Category Archives: diet

Movie: Genetic Roulette

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I have to confession to make. While I suspected that there were Bad Things about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), especially the food we eat, I never looked into the issue in any real detail. So when I cam across the website for the movie Genetic Roulette the other day, it caught my attention.

So imagine my surprise to find that the full length movie was available on-line!

We watched it the other night and were treated to a well assembled movie showcasing the basic information about GMOs, how government regulation (at least in this country) is non-existent, and the apparent effects of high-GMO diets on both lab animals and real read-blooded humans.

Let’s just say it’s not a pretty story. But it definitely makes you think harder about the rise of inflammatory related chronic diseases, food “allergies” and immune disorders.

Unsurprisingly, the advice that you walk away with is:

  1. don’t trust the government to keep our food supply healthy
  2. don’t trust big companies to keep our food supply healthy
  3. eat organic, whole, unprocessed and unmodified foods as much as possible

There are some pretty interesting parallels between the behavior changes humans (especially children) and animals when they’re on high-GMO diets (as many unknowingly are nowadays, thanks to a lack of regulation and labeling laws).

A few places in the film felt highly speculative (lacking good scientific basis), but the speakers did not use language which tried to trick us. I’m sure some of this is due to lack of information, funding, and research. But there’s clearly an element of wishful thinking (wanting to draw connections between various observations that haven’t really been tested yet). Thankfully, the majority of the film was on pretty solid ground and was definitely informative.

I definitely recommend watching it if you’re curious about GMOs and our country’s apparent resistance to regulate them in the least.  It may also be worth buying the full DVD to support the movie and get the other bits of bonus material that come with it. It looks like it contains more of the hard science and references.

After watching this film, you’ll come away with a new-found “respect” (and by respect, I mean disgust) for Monsanto and their influence on our government policy.

Homemade vs. Store Bought

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We make the vast majority of our own food these days. I guess that makes us bad “consumers” but we’re generally trying to avoid store bought “processed” foods. When some people hear the term “processed foods” they wonder what that really means? Does it mean you can’t use machines to sort your apples and peaches? No, not really. Processed food is food that is made in a factory and includes a lot of ingredients that you’d never use in your own kitchen.

To get an easy comparison between homemade foods and their store-bought processed counterparts, check out Ingredient Overload: Store-Bought vs. Homemade. What you’ll see is that the factory-made “food” typically contains twice as many ingredients (often more). And, if you spend a few minutes and try to actually read the labels and identify the additives, you’ll realize that you don’t know what most of them are–let alone why they’re there.

Most of them are there to increase shelf-life and make food easier to transport. Some of them are there to artificially enhance the food’s flavor (either so you’ll eat more or to cover up the lack of flavor present without the additives).

Which would you prefer? Which is going to be healthier for you in the long run?

Paleo Friendly Thai Beef Soup Recipe

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Tonight, we had an awesome Paleo friendly Thai beef soup. The recipe was inspired by our original Thai Chicken Soup Recipe and also the ingredients we have had on hand.  One of the key ingredients is our homemade beef broth which was made from the bones of the cows at Mourning Dove Ranch.  For weeks this summer, Jeremy has been making many batches of this fresh broth.  The aroma from this process has made both of us salivate as we think of grass-fed steaks!  Another inspiration has been the ingredients from our garden.  We are growing Thai basil, lemongrass and habanero in our grow camp.  Finally, the Paleo friendly part comes from our Swiss chard that we grew in the spring and the we preserved by blanching and freezing in early summer.  We tried Swiss chard in chicken soup and were struck by how the texture and taste of the chard seemed surprisingly similar to traditional noodles used in beef and chicken soups.  I knew we had an unbeatable combination to work with.

Ingredients include:

  • 2 lbs. stewing beef
  • 6 cups of homemade beef broth
  • 4 cups filtered water
  • 1 cup of frozen Swiss chard
  • 1 cup of chopped carrots
  • 1 cup of chopped celery
  • 1/2 onion chopped
  • 3 cloves of minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
  • 1 cup Thai basil
  • 1 cup cilantro
  • 1/4 cup of minced lemongrass
  • 2 habanero minced
  • sea salt

Add the broth and water to a soup pot. Bring it to a simmer on the stove. Add the stewing beef. Let them cook for 20 minutes or so. Add celery and carrots.

In a pan, brown onion and garlic with coconut oil. Add the mixture to the soup.

Let the mixture simmer for 30 minutes more. Stir occasionally. Add habenero, and lemongrass.  Add frozen chard.  Add sea salt to taste.

Serve this in large bowls. Add basil and cilantro.

We enjoyed the spices and heat of this modified Thai dish.  Try it tonight.

Healthy Pickle Recipe

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This summer, we are growing heirloom cucumbers known as lemon cucumbers.  As you might expect, they look like lemons but taste similar to traditional cucumbers.  We planted just one plant this year but now have dozens of these ready for picking.

As with other summer vegetables, they come in waves and do not last long in the fridge to eat with salads so I looked for ways to preserve them.  I found a wonderful and healthy pickle recipe in Nourishing Traditions that converts this summer vegetable into a healthy probiotic.  This recipe is also quick and easy to make.

Ingredients include:

  • 3 lemon cucumbers sliced with a 1/4 inch thick
  • 2 tablespoon of chopped fresh dill
  • 4 tablespoons of whey
  • 1 tablespoon of mustard seed
  • 1 cup of filtered water
  • 1 tablespoon of sea salt

A note on making whey:  Leave raw milk at room temperature for 1 to 4 days until milk solids separate from the semi-clear liquid (aka. whey).  Separate the whey from the milk solid by pouring the mixture through a cheese cloth.

In a bowl, add all ingredients.  Fold the mixture.  Then place in a clean wide mouth quart-sized jar.  Make sure that the vegetables are covered with fluid.  The fluid level should be one half of an inch from the top of the jar.  Close the jar lid tightly and let this sit at room temperature for 3 to 5 days.  Then move to the refrigerator for long term storage.

We have had the pickles by themselves and on top of grass-fed burgers.  We like the taste.  They have the taste of a dill pickle but are soft (not crisp like store-bought pickles).  You can use the same recipe to make pickles from other types of cucumbers (sliced or whole).

Enjoy!

Our Visit to Mourning Dove Ranch

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In the Fall of last year, we bought some wonderful grass-fed beef from Mourning Dove Ranch.  We have had several wonderful meals with steaks, roasts and ground beef for the past 9 months.  We stopped by again yesterday to pick up some beef bone from which we will make bone broth.  Since Scelestia Cook and her husband, Gary, were in town, Jeremy and I sat down ask them more about their operation.

Both Scelestia and Gary are animal lovers.  They enjoy horses, cows and dogs.  At times, they have also rehabilitated animals and enjoy the nurturing process..  The cows are raised in a natural herd environment on picturesque pastures.  A pond, natural springs and giant oaks cover the area.

When the cows reach approximately, two years of age, they are humanely put down.  The cows are never stressed by transport on a truck.   They are not treated with antibiotics.  They are not fattened.  Gary has some previous experience with feed lots and feels that the stress on the cow is both inhumane and  affects the quality of the product that eventually gets to the consumer.  They are both committed to raise and treat the cows humanely from the beginning of their lives to the end.

Scelestia and Gary have an interesting and complimentary combination of experiences.  Scelestia was originally trained as a culinary chef in San Francisco.  Her and her mother purchased pasture lands in the Sierra Nevada Foothills and then leased it out.  Gary grew up on a ranch in Mendocino where he learned how to raise cattle.  When Scelestia and Gary met, they decided to combine their resources and started Mourning Dove Ranch.  Today, they work together on the Ranch and provide wonderful beef.

They are planning to expand their efforts using similar principals to raise pigs, turkey and chicken.  If you are interested in learning more about Mourning Dove Ranch and their products, contact Scelestia or Gary Cook at 209-962-7331.

More Mainstream Paleo Coverage…

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It’s always reassuring to see some more mainstream news coverage of our way of eating. KCTV5 in Kansas City did a special report recently on The Paleo Diet. There’s a video embedded on their site that’s fairly show but showcases some good success stories and endorsements.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

“You realize how much you enjoy eating fresh, natural, well-cooked food,” Fletcher said. “It’s been great!”

And:

“If you want to thrive without taking a bunch of medication and going to psychiatrist, you have to do what our ancient ancestors did. Eat that way, exercise that way and sleep that way,” he said.

For O’Keefe, the most important component of the Paleo diet is the elimination of all wheat products.

“The enemy is really processed carbs like grains,” he said.

Well said.

I suspect we’ll be seeing more and more of this as people spread their own success stories through word of mouth and on-line. Eventually maybe even the government’s “experts” will catch on.

A Calorie is NOT Just A Calorie, according to new study

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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.

Read the full news release from Boston Children’s Hospital.

Deepening My Understanding of Holism

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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:

  • recycle our green waste
  • grow our own food (when possible)
  • buy locally grown food (eggs, cheese, milk, fruits, vegetables, beef, chicken, pork)
  • care for the woods on our property
  • give to charities
  • support our health through holistic means [this feels self-referential]
  • communicate our knowledge and ideas through this blog
  • meditate daily

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.

Paleo Berry Cobbler Recipe

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We are growing blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and black currant in our summer garden.  Inspired by our garden and the berries we are getting from our CSA, I decided to try a paleo friendly berry cobbler recipe.

Ingredients include:

  • 3 cups of berries
  • 1 farm-fresh egg
  • 1 1/2 cups of almond flour
  • 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
  • cinnamon to taste
  • 1/4 cup wild honey
  • raw whipped cream

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Pour the berries in a pie pan and drizzle honey on top.  Greasing the pan is not necessary.  In a bowl, add flour, egg, and oil.  Mix with your hand.  At first, this seems very wet but after a few minutes the flour absorbs the moisture and it becomes tacky and dough like.  Add cinnamon to the dough and fold in again.  Keep adding the cinnamon until the taste comes through with the raw dough.  Crumble the mixture on top of the berries.

Place the plan in the oven for 35 minutes.  Once cooked, serve in bowls with whipped cream. This serves about 6 people.

This tastes great. The cinnamon and honey add a hint of sweetness and enhance the taste of the berries.  The taste of the crumble crust adds a taste and texture that compliments the dessert.  We both enjoyed this.  We can see adding mixed berries, cherries, peaches and maybe apples in the future.

Give this one a try!

Movie Review: Fat Head

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One of the movies I saw a few years ago that got my attention about food matters was the popular Supersize Me, in which movie maker Morgan Spurlock challenges himself to eat only McDonald’s food for one month. And, to make matters more interesting, he makes it a rule to always say “yes” when they offer to supersize the meal.

If you haven’t yet seen it, give it a watch. It’s available on Netflix. Yes, he gains a lot of weight and his health takes a nosedive. But I won’t spoil all the details of the fun. I will just say that you can guess a lot of what happened and what sorts of conclusions he draws from this exercise.

Last night we watched Fat Head, which was made a few years later and, to my surprise, was a full frontal assault on Supersize Me. You might even consider it a reaction to Supersize Me.

Computer programmer Tom Naughton, who made this self-financed film, not only tears apart several of the core ideas in Supersize Me, he shows you how to go on a fast food diet and actually lose weight (and get healthier). You probably won’t be surprised to learn that a core tenant of this diet is carbohydrate restriction (100 grams or less per day).

But beyond making fun of Supersize Me and showing how some common sense can make you thinner without even considering the quality of the food involved, Tom does a lot more than that in this enlightening and entertaining film. He covers a lot of the history of how modern dietary recommendations and policy came to be, the story of the lipid hypothesis, what cholesterol is and what it actually does in your body (and some of the myths surrounding it), and how low-fat high-carb diets often lead to insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and eventually diabetes.

Impressively, he interviews some of the foremost writers and doctors who are working to educate people about the connection between diet and health and reverse the damage done by the low-fat dogma that brought us wonderful man-made “food” product like margarine and trans-fats. Included in the film are notables like Protein Power authors Mary Eades and Michael Eades, Sally Fallon, Mary Enig, and others. It was good to see some of the same authors I’ve read in the last few years appearing to summarize a lot of what’s wrong with so much of what we’ve traditionally been told.

The Fat Head blog is good reading too.

This is definitely a good movie to show to people who may be looking at your low-carb diet and finding it hard to believe you’re doing something healthy. It never gets too far into the science or medicine and there’s enough humor and entertainment throughout that it’s not nearly as “preachy” as a movie like this could be.

I like this guy. :-)