Sometimes a picture is worth 1,000 words. And when you string enough pictures together you get a video that tells the story. In this case, it’s the story of a McDonald’s hamburger and fries left out to rot for 180 days.
It never really got to the point where it started rotting.
If the bugs and bacteria don’t want to eat it, why should anyone else?
It’s good to see more mainstream research coming out to reinforce what many of us already know…
Boston, Mass. – A new study published today in the Journal of American Medical Association challenges the notion that “a calorie is a calorie.” The study, led by Cara Ebbeling, PhD, associate director and David Ludwig, MD, director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center Boston Children’s Hospital, finds diets that reduce the surge in blood sugar after a meal–either low-glycemic index or very-low carbohydrate–may be preferable to a low-fat diet for those trying to achieve lasting weight loss. Furthermore, the study finds that the low-glycemic index diet had similar metabolic benefits to the very low-carb diet without negative effects of stress and inflammation as seen by participants consuming the very low-carb diet.
And, surprise, surprise, they’re finding just what I’d have expected.
The study suggests that a low-glycemic load diet is more effective than conventional approaches at burning calories (and keeping energy expenditure) at a higher rate after weight loss. “We’ve found that, contrary to nutritional dogma, all calories are not created equal,” says Ludwig, also director of the Optimal Weight for Life Clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital. “Total calories burned plummeted by 300 calories on the low fat diet compared to the low carbohydrate diet, which would equal the number of calories typically burned in an hour of moderate-intensity physical activity,” he says.
Summer is great. We get so much daylight that it’s a great time to grow your own food and there’s ample time to enjoy outdoor activities. And, since I rarely use an alarm clock, Summer is a time that I find myself being quite productive because I get up so early in the morning. By 6:00am the Sun is starting to poke into the bedroom window, and before I’m awake and feeling refreshed (assuming I went to bed early enough the night before).
In my pre-7am reading, I came across a Ted Talk by Charles Czeisler that discusses what influences our sleep cycles and how they’ve changed over time. While the whole (short) video is worth watching, I’ll spoil it for you: artificial light and caffeine are the two things he implicates in our national “sleep epidemic.”
Kathleen wrote about this Getting Good Quality Sleep, but it’s worth reiterating. Sleep really matters, and it’s really easy to fall into poor sleep habits–especially with all the distractions available in our modern world.
A few weeks ago we experimented with a Paleo Pizza Crust Recipe that used a fair amount of coconut flour as the base. While the result was good, we wanted to explore a few more options. We used Making a Gluten Free Pizza Crust as a base and made something that came out quite well. This recipe is a bit unusual, since it involved mixing 2 cups of cheese into the crust before baking it. But that addresses one of the only things we didn’t like about the first recipe–a lack of elasticity in the crust. It was a little crumbly.
The recipe we used was:
From there it was just a matter of following the original recipe. We added all the ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mixed until they formed a nice sticky wet dough (that’s why I added the 3rd egg–it wasn’t nearly “sticky” with just 2).
We pre-heated the oven to 350 and cut a piece parchment paper to fit in the bottom of the cast iron skillet. Then we spread the dough evenly across the paper and we baked it for 15 minutes, removed it from the oven, and flipped it onto a second piece of parchment paper.
Then we baked it another 15 minutes before removing it from the oven to add some of our favorite toppings (including more cheese).
With the toppings on, put it back in the oven under the broiler and cook for 2-4 minutes (until the cheese starts to brown and bubble).
Since drafting this posting, we made the pizza a second time–with a twist. We added some fresh herbs (oregano and rosemary) to the crust mix. That punched the flavor up another notch. It’s safe to say this is one of our favorites, and we’ll probably be making it every week or so.
Enjoy!
According to the eight decade long study presented in The Longevity Project those from the study who lived the shortest lives included:
Typically, those who lived the shortest lives had a combination of these traits. In addition, there were people in the study who had some of these traits or behaviors and went on to live past sixty years old. The key for these people was to get onto a healthy life path.
The Longevity Project concludes that those who lived the longest lived healthy throughout their lives. According to this study, healthy behaviors or characteristics include:
I mentioned in yesterday’s post that some of these conclusions challenge common wisdom. The list makes more sense to me when looking at the collection of traits and behaviors and not looking at them in isolation.
Ever since researching the Blue Zone group, I have been interested in learning more about people who live the longest. The Longevity Project by Drs. Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin builds on the work of Lewis Terman and the famous Terman study to provide the key conclusions about which traits and behaviors lead to longevity. The data and conclusions are based on a select group of over 1,500 middle class Americans born in 1910.
I first heard of the Terman study when reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers. Lewis Terman of the interviewed over 1,500 gifted school children in California, their parents, and their teachers. He asked questions to understand the children’s interests, habits, environment, and personality. Almost two decades later, he interviewed the same group of children again. The interviews continued to be detailed in an effort to understand the habits, personality, and various other traits of the participants at this stage in life. Decades later, a large team (including the authors of this book) interviewed those participants who were still living. They analyzed the death certificates and causes of death of those who are decreased. They gathered over eighty years of detailed information on the Terman group to understand which traits and behaviors that lead to long life.
The Longevity Project is a carefully conducted statistical study that pours through millions of pieces of information. The multidiscipline study used a variety of subject matter experts to compliment their analysis and understanding of the data. They performed various calibrations to relate the traits and behaviors of people born in 1910 to the traits and behaviors of those born in the more modern times.
Each chapter of the book focuses on either a key trait or behavior which proved important to longevity. The authors also provide self-assessment tests so the reader can gauge their strength in each area.
I found the book to be well worth reading. It provided me with insight into key traits and behaviors to cultivate in order to protect my long term health. It also helps support the idea that it is a healthy lifestyle that is key, not some specific food or exercise regieme. In addition, several of the important traits and behaviors are quite surprising and often contrary to common wisdom.
Interestingly, the study does not mention specifics of diet such as meat and fat consumption. The participants did not grow up on the frankenfoods of my generation so the influence of under nourished food and toxicity likely did not influence this group as much.
The key conclusion from this book is that those who lived the longest lived healthy throughout their lives. That seems like a major non-surprise, doesn’t it? But when you understand the behaviors and characteristics that actually ended up being “healthy” (resulting in longer life), you’ll realize that some of them really are surprising. And that is the topic of tomorrow’s post.
On a recent trip to Montana de Oro State Park, we discovered Bouchon Point and the surrounding coastline. This area is an extension of the state park. As with the the state park, Bouchon Point has equally spectacular views. It is positioned adjacent to the southern region of the park. The area is controlled by PG&E so it has different hours of operation than the state park. In addition, visitors enter through a gate and signed in. Once we passed the gate and guard station, the area is indistinguishable from the state park. The trails are well marked. We started with a trail that led directly to the coastline.
We saw natural arches that stood off the shore. These were home to the seagulls and pelicans. Periodically, waves crashed into the rock pillars. Water drained off creating miniature waterfalls.
Once the noon fog lifted, the sun lite up the ocean bottom and the water appeared as jewel colored blues. The sun illuminated long stretches of sandy beach. The beaches, natural arches and bridges could be seen for several miles.
As with the bluffs in Montana de Oro, the trail was painted purple, yellow, orange and red from the blooms of thousands of native wild flowers.
Pelicans and seagulls flew past us, hugging the rocky coast and searching for food.
This is another wonderful place to visit when traveling the California coastal highway.
Over this past winter and spring, we’ve been growing dozens of red and green chard plants. As the sun has gotten high in the sky and the garden is getting more hours of sun, the chard has grown into quite a forest. We know that the chard will start to die off as temperatures climb into the 90s, so we decided to harvest most of it a couple weeks ago to make space for more pepper and chills.
We decided to freeze the chard mainly for use in future soups and stews.
I harvested the chard by removing clusters of plants entirely–roots and all. I removed the bases and moved the mountain of plants to the kitchen where I removed the leaves from the stems and put them into a water bath for rinsing. After several rinses we removed the chard and cut it into 1 inch pieces.
At the same time, we boil water in some large soup pots and filled the other side of the sink with ice water. We put handfuls of the chard into boiling water for about 2 minutes, being careful not to add so much chard that it takes more than a minute or so for the water to resume boiling. Once the cooked has been cooked, we removed it with a slotted spoon and put into a strainer. We then put it into the ice bath for 30 seconds.
Finally, we removed the chilled chard and place it into a ziplock bags, labeled them, and put them into the freezer. Surprisingly, the entire mountain of chard was reduced to 5 quart sized ziplock bags.
It takes a bit of time to do all this, but it feels good to know we have several meals worth of greens from our own garden in the freezer and we can use them anytime we feel the need.
Over the past two years while living in Pine Mountain Lake, I have developed an understanding of the holistic philosophy that is much deeper than appreciating the beauty of Nature. In the beginning of this period, we met the Oler’s who encouraged a natural approach to health. At the same time, Jeremy was reading voraciously on the topic. Both encouraged us to change out eating habits. Now we eat more protein and fat – as our ancestors did. We look more carefully at the sources of our food and buy as much as we can from local farms who farm responsibly. We take supplements made from real food. We incorporate natural probiotics into our diet. We strive to eliminate sugar and other toxins from out diet.
Over this time, we’ve become healthier people. We also came to understand the trickle down effects of departing from the traditional lifestyle (the lifestyle we evolved from) and how this impacts our health and the health of the environment. Non-traditional behaviors include current industrial farming practices and industries that pollute our air, water and soil just to name a few. Fueled by feeling great, we both strive to learn more and do more to have a positive impact on the environment, since doing so will eventually benefit our health–thus forming a positive feedback loop.
We now:
We value businesses that are responsible to the environment. We value leaders that see the connection of today’s actions on future generations. I now understand that it is NOT ONE thing but instead it is EVERYTHING that matters. One change to the system, our planet, has cascading effects that can impact each of us.
I have gained a greater appreciation of the whole of holism. I now see how my choices in what I do and how I spend my time can give me a greater of connection to the whole and have a positive impact on our future.
