Four Amish Healthy Habits

FOUR AMISH HEALTHY HABITS

There are a few interesting Amish items to share today in the news. First one concerns health and the Amish. Those two words sometimes collide. While the Amish do incorporate - historically - a lot of natural exercise into their lives, diets laden in butter and fat sometimes cancel that out. Still, a writer for Fox News finds some healthy habits to emulate.

FOUR AMISH HEALTHY HABITS: The writer cites four healthy habits of the Amish. One of the healthy habits she cites is fitness and we have talked about that. I think this is generally spot-on but like so many things about the Amish, it is changing. As farming falls by the wayside, more and more Amish are leading sedentary lives. Hard work is still part of their cultural ethos, but I think without farming as a fitness underpinning future generations will increase in girth. The writer also cites the Amish tendency to be home-gardeners and there is a lot of truth to that. Still, if you grow your own cauliflower and then deep-fry it, you are negating benefits. I just see such a broad spectrum among the Amish from ultra-organic locavores to deep-fried, never-heard-of-olive oil Amish. But the writer's number one health benefit of being Amish? She is spot-on here, but even this one is - sadly - beginning to change. Click here to read the article!

SALVAGE GROCERIES: The Amish were one of the first to see an opportunity in other's cast-offs. Amish entrepreneurs have begun many "Bent and Dent" type salvage stores. These are groceries that sell items past their sell-by dates, items that have been damaged, promotional products that have been discontinued. I know of one Amish man who runs a chain of such stores. Does anyone shop at them? I'd be curious to know how much you can save on your grocery bill? These are different from the typical Amish "bulk food" stores that sells candies and cheeses and baked goods, these bent and dent operations sell Cheerios and soup and graham crackers. I even found Ipod cases at one. Click here to read more.

DEER HUNTING SEASON QUIET IN AMISH COUNTRY: Deer hunting is a popular pasttime in Amish country, but it has been quiet this year in Ohio. This is a good article about it with a nice photo of some Amish boys going out to hunt.

LEARN ABOUT THE HUTTERITES: The tiny Yankton, South Dakota newspaper ran a superb article this past week about their local Hutterite colony, the Bon Homme. This is South Dakota's oldest Hutterite settlement, but the article is superb for it's easy-to-read background about Hutterite history and their modern colony structure. If you don't know a lot about the Hutterites and how they are connected to the Amish, this is a great, quick read!