China Study versus Paleo diet/Weston Price

I'm not qualified to answer this question. Ready for me to get preachy? Just skip this whole post if you think it will make you uncomfortable. I'm struggling with some things I've seen around lately, and sometimes just have to get it all out on (ha! I was going to say paper!) my blog to straighten my thoughts out.

One of the favorite blogs I follow: Heather Eats Almond Butter has moved over to a high saturated fat diet (her words not mine). Weston Price has a "Cholesterol for Health" website. Then there's the Paleo diet and its followers that claim that prehistoric man would fast for 18-20 hours and then gorge on high fat animal protein. I also read an article in Outside Magazine "The Athlete's guide to food", where a man tried 4? 5? different diets over the course of a year, and tracked his cholesterol, and body fat, and a bunch of other markers for health, and this type of diet does seem to work. He got the best results following the paleo or the atkins. There are a lot of people that swear by this too --there's the whole Atkins following, and man, a lot of these people really look lean and sculpted. Bodybuilders are probably a lot closer to Weston Price than anything else.

The China Study guy wasn't trying to sell a diet and merchandise however. He was just stating results from peer-reviewed scientific studies he conducted, and those of others such as Esselstein. Long term health, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and many other auto-immune disorders are most positively affected by this type of diet according to these studies. What may be less important to many people, but is a little concern of mine, is how the large scale meat industry runs (I'm not talking about small family operations, but the big industrial operations). They are using so many resources that are subsidized by our tax dollars (I'm talking a lot of oil to transport for one thing, and not just their product, but the corn used to create their product), and raising these animals so inhumanely. This, like I said, is not the reason I'm doing the vegan thing, I'm doing it for health.

I'm puzzled though by all of the anecdotal evidence however that says that people's healthy cholesterol numbers went up, and their bad numbers went down following these high animal fat, "grains are the bad guy", diets. Maybe it's a case of short term results versus long term results, or maybe it's a case of these diet promoters doing what my grad school professors called "massaging the data". Maybe their test subjects were eating fewer calories, and hence the results. Maybe though, there is something valid here.

We've been doing this vegan type of diet for a few months now, and although we're not perfect, (sometimes my one free meal a week is REALLY FREE), we seem to be doing OK. My strength has gone up in my lifting sessions, I recovered from a bout of stress-induced Graves just as quickly, replacing the muscle loss, and Jeff says his muscle mass has literally gone up during this time. We've been really careful whole food, high protein vegans, and we haven't skimped on the nuts and nut butters, but then again overall, we've been pretty low fat. Jeff uses no salad dressing, and mine is usually based on a blended vegetable or fruit, with a pinch of nut butter sometimes to smooth it out. We use salsa as a topping on our bean burgers or burritoes, and use tamari alone on stir-frys. I've been really slow taking off pounds gained during the holidays, but then again that's not unusual for my body, especially when I've had a Graves attack, and I've had about three since then. I always get more in winter (especially with Christmas treats), and this has been a pretty stressful couple of months for me.

I just can't see how it's possible that eating a lot of saturated fat can be good for your arteries and heart. It doesn't make intutitive sense to me. These articles claiming it's the way "nature" intended it, have to believe that nature intended us to heavily rely on cow's milk and its fats for our diet, and intended us to kill a lot of animals, and I'm not sure either was the case. Once again, this isn't about the "poor animals" though, it's about what's good for us. We do have a couple of canines, so maybe once in a while meat eating is reasonable. We don't however have a mouthful of shark teeth. We don't nurse beyond infant stage, so I'm thinking dairy (even just dairy fat) is probably not the most logical diet base. Who knows for sure though. My free meals will still probably always involve dairy or meat in some form, and more power to everyone I know who do great on whatever diet they choose. I'm a caterer too, and I still have my Paula Dean side that periodically gets me into trouble. Sigh. You can't beat cream for making almost any recipe taste better, unless you use butter.

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fake it 'til you make it

Things are going better for me. I made the decision for Ari's school, and though part of me is crushed by the outcome, I'm at peace with it and know it's the best thing for her. Once the decision is behind me I'm always better anyway. At least the anxiety is past.

I'm still going with the high protein "vegan" (in quotes because I still use whey and boullion --and honey sometimes --I never got the whole "save the bees" thing) thing, and have a couple more vegan bean dishes I wanted to post. I don't know if anyone is interested in these, but at least I have a place where they're written down.

I dated someone in college from Costa Rica, and the best thing about that relationship was his cooking. It wasn't that great of a relationship frankly, but I got some good recipes. One of them was just a simple black bean mix using bacon and cilantro that was so perfect. I don't miss bacon very much being a vegan, but I do miss it as a flavoring. I made a vegan version the other night to use in burritos (I just put mine on top of a salad instead as usual) that turned out satisfyingly close to the original.

3 cans black beans rinsed and drained
1 onion chopped small
2 big cloves of garlic
1 1/2 T. EVOO
1 1/2 T. chili powder
1 t. smoked Spanish paprika (I love this stuff)
1 T. xylitol or sugar
1 C. hot water
4 t. chicken boullion paste
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves

Saute the onion and garlic until onion is translucent, and add chili and paprika. Saute for a minute more. Add black beans and mash partially with potato masher in pan, mixing with onions. Mix boullion paste with hot water, then add to bean mixture with sugar/xylitol. When heated through, sprinkle with cilantro leaves and serve.

I also wanted kind of a "chicken" burger for last night's dinner. (see why this post is called "fake i"t?) This is one made of white beans, and the family had them on hamburger buns while I did the salad beast thing again (with a fantastic roasted red pepper Italian herb vinaigrette whipped up in the blender). Warning: I always make a lot for my recipes because I want leftovers to use for my protein portions throughout the next couple of days. This makes like 12-14 patties, so scale down if you need to.

3 cans white beans (rinsed and drained)
4t. chicken boullion
2 cup hot water (divided)
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 chopped green bell pepper
1 t. evoo
3 large cloves garlic (pressed)
1/2 cup brown rice protein
1 cup WW bread crumbs
1 t. thyme
1 t. sage

Saute onions, bell pepper, and garlic in oil, and add boullion paste mixed with 1 cup hot water. Remove from heat. Mash beans partially in bowl, and mix with protein ,breadcrumbs, and herbs. Add onion mixture, and second cup water (it doesn't have to be hot). Form into patties, and brown in a non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray, 5 minute on each side on medium heat. Really good with that Jack's fresh salsa from costco on those thin wheat buns (according to my family), or crumbled over a salad.

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Play that funky music

What do you do when you're down? I've had a rough few days. I've got drama with Ari's school, and I'm AGONIZING over a decision I don't want to make. I don't want to face it. I want to take a nap and never wake up sometimes. I know that sounds suicidal, I just mean I want to escape, and it would be nice if it was for good.

OK, here's what pulled me through the last few days. First, thank heaven (literally) for that Tae Bo class I teach. I didn't even think I could get through it, but the music started and those great students were all there with their energy, and suddenly I was in heaven: moving so quickly, punching out my aggression, hitting right on the beat, like an extra reinforcement from the universe (--yes I know this sounds cheesy). Five minutes into that class and I was rocking a huge smile on my face. I love that cardio kickboxing. Love it. Yay for my students too. Yay yay. ..and spin class this morning was great. Something about that endorphin high I guess.

Second, I needed a little more than my "book on mp3" lately. I love the escapism of the stories I listen to, --I always pick YA fiction --cause that's the point for me --I don't need extra seriousness in my life, but lately I just scanned around the FM radio, and found this funky little station, that doesn't even work inside buildings sometimes, the signal is so small (90.90 for those of you in Utah). It has all of these hippie type songs, that take me back to all those times Kay or Fred and I went to the coffee shops with Norman, or that other guy? What was his name again? The big guy with the dark hair? I can never remember his name; and I got a huge bowl-like mug of hot chocolate, Mexican hot Chocolate if we went to the gay coffee shop,--cause it was the best (you know with that little cinnamon hit you get with that kind of hot chocolate?), and I would ask Kay which waitress was the cutest (and secretly wonder if she was cuter than me, but that's just my perennial insecurity that always crops up). We'd listen to that kind of music in those shops, and it makes me happy now to sing out loud to those songs when I hear them again.

Third, Jeff and I sometimes do a little cardio at night, while we're watching a show, and then late at night, when I'm taking a bath, it's so beautiful with the lights on the sparkly window (yeah, of COURSE it's privacy glass), and the big tub, and all my little decorations that I picked out as an expression of me (me and Jeff I guess, OK, and let's confess, I bought a lot because they were on sale), and the big big heavy cotton towels, and Jeff to snuggle with at the end of the day. Yum.

I know my problems are doinky compared to most people, and it makes it all the worse that they can plow me under like this, but, I'm going to be OK. I've got a lot to be thankful for.

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Cardio Party

I taught my first class last night at BYU. SOOOO fun! Decent sized crowd for a first class, and they were all whooping and counting with me and everything. I couldn't stop smiling. Then I had to get up early to sub-teach at UVU for a friend of mine, which was her first class of the semester, and -what the? The students all came in street clothes. I felt kind of bad for them and asked if they wanted to run and grab some PE issue before we started, but they all said they were fine --we're talking sweaters, and hats and earrings --I'm not kidding. OOOKAYYY. So I went through basics with them and then did like 20 minutes of real cardio. They signed up for it right? They were pretty good sports though. Nice people.

Today I run downstairs to check on Kai and his friend because I heard some clunking noises that sounded ominous. Kai is on the unplugged treadmill with weight lifting gloves on his feet, pushing the belt around , and his friend is on the stairclimber clunking down on one side and then another. Cardio's for everyone I guess.

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Playing House

I'm doing my hair and listening to Kai and the neighbor boy playing in his room. I hear the neighbor boy sing "happy birthday dear daddy...happy birthday to you!" then I hear Kai say: "some bombs! I've always wanted some bombs! " Neighbor boy says " no, they're jet packs" "Oh! I've always wanted those too!" says Kai. That isn't what playing house was like when I was little, but then I'm a girl.

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The Maiden Voyage

So we did a first run of the new nifty neato cool ice cream maker yesterday morning. We finished it all off in seconds flat I'm afraid, but the neighbor boy had seconds --so not just us. Here's what I put in there:
4 servings vanilla whey protein mixed with water(my one non-vegan food I may never give up)
1/2 cup date paste (dates soaked and blended)
1/3 cup coconut milk
2T orange juice concentrate
cinnamon 2 T
nutmeg 3/4 t.
ginger 1 t.
xanthan gum 1 t.

Yeah, I'm still on the gingerbread flavor kick, but I added in the orange because my BOOK

suggested it would be a good flavor pairing. It was lovely.

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Happy (gourmet!!) Anniversary!

Jeff and I never got our anniversary weekend this year, so we squeaked it in right under the wire. My brother and sister-in-law watched our kids for us on Thanksgiving night, but we really wanted a couple of days. Besides nothing was open that night. So we treated ourselves to two nights in the hotel we discovered that Thanksgiving freebee night. We love this hotel --it's a four star, but mainly we love it because the fitness room ROCKS! It's got all of these cardio machines with personal tv's and ipod jacks, and a full set of free weights, some weight machines, and a big view over the whole downtown. Big cool mirrors leaning against the walls too --you know like in those dayspa places? The beds are wonderful there too. Jeff said we could go for lunch wherever I wanted, so we smoked out Tony Caputo's deli. I'd read reviews of it in Gourmet magazine, and really wanted to check out the world quality chocolate they carried, as well as finally find smoked Spanish paprika that keeps showing up in my recipes lately. Found both. The chocolate bar in the picture above won third place in the International Chocolate People Secret Society or the ICPSS (OK I can't really remember the name of the group --but it sounded impressive). The cocoa beans it's made of come from Madagascar, and I'm not kidding, when I tasted it, I could taste hints of oranges, and anise, and plums and raisins...it was like when people rave about a fine wine. Caputos teaches chocolate pairing classes --like wine pairing. Any takers to go to one with me ? Like we all need an excuse to eat more chocolate... Tony Caputo waited on us himself, and I'm whispering to Jeff: "I think that's him --I think that's him!" It was like I met a rockstar. I also got some big huge Fava beans that I haven't seen since I was a kid, and some big ol' Lebanese couscous, and some Chilean Porcinis, and some fresh chestnuts for my sister who watched our kids this time --we used to have our Dad roast them for us as kids --kind of a neat memory, and two other gourmet chocolates that we ate there with lunch --one with a caramel with fleur de sel. Heaven.

Yesterday we had a million hours to wait for our movie, so we walked around Dick's sporting goods for a while, and then...Sur la Table! Jeff was REALLY spoiling me. That's not his idea of the best way to spend an hour and a half.Guess what I talked him into? "It's on sale for half off Honey..."

Yes! Now I can make all the protein, stevia, kabocha or pure fruit ice cream I want! Check out some recipes on HEAB.

Then when we got home, THIS was waiting for me. Jeff actually heard about this from a friend, and it has been on my wish list, until he ordered it for me. All of a sudden, it's like I know everything about food in the whole world. OK, I don't know, but this book does! You can look up any food: Fava beans, mandarin oranges, dates, and it tells you all of the flavors that work well with it. You want to create a new recipe using...savoy cabbage? This is a good place to start. Here I took a picture of a page..

Eh, not so good. Maybe if you click on it it will enlarge. I'm super excited anyway. Oh, and our movie? We saw Avatar. Beautiful! Highly recommend it. Beautiful world they created for that movie. Someone had a brilliant imagination. And there's enough fights for my guy to enjoy it too. And I want one of those flying animal things in the next life.

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