Stop Blogging and Cook

HOW TO BEST USE THIS SITE

I’ll bet what motivated the British to colonize so much of the world is that
they were just looking for a decent meal.  ~Martha Harrison

WHERE IN THE WORLD HAVE I BEEN?
Hi, again.  If you’ve wondered where I’d gone, it’s not on a much-needed vacation sitting on a sun-kissed beach awaiting the next pina colada served by a buff beach boy.  Not even close.  It’s to the other part of my life, the one that is income-producing.  I’m embarking on a new adventure and it has become quite time-consuming.  I found myself utterly unable to find any time to continue blogging.  But I did discover that Stop Blogging and Cook is an endeavor that I do not want to leave.

Yes, readers can still begin on January 1st and work their way through the year, each day learning new and different things about the process of feeding themselves and their families.  You don’t need daily posts from me to launch you on your cooking way.  But I truly enjoy the discussion – even if I’m only talking to myself! – that is heating up around food issues.  They are important, because eating is important to every living creature.  The number of abominations that are being tossed around are significant to the global eating public:  the struggle for healthy eating, legislation regarding school lunches & labeling,  the deleterious impact seed patents have on a world of cultures, the psychology and effects of marketing, and special interests’ impact on government action or inaction.  I could go on.

The fact of the matter is that I don’t cook a new preparation every day, or even every week.  I’ve settled into a comfortable and relatively healthy routine of a number of dishes that work for me.  There was a time when I opened up a cookbook just to find something new to try, especially if I was expecting company.  Cooking is creative and fulfilling and, hey, at the end you get to eat!  What’s not to like?   And since I’m eating every day anyway, why not make it myself?

I don’t do a lot of new cooking or experimentation any more.  Undertaking this blog had gotten me back into that experimentation groove because I wanted to give readers a wider variety of things to eat that I had been eating myself.  But that is no longer possible, given the way things are going these days.

I’ve given you most of my quickest and easiest preparations hoping that, once you’d given it a go in a kitchen near you, you’d discover that it wasn’t nearly as difficult as you’d imagined.  Buy some cookbooks that interest you and crack open a new recipe on the family.  People love to be cooked for, as I’ve often said.  You may not need my daily input any more and -  if that is the case – my work here is done.

However, since this isn’t a money-making enterprise, and it’s mine, I can do whatever I want.  And I find that to remain engaged in the goings on of the culture of food out there is a satisfying avocation.  I keep up on world food events and want to keep readers in the loop.  I’ll still post preparations from time-to-time, and will feather articles from other sources.

Marion Nestle’s blog Food Politics, talks about three simple things that doctors can tell their patients about what to eat.  A short list of three covers most of what is truly important:  variety, minimal processing and moderation.

VARIETY
We all know that it is important to eat a variety of foods, but has anyone stopped to wonder why?  Dr Nestle says:

Varying foods within and among food groups takes care of needs for nutrients without having to think about them.

Brilliant.  To absorb the most good nutrition out of foods, simply eating a wide variety of them will enable us to that without spending a lot of time thinking about what to eat.

MINIMAL PROCESSING
We all know that food closest to it’s original form has the most nutrients.  Processed food on the grocery shelves and in frozen food sections is higher in artificial ingredients, chemicals and genetically modified organisms.  Again with a helpful way to avoid having to think about which foods are best, she says:

My definition of minimal processing is only slightly facetious:  Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients or an ingredient you can’t pronounce.

The produce, dairy, bulk dry goods and meat sections of the grocery store are your allies in healthful eating.  The center of the grocery store is a minefield so enter at your own risk.

MODERATION
Briefly:

Balanc[e food] intake with expenditure. . . .

I’ll elaborate:  eat less, move more.  Eating for short-term gain will punish your system and you will suffer long-term consequences.  Balance, in every aspect of life, is good.  Cause and effect at work.

Dr Nestle concludes that healthy eating matters, that what we feed ourselves has everything to do with how healthy we are.  Read the full post, it’s good food for thought.

SEE SIDEBAR FOR PREPARATIONS & INFORMATION

Tags: appreciation, BAD 4U/GOOD 4U, good for you food, healthy choices, thoughtfulness, whole food

HOW TO BEST USE THIS SITE

Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of eating,
very few survive. ~Wallace Irwin (1875 – 1959)

Embarking on a new venture is becoming increasingly time-consuming, so I am having to make quick work if I am to continue my daily posts, which I want wholeheartedly to continue.  Today, I’m recapping some miscellaneous topics addressed before, just to demonstrate that my food ideas are not out-of-the-ordinary.  We all need a little validation now and again, and I’ve linked to my previous posts.

NICE RICE
It’s nice to see how foods circulate through the blogosphere, and yesterday I found black rice on Eat, Drink & Be.  I first spoke about black rice, Forbidden Rice actually, back in January after discovering it in the bulk food department.  With the hip title calling it the ‘new brown,’ the short description does it the disservice of presenting reasons why some may not like it.  I’d much rather focus on why people will like it; they can try it and decide for themselves.  True, it is a heartier rice rather like brown rice but it has much better kernal separation than brown.  In fact, black rice combines the best of both:  mega nutrition, cooking times identical to white rice resulting in a finished product that has a nutty flavor and is nicely separated for salads or side dishes.  I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before someone refines it and puts it in a box, doubling the price and selling it with much marketing mumbo jumbo.  Beat the crowds.  Look for it in the bulk department and experiment with it to find the way of serving it that best suits.

BAG IT NOT
Long a believer in minimal packaging – probably from the frustration of needing a utility knife to open the packaging of a new utility knife – this month and at several other times before, I advocated avoiding packaged fresh vegetables for a variety of reasons.  One of those reasons was to avoid bacteria that can thrive in a moist, closed environment.  Mark Bittman has a post about just such occurrences.

I can’t help but show a quote that sums it up succinctly:

One hopes that senators putting final touches on the Food Safety Modernization Act will take note:  It is the large produce companies distributing packaged goods across the country that are endangering the health of consumers.  It is not the small producers and local growers at farmers’ markets – though they may end up paying for the problem through increased fees and unnecessary regulations.

ALCOHOL PRESERVATION
And in June, at the beginning of the summer season fresh fruit fiesta, I offered a preparation for making Brandied Fruit for use in the late fall and winter.  Kelly Meyer, writing for Culinate had a post on the same, extolling the virtues of canning the easy, alcoholic way.  But where I used rum, her mother used brandy.  And Kelly describes another way of brandying fruit, with wine, but this is a more involved process.  In any case, brandied fruit makes a stellar dessert when added to cakes or put over ice cream.  It even flames!

SEE SIDEBAR FOR PREPARATIONS & INFORMATION

Tags: fruit, real food, rice, vegetables, whole food

If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet,
you’d best teach it to dance.  ~George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)

ONLY THE GOOD FRIDAY
Why not end the week with a laugh or two?  According to Shelly at Only The Good Friday, we should devote one day in seven where only good is mentioned.  I maintain that each laugh cancels out two frowns.

When I read blogs about food or food issues, I always read the Comments.  I like to keep up with research and developments as well as general public opinion, just to know what others are thinking.  Here are some interesting comments:

• From Food Navigator Seeing Red:  The Health Implications of Meat Consumption:
  

ONLY 1 SERVING OF NUTRITIONAL ADVICE PER WEEK
Experts- nutritional, ecological, political, social . . . so many agendas, so little time.  How many anti-meat, anti-animal product experts have done studies on the effects of a diet laden with flour, sugar, fruit juice and high carbohydrates?  Let’s see how the cereal/juice/toast for breakfast diet holds up to scrutiny over a 70 life span.  We need more high carb diet research to show the real cause of so many medical maladies.  There are too many other agendas in the research business to get good results; most every study is adulterated by someone’s pocket being filled by “sponsors”.  I just read a study suggesting only 1 weekly portion of dietary rhetoric from experts would extend my lifespan by 20%.

• From The Junk Drawer The noise of the SunChips bag [emphasis theirs]:
  

. . . JUST DON’T IGNORE ME
At the risk of sounding like a Kelly Clarkson song. . . .  Because of you I fondle those bags in the supermarket.  Compulsively.  I don’t like Sun Chips enough to buy them, they are usually my ‘Side item I hate the least’ at Subway when compelled to eat there, but if I walk down the snack aisle I HAVE TO TOUCH THE BAGS.

• From Food Politics Meat substitutes:
  

Tags: food humor, healthy choices, vegetarian

There are no atoms, molecules, or cells of any organic system able to withstand
such a violent, destructive power for any period of time.
This will happen even given the microwave oven’s
low power range of milliwatts. ~Dr Hans Hertel

QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Dr Mercola, doctor, activist and blogger explains it all – the good, the bad and the ugly – about cooking with microwave ovens.  The FDA has turned a deaf ear to health concerns, still citing decades old research of the technology.  Not even Consumer Report has done its comprehensive evaluation of any food aspect of this technological wonder.  But here comes the good doctor to answer all of the questions surrounding the biggest boon to food preparation in the past hundred years.  And, just as important, he documents his work.

Wouldn’t you expect that a product that sits in more than 90 percent of kitchens, as well as practically every break room in the country, would have been thoroughly investigated for safety?

Wouldn’t we all?

We all know that using a microwave is fast and easy, but what exactly is the down side?  The article is long, but considers such things as nutritional degradation of food, fallout from radiation, short and long-term health consequences.  I’ve boiled down the essentials to give you the straight poop so that you can make your own decisions about whether or not to put that six cubic feet in your kitchen to better use.  When you have time, though, read the full article.

FOOD VALUE
Perhaps the best reason to avoid the nuclear cooking method is that studies have shown that it degrades the nutritional value of food.  At this point in our food culture, because of widespread soil depletion on mega-farms and through industrial farming, our soil has become depleted of the nutrients that nourish plants while they are growing.  This has already resulted in a severe – from five to fifty percent – reduction in the nutritional food value from fifty years ago.  This is a good reason to buy organic, as small farmers tend to keep soil nourished through sustainable farming methods, using mild chemicals – or no chemicals – in growing plants.

With the raw material already being delivered with reduced nutritional value, it is important to retain as much of it as possible when preparing the food that you eat.  We need every resource imaginable to get the nutrients into our bodies, because it is those nutrients that are the life-blood of food.  The Dr says:

Research shows that your microwave oven will NOT help you in these efforts–and in fact will threaten your health by violently ripping the molecules in your food apart, rendering some nutrients inert, at best, and carcinogenic at its worst.

The Dr can be a little histrionic, and he isn’t one to shy away from harsh realities.  Passion aside, he makes a good point.  He explains how microwaves cook food – literally through rapid vibration of water molecules that generate steam hot enough to cook – and what that does to food’s nutritional value by altering its chemical structure.

Every food reacts differently, but numerous studies on individual foods have shown that microwaves lower the amount of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, proteins, antioxidants or disease-fighting agents that are inherently present in food, and have been found to foster growth of bacteria in breast milk.  Overall, sixty to ninety percent of foods tested have shown significant reduction in food value, even reducing substances inherent in food that act to prevent abnormal accumulation of fat within the body.  If girth is an issue, you might do well to consider this.

SAFETY
Hot spots form in microwave cooking and are dangerous, especially to infants.  Heating milk or formula in a microwave is dangerous because these hot spots can severely burn the mouth and throat of babies.

Most people know to never put metal – like aluminum foil -  in a microwave because it will destroy the oven.  Equally important is to avoid putting any sort of plastic in a microwave.  Heating plastic causes carcinogenic fumes to be released  into the food and the atmosphere.  These fumes are toxic to breathe and even more so to eat.  You would never put plastic in a conventional oven; don’t put it in a microwave either.  Not plastic containers, plastic bags or plastic wrap.

Even some paper packaging (like microwave popcorn bags) contain some plastic.  If you have to nuke the popcorn – and you don’t really – put it into a plain brown paper bag and fold over the top.  It pops the corn just the same.  Better yet, use plain popcorn bought in bulk, and put it in a brown paper bag.  Even better, put the plain popcorn in a skillet and pop it on the stove.  It’s easier than you’d ever imagine, and is a fraction of the cost.

SICKNESS
Microwaves can have deleterious health effects, from nausea and headaches (microwave sickness) to eye damage.  It can elevate heart rate and blood pressure to dangerous levels.  Type III diabetes has been shown to be caused by microwave use.  Check out the video for more on this.  Microwaves can also alter the blood’s makeup by lowering red and white blood cell and hemoglobin levels.  They can elevate cholesterol levels.

Russian research after World War II was sufficient to have microwaves banned for four years in the 1970s, but with pressure to modernize in the 80s that ban was lifted.  Studies have shown that nutrients in many foods are converted to carcinogens during the microwaving process, and carcinogens are cancer-causing agents.  We don’t want to be around them, and we certainly don’t want to eat them.

SPACE
Even before moving to New York City, I’ve long been a proponent of using valuable space for something other than appliances, and microwaves take up space; not only the square footage on the counter-top but the area in front of the oven has to be kept clear as well.  If you’re tall, you can put it on top of the refrigerator, but if you use it a lot and your stature requires you to remove hot foods above eye level, don’t do it.  Putting it up out of the way will lessen your dependence upon it, and you will rejoice at how much easier it is to cook in your kitchen with the counter-tops clear.  It may even foster more cooking; always a good thing.

INSTEAD
Avoid using a microwave whenever possible. Learn to multitask:  while the potato is baking in the oven, or the chicken is roasting, get some other task out of the way.  A double-boiler and an egg-poacher do a great job of melting and heating small quantities of food and leftovers, and a toaster oven works well to cook small portions.  Vegetables steam on the stove in a little water in seconds – literally! – so cooking these nutritionally valuable foods in a microwave is just foolish.  A slow cooker is a great way to have meals on the table within minutes of walking in the door, as is an oven with a timed bake feature.  You can also slow cook stews, soups and even meats in an oven at low temperature (200-250ºF).

Plan ahead so you don’t have to defrost things quickly.  Put frozen meats in the refrigerator to defrost overnight or while you’re at work.  Cultivate leftovers for quick meals.

IF YOU MUST

1. Step away from the unit after pressing the ‘Start’ button.  Don’t hold onto the handle while unit is in use because you can inadvertently loosen the connection that keeps the radiation in when it’s on.
2. Never use the microwave to heat baby’s milk or formula because of hot spots that can make food too hot for infants.
3. Never put plastic in a microwave.  Use glass bowls, and a paper towel as a cover to avoid food splashing about.
4. Embrace cooking.  You’ll learn to appreciate what real food tastes like.  Especially f you’re trying to disembark from the salt/sugar/fat addiction of the food industry, there is no better way to get away from it all than cooking for yourself.
5. Next time you feel compelled to bake a potato in the microwave, throw one in the conventional oven, just for giggles, and see how much time you actually save.  Compare the texture of the finished product.  You may be piling on the sour cream and cheese because the microwaved version is dry and mealy, unlike the moist, flaky spud that is conventionally cooked.  Do this test for your kids or guests and see how many people can discern the difference.  I bet you’ll be surprised.
   

Try No Micro for a week and see what happens.  It could change your life . . . for the better.  LMK.

Tags: BAD 4U/GOOD 4U, baked potato, food safety, leftovers, raw food

So you eat the chips. The earth eats the bag.
And we all live in a cleaner world. ~FritoLay website

Not so fast, FritoLay.

NOISY PACKAGING
I was intrigued to find that the packaging to Frito-Lay SunChips is noisy.  Noisy?  Further inspection reveals that it is a new form of packaging, made from plant material, which is compostable.  This means that it breaks down easily when disposed of in a compost pile.  They say:

Every 10 ½ oz. SunChips® package is designed to fully break down in just 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost bin or pile.

What about sizes other than the ten-and-a-half-ounce bag?  And what about using it to package other snacks than just SunChips?  Having invested in the research and development resources to manufacture the bag, why not use it for all of their products?

Unfortunately, most landfills are a long way from being compostable, and often do not allow for the breaking down of simple, organic materials simply because there is so much non-organic material mixed in.  Landfills have become inorganic over time, with layer upon layer of plastic mingling with the paper and other organic material.  So unless you’re putting the bag in your garden, this packaging isn’t going anywhere fast.

However, we cannot lay this environmental tragedy at the feet of Frito-Lay.  It is encouraging that they are using plant-based material and have developed sustainable packaging. Although their video is pathetic, they do go to the trouble to tell you how to compost in your own garden, and explain the development of the packaging in three pdf files.

NOISY SNACKS
The ingredients, shown on the website – but not so easily that I had to contact the manufacturer to see how to get there – are printed in such a tiny font that they are illegible.  I had to use a magnifying glass!  The website for SunChips is where I was looking, but you won’t find the ingredients listed there.  You have to go to the website for FritoLay.  Any manufacturer using such obfuscating tactics invites, rightly so, consumer mistrust.

Listed for the Original Flavored Multigrain Snacks:

• INGREDIENTS Whole corn, sunflower oil, whole wheat, whole oat flour, rice flour, sugar, corn bran, salt, natural flavor and corn maltodextrin.
  
• The rice flour is presumably made from enriched white rice, so no whole grain goodness there.  A shame to undo the good of the whole grains by using other, no-whole grains.
  
• The addition of corn bran is the most nutritious part of the grain that is removed during the refining process; all good there.
• So it is curious then, with three whole grain flours and corn bran, comprising four of the ten ingredients, that this product is made up of only 18% whole grains.   This leaves 82% of the product is refined rice flour, sugar, salt, flavoring and (the last ingredient) a crispness enhancer.  I can’t fault the list in general, but have to point out that most of the product is empty of food value.  Had they used whole grain rice flour, they could have perhaps tipped the scale in the direction of a healthy alternative, despite the sugar and salt which are inevitable in ‘snack’ food products.
  
• The label further states “No preservatives”.  I knew it!  Snack food products can be made without preservatives, and I doubt that it is the new packaging that makes this possible.  I haven’t check the date stamp on the product in the store, but it presumably is good for at least a month, ample time to enjoy this product should you be moved to purchase it.
  

ARTIFICE WINS THE DAY
The other flavors, unfortunately, didn’t fare as well as the packaging for real ingredients.  While all flavors are touted as ‘multigrain’, it is curious that the Variety Mix, which is a combination of some of the flavors, isn’t labeled as such, or of possessing any of the other, favorable, characteristics.  Curious.

• The French Onion Flavor has a plethora of artificial, chemical and natural ingredients (starches, sugars, flavorings, colorings, milk products), and I wondered why a product containing mozzarella (the only) cheese is called French?
• Ditto for the Salsa Flavor, which contains two flavors of cheese.  When was the last time you found cheese in your salsa?  Curiously, sunflower oil (and not as a sub-ingredient) is listed twice, which leads me to believe that they aren’t paying very close attention when making their ingredients list.  Wouldn’t you rather have the Original Flavor of this product and dip it into real salsa?
• Harvest Cheddar Flavor has, not only cheddar cheese, but also romano cheese which, at first glance appears that it, along with the onion powder, is part of the cheddar cheese until you realize that they forgot a ).  I like attention to detail in my food products.

In their marketing-heavy website, they have a Q&A that is disingenuous to say the least.  My comments, in red:

Q:  Aren’t all fried foods unhealthy?
A:  Actually, no. Frying itself isn’t unhealthy—it’s the type of oil in which the frying is done that  matters. Certain oils, such as tropical and partially hydrogenated oils have saturated fats or trans fats, which are considered “bad fats.” But Frito-Lay chips are fried in healthier oils like corn and sunflower oils, which contain 80% or more of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat—the “good fats.”

Define ‘fried food’.  Pan frying in olive oil is relatively healthy.  But as soon as you deep fry something, everything changes. The high temperatures needed for deep-frying sends most nutritional benefits down the tube, although whole-grains are presumably still whole grain. Deep-fried foods are unhealthy.  And fried chips (potato or corn or any other kind) are deep fried unless noted otherwise.  Frying food in unhealthy oils compounds the damage, often adding saturated trans fats to the mix.  Frying food in corn oil often uses oil made from genetically modified organisms (GMOs).  So if you want to avoid GMOs, buy fried snacks that are certified organic.

Q:  Won’t eating chips make me fat?
A:  Weight and weight gain always goes back to calories in, calories out. Frito Lay chips (and any food, in fact) can be a part of a healthy lifestyle but moderation is important. Frito-Lay offers a number of options to help with portion control, including our multipacks and variety packs, which are an easy way to ensure the right portion, and fresh-tasting chips every time. And our 100 Calorie Mini Bites offer 100 calorie portions of some of our most popular brands including DORITOS® and CHEETOS®.

Snacking multiple times during the day will always have an adverse affect on one’s size and health.  Individual servings sizes, while good for taking brown bag lunches to work and school, are not the most economical way to purchase. But 100 calories is still only 100 calories.  On the other hand, eating Cheetos is still eating Cheetos.

Q: What does “organic” have to do with snacks? Does Frito-Lay use any organic ingredients?
A:  Organic food options are becoming more widely available, and not just in the produce section. Organic snacks are made with organic ingredients that have not been treated with pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste or sewer sludge. They are made from all natural (not-synthetic) ingredients, not genetically modified, and not treated by radiation. Frito-Lay uses certified organic blue corn in our Natural Blue Corn TOSTITOS® tortilla chips.

There is only one product, of many offered by this company, that is made from organic ingredients.  So FritoLay‘s snacks, except for the single one mentioned, may have, by their own admission, been treated with pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste or sewer sludge, may have been genetically modified and treated by radiation. I’m no marketing genius, but I wouldn’t have said it that way.

FritoLay, their packaging notwithstanding, is still junk food that will contribute to poor health unless balanced with portion control and generally healthy eating.  That said, their Original Flavored Multigrain Snacks are far from the worst snack food product on grocers’ shelf.

Tags: BAD 4U/GOOD 4U, lunch, salt, snack, sugar

HOW TO BEST USE THIS SITE

Control oil, and you control entire continents.
Control food, and you control the people.  ~Henry Kissinger (1923 – )

TODAY’S ELABORATION

If you are considering an inner body cleanse or fast, instead of undertaking something that takes days out of your life, try incorporating a simple,  regimen into your normal daily routine.  It isn’t always healthy to embark upon a fast or partial fast without first consulting a medical professional.  There are many ways to rid your body of toxins that are both non-invasive and safe.  The body is an amazing organism that can process even the worst food offenders we like to gulp down.  Do your body a favor and treat it gently; it will respond in amazing ways.

BE THE MASTER OF YOUR OWN DOMAIN
Your body is yours and only yours.  Take control over it, take care of it and it will take care of you.  Don’t take medical advice from a celebrity unless they have a medical degree.  Movie stars and the like operate with self-promotion in mind; it’s a way to insure that the public will pay to see them at the box office.  Just because an icon does something doesn’t make it a good idea; their saying something doesn’t make it true.  Many companies are just waiting to suck unsuspecting consumers into their web of marketing, and celebrities are hired all the time to promote all kinds of products, be they worthwhile or completely useless, harmless or harmful.

CASE IN POINT
I was surprised to see Ellen Degeneres as a paid spokesperson for Vitaminwater.  She spouts, among other things, that it has “zero calories”.  Hmmmm.  I love Ellen, her show and her humor, but that doesn’t obscure the fact that some Vitaminwater has as much sugar as Coke.  Vitaminwater comes in about fifteen different flavors, so you have to check the label to find which flavors have the sugar.

The Coca-Cola Company (the maker of Vitaminwater) is counting on the public to blindly follow the celebrity endorsement by remembering the words a ‘trusted’ icon utters, applying those words to all products without thinking.  The worst thing you can do is to turn off your brain when chosing what to eat or drink.  If the body is a temple, then the brain is the light on the front porch that guides you safely on your way and back home again.  The worst thing you can do for yourself is to turn off the light, letting others – food companies, marketing, celebrities or anyone else – do your thinking for you.

TREAT THE TEMPLE GENTLY
Beware of cleanses that are offered for sale.  The body has an amazing ability to self-clean; that’s the purpose behind elimination (including sweat and tears).  We take things in through the mouth or skin, the body processes the ingredients and then eliminates the residual stuff it doesn’t need.  Daily, unforced elimination is important. We can eat certain things to encourage that process, but avoid doing major renovation work on your body.

Avoid products that are described with words like ‘excavation’ – metal chisels and sledgehammers come to mind -  or ‘blueprint’ – that ammonia-soaked process used to make architectural plans using harsh chemicals – they are probably not products you want to introduce into your lower organs.

IS IT WORTH IT?  DOLLARS & SENSE
Food products sold as a cleanse can be expensive, costing upwards to $150 a day.  This can add up to some serious money.  The hook is psychological:  by paying $150 a day we convince ourselves that it is a good idea; I’ve even heard it suggested that taking time off from work to administer a ‘cleanse’, further compounding the cost in dollars and lost productivity. Why not save big bucks by using ordinary things you have in the kitchen anyway?

There’s a whole world  of healthy food out there just for the taking.  We all have water from the tap that comes right into your home.  A lemon is twenty-five, maybe fifty, cents max.  Bran and flax seed are things you can add to other grains or yogurt that will encourage things to keep moving through the system, without a heavy toll on the wallet.

Save your money.  Try warm water, maybe a little lemon juice in the morning.  See how it goes.  You can’t go wrong by drinking water and, by the simple physics of gravity and the body’s process of digestion, you will be amazed

IS IT WORTH IT?  HEALTH
If you’re not eating as healthy as you would like, give your body a break.  If you really feel that you have an elimination problem, you can cleanse gently and delicately without turning your life upside down. The human gastro-intestinal (GI) tract is a pretty hearty system, able to process all kinds of things we throw down our gullet.  We’ve all heard stories of passing an object inadvertently swallowed.

If you don’t feel as though things are passing through well enough, make a habit of drinking warm water in the morning.  Add some fresh lemon juice for a stronger solution.  I had elimination problems my entire life, and when I began drinking a few cups of warm water in the morning while getting dressed for work, everything began to work it’s way out.  I continue to this day because it just keeps things moving nicely and I never have to worry that it will ever be unavailable when I need it.

IS IT WORTH IT?  ACCOUNTABILITY
If a company claims that they’ll do all the work for you, run quickly in the other direction.  It’s your body, your responsibility.  You wouldn’t do your kids’ homework for them, would you?  By initiating a dialog with your body, it will begin to teach you things, opening up a wonderful new relationship.  Try it.  You will be amazed. 

IS IT WORTH IT?  TRUTH
Everyone’s body is different, to some extent, yet all share similarities.  All bodies generally work the same, but often respond differently to different foods and routines.  We are constantly challenged to use our mental capacity to the fullest extent.  We should learn to apply our intelligence to things that we eat.  Real food, compared to manufactured products, is  readily available, cheaper and higher in food value relative to any other thing we can put into the system.

IS IT WORTH IT?  YOU BE THE JUDGE
Today’s Elaboration is for a simple cleansing therapy to be done daily or as often as necessary.  A little every day is better than a lot less frequently, but I encourage you to evaluate the process and timing for your best result.  Save your deep cleaning efforts for cleaning the kitchen.  That way, you’ll have something to show for time-consuming cleansing efforts.

SEE SIDEBAR FOR PREPARATIONS & INFORMATION

Tags: BAD 4U/GOOD 4U, digestion, healthy choices, real food, whole food

HOW TO BEST USE THIS SITE

If you’re going to America, bring your own food.
~Fran Lebowitz (1950 – ) Social Studies (1981)

The past week has been filled to capacity with my being pulled in directions other than Stop Blogging And Cook, so I haven’t had a of of time to devote to daily posts and preparations.  Sorry to be falling down on the job, but my other job of bringing financial resources to the table trumps my writing avocation.  When writing a post, I peruse my collection of blogs and websites to see where the discussion leads this time, and that can be time-consuming, especially add research and fact-checking to the task.

After reading the blogsite, Eat, Drink & Be, my head is swimming with an avalanche of reasons that should make you awfully glad that you cook, even if you’re just beginning to learn how.  Here are some of the most recent posts.

1. The McGrilled Chicken sandwich can cause cancer.  To be fair, the conventional wisdom is that grilling anything – cooking over an open flame at high temperatures to create a grilled flavor from the blackening of the meat which almost always results in over-cooking of beef, chicken and pork.  It is possible to grill meat without overcooking, but you cannot depend upon fast food to turn out product emphasizing speed and low prices over quality food and cooking methods.  Grilling meats yourself gives you control over what you’re cooking and eating.  In a sidenote, franchisees of KFC reports that half of their grilled chicken is thrown away before sold,, and franchisees are complaining that recent advertising promoting the grilled chicken is harming their brand and sales of the deep-fried version that made them a success.  That the nutritionally-void fried chicken is actually moister than the grilled chicken is testament to the fact that they have perfected the art of frying to an extent that hasn’t begun to be matched by their grilling.  You’re much better off going home and grilling your own.
2. Food at the Indiana County Fair – those  geniuses who invented deep-fried butter – have been cited for an alarming 29 number of food safety and sanitation violations involving over half of the vendors.  On the other hand, if you’re bent on eating artery-busting foods to begin with, maybe food safety isn’t your priority.  As uncomfortable as life is being overweight, it can’t compare with a bad case of memorable food poisoning.  Language barriers in ethnic restaurants are revealed to be the cause of improper food handling and resultant health code violations.  Health officials are working with business owners to insure full understanding of food-handling procedures and compliance.
3. Fast food salads sometimes contain more fat than the burgers.  Check out the stats for five chain restaurant salads that stack up (unfavorably) nutritionally beside a Burger King Whopper.  Testament that it is best to make your own salads to be certain what you’re eating.  Nothing worse than someone wanting to shed some pounds by mistakenly thinking that fast food salads will be their ally.  Fast food is fast food, not real food, and unless you count unconscionable amounts of fat and salt to be in the realm of ‘real’ and demonstrates their missing the point of salads, which need no salt or saturated fat to be palatable.  The main ingredient in most restaurant salads – iceberg lettuce, compared to other types of lettuce – is relatively anemic with little food value or flavor.  To compensate for this lack of flavor, salad dressing with high salt and fat content are offered.  It’s a crime to make something as wonderful as a salad into just another vehicle for addicting consumers to salt, sugar and fat.  It’s almost as if those in charge really don’t want you to eat wll.  Minefields are plentiful at every fast food ordering counter.
4. Energy drinks contain enormous amounts of sugar and caffeine, and drinking them can pose more health risks than they’re worth.  “There really is no beneficial effect for these energy drinks,” says Dr Howard Kadish, emergency department physician at Primary Children’s Medical Center.  Make your own iced tea or flavored water, saving money and doing your body a favor.
5. Unhealthy habits can be a real headache, according to a recent Norwegian study.  They found that a full twenty-five percent of the population is plagued with headaches, and half of the population who smokes, is overweight, and exercises little can expect to suffer this particular type of pain.  Children carrying excess weight can also expect to suffer from lack of bone density, a new study from the Medical College of Georgia reports.  If altering your eating habits would take away headaches, would you do it?
6. The Salmonella recall now tops half a billion eggs, sold in grocery chains from April to August.  No longer is the egg manufacturer  Wright County the only culprit but the outbreak has been found in bucolic-sounding brand names like  Hillandale Farms, Sunny Meadow, Wholesome Farms, Sunny Farms and West Creek.  Company name is, of course, no indication of healthy, contamination-free environments, so don’t ever be swayed by the name of a product, marketing aside.  Eggs are mixed into so many food products and menu items, you can never know for certain where food contamination lurks because Salmonella is not always killed during cooking.  Refrain from buying grocery store eggs, at least for the time being, and buy them at green markets from farmers who raise organic chickens on smaller farms and in more sanitary conditions.
7. Think twice about sending your kids to get ice cream from the truck outside.  While offering a cool summertime treat, the unregulated vendors are often illegal.  And eggs are sometimes used in making ice cream products.  Use the money you would spend over the course of a whole summer to invest in an ice cream maker, and make ice cream & frozen yogurt at home along with your kids.  Adding fresh  fruit, chocolate, vanilla or other real ingredients is a good way to enjoy it year-round.  Like a frozen smoothie:  worth the wait.

Need more reasons?  Other than for your healthy, safety and well-being?  How about that of your family/

SEE SIDEBAR FOR PREPARATIONS & INFORMATION

Tags: BAD 4U/GOOD 4U, beverages, Big Food, eggs, feel better, good for you food, grilling, healthy choices, real food, salt, snack, sugar, whole food

HOW TO BEST USE THIS SITE

Cheap food has a very high cost.  ~Michael Pollan (1955)

6 WORD SATURDAY
Check out the meme aimed at brevity – the opposite of this site – at Show My Face.

Marion Nestle, food expert, author and blogger is very concerned about food safety.  On her website, Food Politics, she has been discussing food safety and the passage of the bipartisan Senate Food Safety bill, S 510, to be revisited in September.  Dr Nestle is on the forefront of food issues, and I use her website as a means to stay current with the food discussion.

Most recently, Dr Nestle is concerned with the safety of eggs because of the numerous recent recalls of Salmonella contamination:  380 million eggs to-date this year.  And that’s before Friday’s recall of an additional 170 million.  That’s a lot of eggs, the largest food recall in history, and the resultant illnesses reported so far (200), and deaths (8) from Salmonella-tainted eggs, have reached an all-time high.  She is quoted on CBS, specifically about the eggs dilemma, and we learn that ‘free range’ may not mean what we think it means.

The best way to avoid contaminated eggs is to buy them from reputable green markets.  Even better if you can buy directly from the farmer who keeps the birds, knowing that he has sanitary conditions for his hens (and is not a factory farm, notorious for horrendously filthy living conditions for the hens, which seem to be the root cause of the outbreaks).

Reader comments, focusing on egg production and consumer buying habits, are interesting.  Here are some choice quotes from two recent posts (emphases theirs):

• Eggs from my local free-range farmer with clean hen houses and hens that look happy and healthy—priceless. They treat their hens like pets, keep their environment clean, and we have delicious eggs that have never made us sick.   ~Sheila
• I’m with you and have my own hens as pets with eggs as a bonus. But, when you look at the entire population, I’m not sure it will work unless a large majority adopt backyard chickens as part of their lifestyle – many, many places don’t even allow them still.  If we want to change the root cause (factory farming), we’re going to have to get people to change their ways. Some large bakeries, for instance use (guessing) thousands of eggs/month. I HATE factory farming of chickens, and would love to see it change, but feel rather helpless other than to make sure I am not a part of it or party to it.  ~Anthro
• Mandatory rules yes, that are enforced. But even laws cannot address the problems inherent to factory farm production. A better approach is the one we’ve adopted here in California and in a few other states: to phase out battery hen cages altogether. That would not do away with factory farming but it would at least eliminate the worst conditions for egg-laying hens.  ~Michelle Simon
• I work with several people now who raise chickens and sell eggs as a sideline. We’ve been buying eggs from one of them for quite a while now. It’s getting easier and easier to avoid the supermarket.  ~Renee
• We buy all our eggs . . . from local producers. It really isn’t that difficult to produce fresh eggs that are also safe. What is difficult is the current mega-business models that make the whole process into a badly regulated, contaminated, abusive factory.  After having such good eggs at home, I can’t eat most of them in restaurants anymore. It’s amazing how bad they taste.  And yes, GO S.510! Nothing more patriotic than protecting the health and safety of all Americans.  ~Adrian
• Our local public market’s egg sellers get VERY shifty-eyed when we ask him where his eggs are from. They aren’t from his own farm, that much we have learned, they are bought from industrial egg-farming enterprises, despite the own-farm appearance of his stall.  ~Bobby
• I found out my mom was throwing away eggs I brought her from my backyard hens. She didn’t tell me because she didn’t want to hurt my feelings. She just though my eggs couldn’t be “safe” because they didn’t come from a supermarket.  ~Gina
  
• My husband asked me if our eggs were safe. I was quite happy to remind him they come from local farms.  I simply will not buy eggs at a regular supermarket.  ~Marlene
  
• I haven’t bought eggs from a supermarket in years, and I never will again.  ~Cindy
• . . . [I]t is the rare person who eats exclusively from their farmer’s market shopping bag.  People travel, people go to restaurants, get take out, eat in other’s homes, eat at lunch spots, have children eating school cafeteria food, eat on college campus, consume prepared items containing eggs like ice cream, muffins, cakes, etc. I reference the last as a matter beyond the scope of salmonella where the baking and processing would kill the bacteria . . . but to remind everyone that chickens’ eggs aren’t just confined to personal saucepans and skillets. ~Hylton
• . . . [The] big factory farm CAFO is supplying eggs to other BRANDS that name themselves things like Mountain Dairy, Farm Fresh or Dutch Farms. I think it should also be regulated that a brand not be allowed to use the word farm in their name unless it refers to the farm where the product was raised grown hatched etc. There is obviously no such place as Dutch Farms or Mountain Dairy, and this is disillusioning people into thinking that their food is being raised in humane bucolic settings. It is in a sense false advertising.  ~The Table of Promise
• . . . I don’t think that buying eggs from a farm or farmer’s markets necessarily means you are paying top dollar for eggs. For example, where I live, you can buy eggs from an organic farm whose chickens run around all over the place (truly free-range, no fences) for $4.25/dozen. That is not much more than the supermarket price, and certainly less than the local industrial/crappy supermarket charges for the packaged-in-plastic “cage free” commercial eggs. So it’s not a matter of economics so much as commitment to making a separate stop for eggs, at least here. But we’re not in an urban center, and many of our neighbors (particularly the ones who don’t bring in as much income) keep chickens. It’s common for people who have chickens to sell extra eggs to neighbors for $3/dozen, just to pay for the feed.  ~Meg

Eggs are a good source of protein and are good for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  I’ve listed several egg dishes so far:  Omelets, Egg Salad, Quiche, Poached and Fried in Olive Oil.  Mix up your egg repertoire:  consider having a traditional egg-centric meal at dinner time.  Served with a salad, eggs are a great way to eat lighter later.

What are your egg-buying habits; do you go for price, quality or safety?

SEE SIDEBAR FOR PREPARATIONS & INFORMATION

Tags: BAD 4U/GOOD 4U, breakfast, dinner, eggs, food, food activism, food safety, good for you food, healthy choices, lunch, real food

HOW TO BEST USE THIS SITE

When in doubt, throw it out. ~Author Unknown

TODAY’S PREPARATION

ONLY THE GOOD FRIDAY
On this Friday, meant for discussion of only the good, inspired by This Eclectic Life, I’m going to talk about the bad to keep everyone safe when eating, which is always a good thing.

THE WARNING:  EXPIRATION DATES
A friend told me about a post in Snopes about the importance of getting rid of pancake mix (or any other pre-made food products like biscuit, brownie or cake mixes) if it is past the expiration date.   Mold can begin to grow inside the box, and eating it can trigger an allergic reaction causing anaphylaxis.  Anaphylaxis can occur in response to any allergen like drug and food allergens and insect stings or bites.  According to the National Institutes of Health website:

Anaphylaxis is a severe, whole-body allergic reaction to a chemical that has become an allergen.  After being exposed to a substance such as bee sting venom, the person’s immune system becomes sensitized to it.  On a later exposure to that allergen, an allergic reaction may occur.  This reaction happens quickly after the exposure, is severe, and involves the whole body.  Tissues in different parts of the body release histamine and other substances.  This causes the airways to tighten and leads to other symptoms.

This type of mold is not visible to the eye, nor is it killed by cooking.  It will probably change the taste of the food, but for someone with a low sensitivity to taste (or someone very hungry for those pancakes or brownies) the taste peculiarity may not be evident.  Those not allergic to mold will not have the severe reaction – or any reaction- but there is a first time for everything.  And, as is typical for brownies and cupcakes at school and church bake sales, you never know who is going to eat your baking efforts.

THE GOOD NEWS
There is good reason for that old, ubiquitous quote, above.  And a better reason for making things from whole ingredients.  I’ve never heard of real foods like flour, sugar and baking powder developing mold spores.  A general-purpose food like flour is apt to be used up more quickly than a more specific food product like pancake mix.  Baking Quick Breads – includes anything using baking powder/soda as leavening agents rather than yeast, like cakes, brownies, pancakes, etc – from scratch is not as difficult as many think, and has many advantages:

• You know exactly what you’re eating.
• It is a better food value, containing less refined ingredients.
• It is a better economic value, giving you the best buy for your money.
• It contains no  chemicals or artificial additives like flavorings, colorings, enrichments or preservatives.
• It contains no allergens that can be disguised by other names, like the many things that contain gluten.
• With a little practice, it takes no more time to bake from scratch than from a mix.
• It gives you a real sense of authentic cooking, and inspires innovation and experimentation.
• It does not grow mold that can cause allergic reactions.

Flour left unsealed for a long time on the pantry shelf can harbor little bugs – and sugar attracts ants – but they are visible to the eye and do not cause life-threatening allergic reactions.  For the sake of safety and longevity, keep flour in the refrigerator and sugar in a glass jar with an air-tight (rubber or silicone) seal.  When first opening a box of confectioner’s or brown sugar, fold down the inner packaging bag with a paper clip, and place the entire box in a grip-lock bag before returning to the pantry.

A well-developed sense of taste is important, not only for the enjoyment of food but, with it the body can help detect unwanted things lurking in food. Mold often has a metallic flavor or, in the case of strawberries, a taste of dirt.  I’ve also noticed that, in leftovers kept in the refrigerator, just at the point where it is beginning to go bad, a noticeable absence of flavor.  If something I’ve made has no taste to it, I know that it is going bad.  But I love leftovers, so I try to use them quickly.  And that is good.

Today’s preparation is for Carrot Cake, which I will post later on today, to prove that baking from scratch is a cinch.  In the meantime, check out other quick breads:  Beer Bread, Chocolate Pancakes, Corn Bread and Cranberry Nut Cake.

SEE SIDEBAR FOR PREPARATIONS & INFORMATION

Tags: allergy, BAD 4U/GOOD 4U, baking, breakfast, dessert, gluten-free, healthy choices, quick bread, real food, whole food

HOW TO BEST USE THIS SITE

What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes,
he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.  ~AA Milne (1882 – 1956)

TODAY’S PREPARATION

I see that today, August 19th is National Potato Day.  Intrigued, I clicked on it and was disgusted to find myself dragged to an advert for reducing belly fat, with no mention of anything potato-related.  Is there no end to the lengths people will go to see their snake oil and gimmicks?  Whatever happened to honesty?  Has it become a relic of a century, a distant memory that will inevitably date people telling their grandchildren about antiquated virtues, seen by the young who are too cool for old school?

As for foods, you can’t get more honest than a potato.  I take that back.  Of course you can.  The debate rages on about what exactly is in McDonald’s french fries?  They taste like fried potatoes to me.  I’d expect a good-tasting product from someone who’s been making them for half a century.  Competitor’s fries, on the other hand, have a distinctly artificial flavor, something you can easily recognize if you don’t eat a lot of processed food products.

Some big food companies are jumping on the Simplicity Sells bandwagon, billing their chips and fries as being made of potatoes, oil, salt and nothing more.  It is good to eat real foods that contain only a few ingredients.  But did you know that deep frying food – any food – effectively removes every trace of nutritional value?  Regardless of how real and lonely, potato chips and French fries are absolutely devoid of nutrients, no two ways about it.

However, we all have our moments.  My particular food fetish is potato chips, and I even like a particular brand of potato chip.  I compensate for the lack of food value in the chip by dipping it in plain yogurt, sometimes Greek yogurt.  I could add fresh dill, chipped onion and cucumber, balsamic vinegar or a little blue cheese to dress it up, but I actually really like the simplicity – and maybe the dichotomy – of the sacred along with the profane.

The very, very good and the horrid.  And I take big gulping dips of the dip, knowing that eating more plain yogurt is always better. What ways do you find to temper the lesser nutritional food choices?

BORED WITH POTATOES?
Not only for those with kids who are reluctant potato eaters, check out this YouTube animated video of the Spudding Taternacle Choir.  Now that’s entertainment.

Did you know that there is a Potato Board?  That is the trade association for the potato industry.  Of course they have a wwebsite, at Healthy Potato.  Here are the potato facts they would like everyone to know about a medium potato (5.3 oz) with its skin on:

• Costing just 25 cents per serving, the potato is one of the greatest nutritional values in the produce department.
• Has 110 calories.
• Has nearly half your Daily Value of vitamin C (45%).
• Is one of the best sources of potassium (614 mg) and fiber (2 g).
• Is inherently fat-free and sodium-free.
• Contains many of the nutrients recommended by the USDA Dietary Guidelines.

For more information the Idaho Potato Commission makes potatoes it’s business and answers your burning questions.  Another website,  In Depth Info, talks about the minutiae of the spud.

Check our the sidebar for potato preparations:

• Leek & Potato Soup This delicate soup is good served hot or cold (see SOUP).
• Potato Salad As American as apple pie (See SALADS).
• As a Side Dish Potatoes can be pan-fried, baked or mashed (See VEGETABLES).
• Cream Sauce A simple sauce complements tiny potatoes and pearl onions (See CONDIMENTS & SAUCES).
• Roasted As a side to roasted meat (See POULTRY).
• Boiled A basic way to cook the potato (See MEAT).
  
• Omelet Anthony Has potato, greens and two sauces, making this the best omelet ever (see EGGS).

POTATO MISCELLANY

• Potato skins contain all of the nutrients of the spud, so don’t be so quick to peel.
• You won’t gain anything by cooking a potato in the microwave.  It changes the texture, making it mealy.
• The cooking time of potatoes is in inverse proportion to the size.  To cook potatoes quickly, cut them into smaller pieces.
  
• Leftover potatoes can be added to soup, thickening them in the process; added to leftover gravy; mashed and formed into potato pancakes and pan-fried; or, ground together with onion and leftover corned beef, to make ham hash.
• Cut in half and carved with a design, potatoes make an easy, inexpensive way for kids to block print using finger paints.

Since  no summer is complete without at least one serving of this classic American dish, today’s preparation is for Potato Salad.  It contains a twist that stretches the ordinary into the fabulous.

SEE SIDEBAR FOR PREPARATIONS & INFORMATION

Tags: BAD 4U/GOOD 4U, Big Food, gluten-free, good for you food, healthy choices, vegetables