the Iowans still have all our teeth!). :D:D:D No, really, don’t kill me! She started it!
A certain amount of critters (in a microbial sense) IS good for our immune system, and over-antibacterializing our enviroment does two things: it makes the surviving bad bugs even badder, and it makes our ability to fight them off weaker due to lack of exercise.
It is also true (so I’ve heard) that trichnosis is largely a thing of the past, and raw pork isn’t nearly as dangerous as it was a few decades ago. Salmonella, on the other hand, which can be contracted from raw chicken, is STILL a very real threat that needs to be coped with.
Raw milk isn’t necessarily harmful on a case by case basis, but processed milk is safer in general.
In short, these people may have had the right idea at some point, but they sound like total nutcases, now. They’re taking HUGE chances with their health.
As for non-schooling their kids: I haven’t looked up the law in Iowa, but it’s always been my impression that the rule is mandatory education until you’re 16 or complete the 8th grade. Home-schooling may be an option, but non-schooling is not, to my knowledge.
Both ABC and FOX have this lineup. I believe FOX is Friday nights: Nanny911 and Trading Spouses, whilst ABC is Monday nights: Wifeswap and Supernanny.
Or possibly vice versa.
I like these shows, really. Other than Beauty and the Geek, I don’t much care for “reality shows,” but I like these. People are weird (remember the “God Warrior” woman?).
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena]
I agree with gwendee…I don’t think anyone is holding this against Iowa as a state!
[/QUOTE]
Perhaps not, but it’s disturbing to see nearly every portrayal of an Iowan (or anyone who lives in a state perceived as rural) as some ignorant hick. Really, wouldn’t it be possible to find the educated, cultured Iowan and the idiot, ignorant city person? Wouldn’t that be, ultimately, more interesting than driving yet another yokel into the city to hear them say the silliest things?
[QUOTE=fluiddruid]
I was flipping around and saw this show, and was hoping that they would say where in Iowa they were located (as I recall, they didn’t).
[/QUOTE]
According to the WOI video clip, they live near Massena. Southwest, halfway between Des Moines and Omaha.
[QUOTE=fluiddruid]
Perhaps not, but it’s disturbing to see nearly every portrayal of an Iowan (or anyone who lives in a state perceived as rural) as some ignorant hick. Really, wouldn’t it be possible to find the educated, cultured Iowan and the idiot, ignorant city person? Wouldn’t that be, ultimately, more interesting than driving yet another yokel into the city to hear them say the silliest things?
[/QUOTE]
Oh, I know exactly where you are coming from…although I live in the “big city,” I think midwesterners in general are looked at as hicks, so I don’t blame you for being aggravated by their tendency to portray rural people this way.
Believe me, there are just as many idiots who are urban dwellers.
[QUOTE=gwendee]
Okay - I am not a proponent of raw meats, or of “unschooling” your children (Yikes!) but I cannot get squarely behind calling the the lady from California “the normal mom”. Do any of you scrub your kitchen floors with bleach daily (or more?). Eating out 4-8 times a week is hardly average. That family seemed overly concerned with appearance and fashion brands, too.
[/QUOTE]
I certainly don’t scrub my kitchen floors with bleach (it’s an asthma trigger), but I do clean them every other week to make sure that there’s not funky stuff hanging around that I missed during spot cleaning.
And I’ll agree, the parents of the city family ate out way more than I’d consider to be normal. (I’m still getting used to the idea of eating out once per week as a “normal” thing, as my family rarely ate out.) Even though they live in a small apartment, I’m sure that their kitchen and its appliances work well enough to cook dinner at least a couple of times per week.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed their huge concern with labels. Is it mean of me to automatically peg them as shallow because of that concern? I can’t conceive of being materialistic to the point where I’d go out of my way to flaunt my ability to purchase designer labels. On the “appearances matter a lot” vs. the “appearances don’t mean much if the inside sucks” POVs presented, I’d side with the Iowans.
I wasn’t bothered by the gross stuff that much, but what really did bother me was the emotional reactions of the teenage boy and his father - there’s obviously something seriously weird going on there. The way the teenager was panting and exhaling and tensing up and acting insane really, really, really creeped me out. As someone else said, it was like seeing a serial killer in the making.
And then there was the father’s hysterical screaming and crying breakdown after the kids ate normal food. SCARY.
Also, I wasn’t going to go there, but how GAY was the black dad? That guy was the PICTURE of someone creeping on the DL when he has to “work late.”
[QUOTE=nashiitashii]
I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed their huge concern with labels. Is it mean of me to automatically peg them as shallow because of that concern? I can’t conceive of being materialistic to the point where I’d go out of my way to flaunt my ability to purchase designer labels. On the “appearances matter a lot” vs. the “appearances don’t mean much if the inside sucks” POVs presented, I’d side with the Iowans.
[/QUOTE]
They seemed a smidge insecure, and shallow to me. If I had to bet, I’d say the parents were new to the (upper) middle class lifestyle. The whole thing seemed a bit forced, but it could be editing. I wouldn’t consider them normal, but they were definitely more normal than the anti-cleaning people.
The city family didn’t seem too germophobic to me, but then, my floors are either mopped or scrubbed with rags at least every two days. Although I’d prefer it be done every day.
[QUOTE=fluiddruid]
Perhaps not, but it’s disturbing to see nearly every portrayal of an Iowan (or anyone who lives in a state perceived as rural) as some ignorant hick. Really, wouldn’t it be possible to find the educated, cultured Iowan and the idiot, ignorant city person? Wouldn’t that be, ultimately, more interesting than driving yet another yokel into the city to hear them say the silliest things?
[/QUOTE]
Ugh, same thing about Wisconsin. I have a friend who grew up in South Milwaukee (so the opposite of rural), and when he goes out of state, after telling people where he’s from, they ask if he spends a lot of time with cows. Um, no.
The representation of people who live in rural areas in the media has bothered me for a long time. Even when portrayed in a positive light, it’s frequently in an aww, shucks!, salt of the earth way that depreciates their intelligence and overlooks a lot about the country. It’s not all cows and corn out there. And it’s not as if urbanites can’t also be intensely insular and naive.
You know, 21 percent of the nation’s population lives in a rural area, but only 1.1 percent of the nation’s population lives on a farm. 21 percent is a pretty significant portion of the population, but the number of farmers in this country has been going down for nearly a century, and it’s not looking to rise again. No wonder everybody thinks farm people are yokels – there’s aren’t enough for the rest of the country to draw a sample from.
[QUOTE=VCO3]
I wasn’t bothered by the gross stuff that much, but what really did bother me was the emotional reactions of the teenage boy and his father - there’s obviously something seriously weird going on there. The way the teenager was panting and exhaling and tensing up and acting insane really, really, really creeped me out. As someone else said, it was like seeing a serial killer in the making.
And then there was the father’s hysterical screaming and crying breakdown after the kids ate normal food. SCARY.
[/QUOTE]
You know, I should have mentioned that in my OP. It was really, really, strange to see a teenage boy and a grown man acting so unhinged. The kid was upset, and all he could say was “I’m PISSED” and clench & unclench his fists and hyperventilate. It was like watching a frustrated 5 year old who can’t tell you why he’s upset. And the dad, “I want my kids to try new things…but not to their DEATH!!!” (then hysterical sobs & collapsing on the floor). Oy vey…they had some stomach cramps…they’re going to live, I promise! It WAS scary…I agree with you. Maybe THAT’S why socialization is necessary, you know?
I think he was just a little metro. 
[QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington]
Ugh, same thing about Wisconsin. I have a friend who grew up in South Milwaukee (so the opposite of rural), and when he goes out of state, after telling people where he’s from, they ask if he spends a lot of time with cows. Um, no.
[/QUOTE]
Those are just the same ignorant folks who ask upon learning I grew up in New York if I was ever mugged.
[QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington]
The representation of people who live in rural areas in the media has bothered me for a long time. Even when portrayed in a positive light, it’s frequently in an aww, shucks!, salt of the earth way that depreciates their intelligence and overlooks a lot about the country. It’s not all cows and corn out there. And it’s not as if urbanites can’t also be intensely insular and naive.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe I’m just not as sensitive to it. I don’t see this in a proprortion greater than any other group is shown as a caricature. My impression is certainly not that all rural folks are any one way, any more than all urban dwellers are alike. The fact of the matter is that the raw fod folks simply could not maintain their lifestyle in other than a rural setting. That doesn’t mean I don’t I have several neighbors pinging my freak-o-meter - they just don’t have sheep on their porches. I think the stereotype of hayseed yokel is recognized by most people as similar to the “redneck” stereotype. No one really believes that everyone from the south eastern US believes or behaves in one way, or the midwest either.
Oh, and did anyone else think (or say out loud) when California mom announced that the raw food folks were going to town for burgers and fries, “Oh man. They are gonna get sick.”? Isn’t it fairly common knowledge that a big disruption in a fairly restricted diet will result in gastric distress? Couldn’t she have eased the idea of cooked food in with a salad and some grilled chicken?
I didn’t see the show.
About raw chicken–my understanding is that the main risk is salmonella. I watched the online news clip, which showed some live chickens running around. If they’re raising and slaughtering their own chickens, then salmonella isn’t such a big problem. If they’re eating commercial chicken raw, it is.
Fish, beef, and pork can all carry tapeworms as well as any number of nasties in addition to trichinosis.
I can’t get excited about eating raw milk or yogurt. People in America only stopped doing it on a regular basis what, fifty years ago?
I have to say, on the news clip the house looked perfectly clean to me. Ugly, but clean. Was it markedly different during the show? The people also looked pretty normal to me–I was picturing dirty hippies living in an episode of How Clean Is Your House, but it wasn’t like that.