10,000 Vinyasas

I don’t trust my local grocery chain. As I’ve become more aware of the evils of the industrial food system, Big Agriculture, and the ubiquity of corn and soy products in processed foods (along with all the other harmful ingredients), I’ve also noticed that the local grocery is pretty much a cheerleader for catering to people’s ignorance and worst impulses when it comes to food. Here, we are speaking of processed meats, products containing white flour and sugar, and horrendously fatty “fresh” food offerings. Further, in contrast to, say, Whole Foods, I perceive that profit, from selling whatever, is singularly the chain’s primary motivation. Hence, they are late and reluctant to stock organic and local produce, doing this only as a sop to some of their customers. As business people, they are ruthlessly predatory, driving out almost every other major chain from San Antonio (the exception is Walmart and Target, not exactly paragons of virtue themselves). In my view, it’s not too difficult to delve beneath the superficial cheeriness and relentless “low price” propaganda and see the essential greediness sucking up the resources and health of the captive, oblivious citizenry. In addition to Whole Foods, we do happen to have a couple of smaller specialty stores which stock a lot more fresh local products (Green Fields, Sun Harvest). Not that these are perfect (nor is Costco, another place I frequent, for the fresh produce, mostly), but they are a damn sight better than the sneaky, fake grocery chain that dominates the retail landscape here.

A couple of years ago, I read a book called Good Calories, Bad Calories. Dense and full of technical analysis of many many studies, it nonetheless was a revelation, at least in my thinking about food. The immediate reaction, upon finishing, was to wonder “how could this be true?” since it essentially pointed out that much of the conventional wisdom about what to eat (and what not to eat) was based upon flawed studies, misinterpretation, and politicized recommendations, most of which center around the “low fat” diet. What Taubes indicates in the book is if you don’t eat as much fat, you have to make up for it by increasing either protein or carbohydrates, and mathematically, this must be true. The role of simple carbs, like sugar and white flour, is examined in the cases of native people who adopt Western diets and thereby suffer cancer, diabetes, heart attacks and strokes, as well as obesity. Although it is impossible, at least to me at this time, to determine whether Taubes is correct (or at least partially correct), I began to adopt a more fat-based diet in response. I had already dropped about 10 pounds (and they were very significant pounds, too, since they came directly off my waist), and I was curious as to whether I could maintain this loss while increasing my fat content. Reading these words makes it seem that it was more of a conscious and linear process, but it actually just evolved over a period of time, while I started eating more nuts and quality meats while trying, gradually to reduce or eliminate more sugar, white flour and processed foods in my diet. As regular readers know, the latest manifestation is the addition of raw whole milk to my diet. At this point, I can report that my weight remains stable and at the level which I consider to be close to the ideal (I’m not ready to give up beer and margaritas, yet). By all rights, if the low fat theory of diet is correct, I should have gained quite a bit of weight over the last couple of years, but that didn’t happen. I am therefore ready to conclude that, for me at least, a low fat diet has no real place in my understanding of the best way to eat. Reducing the amounts of simple carbohydrates, however, does seem to work. Your mileage may vary.

Ok, so I’ve now had about a gallon of the raw whole milk I picked up from a local farmer last week. Tentatively, I can report that consumption of this seems to decrease my appetite (produces a feeling of “fullness”) later on in the day. I’m hoping it will promote more weight stabilization as well. It’s kind of a pain to have to journey out to get this milk every ten days or so, but I suppose it’s worth it, if it is, in fact, healthier. I guess the jury’s still out on this. Certainly it tastes better than the organic skim I had been drinking.

10. The ingredients are inferior. Think you’re getting organic spinach in your salad? I doubt it. This goes double for salmon, which is invariably farmed and contains harmful PCBs.

9. Alcoholic beverages are outrageously priced. Generally, a glass of wine sells for about as much as you can buy the entire bottle in the store. Some establishments resist the temptation to vastly overcharge, but they are rare. Get ready to pay out the nose if you want to drink.

8. Actually, there’s really no telling what could be in that dish you just ordered. The people in the back (see rule #7) might pour a bunch of sugar or corn syrup in there, just to make it taste “better.” Too much salt is also entirely too common.

7. Generally, felons are employed back in the kitchen. I’m not making this up; it’s one of the few areas where people with a criminal record can still find work. Would you invite someone like this into your kitchen to serve you food? I think not.

6. Noise. Apparently, many many restaurant owners think an ear-splitting volume equates to a convivial atmosphere, so little or no noise-reducing materials are used. This does not make for an setting of tranquility and serenity.

5. The temptation to eat crap is too much, when it’s all around you. I’m talking here about white processed flour and sugar. You might be a saint at home, but when it’s staring you up at you from the bread basket, it becomes much harder to stick to your chosen dietary path of avoiding raising your glycemic levels.

4. Poor service and an expected tip for same. We’ve all experienced this one, I’m sure.

3. The sanitary condition of the establishment is also a concern. Periodic inspections by your local health department are necessary, but not sufficient. Do you want to take the time to examine the certificate and do other “homework” to ensure that you’re not risking infection before you decide to patronize a restaurant?

2. Did you know many of the dishes you think are uniquely prepared in the restaurant are in fact delivered frozen on a truck? Why not just skip the dining out and just go straight to the freezer at the grocery store? Google Sysco if you think I’m kidding.

1. If you take even a small amount of time and effort, you can create dishes at home that are much better and cheaper than you will find at almost any restaurant. You’ll know you’re getting to that point when your reaction to most of the offered cuisine at an establishment is “I could make this at home, better.”

According to my latest reading, Real Food: What to Eat and Why, the author highly and in great detail recommends drinking whole, raw milk, fresh from the farm. It’s not too difficult to believe the the industrial processes of pasteurization and homogenation destroy necessary vitamins, minerals, and good fats. Yes, yes, we are continuing our exploration of what to eat, a la Gary Taubes, and trying out the notion that much of the low fat, high carb, meat is bad dogma we’ve been fed (sorry) most of our lives is, well, just completely wrong. To that end, I’ve located a couple of sources just outside the city for raw milk. (Texas, surprisingly, has a raw milk farmer certification program). I’m very curious about this, and about whether drinking such milk will increase my body weight. A continuing series…

Here’s a Thanksgiving tradition at my house (actually, my parents’, which is where Turkey Day takes place since time immemorial), that I started when I dug the recipe out of the newspaper (back when we had a newspaper). Now, it seems that most of the family expects me to appear with it, so here goes:

Almond Squash Soup

4 tablespoons butter
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1 leek, white part only, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1/2 stalk celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
4 ounces (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup flour
4 medium yellow squash, diced into 3/4 inch pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons rosemary, minced
5 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup toasted almonds
1 cup half and half, or as needed
salt and pepper to taste

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in medium sized pan, then add onion, leek, carrot, celery and garlic, and saute gently until tender, about 8-10 minutes.
While vegetables are cooking, make a roux. Melt 4 ounces butter in separate pan, add flour, stirring in well. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, about 8 minutes. Remove roux from heat and set aside until needed.
When vegetables are tender, add squash and saute 8 more minutes. Add rosemary and stock, and bring mixture to a boil. Add prepared roux, stir to blend, and allow mixture to cook and thicken about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and puree in blender, along with toasted almonds, until smooth. Heat half and half and add to soup until desired consistency is reached. Season with salt and pepper as desired.
Yield: 8 servings

I modify this recipe somewhat, depending upon (yes!) what I have in the kitchen. Also, in the past I’ve used skim milk instead of half and half and whole milk. I think the flavor doesn’t suffer.

Honestly, I don’t know why, but this was very very good. I’ve made pasta quite a bit in my life, but this Italian super premium stuff really is to die for. It improves your cooking immensely. I could be wrong about this, but I’ve done this twice now, and it’s been awesome. My best guess…

Well, here is yet another example of the industrial food system, and it’s corrupt influence on the persons in charge of regulating it, in a story about how a new labeling program called “Smart Choices” allows such fine processed foods as Froot Loops to be deemed healthy, or, in the words of the captivated Eileen T. Kennedy, president of the Smart Choices board and the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, at least the least worst option: “You’re rushing around, you’re trying to think about healthy eating for your kids and you have a choice between a doughnut and a cereal,” Dr. Kennedy said, evoking a hypothetical parent in the supermarket. “So Froot Loops is a better choice.”

Ho ho ho…Thanks, doc. Just for reference, this product is 42% sugar by weight. As one commentator mentioned, surely the doughnut would be better than a tub of lard, so let’s give the doughnut the Smart Choices check too. Actually, I don’t really think you should be buying stuff that has a nutrition label on it; these are processed foods not deserving of your attention. Once again, it’s difficult to come to any other conclusion except that the industrial food system is untrustworthy and no one should buy their products. Here are some of the participants: Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, ConAgra Foods, Unilever, General Mills, PepsiCo and Tyson Foods.

Just don’t buy. Just don’t.

I’ve been meaning to try composting for quite awhile…just something that seemed to be a good thing to do, but hadn’t gotten around to it until recently, when I purchased a small kitchen bin from a local discount store. About a foot high, it seemed kind of small, but what the hey, let’s give this a shot. Well. I was just amazed, after using it a couple of weeks, at how much kitchen refuse this thing swallowed up. It seemed to be full, but then you press it down a bit, and voila! it goes back down. I’ve put an enormous amount of stuff into this thing (lots of coffee grounds, natch) and it still refuses to fill up. This item has really exceeded my wildest expectations. I mean, the amount of biodegradable kitchen material that we discard is just amazing, when you look at it, and the second thing that ran through my head was, “why doesn’t everyone do this?” I mean really, it’s so easy and so cheap, and requires no effort at all. Just another example of how ridiculously wasteful our industrialized society is, and a hint of how much more we could all do, or at least some of us, if we wanted to.

Here’s a very nice and simple recipe for stuffed portobello mushrooms. Mushrooms, of course, are one of the mysteries of the natural world; we aren’t sure what they are, exactly. A plant, a fungus, who knows? Well, for our purposes, they have quite a “meaty” taste and are excellent in many many dishes. Here is one that will make you smile:

6 or 8 portobello mushrooms, remove stems (don’t discard, they go well in the Mexican Flag Omelet)
tiny amount of red/green bell peppers, chopped
one or two cloves of garlic, chopped
small amount of feta cheese bits
tiny amount of onion, chopped

Put all ingredients into mushroom caps, bake in oven at 400 for awhile. This would be for a single serving, so add more of everything if you’re sharing. Takes about 10-15 minutes. Here’s a picture of some I made tonight:

For those of us who have migrated to whole grains, bought from the bulk bins of local grocers (well, there are no local grocers anymore, just chains), here’s a quick hint to prevent certain, well, bugs and offspring of same from reproducing while in your pantry: freeze the items for a couple of days after you get them home. This should be enough to kill off the potential sources of protein which might one day look up at you from your cereal bowl.

2005 Yellow Tail Chardonnay Reserve…yuck! I understand the differences between California and Australian chardonnays, but still, this one is just aged and failing. If you want value, stick to the regular Yellow Tail; it’s rough, but at least its not overpriced.

2006 Sawbuck Chardonnay (Medocino County). Eschews the traditional “oaky” California version, but still, lacks complexity and balance.

2007 Rock Rabbit Sauvignon Blanc (Central Coast, California). Do these people know what good sauvignon blanc is? Obviously not.

Here’s another one from the “home alone” department: I love fresh berries, in my cereal and elsewhere, and tend to want to buy a lot of them at once, for financial and convenience reasons. Alas, we find that these little devils tend to spoil relatively quickly, making their quick consumption a priority. Strawberries tend to be the worst, but all varieties are subject to this to some degree. To that end, here’s one way to dispose of a great many berries at once: a smoothie. Here’s one recipe for a nice one:

cup of blueberries
2 or 3 strawberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup orange juice
some walnuts
couple of tablespoons each of oat and rye flakes
6 ounce cup of plain or vanilla yogurt (try to get the ones with the least sugar)
some ice cubes
(optional) banana, peanut butter, protein powder

Mix it all up in your blender and enjoy the taste of health and frugality.

Ok, a perennial favorite activity of mine is to monitor my local grocery chain and try to gauge when certain wines that have, shall we say, gotten a little elderly, are placed on the clearance rack and marked down 50% (more if you buy 6). In my mind, it’s a great opportunity to try some wines that you wouldn’t ordinarily get to experience. We had such an event recently and I spent an enormous amount of money, but got an amazing variety of wines. Here are impressions of two I tried recently…

Sterling Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc (California 2006). A poor example of the varietal. Flat, no structure, no discernable fruit. Not really a bargain.

Natura Organic Sauvignon Blanc (Chile 2007). Now we’re talking! This one rivals New Zealand’s Marlborough region for its distinctive grapefruit, grassy, tart flavors. Outstanding at $5.00.

In my opinion, there is now a fatal contradiction in the standard healthy diet advice that has been given to us by the scientific establishment, and it mostly concerns the treatment of fats and carbohydrates (fats are considered bad, carbs are not considered at all), blown open by such writers as Gary Taubes. However, I’ve been reluctant to just throw out entirely the idea that fruits and vegetables shouldn’t be consumed in massive quantities, which a strict Atkins-type regimen would suggest. I also have some doubts about the longterm effects of overconsumption of animal protein. Well, I think this may be the answer: a study detailed here explored the effects of a high fat, low carb, vegan diet, called in the piece the “eco-Atkins.” Short answer: results are promising. I think I like this more because it fits all the facts as we currently know them, and seems to be the best compromise between these wildly varying approaches to the fiendishly difficult question of “what shall we eat?”

As if you didn’t need any other reason this article puts it in the starkest terms available, that you shouldn’t be eating processed foods of any kind. Briefly, it chronicles the experience of giant food corporation Con-Agra and its decision to put the burden of food safety on unwitting consumers, by assuming they will cook the food past the temperatures necessary to kill off such toxic bugs as salmonella. Of course, given the vagueness of the instructions and the general level of ignorance among the populace, it was inevitable that many would not heed or follow the instructions, resulting in sickness and death. Here’s the real hair-raiser:

“Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients. In this case, ConAgra could not pinpoint which of the more than 25 ingredients in its pies was carrying salmonella. Other companies do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers, interviews and documents show.”