A holistic view of food

I just finished a (lengthy) article called Unhappy Meals by Michael Pollan. If you have–no, can make–the time to read this article, I highly recommend it.

The basic premise is that the modern approach to food (looking at isolated nutrients rather than whole foods, diets, and lifestyles) is considerably less healthful than earlier alternatives. An interesting excerpt:

This brings us to another unexamined assumption: that the whole point of eating is to maintain and promote bodily health. Hippocrates’s famous injunction to ”let food be thy medicine” is ritually invoked to support this notion. I’ll leave the premise alone for now, except to point out that it is not shared by all cultures and that the experience of these other cultures suggests that, paradoxically, viewing food as being about things other than bodily health — like pleasure, say, or socializing — makes people no less healthy; indeed, there’s some reason to believe that it may make them more healthy. This is what we usually have in mind when we speak of the ”French paradox” — the fact that a population that eats all sorts of unhealthful nutrients is in many ways healthier than we Americans are. So there is at least a question as to whether nutritionism is actually any good for you.

You really should read the whole article, but here are the author’s basic recommendations: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

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I recently discovered the fatsecret diet website (probably worth another post all on its own!) and noticed that one of the most effective diets as reported by their members is the Fat Smash Diet. I didn’t know anything about the diet, but I’m always influenced by effectiveness, so I decided to look into it.

It’s the creation of Dr. Ian Smith, who seems to be something of a celebrity himself on Celebrity Fit Club, a VH1 show I’ve never seen (not having VH1 being a significant barrier). It’s a fairly standard diet in that it’s made up of different phases and gives specific guidance on what’s okay to eat and what’s not. It’s mostly no-calorie-counting (as long as you stick to the approved foods) and requires exercise, but is not especially specific about what kinds.

During my basic research, I also discovered a variation on the Fat Smash Diet: The Extreme Fat Smash Diet (yeah, I had to put aside my desire to mock the name mercilessly).

The difference? While the Fat Smash Diet is a 12-week program, The “Extreme” version is made up of three extremely specific week-long “rotations” that can be repeated as needed. Where the regular version dictates categories of foods, the “Extreme” lists out exact foods and portions for each day, as well as a specific amount of cardio exercise. Many of the comments on Amazon suggest that it’s a pretty tough diet to follow, but that if you do, you’ll lose way more weight than the average diet.

That’s significant, because the book cover suggests that you’ll lose “up to 12 pounds in three weeks.” That’s much more than most legitimate diet folks would promise (the accepted rule of thumb being two pounds per week), but the Amazon reviews indicate that it’s for real. Continue reading “Three weeks on the Extreme Fat Smash Diet”

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As part of my current diet, we’re eating a lot more beans and grains (particularly quinoa and barley). One of the happy side effects of cooking with unfamiliar foods is that I end up finding great recipes on Recipezaar that I might have never tried. This is one of those recipes.

It’s a slow cooker recipe, which is convenient since I have a crock pot that I rarely use (and consequently, I also have unused-kitchen-gadget-guilt!). However, if you don’t have a slow cooker, I expect you could probably convert this to a stove top recipe pretty easily.

Italian Lentil and Barley Soup

1 cup lentils
1/3 cup pearl barley
1 cup carrots (chopped)
1 cup celery (chopped)
1 cup onions (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
3 1/2 cups broth
2 1/2 cups water
14 1/4 ounces Italian-style tomatoes or regular stewed tomatoes or crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar (optional)

1. Sort through lentils to remove debris and shriveled beans, then rinse.
2. Add lentils to crock pot, along with barley, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, dried herbs and bay leaf.
3. Pour in broth, water, and tomatoes.
4. Cover and cook on low heat for 12 to 14 hours, or on high heat for 5 to 6 hours.
5. Discard bay leaf and just before serving stir in parsley and vinegar (if using).

Based on some of the previous reviews, I increased the garlic to three very large cloves. I also left out the parsley and cider vinegar, not having either on hand. My food processor made quick work of the veggies, so the active time on this recipe was very reasonable.

The result? Very tasty! Daniel loved it (and loved the fact that we had enough for several leftover lunches) and has declared this recipe a permanent addition to our recipe box.

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I started a new diet about two and a half weeks ago (more on the specifics in an upcoming post), right after I got home from a family visit to Colorado. I’d known for a while that October and early November were going to be nuts, and they were. Besides Colorado, I went to Las Vegas for BlogWorld on the 7th.

I’d never been to Vegas before, but I tried to do my research ahead of time. I booked a room near the convention center so that I could walk, and scoped out the local restaurants on Google Maps to see what was to be seen. Continue reading “Dieting on vacation: it IS possible!”

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It’s often the little things in life that make me happy. For instance, with all the expensive toys and bikes that I own, one of my very favorite possessions is my heated mattress pad.

Along the same lines, one of the things that regularly frustrated me was my kitchen scale. It wasn’t annoying enough to motivate me to actual action, but it was one of those nagging frustrations, and every time I used it, I made a mental note to replace it.

It’s not that the scale was that bad; it just wasn’t very good. It was an old-school spring loaded beastie that constantly had me questioning its accuracy; consecutive weighings produced wildly different numbers, and trying to “zero” it (or “tare,” as I now know that function is properly called) was counter-intuitive and subject to the same accuracy concerns.

I’d been annoyed by the scale pretty much as long as I’ve had this blog (it didn’t matter before I started using it for dieting!), so when a guy by the name of William Geronimo wrote to me and offered to let me review a new “nutritional scale,” you can bet I jumped at the chance. Continue reading “EatSmart Nutrition Scale, an old-fashioned dieter’s new best friend”

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