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March 31, 2006
On the Lamb
The Dining Out section of the March 29, 2006 edition of the New York Times carried an interesting piece entitled "Much Ado About Mutton, but Not in These Parts" that details the American aversion to eating lamb and mutton. According to the author, R.W. Apple, Jr., American adults each consume about 50 pounds of pork and 65 pounds of beef in a year, but a mere pound of lamb and virtually no mutton at all. For those who wonder what's the difference, it's all about the age of the critter when dispatched: it's called lamb if under 2 years of age, mutton thereafter.
I have to confess that until quite recently, I numbered myself among the lamb averse. I track this failing of my palate to my father, who served his WWII stint in the south Pacfic theater, where the troops were richly supplied with canned mutton from Australia. Interstingly, Mr. Apple attributes much of our national aversion to this historical factoid.
Upon returning home after the war and for the remainder of his life, my father never again ate mutton and truth be told would have preferred never to be in the same county with it, let alone smell the aroma (he would have said stench) emanating from his own kitchen. Additionally, he visited the sins of the fathers (or mothers) onto their offspring by extending his distaste for mutton to lamb. In deference to this aversion, my mother (who dearly loved lamb) never once served lamb or mutton in our home. She and my brother got their lamb fix only when dining out, where my dad didn't have to smell it cooking. Although we'd never tasted it, my sister and I vicariously adopted our father's digust for all things remotely tasting lamby.
Mike, on the other hand, adores lamb and I (like my mother) in deference to his love of the stuff, have not only learned to cook a mean lamb chop and rack of lamb, I've even learned not just to tolerate it, but to actively like it...as long as it doesn't taste toooo lamby. I'm not sure I'm quite ready for the heady tang of mutton on a regular basis, although I did belly up to the food stand once at a fair on the Navajo reservation for a steaming bowl of mutton stew and some hot fry bread. But that was mainly for the enjoyment of the cultural experience and I recall appreciating the fry bread a lot more than the mutton stew. (Who wouldn't?)
As a healthy red meat, lamb wins the prize, since it's always grass fed and never finished on the feed lot. And if properly cooked, it's a delicious addition to a healthy diet. If you've never (or rarely) cooked lamb, I can recommend Bruce Aidell's Complete Meat Cookbook
Among the proper cooking tips for lamb, here's one I stored one away from an article I read a number of years ago (before my conversion) in the Santa Fe New Mexican. The article focused on the chef/owner of restaurant in Taos, NM that specialized in the cuisine of the middle east, describing the way his Egyptian grandmother had taught him to cook lamb. Her never fail tip: at the last instant, before the lamb ever leaves the grill or oven, squeeze the juice of a fresh lime over it. Even to my lamb averse sensibilities, the description sounded so appealing, I clipped the article and saved it. And now that I grill and roast lamb regularly myself, I apply it. His old Egyptian granny hit the nail on the head--the juice soaks instantly into the hot meat and the light tang of lime that lingers is just the right touch.
Next time you grill or roast lamb, try it and I'll bet that, as my old granny would have said, in two shakes of a lamb's tail, you'll be hooked.
Posted by mdeades at 01:43 PM | Comments (3)
March 30, 2006
100 Years of Flaky Nutrition
Today marks the 100th birthday of the corn flake, developed by the enterprising brother of famous vegetarian physician John Harvey Kellogg. Dr. Kellogg operated a health spa/sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, to which place the rich and puny at the turn of the century could repair to restore their health and vigor. Dr. Kellogg employed a strict vegetarian diet and a number of other interesting therapies, such as radiation and near-electrocution as remedies for obesity.
Devising a convenient 'health' food (grain-based flakes, in this case) for disciples of Dr. Kellogg's regimen became the entrepreneurial hot ticket franchise of the day. From among the many entrants vying to win market share two companies became giants and remain with us today: Kellogg's of Battle Creek and C.W. Post.
Battle Creek (aptly named) served as something of a vegetarian command and control center in the war that raged between the propenents of vegetarianism and the carnivore/omnivore camp. On the one side was Dr. Kellogg, proclaiming that foul animal products rotted in the intestines of humans and caused no end of health maladies. At the san, the good doctor treated these ailments variously: milk fasting, enemas, and even surgically removing "kinks" in the bowel that interfered with proper digestion. And let's not forget the aforementioned radiation, which did help weight loss by inducing nausea and destroying appetite, with the small side effect that if carried a bit too far, it would kill you. On the side of the angels (at least from our world view) stood the likes of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Arctic explorer, friend of the Inuit, who espoused the health and safety of meat eating.
Although it's fiction, if you've never read T.C. Boyle's The Road to Wellville, take a look
Yes, from these lofty origins sprang the corn flake, staple of America's breakfast table for 100 years. And just look how healthy we've become for it! To be fair, I don't think Dr. Kellogg would have countenanced coating flakes with high fructose corn syrup, but who knows. He may have been all about it, since it's not meat and really no more harmful than, say, irradiating people.
Gee, thanks, Dr. Kellogg. Oh, and Happy Birthday to the corniest flakes anyone makes.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll trot downstairs and whip up a plate of sausage and eggs.
Posted by mdeades at 09:11 AM | Comments (5)
March 27, 2006
The Greening of Wal-Mart
In an astounding move, low-price retail behemoth Wal-Mart, the devil/darling of every small community in America is doubling its position in the organic market, which will effectively bring reasonably priced organic foods and products to just about every dot on the map. In case you didn't see the AP business article about it, give it a click .
If their stated intent becomes reality, the organic demand generated by Big "W" will force the hand of conventional purveyors to adopt organic farming methods; they'll soon be elbowing one another out of the way as they clamber for a seat at Wal-Mart's organic table. And this will change much for the better the way all of America eats, which will change America's health landscape, which will be all to America's good. Makes me proud to be a native Arkansan.
What's next? Natural beef and poultry at McDonald's? Why not? A girl can dream...
Posted by mdeades at 09:09 AM | Comments (5)
March 20, 2006
Heidi Heidi Heidi Ho!
This morning, our local paper contained an article about supermodel Heidi Klum's return last December to the catwalk for the Victoria's Secret runway show. Now, there's nothing particularly newsworthy about a supermodel's appearing on a fashion runway, except that Ms. Klum was doing it--sparkly skivvies, bare belly, and all--a mere two months after giving birth to her second child.
Glory be! Some people have all the genetic luck, right?
Well, there's no doubt that Heidi hit the triple cherries in the looks and body department, but 2 months post-partum is a toughy, no matter how lucky a genetic hand you've been dealt.
The article actually focused on her trainer-to-the-stars, David Kirsch, who founded the Madison Square Club in New York. He had come a week or so ago to our fair city to offer a boot camp fitness session to a group of ladies at the Bacara Resort. (That I read about it in the paper tells you that I wasn't among them.) And it was through the efforts of Mr. Kirsch that Heidi got her groove back.
To regain her supermodel physique, Ms. Klum submitted to a three-week crash course of Mr. Kirsch's regimen
low-carb, high protein diet that got fast incredible results. Heidi Ho!
That should give a little shot in the arm to the low carb cause!
It's no secret that there are two ways to remodel (no pun intended) yourself. Diet and exercise. Intake and output. Changing the way you eat is a far quicker route to a svelt body than just exercising. And the very best way is to do both: Eat fewer carbs and expend more calories.
But this isn't news, either. For many years we've said: the fastest way to reclaim your leanest, healthiest self is with a low-carb, high protein diet and exercise. The diet takes off the pounds and the exercise, ideally, builds muscle, trims, tones, and tightens.
To our way of thinking, the best results accrue from weight-training exercise, which also happens to be the most efficient form of exercise. For most busy new mothers (or those with an infant and a toddler, like Heidi, minus the nanny) to commit 3 hours a day to exercise is a pipe dream.
But 30 minutes a week? Now there's reality talking. And that's the time commitment necessary to reap great rewards using the Slow Burn Fitness
Whether you've got 3 hours a day or 30 minutes a week, the point is to make the commitment and the time..and, well, just do it!
Heidi did it. So can we!
Posted by mdeades at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2006
Gain Weight While You Sleep
Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Although you may be more accustomed to hearing late night tv hucksters hawking products claiming to "melt away the pounds while you sleep," for some folks the reverse may be happening unbeknownst to them.
HERE'S AN IMPORTANT NEWS FLASH!!
Take a look at this New York Times article by Stephanie Saul. If you take Ambien to sleep and have been plateaued in your weight loss efforts or even mysteriously gained weight while trying by day to lose, this may explain why.
If you or someone you know takes this medication and is seeing unexplained weight gain, if food has mysteriously disappeared from your pantry or fridge, or if wrappers or containers have appeared in the morning on tables, beds, or floors, this unusual medication reaction could be to blame. If so, contact the physician who prescribed the drug, who can evaluate the situation and safely change the medication.
Posted by mdeades at 11:43 PM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2006
For the Love of Chocolate
A few years ago, on a trip to Sicily with a group of friends, we visited Modica, a little architectural jewel of a town, famous for a number of delicacies. The highlight of our time there was our visit to a tiny old chocolate shop, called Antica Dolceria, where chocolate artisans create delicious confections (including the freshest and most fabulous cannoli) using centuries old techniques.
Its charming owner, Signori Franco Ruta, treated us to a fascinating backstage glimpse of how they make their chocolate, which begins with grinding the cocoa beans by hand on heated ancient stone slabs to render the pure chocolate paste. They then mix the paste with sugar...
(Ah, there's the rub!)
...and various other delectable stuffs and turn it into the most fabulous little cocoa bars imaginable--some scented with cinnamon, others with hazelnut, and still others (and my personal favorites) touched with cayenne powder.
At last we were treated to a tasting that I can sum up in one word: Nirvana!
The bars were sweet and dark and with a bit of finely-grained crispness to their bite that reminded me of my grandmother's fudge, which to this day is in my view the best fudge ever created. These bars were the closest anything has ever come and I confess that we departed the shop with a stack of them.
I can wax positively poetic about chocolate, which is why I read with great interest a piece by Christine Muhlke in the New York Times Sunday Magazine of February 12, 2006. Entitiled "The Sweet Tooth Fairy" it focused not only on the finer points of chocolate, but on the life and times of Chloe Doutre-Roussel, a former French agronomist, chocolate buyer and taster for London's legendary Fortnum and Mason department stores, and above all, a passionate chocolate connoisseur. Ms. Doutre-Roussel has recently released a book, called The Chocolate Connoisseur
The book is a treasure trove of information about how to select and enjoy chocolate and contains a wealth of recipes. While many of the recipes will require a bit of low-carb alchemy to make them something I'd feel okay about eating often, for a once a year (or once in a great while) special-occasion splurge, I might even make some of them just the way they are and shave carbs elsewhere.
Reading about chocolate is almost as much fun as eating it. Almost. How long is it till Easter?
Posted by mdeades at 11:36 AM | Comments (1)
March 06, 2006
Pop-a-Top, Again!
Well, well, well...the light finally dawns upon them that supersized soda pop is a major player in the development of obesity.
Will wonders never cease?
Witness an article entitled "Scientists in Food Fight over Soda" that appeared today on CNNs website. Groundbreaking news, for sure. After all, it's only been six and a half years since we postulated in our Protein Power LifePlan
And the parallels drawn by some between Big Tobacco and Big Soda are, to my eye, not all that far-fetched. Take a look at how the two compare:
Addictive product? Check, check.
Health damaging product? Check, check.
Product laced with known addictive agents? Check, check.
Targeted at kids? Check, check.
Industry spokespersons deny all such claims? Check, check.
Liquid crack with a pop top, if you ask me. But you make the call.
Posted by mdeades at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2006
Fluffy and Fido, Boycott Carbs Now!
Mike called my attention to this article that was too incredible not to share.
Can you believe it? The First Complete Home Glucose Monitoring System Designed for Cats and Dogs!
And what next? After you check Fifi's blood sugar and find it elevated is it a lower fat higher carb 'diabetic' pet food regimen? Then what? Insulin shots for Tinkerbell, of course. Where will it all end? Insulin pumps for poodles? Inhaled insulin for Rover? Metformin for Muffy? Then of course, more delicous whole grains to treat Hugo's hypoglycemia? Sure, since just as with humans, the risk of clubbing blood sugar into submission with medications is fraught with errors of absorption, of measurement, and of response that will always run the risk of the blood sugar's going dangerously low.
This whole awful travesty--by that I mean turning pure carnivores into de facto omniherbavores in need of such monitoring devices and, thus, into obese, diabetic caricatures of the sleek, frisky animals they should be--would be funny if it weren't so pitiful.
It reminds me of the sad tales you hear about of the 1200 pound person who hasn't been out of bed in three years and when his or her health goes into a downward skid has to be lifted by a crane through a hole in the side of a building. The question I always want to ask is: Who the heck keeps bringing them the Ding Dongs? A bed-ridden obese individual can't get out of bed to get something to eat. Can't even get to the door to meet the pizza delivery guy. Obviously, he or she must rely on someone else to bring in the food that maintains that amount of corpulence.
The same is true of pets. Except for the occasional capture of the unfortunate bird or squirrel, domesticated dogs and cats generally rely on their owners to feed them. And if the food is a low fat, high carb, grain based chow, or if it's too much in quantity, or if it's (worse yet) people treats, such as candy, ice cream, donuts, and the like, then these little neotinized wolves, bears, and lions--carnivores all--will do just what people do: become obese and diabetic.
Next on the pet Syndrome X hit parade will be widespread reports of dog and cat atherosclerosis and high blood pressure and then we'll no doubt be treated to articles about little pet home blood pressure and cholesterol monitors. These poor dependent creatures will be placed on low salt diets (another idiotic nutritional myth recently exploded) and lipid lowering medications (see our writings in the Protein Power LifePlan
Heaven help them!
As I wrote about in a previous blog, these diseases occur in our pets because of their being fed an unnatural diet. If you've got a carnivorous pet--a dog, a cat, a wolf hybrid--for heaven's sake, please feed them what nature intended them to eat--meat and fat and bone and gristle. Let them chew on some sweet grass if they want, but don't pretend that their ancient metabolisms were any more designed to eat grains and sugars than ours were. Put the right fuel in the tank and Fluffy and Fido will have no need of the latest blood sugar monitoring device...or whatever absurd instrument comes along next.
Hey Fluffy, hey Fido, save yourselves! Boycott carbs now!
Posted by mdeades at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)