Life in Eating

When Does Organic Actually Matter?

2010-12-19T09:22:00.001-08:00

I've seen some people just go nuts buying organic. Some people may even make you feel like you're going to hell for not eating organic. The question becomes: is it really necessary? From what I've read from Dr. Furhman, Dr. Cousens, and others, it is worth buying the organic stuff depending on the food item.

The rule of thumb seems to be, if you're going to eat the peel, then you should buy organic. This means, if you're going to buy a inorganic apple, then you should peel it before you dive into that thing. Why? Because the toxins from the pesticides cause cancer, and the skin absorbs to brunt of it. Conversely, if you buy an organic apple, just house that peel. You can probably even eat the sticker.

For things like strawberries and blueberries, you're screwed. You should only buy organic. It turns out the most toxic natural food on the planet is an inorganic strawberry, stay away from those. There is no peeling organic berries, unless you're a psycho path. Plus too many of the toxins get into the fruit anyway.

Finally, there is a taste benefit to organic. Organic carrots for instance taste sweeter. I've also noticed organic apples taste better as well, although that's pretty subjective.

Soy Sauce Replacement

2010-08-01T21:52:00.001-07:00

A good amount of recipes seem to call for soy sauce. Mrs. Bragg's Liquid Aminos makes a good substitute to salt-saturated soy sauce.

Harvest Grains, Spinach, and Tofu

2010-07-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine gave this recipe. It keeps well and is good to have multiple times.

1 Bag of Trader Joe 's Harvest Grains
1 Pound of frozen spinach
1 package of extra firm tofu
2 low sodium vegetable bullion cubes

Boil 4 cups of water with bullion cubes. Add in harvest grains, spinach, sliced tofu, and cook on low. Add low sodium hot sauce, or Himalayan or Celtic salt. Makes about 4-5 meals.

Kale - Best Food on The Planet

2010-05-31T10:55:00.001-07:00

What would you choose you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life? Most people probably wouldn't choose kale. Perhaps one of the most under-eaten foods, there seems to be no question that Kale contains the most micro nutrients of any food on the earth. My first exposure to Kale was in my grandmother's famous Portuguese Kale soup. Accompanied by chourico, potatoes, and salt, it is one of the most unappetizing looking dishes you can have. If you throw away the chourice, these Portuguese people of old were on to something. It is interesting to note that my grandmother said that she or my grandfather would never eat the chourico in the latter part of their life, because of the way they felt from it. It is interesting to think they continued to eat the soup without the main Portuguese ingredients. Maybe their bodies were craving the kale in their old age. Or maybe I'm just a total bullshitter, but it's worth pointing out the story.

Quick High Nutrient Lunch

2010-05-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a good tasting meal and one of the highest nutrition valued in "Eat for Health" by Dr. Furhman. I had this for lunch today with a big red delicious apple, and it's definitely a keeper.

1 pound of spinach
1 pound of brussel sprouts
1 onion chopped
14.5 oz can of chopped or diced tomatoes
4 cloves of minced garlic
2 pinches of Himalayan salt (regular salt kills you)
pepper

Steam the spinach and brussel sprouts with water in a covered pot. Water saute onion and garlic. After everything is soft, combine in the pot and add all other ingredients.

The Protein Myth

2010-05-09T10:12:00.001-07:00

Which has more protein, the steak or the broccoli? According to Dr. Furhman, the broccoli has more protein per calorie. It seems a bit hard to believe, but it's true. Now, to move onto chicken, chicken wins. However, Dr. Furhman recommends eating at least a pound of greens per day. If we actually eat a pound of greens a day, then we will be getting our fill of protein. Add a couple cups of beans to the mix, and you're getting just as much protein in that alone. Plus, you'll help avoid the cancers associated with eating chicken on a frequent basis.

Almond Milk

2010-04-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

I've been drinking quite a bit of soy milk. Mainly because I eat oatmeal for breakfast most days. Another reason is simply because the Silk brand Vanilla tastes pretty good. The only problem is, I've read nothing but bad about having too much soy. I haven't grown boobs or anything yet, but consensus on the estrogen issue doesn't sound good. Fortunately, I've heard that almond milk is actually good for you. I tried making my own by soaking some almonds over night. It was ok, but I'm not sure I have the time for it. Last week at the grocery store I noticed Blue Diamond vanilla almond milk. The stuff is delicious, and I don't feel as bad as I did with the soy milk. You're probably better off with the non-vanilla version, but the stuff tastes pretty damn good.

Eating With Your Skin

2010-04-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

Due to my diagnosis of pre-daibetes I've been reading a book called There is Cure for Diabetes by Dr. Gabriel Cousens. I would highly recommend this book for anyone with or without the threat of diabetes in their life. I'll point out a couple interesting points made in this book before getting to the odd title of "Eating With Your Skin".

Side Point #1 - There is already a cure

First, there is a cure for diabetes. Yes, we have those diabetes walks out there, and yes we have health companies trying to find a cure, but there is actually already a cure for most diabetes patients and that is diet. Once sugar, meat, dairy, and processed food is cut out of a diet, even the worst diabetics can be less diabetic than a "normal" person. However, we're too scared of a diet like that, and rather we want these benefit walks to invent some miracle pill. If you have a family member suffering with diabetes, you need to tell them about this book.

Side Point #2 - Diabetes is mainly influenced by diet

Diabetes is increasing in America at a rapid rate, which tells us diet and lifestyle contribute to it heavily. Dr. Cousens shows several studies were tribes of all sorts have a tremendously sharp increase in diabetes upon taking up a Westernized diet. Additionally, there are projections stating that all individuals born after 2000 will have a 50% chance of diabetes. All signs point to our increasingly terrible diet -- pseudo health foods being part of the problem. Our genotype allows for diabetes, and our food and lifestyle choices allow it to happen (otherwise known as the phenotype). As I'm starting to discover this is the case with most disease, including cancer.

Eating With Your Skin

Everyone has heard that vitamin D is good for you. Beyond that Dr. Cousens points out some very interesting ideas and statistics. First, vitamin D is actually hormone, produced by your body. Hormones are responsible for regulating a variety of processes going on in the body. The best way to get vitamin D is the sun, as you may have heard. In this day and age we are taught "sun evil". Personally, I never feel more invigorated or in a better mood than when I've just spent a weekend day in the sun. I don't think there is a coincidence to that. Now, obviously the sun is starting to give us cancer, because of the harmful rays. However, in my unprofessional opinion our obsession with sunblock is stealing away the remaining benefits. Here are some facts from Dr. Cousens:

One 20 minute full body exposure to the summer sun will result in putting enough vitamin D in the body for 48 hours
If you're fat, you don't produce as much vitamin D from sun exposure
Using sunscreen of even a low spf of 8 reduces vitamin D production by 95 percent
75 percent of women in the US are vitamin D deficient

The conclusion seems like a no brainer to me, and that is spend the first 20 minutes in the sun without sunscreen on.

Things Will Taste Better

2010-04-03T09:03:00.001-07:00

In Dr. Furhman's book Eat to Live, he mentions that after getting off the processed food diet, full of salt, certain foods will begin to taste better, and you'll begin to notice new flavors. I was pretty skeptical of this, but after about 2 months, I noticed I'm starting to enjoy things like almonds and nuts. As a kid I hated peanut butter. Recently, while at a friend's house I was offered a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which I happened to enjoy very much. I'm not recommending the jelly part of the equation, but I'm just commenting on how I believe my taste buds have actually been re-sensitized now that I'm not sucking in hundreds or thousands of milligrams of salt per day. After I realized I enjoyed the sandwich, I've started putting walnuts and pecans on my salads. This is discussion for a whole different post, but I've found throwing quality foods into salad is a good way just to get the nutrients, that your body thrives on, down the pipes.

As an aside, my high-to-low weight range of this whole process has been 226 - 192 since January. No, I didn't start this thing as a new year's resolution. I started it due to a blood pressure reading of 176/106, and a diagnosis of pre-diabetes, despite nobody in my family having either. 34 pounds of unintentional weight loss, without working out, is just a testament to how much crap I got out of my body after 27 years of neglectful eating. I wouldn't be surprised if I could have dropped more, but to be honest with you, I've been eating a ton. The difference is 90-95% of it is fruits, vegetables, and unprocessed grains.

Raw Foods

2010-03-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

My friend Dave came across this nut. I can't get enough of this guy. I think he's right on in terms of really fine tuning your body's functioning. Enjoy.

Olive Oil - Not Good For You

2010-03-07T06:53:00.000-08:00

Only Good With Relativity
There has been a fallacy circulating itself throughout the world that olive oil is good for you. In actuality olive oil is not as bad as other oils, at best. The reason olive oil is bad is because you're taking the worst part of the olive, the oil, and creating one super concentrated fatty oil. Sure olives are ok, but when you take its worst feature and take in a massive quantity of it, you're looking at problems. It's been found that consuming olive oil will actually decrease your blood flow. The good news is that eating green vegetables can help counteract these effects. I'll leave you with a great video on the subject:

Cooking Without It

Dr. Furhman encourages using pure juice mixtures such as apple juice or pineapple juice. However, he doesn't appear to mind using a teaspoon or two of it per week. So if you were following my general philosophy, maybe you could use it once a week when you have your fish. Just don't sit there and dip your bread in the stuff.

A Great Desert

2010-02-26T23:30:00.001-08:00

Fruit Pie

Crust:

Cup of almonds
Cup of dates
Food process almonds, then add dates and food process
Press down mix on pie tray

Filling:

2 bananas with lemon juice sprinkled
2 kiwis
box of strawberries
box of blueberries
All blended strawberries and soy milk on top of what you see in the picture

Day of Eating #2

2010-02-19T18:50:00.001-08:00

Here we go, another day of good eating. All these meals are quick. I found the lunch and dinner particularly satisfying. As for the dinner, Dr. Furhman probably wouldn't want you having that much fish, but I'm trying to get the Omega 3, and I haven't had any meat this week other than about a cup or so of chicken in a burrito.

Breakfast

Scott Frazier Classic Smoothie

Sorry no picture on this one, I borrowed one. This is what it looks like though. In general do feel ridiculous for taking pictures of my food even when I'm alone, but I'll try to do it most of the time. Here we go:

1 cup frozen berries
1 banana
1 package or 1 cup of oatmeal
1 cup of organic apple juice

Lunch

Tofu Spinach Pot

This is another one from Eat to Live. I've never been a fan of tofu, but all the other stuff in this makes the stuff taste pretty good. This dish is also very filling. I really enjoyed it. I got about 3 meals out of it.

1 lb. extra firm tofu
1 10 oz box of frozen spinach, thawed
3 tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/8 tsp. cayenne
1/8 tsp. onion powder
1/2 cup vegetable broth

Dinner

Trout and Salad

Trout:

Mrs. Dash no salt Spicy Teriyaki Marinade
Mrs. Dash no salt lemon pepper
Paprika
Pepper
Pan fry in pineapple/coconut juice (instead of olive oil, which by the way is not good for you)

Salad:

Romaine Lettuce and Spinach Mix
Cherry tomatoes
Baby carrots
Spicy sprouts
Pico de galo (i.e. pre-made onion, tomato, cilantro mix)
Pear flavored vinegar on top

Day of Eating #1

2010-02-18T22:27:00.000-08:00

I'm going to post these full days of eating periodically if you just want to get some decent food without thinking about it too much. Most of the recipes will come from Dr. Furhman's Eat To Live, or at least along the lines of what he advises. They are all pretty quick, and made of mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, and unprocessed grains.

Breakfast

Oatmeal with Fruit

Rolled oats
Soy milk
Raspberries or blueberries
Raisins
Flax seed

Lunch

Salad, Hummus Pita, Apple, Banana

Hummus Recipe:

1 can unsalted garbanzo beans
3/4 of the water from the beans
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of horseradish
2 cloves garlic finely chopped

blend together

Dinner

Acorn Squash Supreme

1 large acorn squash
4 bsp. diced dried apricots
2 tbsp. chopped raw cashews
15 oz can of unsweetened, crushed pineapple, juice reserved
2 tbsp. raisins
cinnamon

Cut squash in half, remove seeds, and bake in 1/2 inch of water at 350 for 45 mins. While this is cooking, cover the apricots in a bowl with pineapple juice. On top of this put the pineapple, raisins, and cashews. After the squash is done, mix the fruit and place in the squash seed pit. Cook for 30 mins, remove put cinnamon on top, and cook for another 5.

Eating To Live

2010-02-17T21:26:00.000-08:00

The Point

A recent high blood pressure reading has inspired me to read up on the American diet. In summary, the American diet, full of meat and dairy, is killing us and/or causing us to suffer from terrible diseases and cancers. Additionally, our major lack of vegetables and fruits is hurting our ability to fight these diseases and cancers. In Eat to Live, the book that inspired this blog, Dr. Furhman states that most Americans will die of heart disease or cancer. I think this is something we may know in the back of our heads, but if you're anything like me, you've ignored it, assuming you can take in our artificial diet. As another expert Dr. McDougall says, most people will ignore this and a small percentage of people will take it to heart. I'm hoping to reach that small percentage.

The Plan

I will try to document my meals, recipes included, as I attempt to follow Dr. Furhman's Eat to Live diet. This diet is no mystery. There is no counting calories, there is not quest for protein. You simply eat as many vegetables and fruits as you can, while trying to eliminate meat and dairy. In my research, I've found that our problem as Americans is the fact that we're undernourished. By taking in large amounts of meat and dairy, our body is full of undernourished calories. As a result, we are continually hungry. Did you know that there is more protein per calorie in salad than there is in steak? I hope to shed a little light on these things. In this process I'm not looking to lose weight, I'm mainly looking to increase my health. Over the last 6 weeks, I have just happened to lose 20-25 pounds, only exercising a couple times a week, and loosely following the advice of Furhman and McDougall.