Nell Stephenson's Blog, page 53

Peaches The Size of Grapefruits?

Do you recall reading a book when you were a child called James and the Giant Peach?  I remember it well.  I enjoyed the story. 

But I  never actually expected to see one before my very eyes.

The other day while perusing a local market,  as I made my way to the small, organic section, I passed by the conventionally grown, local produce in session in California:  all the berries, the summer stone fruits and the tomatoes.

I knew better than to even think twice about the tomatoes; we all know how awful and styrofoam-like most tomatoes purchased at the market are.

What caught my eye was not the shiny, lacquered wax on the apples from New Zealand nor the wilted, shriveled up blueberries from Chile, but the peaches.

They were about five times the size of the organic ones.

And people were buying them!

Granted, if you weren’t looking at them right next to each other, you might possibly take it out of context and forget how small they’re supposed to be, but still…

One more way to decipher whether or not something is a good choice to eat is to factor in its size.  Just like chickens are not meant to be as big as the Foster Farms 5-pounders (pastured hens weigh in around 2=-pounds), peaches are not meant to be the size of grapefruits.

If you want a fruit that big, well, have a grapefruit.

Sticking with the real version of a local, organic, seasonal peach will allow you to experience its true flavor in the small portion and subsequent lower fructose content it offers versus a giant, GMO version filled with who knows what.

Stick to the True Paleo approach and your body will better for it!

Burgers, Meatballs & Meatloaf… No Fillers Needed!

Clients are often surprised when I tell them that no breadcrumbs, day-old bread or crushed cereal are needed to make burgers, or meatballs or meatloaf.

If you have any doubt, try this little experiment:

Take some grass fed beef (either buy it already ground and use the fattier, 85% lean, or, even better, grind your own using one part chunk and one part short ribs) and place it in a bowl.   Using a very lean meat will indeed result in a rather dry burger…

Add nothing to the ground meat.

Divide it into thirds.

Shape the first into a patty and see what happens.

It stays as is.

Then, shape the other into several small balls.

Then, stuff the last third into a rectangular glass baking dish.

Pan fry the first two shapes (still adding nothing) in a cast iron skillet, flipping once, halfway through, and bake the loaf shape in the oven.

When all three are cooked, check them out and see if they don’t look exactly the way you pictured each to be.

For purposes of this description only, I avoided the suggestion to add any seasonings or spices whatsoever just to illustrate how easy it is and how unnecessary it would be to add those fillers that are all too commonly used.

Those fillers are good for one thing only:  to create more portions.

If you have one pound of meat and six dinner guests, those burgers would be quite small. Yet if you added bread crumbs, eggs, Heinz Ketsup and Lipton Onion Soup mix, you could make more burgers using less meat and be far more cost effective.

Except you’d be poisoning your dinner guests with dairy, gluten, corn syrup and copious amounts of salt.

Add your choice of dried salt-free spices and go to town with fresh herbs, and rest assured no one is going to miss the filler aspect when they’ve got more than their fair share of flavor, taste and texture!

Go Ahead, Have Cereal For Dinner. What?

Americans are eating more cereal. And it’s not just cereal, it’s sugar cereal.  

According to an article in the WSJ yesterday, 20% of sugar cereals are eaten outside of the breakfast time window.

Reasons for this include not having time in the morning to sit down and eat a bowl of cereal and, when eaten after dinner, it ‘feels like a less horrible option than cookies or cupcakes’ according to one person cited in the piece.

The cereal companies are responding by repacking certain varieties with a starry night sky backdrop.

The president of General Mills states that by giving people permission to eat cereal for dinner (excuse me?) as well as at other times of day through advertising, it helps to alleviate some of the guilt.

So glad to know GM has our best interest at heart.

Later in the article, we see that people are being pulled away from cereal to some degree, because they see protein as healthy and filling.

Awesome!  Protein is healthy and filling!

But continue along reading only to find that the source of protein is often coming from Greek yogurt, fast food egg sandwiches and protein bars.

It gets worse.  As if eating cereal for breakfast (which is still the most commonly consumed (non) food in America as the first meal of the day) wasn’t bad enough, it’s specifically sugar cereal consumption that are outpacing the cereals viewed as being plain, such as corn flakes.

New and interesting approaches that the cereal companies are using in order to promote their product including encouraging customers to use it as an ingredient, such as adding it to a smoothie, and to make it part of the Family Breakfast Project which strives to get families to eat together at home.

Nearly right, precisely wrong.

Yes, the concept of eating meals at home as a family unit can be tremendous in encouraging good eating habits… but, hello?  The foods eaten at the meal need to be healthy!

Eating cereal in a group is no better than eating it alone.

Circling back to the very first example of the man eating cereal after dinner strikes one interesting and quite valid point- at least by eating cereal for dessert, rather than by having it fist thing in the morning, one might recognize it is actually not a meal but a sugar-laden thing to be eaten rarely (we don’t need dessert every day, and dessert needn’t be anything more than a fresh peach!) and not as a staple.

And besides that, it’s not Paleo!

Oh, What A Night!

Last night, I had the opportunity to experience and incredibly delicious, completely Paleo meal, courtesy of Paleo Chef de Cuisne Ali, of Breeze Restaurant at The Regency Century Plaza in Century City.

Yes, this is the event I’ve been blogging, tweeting and Facebooking about for the last two months!

In the end, we had about thirty guests, ranging from members of my Paleo in LA Meet Up group, to executives to happened to be staying at the Hyatt to people who simply love food and wanted to check out a different style of cuisine.

I was thrilled with the entire menu.

From the Charred Indian Eggplant, Almond ‘Ricotta’, Roasted Sweet Pepper and Truffle Amuse all the way to the Lavender Duck Breast, Thyme Roasted Baby Turnip with Peach Puree and Petit Watercress,  each part of the meal left everyone’s mouth watering and speechless that something so amazingly delicious could be not only healthy, but completely Paleo!

Before each course, Chef explained the preparation, the ingredients and how he came up with each and every course.

Every guest raved about the food and I received several requests to have a Meet Up dinner there every single month!

You won’t want to miss it the next time around!

 

Number Your Meals, Don’t Classify Your Food

Breakfast Food.  Lunch Food. Dinner Food.  Snack Food.

What’s the difference between them all?

Actually, nothing.

However, we’ve gotten so confused about it all, that is seems odd for many to think of eating certain foods and certain times of the day.

For example, perhaps the idea of a rare steak and sautéed broccoli sounds like a great dinner, but an odd idea for breakfast.  Conversely, you might consider a veggie omelette a good breakfast, but not something you’d have for lunch.

Why?

Food is either food, or it’s not food.

Veggies, along with healthy fats, like avocado or olive oil plus some wild, natural protein are a great idea at any meal.

Refined carbohydrates, processed sugars and ‘diet’ this or that are a bad idea all the time.

One way to take the confusion out of it is to simply remove the words ‘breakfast, lunch and dinner’ from your vocabulary and replace them with numbers.

Treat your body well with a variety of local, organic produce as the mainstay, a good dose of fat and sufficient wild fish, grass fed meat and pastured poultry and you’ll be doing yourself a huge favor at meals number 1,2,3,4 (and perhaps 5 or 6, too, depending on  how many times you personally find your own balance to be).

A far healthier approach than Standard American Breakfasts based on a grain and dairy festival, which set you up for a day of blood sugar peaks and valleys, a fat sparing (as in – holding on to it, rather than burning it) metabolism and flagging energy levels.

Not too hard to see which is the superior approach!

Counting Ingredients

If you’re feeling confused about how to determine what makes for a healthy thing to put in your mouth, whether it’s for a snack or a meal (not that there’s a difference between the two…), one easy way to decipher all the mixed information out there is to check for number of ingredients.

And these ingredients don’t necessarily need to be printed out on a sticker and placed on a wrapper, incidentally.

For example, you can pick up a yam at the farmer’s market and see the single ingredient: yam.

Same goes for all other foods, or non-foods for that matter!   If you were to pick up an ‘in-a-pinch’ food, like one of the original Larabars (a peanut-free variety, of course), you will find one or two ingredients on the label, both of which you can identify as food, such as:

Cashews
Dates

Compare this to another ingredient label, which you might find on something else far too many people would mistakenly view as a healthy snack option, simply because it’s low in calories…the ubiquitous low-carb bar, such as the Quest brand:

Protein Blend:
(Whey Protein Isolate, Milk Protein Isolate)
Isomalto-Oligosaccharides* (Prebiotic Fiber)
Peanuts
Water
Erythritol
Cocoa
Sea Salt
Stevia
Lo Han Guo
Natural Flavors

Ah… nothing like a little Erythritol to give you a little energy boost, right?  Can you even identify that as a food?  It is produced at the industrial level from glucose by fermentation with a yeast and can cause gastric side effects.  Lovely.

One ingredient, or two… both of which you can tell are actually food is much more likely to be a good choice versus something like the example above, or worse!

 

Snap Peas & Green Beans: Yes, Pick & Eat, No, Not Paleo

Green beans and snap peas…pick them and eat them, straight from the garden!   A great, healthy, Paleo snack, right?

Wrong.

Remember, all beans contain anti nutrients (lectins & saponins), which bind to vitamins  & minerals, preventing us from being able to reap all their benefits.  In addition, the anti nutrients contribute to increased intestinal permeability, and a condition known as leaky gut.

Ultimately, one of the main objectives of a modern Paleo regime is to create an anti inflammatory eating patter which allows the body to heal from previous consumption of the Standard American Diet.

For more science behind this, be sure to check out Dr. Cordain’s post on this very topic here.

By the way, just because you can pick and eat them, doesn’t make them a good option to ingest.  You could also pick and eat a poisonous mushroom, for that matter!

Now, here’s the proverbial grain of salt to consider:   if you’re new to Paleo or are partly Paleo and have decided after your own experimenting that you prefer to eat some legumes now and then, that’s always your prerogative, and of course, gardening with your children and having them snack on snap peas is far better than buying them the horrible pretend food marketed to them in the shops.

However, they’re still not Paleo.  Better to opt for dark leafy greens, brightly colored bell peppers, and brilliant ripe berries in order to get your fill of a rainbow of produce all day long!

Paleoista Approved- Fruit at the Finish Line

What a nice surprise I had this morning.   My husband and I popped into a local 1/2 marathon, the NYC Runs Father’s Day Race, and guess what they had there?

Yes, they had the typical Gatorade on the course and the post-race bagels (incidentally, even if I weren’t Paleo, the idea of a dry, chewy bagel after a long effort when my stomach is in my throat and I’m rather dehydrated, I still don’t think I’d want that!)…but they also had fresh, organic strawberries, grapes, apples and bananas!

Now, how hard is that?

Interesting to note that it seemed to be a smaller type of a race, certainly without big name sponsors, so you have to wonder whether that plays a role.

I recall one year at the Seattle Marathon, where the title sponsor was some sort of a milk distributor, that’s what they served at the finish.  Yes, cartons of milk.

Whatever.

Whether you’re a new participant doing your first 5k, or a seasoned marathon runner, make it a point to commend those races where the good, real food is offered.   If we let them know how much we appreciate it, they’re far more likely to keep it up!

Fish Oil- Liquid or Tablets?

The one supplement I feel comfortable recommending to nearly everyone is a high quality fish oil.

Of course, you can certainly get what you need if you eat plenty of wild salmon, wild black cod and wild Arctic Char, but since fish oil is so indicated for so supporting so many functions in the body, it’s one addition that most of us would benefit significantly from.

Aside from making sure the brand you buy is high quality and has low levels of mercury, you also need to consider the form of fish oil you’ll take.

If you don’t mind swallowing a spoonful of fish oil, you may find yourself in a conundrum over whether to choose tablets or the liquid stuff.

For me, the taste is actually not unpleasant, so I don’t mind swallowing it by the spoonful.  However, in addition to the decision of whether or not you mind the taste, you must factor in how long it’s going to take you to get through a bottle of either the oil or the tablets.

The longer the bottle of liquid oil, once opened, remains in your fridge, it oxidizes more and more each time it is opened and is exposed to ambient conditions.

Not so much with the tablets.

So, if it’s just you in your home taking the fish oil and you’ve bought a large bottle of it, you’re probably better off with the tablets since it will take longer to get through than it would if the whole family were on board.

Or, just stick with the capsule form.

In any case, make sure to keep them refrigerated and don’t go with the mega-size, cheap Costco vat; with fish oil in particular, the risk of too much mercury or a low quality which is not kept in the refrigerator simply isn’t worth it.

My favorite, Nordic Naturals, is third party tested, molecularly distilled and has the lowest levels of Mercury compared to other brands on the US Market.

Check them out and enter code NNPBNS  to receive 15% off of your first purchase!  

Another nice feature:  their lemon infusion prevents that awful fish-repeat taste that can come up with some brands!

Low Fat Donuts with No Guilt- Great! Just What We Need!

Holey Donuts make a great snack option, since they’re “Great Tasting..without the fat, calories or guilt”.  And yesterday in the mail, I received a post card for $5 off any purchase if I buy a $15 gift card.

Perfect!  Just in time for Father’s Day, too!

Oh, dear.

You know I’m kidding, I hope!

The only saving grace about the entire thing is that at least they’re not claiming to somehow be Paleo!

It gets even better.   A quick peruse of their site shows that the product is made with, and I quote, “wholesome Pillsbury ingredients” and the best part of all?  They’re “doctor recommended by Kristie Leong M.D., a family physician with a strong interest in disease prevention and alternative medicine. I’m particularly interested in how diet plays a role in disease prevention.”

If this doesn’t cause you to stop and pause for thought about each and every single claim you read from a doctor, the USDA, the media and everything in a package, I don’t know what will.

Whether something is FDA approved, endorsed by the MyPlate Schematic or even taught by your RD who may happen to be obese, it all comes back to the same thing.

We have to trust ourselves to learn what is in each and every think we feed ourselves and our kids.

Then combine it with common sense and everything becomes clear.

Do you really think it’s a good idea to eat donuts?   Remember back in the 50′s when doctors advertised in Life Magazine about how cigarettes are good for us?

Sheesh.

We have a huge industry in drugs (whoops! I meant sugar) and the theory works brilliantly and is incredibly lucrative.  Tell people it’s good for them.  Start early, then get them addicted.  Let them get fat and sick and then get them addicted to more drugs (whoops!  Did it again- I meant prescriptions this time).

There is a lot to be made here.

It all comes down to that.

Trust your gut, literally and figuratively. If it doesn’t seem like a good idea, it probably isn’t, even if a doctor tells you it is.

Just. Eat. Local. Produce. And. Some. Wild. Protein.  And. Move.