I also wanted to mention that El Pollo Loco used to have , on their dollar menu, a piece of chicken and a salad. They have a very creamy cilantro dressing that I usually get with it.

Geez, you mean I went to all that trouble to describe how to cook beets for nothing.

Thanks for the tip on El Pollo Loco.  I’ve never eaten at one.

Cheers–

MRE 

Dinner always consisted of a meat, side vegetable, rice or potatoes, and a tiny dessert.
My mother had gone to the kind of high school were home economics was an all day affair and a serious study. This stood my family in good stead when we came to this country.

It makes me so angry when editorials such as in this post just make excuses for the ignorance of a certain class. It’s intellectually and morally lazy and a lot less bother than fixing the situation, and getting back to the school standards we had in the fifties. I mention the fifties because public high schools in California could at that time compete with any prep school in the northeast. After certain Republican politicians got their hands on the public school system, we went from being in the top ten of the fifty states, to being in the bottom ten. Yes, that makes a difference when ignorant parents raised in substandard schools themselves, don’t know enough to feed their children.

Hi LC–

Glad to hear from you.  I thought my expression of strong dislike for John Edwards had maybe run you off.

I agree with your take on the editorial completely.  But, now that the California public school system is in the hands of the Democrats and has been for years I don’t see any major improvements.

Politicians of all stripes tend to screw up everything they touch, and I dislike them all.  I’m a firm believer in the old H.L. Mencken quote: Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

Don’t stay away so long.

Cheers–

MRE 

I ready with interest, your response to comment 3 of this post. One thing that particularly caught my eye was your next to last paragraph:

And the idea that, if this fish oil could somehow miraculously increase the unsaturation index, we could protect the membranes by increasing anti-oxidants is, in my opinion, not particularly efficacious. For the last 30-40 years researchers have unsuccessfully tried to come up with the smoking-gun study showing that saturated fat is harmful. And, over the same period they have performed numerous studies trying to show some longevity benefit to taking anti-oxidants and have been just as unsuccessful. Taking more antioxidants in an attempt to increase longevity is the triumph of hope over experience.

I am curious as to what you think of some of the following research on pomegranate juice and green tea. Link (large pdf) and link. (There is considerable other research, but I just picked two)

Do you think that these, and other pieces of research are flawed, or do you think that the benefits to the substances caused by something other than their antioxidant properties?

Furthermore, there seems to be a large body of research that seems to correlate the amount of fruits and vegetable consumption with health and longevity. (Here’s one that I picked at random from Google.

Again, do you think that the research is flawed or that the benefits from fruits and vegetables are caused by something other than their antioxidant properties?

It may well be that antioxidants are important, but that they must be taken in the correct ratios and not in isolation (I don’t know what those ratios would be.) Perhaps this is why fruit and vegetable consumption may be useful, but not supplement consumption?

Finally, I have also seen numerous research pieces concerning fish oil. For example here (pdf) and here.

Unless the studies are flawed, it would seem that small amounts of the fatty acids could improve function in the brain (and by inference perhaps other areas too)?

Thanks for your Blog. It has been very interesting and informative reading.

Albert

Hi Albert–

Oh dear.

Somehow I knew this was going to happen when I dashed of a short response to a long question instead of  waiting until I could do a proper post on the subject.  Then I compounded my error by drawing attention to it in another post.

What I was trying to say vis a vis antioxidants is that the vast majority of studies have not shown that supplementation with antioxidants has increased longevity.  Since supplemental antioxidants don’t appear to increase longevity or promote significantly better health, then it stands to reason that these same antioxidants in plants probably don’t do a lot either.  Having said that, I do believe that plants contain substances that promote longevity and promote health.  These substances are not necessarily antioxidants per se.

For example, a number of plants, particularly the cruciferous vegetables, contain sulforaphane, which is a potent phase II enzyme inducer.  Free radicals are produced within the mitochondria and do their damage there to the mitochondrial membrane, an exceedingly important structure.  Antioxidants of the supplemental variety can’t get into the mitochondria where the damage takes place to quench the free radicals.  The mitochondria themselves have a free radical damage control process that involves the induction of enzymes that produce antioxidants within the mitochondria to quench the free radicals where they are before they can wreak much havoc with the delicate membranes.  The so-called phase II enzymes are extremely important in this process and can be induced in larger numbers, faster, by sulforaphane.  Another way–as I mentioned in the answer to the comment–is to decrease the number of double bonds in the membrane itself, making it less prone to attack.  Free radicals can’t do squat to a saturated fat because a saturated fat contains no double bonds, and only double bonds are game for free radical damage.

There are many other substances in plants that perform similar duties yet aren’t’ considered antioxidants.

I was taking issue with the idea that one can make one’s lipid bi-layer membranes more supple by consuming a lot of polyunsaturated fat, then protect them by taking antioxidants.  I still stand by that.

I didn’t say that fish oil is not a good thing.  I take it and take krill oil as well.  I don’t think it works its magic by increasing the unsaturation index of the cellular and organelle membranes.  One simply can’t take enough to do this given the mass of the lipid membranes throughout the body and the amounts taken and/or eaten as fish.

The long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in fish oil and krill oil do promote health, but in a different way than by increasing the saturation index.  For one, they reduce the inflammatory response, but they do a number of other things as well.

Hope this answers your question.

Cheers–

MRE 

I wonder how parents rationalize allowing their children to be obese. It’s one thing to do it to yourself (I used to just avoid turning sideways in the mirror), harder to see how you can ignore it in your children, especially if you have to make extra trips to the doctor (who hopefully is pointing out the origin of the extra health issues).

I’m reminded of one little girl, probably about 4 years old, whom I observed during one of my son’s soccer games. She was very overweight, to the point where she had no neck, and her eyes seemed almost shut. Because of her age, I thought she must have some hormonal problem, or be on some kind of medication that caused her to retain a lot of water. That made me a little sad. Later I saw her walking around with her own jumbo bag of cheetos, nearly the size of her torso. That made me a lot sadder, because it meant that her parents were responsible for her condition.

Dave

Hi Dave–

I see these same kids all the time and it makes my heart break.  The parents often use food, particularly sweets, as a reward for these kids or use it simply to keep them quiet.  We as a nation are facing a health disaster in the not too distant future, I fear.

Best–

MRE 

Hi George–

MD and I eat at casinos often when we are at home in Tahoe for the same reason.  As long as you eat and don’t eat and gamble it’s a real bargain.  Used to be that the food kind of sucked, but Las Vegas, Reno, and Tahoe have really improved their menus over the last few years.

Cheers–

MRE 

For example, at our New Year’s Eve party in my own house a neighbor friend told me in a rather insulting way (I’m hoping it was the wine, but perhaps her manners “filter” fell off) that I “it’s great what you are doing this for your family but you live in a bubble” because no one else can because it costs too much/takes too much time, etc. In other words, I do not live in the “real world”. I can see how on the surface, it could look like that. I do not “work” except to take care of my family & household (I call that unpaid but worthwhile work) and I manage to pursue my own interests, plus my research scientist husband makes a good living, and we only have one kid, etc. But we also do our own gardening, do not have a cleaning service, do much of the repairs and remodeling on our house, etc., unlike a lot of people we know near us.

She doesn’t know me well enough to know my life before we met: how my mother (an 18 yo and , non-college educated bride) managed to feed our family well with frugal creativity and an urban organic garden and make sure we had the necessities in the feast-or-famine years of my childhood (my father was self-employed and is a very good person and has great ideals, but was not a good provider). My husband’s childhood in the UK was even more difficult economically; he grew up in public housing on welfare after his parent’s divorce. We both put ourselves through college and had continual jobs from a young age. So I think we both know a lot about limited budgets and never-enough time, even though it may not appear so now.

Atypical for me, I didn’t respond to the “bubble” comment (hard to believe, I know), but I was quite taken aback by the ferociousness of her tone and how long went she on about it. I don’t think I imagined that it was a bit too personal. I think somewhere I have struck a nerve, although we are quite friendly and she has joined the same CSA program and started bying raw milk sometimes and we talk about food and cooking a lot.

What I find interesting is that I pretty much only hear this argument from prosperous folks who typically had “economically comfortable” childhoods (struggling folks usually want to know more and learn how). Money was rarely, if ever, short in their lives and they have mostly associated with people of comfortable means (I don’t necessarily mean rich). They continue to make a good living, so they don’t really have any sense of what economic struggle is when it comes to the basics necessities. But they are acutely aware of their lack of time and at least in one case, think that anyone who has the time to make food a priority isn’t in touch with reality (one “proof” that I was out of touch with reality was that I spend about 1.25 hours per week making cat food with organic chicken [which even with the new grinder for the bones is cheaper in the long run than the commercial cat food we used to buy and eliminates stops at the pet food store]) but it was ruining our cat’s health and running up vet bills).

Hmmm, maybe that’s it! She is our vet, and I went AMA (against medical advice) and started raw homemade food instead of the Rx stuff for renal disease, sold by the clinic. The cat’s improvement was rapid & the cat is now acting & looking years younger. I even paid for more blood tests to be extra sure the new raw diet was helping instead of hurting. The change to a species-appropriate diet (instead of meat-flavored cereal or cooked meat) and resulting health improvement in our older cat only strengthened my resolve to feed my family better. I guess that would be threatening to someone who’s professional opinion was that the cat was going to die fairly soon and the best I could do was make him comfrotable. Now he is chasing his tail again and runs around the house after several years of poor health.

BTW, regarding some comments above, I do not mean to imply that all “comfortable” people are so unaware of what struggle means, but I do often see this as a common thread.

I’m sure I’m not the only one to take grief for investing time in & having high standards for food & nutrition. Anyone have any snappy comeback suggestions? I thought about saying at least I don’t get notes from the teacher asking me not to send a Twinkie to school for my kid’s snack (she was outraged to receive that note) but I bit my tongue. I need to keep it cordial so I can continue to set a good example

On the other hand, if I am delusional, I think I can take hearing it from this crowd.

Happy New Year’s to everyone. Wishing you all good health and peace. And thanks to the good doctor, because this is such an informative and thought-provoking blog (& often entertaining, too).

Anna
San Diego, CA

Hi Anna–

Thanks for the kind words about the blog.

Your story reminds me of an article I read a couple of months ago on research on the generosity of liberals verses conservatives.  According to the article, the researcher was stunned to discover that while liberals bemoaned the fate of the poor, conservatives actually gave way, way more money to them than did the liberals.  The researcher (obviously a liberal) couldn’t believe it and figured it was because conservatives had so much more money that what they gave, although larger in an absolute sense, was smaller as a percentage of their income.  The researcher them controlled for income levels and found the same thing: people labeling themselves conservative are more generous than those labeling themselves liberal.

I have no dog in this fight.  I’m only reporting, not opining, so don’t get mad at the messenger.  If anyone has an article refuting this, send it along, and I’ll put it up.

Cheers and Happy New Year.

MRE 

I’ll give well-scrubbed fresh beets a try sometime.

Hi Bradley–

I checked with the bride and found out how she does the beets. First, she scrubs them hard with a vegetable brush under running water. Then cuts the tops off, then she either roasts or boils them. (Based on my experience with her, she boils about 10 times for each roast.) When she roasts them, she puts them in a roasting pan and sticks them in a 400 degree oven for 45 min to an hour depending upon the size of the beets.  She takes them out, slips the skins off, then puts butter, salt and pepper on them.  To boil them, she cuts the tops off, puts them in a pan of slightly salted water cut side down, heats them to boiling, then turns the heat down to a slow boil and boils them for 45 min to an hour.  She then slips the skins off, slices, and adds butter, salt and pepper.  MMMmmm.

To show you how clueless I am about the whole thing, I didn’t even know beets had skins.  I asked MD why it would matter whether or not the beets were scrubbed if the skins were coming off before eating anyway.   She said it was because the dirt, like a spice covering the skin, would permeate the body of the beet during the boiling or roasting process.

Whatever, they sure are good.

Cheers–

MRE 

THANK YOU!!!!

Your thoughtful and speedy responses to continue to impress, Dr. Eades. Please feel free to keep up the absolutely awesome job you are doing!

Hi Mary–

Right you are.

You don’t like beets?  I’ve never heard of anyone not liking beets.  We eat them all the time since MD had her insight on how to prepare them.  I’ve always loved beets, but we never had them because MD always thought they tasted like dirt.  When we welcomed our second daughter-in-law into the family, we discovered that she liked beets and cooked them all the time.  When MD tried the DIL’s beets, she really liked them.  MD asked what her secret was for keeping them from tasting like dirt.  Said the DIL, “You’ve really got to scrub them hard.”  So, they tasted like dirt when we fixed them because, well, they had dirt on them, I guess.  Once MD scrubbed the heck out of them, then cooked them, they tasted great.  Since I liked them a lot before, I suppose I just don’t mind the taste of dirt.

Cheers–

MRE

Here’s a sample from my local grocery store’s ad for this week:

Large eggs – $1/dozen
Chicken thighs – .49/lb
Boneless chuck roast – $1.99/lb
85% ground beef – $2.19/lb
Wild caught Pacific Salmon – $1 each (5 oz portion)
Baby Carrots – $1/lb (regular or organic)
Large Celery Stalks – $1/lb
Red Delicious Apples – $1/lb
Fresh Express Garden Salad Blend – $1/bag
Plum Tomatoes – $1/lb
Avocados – $1 each
Mangoes – $1 each

Even if you only bought 7 of the $1 items on that list, you’d still have more food, and it would be significantly more satisfying (not to mention better for you – even if you bought some of the higher carb veggies and fruits) than buying a single $1 item each day from a fast food joint. And who buys only one $1 item from a fast food place and calls it enough food for a day, much less a full meal?

Oh by the way, I shop at the so-called “expensive” grocery store in this area, and I can still do better than cheap fast food, even though the items on that list are on sale for exceptionally good prices this week.

Hi Calianna–

Thanks for the informative post.  I appreciate all your effort.  It truly is eye-opening.

Cheers–

MRE