talent show at the getaway

The last event at the Getaway was a talent show and it was outstanding. I haven't laughed this hard in a long, long time. My smile muscles are going to be sore. There was lots of variety, hilarity, adorable children, and even some unbelievable talent. The format was an American Idol theme with voting. Lisa Fuhrman played the role of Simon and was hilarious. I hardly snapped any pictures because I was too busy laughing.

Here's Todd doing basketball tricks. He's owner of the Harlem Wizards.

Here's the real talent of the show, Sonny Leigh. If you live in the Denver area, go check her out. She is fabulous. Sorry for the lousy picture.

I was in a skit that turned out to be very funny, thanks to the creative work of Maggie and Sue, who wrote it. We showed the day in the life of a family in the year 2025 when everyone was a nutritarian.

Afterwards, Dr. Fuhrman let us take pictures with him and Lisa, his wife. So of course, I took part in that. And here we are:

Tomorrow we'll go on a morning kayak outing and then head out to Miami. We'll get a final breakfast and lunch, and then we'll enter back into the other world. It was fun to live in the nutritarian world for a week. I always eat the nutritarian way, but it sure was fun to have it served to me 3 meals a day with no effort on my part and surrounded by 120 other people eating the same food. Yep, this was a great Getaway. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to become a nutritarian.

Last Supper at the Getaway

I have really enjoyed trying out Fuhrman recipes that I haven't made myself yet. Tonight was no exception. I wish I could find someone to make the desserts for me because it's the one thing I don't enjoy making--the baked ones that is. I'm a lousy baker.

Here was the menu for tonight:

The butternut squash soup was excellent. I will make this:

I was in the mood for salad and vegetables. The salad bar goes on for three pictures here. Lettuce, beans, nuts, dressings:

tomatoes, potatoes, raw cauliflower, onion, cucumber:

beans, fruit:

fruit, and berries:

Here's the chard and vegetable medley with barley. I wasn't in the mood for this:

The salmon. I'm vegan so wasn't in the mood for this either:

Ah, here we go, simple steamed cauliflower. I was in the mood for this. Put some caesar dressing on that and it's yummy.

Then the healthy chocolate cake was really good! I have considered making this before but thought it wouldn't taste good because it has so many vegetables in it. I love it. Now if only I could get someone to make it for me!

effect of a nutritarian diet?

watch out, this could happen to you too!

birds

Sorry, off topic here, I can't resist posting a few bird pictures. This was on our short walk to the marina to go snorkeling. Today was our day off.

Getaway breakfast

Today I remembered to snap photos of breakfast. I think this was my favorite meal of the Getaway. Here was the menu for today:

This was a pretty typical menu. This is my favorite part:

oh, I forgot to include the bananas in the picture. So you put some cashew cream and bananas in a lettuce leaf and eat it like a burrito. Yummy!

Then there's tons of fruit and berries:

And today's grain dish, if you so choose, was oatmeal and muesli. I usually pass on the oatmeal in favor of the luscious berries, but the muesli was to die for. I am making this again:

Here are the ingredients:

We enjoyed a large breakfast knowing we wouldn't eat lunch, because we went snorkeling this afternoon. I'm so glad we didn't eat lunch because the waves were choppy! Lots of people looked green on the return trip home. After breakfast we did our usual relaxation at the lagoon. My feet and Gail's head are in the foreground. The lagoon is actually a great swimming pool, for doing nice long laps.

LDL Calculator

Commenter Kiwi Geoff kindly wrote a program that calculates LDL using the Friedewald equation and the equation from this paper, which may be more accurate for people with a total cholesterol over 250 and triglycerides under 100. For people whose triglycerides are over 100, the Friedewald equation should be relatively accurate. You can plug your total cholesterol, HDL and triglycerides into the program (in mg/dL), and it gives you both LDL values side-by side. Here it is:

LDL Cholesterol Calculator

Thanks, Geoff.

June 29 Getaway Update

This bird was fishing for dolphins. It was fun to watch her watching the dolphins. Her eyes were bigger than her stomach.

The highlights for me today were the lecture by Dr. Fuhrman of course--this one on diabetes--and the cooking demo with Lisa Fuhrman and Chef Charlotte. Everyone, as far as I know, including the Fuhrmans, loved Chef Charlotte. She was fabulous. She was given the guidelines for the eating program several months ago but not the recipes (I think that's what she said). I think this was brilliant because she then proceeded to come up with recipes of her own, such as watermelon gaspacho soup. She gave us lots of tips about produce and utensils and improving on recipes. She improved on the caesar salad dressing by roasting the garlic in orange juice. Here's Elija and Lisa preparing for the lecture. I hope they don't mind my posting this. It just conveys the excitement!

They demoed a chocolate smoothie, a cashew-orange dressing in which they didn't have oranges so it turned into a mango lime dressing and it was great. We got to taste test them, and the flag cake:

It was really good! I don't like baking, but my friend Gail said she would do it. So I'll have to visit her sometime when she's making one.

Another Fatty Liver Reversal

Just to show it wasn't a fluke, reader "Steve" replicates the experiment:

I had a similar problem as what Sam described, and it just happened to coincide with my discovery of and commitment to a new eating plan (based on low/good carb, high in good fat and omega 3, and good protein--basically a mix of paleo, primal, low carb, whatever they call it). I consider myself lucky to have had great fortune in my timing of finding out about my fatty liver.

My ALT and AST [markers of liver damage] had been at 124 and 43 respectively, and then still at 80 and 30 in a follow up a few months later. I weighed in at about 205 (I'm 6'1.5" on a slimmish frame), which was my heaviest. I had been on a basic American (bad) diet. The whole thing shocked me, especially after a CT with contrast showed the fatty deposits on my liver (and prior to that, when the muddy ultrasound revealed a fatty liver and a possible pancreatic mass, later ruled out by the CT). Like Sam, though I was surely overweight, I was not fat or heavy. (Most people have noticed I look leaner, but are shocked when I disclose how much weight I have lost since they say "I cannot believe you had that much to lose.")

At about the same time I found out about my liver issue, I had been getting into reading about diet and health (something I had done once when I read the Zone stuff from Sears many years ago). I practically dove through Taubes, Eades, Cordain, and a bunch of blogs (including yours), and I made a commitment to fix my problem.

I started a pretty severe regimen at first, which included only protein and good fats with a minimal amount of non-starchy fruits and vegetables. Almost immediately, I started losing weight and body fat (as measured by an electrical impedance scale). I have always supplemented with fish oil, but I added krill oil and I also started eating grass-fed beef and pastured eggs and pastured pork as much as possible. I have added some coconut oil and pastured butter to my diet as well. I have dropped almost 40 pounds, I am down to about 10-11% body fat (from 24%), and my ALT/AST on my last test was 24/14 [normal]. I am getting another test soon, and I expect similar results.

And a later comment:

I can add to the story that I first found out about the fatty liver on a routine new patient blood screening when I moved to a new town. I can also add that it took a bit of initiative on my part to get to the right diagnosis. The first doctor suspected hepatitis, but when blood work ruled that out, he ordered the imagining tests. Once I was referred to a GI specialist, it was a quick diagnosis. Still, I had to undertake myself to figure out the best diet. The GI recommended eliminating white bread, rice, pasta, starches, etc. but also recommended lowering fat intake. Having done some of my reading on diet and health, I knew to follow the former advice and to modify the latter to be "get plenty of fat, but make sure its the right kind."

Steve took the initiative and fixed his damaged liver. He modified his GI doctor's advice based on what he had read about nutrition, with excellent results. I suspect his doctor will be all ears next time Steve comes into his office.

The liver is a remarkable organ. Besides being your "metabolic grand central station", it's the only organ in the human body that can regenerate almost completely. It can be 75% obliterated, and it will grow back over time. Fatty liver and NASH are largely reversible.

great quotes on vegetarianism

I love this post from strix.

June 28 -- At the Health Getaway

The Health Getaway has been fabulous so far. Last night we got a lecture on the Certification program for Nutritional Excellence Counselors (NEC). I'm really excited about this. We have to take an exam and then we can become counselors and help people adopt this healthy eating program. I have a fabulous job and career already but I feel so passionate about this that I want to do this too. I think we can change how people eat, and even though it's an uphill battle at this point, it's worth the effort because it will save so many lives.

I've been learning a lot too, even though I've already devoured all of Fuhrman's books, lectures, teleconferences, and newsletters. He's been reporting new information and reinforcing the old. For example, I already knew nuts and seeds are good for you but after his first lecture, I realized I don't eat enough. Then in yesterday's lecture he presented new information about beans. Wow, they are an amazing food. So I will incorporate more of those in my diet. Since I feel uncomfortable eating large quantities of beans, I will try eating smaller portions more often.

The meals have been fabulous of course. I was expecting that. They are buffet style and consist of salads, soup, beans, berries, fruit, nut butters, nuts and seeds, cooked entrees, and at lunch and dinner, some sort of dessert. Here's an example from last night's meal

The salad spread: lettuce, beans, dressings, nut butters, seeds, tomatoes, avocado:

More salad spread: berries (this was right at the end of dinner, so the strawberries were almost gone), snow peas, nut butters, vinegars, melon, etc, soup at the far left (last night was quick and creamy vegetable bean):

Roasted Mixed Vegetables

Cauliflower Spinach Mashed "potatoes" (no potatoes!), a favorite on the forums:

plain ole' steamed spinach. Gail had hers with D'angou pear vinegar and loved it:

No pasta vegetable lasagna. I've been wanting to try this and finally got to without even having to cook it. It's good.

Dessert was blueberry fig sorbet:

We've been so engrossed in our own world for the last few days, I forgot what everyone else usually eats, but I was reminded as I passed by a wedding party spread. Here's the bar:

Here's the hors d'oeuvres (I had to look up the spelling of that one). okay in case you can't see this, from top left to right is meat slices rolled up in cheese slices. crackers and breadsticks, meat slices (salame?), crackers and breadsticks, is that a veggie at top right? yes, I believe so! grilled sliced zucchini I think. not bad. probably with oil and salt though. Then the bottom row is cheese.

We had great hors d'oeuvres the first night. bean dips in little pieces of lettuce (baby bok choy perhaps?). some red pepper type salsa in little lettuce wraps--I didn't get to taste those. this great coconut, lime drink. and a cantaloupe drink I didn't get to try. yummy!

When Friedewald Attacks

I don't get very excited about nitpicking blood lipids. That's not to say they're not useful. There's definitely an association between blood lipids and certain health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease. The thing that tires me is when people uncritically interpret those associations as evidence that lipids are actually causing the problem.

Low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, is the cholesterol fraction that typically gets the most attention. High LDL associates with heart attack risk in Americans and some other groups. Statins reduce LDL and reduce heart attack risk in a subset of the population, and this has been used to support the idea that elevated LDL causes heart attacks. This is despite the fact that lowering LDL via diet doesn't seem to reduce heart attack risk (typically by reducing total fat and/or saturated fat). Statins may in fact work because they're anti-inflammatory, rather than because they reduce LDL. But both explanations are speculative at this point.

The fact remains that if you want to know if Mr. Jones is going to have a heart attack in the next five years, measuring his LDL will give you more information than not measuring his LDL. This association doesn't seem to apply to all cultures or to Americans eating atypical diets. Then you can get into the fractions that associate more tightly with heart attack risk, such as low HDL, high triglycerides, small dense LDL, etc. Triglycerides vary with HDL (that is, when trigs go up, HDL generally goes down) and the ratio also happens to be a predictor of insulin sensitivity. Total cholesterol is virtually useless for predicting heart attack risk in the general population. This is something I'll discuss in more detail at another time.

When you walk into the doctor's office and ask him to measure your cholesterol, the numbers you get back will generally be total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides. All of those except LDL are measured directly. LDL is calculated using the Friedewald equation, which is (in mg/dL):

LDL = TC - HDL - (TG/5)

Low-carb advocates have known for quite some time that this equation fails to accurately predict LDL concentration outside certain triglyceride ranges. Dr. Michael Eades put up a post about this recently, and Richard Nikoley has written about it before as well. The reason low-carb advocates know this is that reducing carbohydrate generally reduces triglycerides, often below 100 mg/dL. This is the range at which the Friedewald equation becomes unreliable, resulting in artificially inflated LDL numbers that make you have a heart attack just by reading them.

I had a lipid panel done a while back, just for kicks. My LDL, calculated by the Friedewald equation, was 131 mg/dL. Over 130 is considered high. Pass the statins! But wait, my triglycerides were 48 mg/dL, which is quite low. I found a paper through Dr. Eades' post that contains an equation for accurately calculating LDL in people whose triglycerides are below 100 mg/dL*. Here it is (mg/dL):

LDL = TC/1.19 + TG/1.9 - HDL/1.1 - 38

I ran my numbers through this equation. My new, accurate calculated LDL? 98 mg/dL. Even the U.S. National Cholesterol Education Panel wouldn't put me on statins with an LDL like that. I managed to shave 33 mg/dL off my LDL in 2 minutes. Isn't math fun?

*This equation was designed for individuals with a total cholesterol over 250 mg/dL.

Letter to the Editor

I just got a letter to the editor published in the journal Obesity. It's a comment on an article published in October titled "Efficiency of Intermittent Exercise on Adiposity and Fatty Liver in Rats Fed With High-fat Diet."

In the study, they placed rats on a diet composed of "commercial rat chow plus peanuts, milk chocolate, and sweet biscuit in a proportion of 3:2:2:1," and then proceeded to simply call it a "high-fat diet" in the title and text body, with no reference to its actual composition outside the methods section. We can't tolerate this kind of fudging if we want real answers from nutrition science. Rats eating the "high-fat diet" developed abdominal obesity, fatty liver and hyperphagia, but this was attenuated by exercise.

As I like to say, the problem isn't usually in the data, it's in the interpretation of the data. The result is interesting and highly relevant. But you can't use terminology that tars and feathers all fat when your diet was in fact high in linoleic acid (omega-6), low in omega-3 and high in sugar and refined grains. Especially when butter and coconut oil don't cause the same pathology. I pointed out in the letter that we need to be more precise about how we define "high-fat diets". I also pointed out that the study is highly relevant to the modern U.S., because it supports the hypothesis that a junk food diet high in linoleic acid and sugar causes metabolic disturbances and fatty liver, and exercise may be protective.

off to a Health Getaway!

Today I'm on my way to Dr. Fuhrman's Heath Getaway. I've never done anything like this in my life. I've gone on vacation, yes, but not a group vacation at a resort. I'm pretty excited about it, not the resort part, but learning a lot, while relaxing and working out and eating great food that I don't have to prepare! And being among people who eat the same things as me and don't think it's crazy. And I'm going with a good friend. I'm trying not to get my hopes up so they aren't dashed, but I am looking forward to this.

I don't know if I'll have time or inclination to post. I'll definitely give a report when it's over with.

June 23 & 24

Yesterday (June 23) I ate whatever emptied out the fridge before my trip.  

Brekky was a smoothie.  I used grapes instead of pomegranate juice because I didn't want to open up a new bottle.  I eventually want to wean myself off the juice because I don't want to buy all those glass bottles.  Plus fruit is healthier than juice.  I have one bottle left.  I was also trying to pare down the garden so it won't get too overgrown by the time I get back.  So I made two smoothies using grapes, frozen berries, and stuff from the garden:  mostly collard greens, some swiss chard and just a bit of kale (I love kale but not in smoothies).   I froze one and it is in my suitcase.  If all goes well, I'll drink that when I arrive in Miami at 5 pm.   

Then I got busy with work and had a late lunch which was leftover eggplant dish, and berry salad (strawberries, raspberries, banana).    I made housemate 8 smoothie servings (!), and of course sampled them.  ate my usual carrots and peas as snacks.

Dinner was lots of asparagus topped with ground sunflower and hemp seeds, and some lemon juice.   I also made a salad with lettuce (some from the garden--really good), avocado, apple, ground seeds (pumpkin & sunflower), and D'angou pear vinegar.  nibbled on frozen peas as usual.  

I was pretty full after all this.  I must have eaten a lot of seeds.  

Today I'm traveling and just eating an apple and some carrots--not that hungry anyway.  When I arrive in Miami, I'll have the smoothie hopefully.  then I have more soup in my suitcase if I'm still hungry.   

avocado-mango salad

When I eat something several times, I decide it's time to make it a recipe.

Ingredients for 1 large serving:

lettuce and greens

1 small mango or 1/2 large--I get the small yellow ones from Mexico because they seem to ripen better for me than the big green/red ones from South America

1/2 ripe avocado

1/2 cup edamame, thawed (or fresh sugar snap peas or snow peas)

1/2 red bell pepper (optional)

broccoli sprouts or other sprouts (optional)

1 Tbsp sunflower, hemp, or pumpkin seeds, ground (coffee grinder works well)

1 Tbsp D'angou pear or orange vinegar.

I think you know what to do. cut up the lettuce. cut up and add the mango, avocado, bell pepper on top. add the edamame and vinegar and seeds. yummy. I'll post a picture sometime.

Fatty Liver Reversal

On April 15th, I received an e-mail from a reader who I'll call Sam. Sam told me that he had elevated levels of the liver enzyme ALT (alanine transaminase) in his blood, which indicates liver damage. ALT is an enzyme contained in liver cells that's released into the bloodstream when they rupture. Sam also had fatty liver confirmed by biopsy.

Liver damage with fat accumulation is very common in the United States. According to the NHANES health and nutrition surveys, in the time period 1999-2002, 8.9% of Americans had elevated ALT. Just 10 years earlier (1988-1994), the number was 4.0%. Fatty liver is a growing epidemic that currently affects roughly a quarter of Americans. Sam told me he had been trying to reverse his fatty liver for nearly a decade without success, and asked if I had any thoughts. He was not overweight, and from what I could gather, his diet was already better than most. I believe Sam knew intuitively that the right diet would improve his condition. With the usual caveats that this is not advice and I'm not a doctor, here's what I told him:

The quality of fat you eat has a very large influence on health, and especially on the liver. Excess omega-6 is damaging to the liver. This type of fat is found primarily in refined seed oils such as corn oil, soybean oil, and safflower oil... Sugar is also a primary contributor to fatty liver. Reducing your sugar intake will go a long way toward reversing it. Omega-3 fats also help reverse fatty liver if an excess of omega-6 is present. There was a clinical trial using fish oil that was quite effective. You might try taking 1/2 teaspoon of fish oil per day.

On May 11, I received another e-mail from him:

The day after your recommendations, less than a month ago, I started a regimen of 1200 mg/day of fish oil concentrate.

At the same time, I significantly reduced or even eliminated all forms of sugar from my diet. I did have a half glass of orange juice for breakfast every few days or so, and some fruits, and maybe a taste of dessert or a small candy bar here and there. I never exceeded the 30 g/day sugar limit you suggested.

I completely eliminated any and all fried foods and avoided most oils. I also avoided high glycemic index foods to some degree, e.g. white bread and potatoes. I did eat quite a bit more protein, including red meat, eggs, fish, chicken, and pork.

The balance of my diet and lifestyle was largely unchanged. I do drink a couple of beers every two to three weeks, but never more than three drinks in day. I have been doing more yard work, simply because of the season. Other than that, I don't get much more exercise than a typical inactive office worker.

In the same e-mail, he sent me his new ALT test results. He had been getting tested since 2002. The latest result, reflecting his progress since adopting the new diet, followed the previous test by less than a month. Here's a graph of his ALT levels. Below 50 is considered normal: The latest test was 52, just on the cusp of normal. That's nearly 50% lower than his next lowest result over the past 7 years, in less than one month of eating well. I suspect that his next ALT test will be well within the normal range, and the fat in his liver will gradually disappear, if he continues this diet. When I asked him how he was feeling, he said:

I did feel different after adjusting my diet. It's hard to describe, but overall I just felt better. I wasn't as tired when I woke up in the morning and I became a little slimmer, not a lot, maybe 3-5 pounds [note: he was not overweight to begin with]. I figured it was a placebo effect, but I think the fish oil has made a real difference.

Yesterday I had a few potato chips, corn chips, and some others. I didn't like it at all. Today I had half of a brownie for an afternoon snack and I completely crashed after an hour or so. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. I no longer have much of a craving for snack food, I prefer to eat a full meal with more protein, e.g. beans, meat etc.

Fatty liver is a serious problem that responds readily to diet. I believe the main culprits are excess omega-6 from industrial vegetable oils; insufficient omega-3 from seafood, leafy greens and pastured animal foods; and excess sugar. The liver is your "metabolic gatekeeper", so it pays to take care of it.

How to Fatten Your Liver
Excess Omega-6 Fat Damages Infants' Livers
Health is Multi-Factorial

eggplant, veggies, & seeds

This is one of my favorites now. I finally learned how to make eggplant: you have to cook it enough for it to get really tender--at least for my tastes. The pressure cooker is perfect for that.  But this dish will work fine one a conventional stove--just cook for a long time.  Which reminds me,  the PC is a great summer appliance because it cooks things so quickly.  I highly recommend it!  Here is the one I got:

Ingredients:

1 eggplant

1 bunch of kale, or more if you'd like

a bunch of mushrooms, 8-16 oz

a leek or onion

any other veggie you want to throw in or subsitute--zucchini, for example.

2 16-oz cans of tomatoes (or 1 if you want)

herbs or italian spices or other spices (I used stuff currently in my garden:  chives, cilantro, tarragon, parsley.  The basil isn't ready yet).

ground seeds, I used hemp, sunflower, pumpkin.  I did 4 Tbsp but I might do 6 next time.

Peel and cut up the eggplant.  Cut up the kale, mushrooms and leek/onion.   Here's how I made it in the pressure cooker:  cooked the eggplant in 1/2 cup water for 2 minutes.  Then added the kale and onions for another 2 minutes.  Then added everything else for another minute.   For conventional stove, cook the eggplant, onions, kale and tomatoes for about 20 minutes, then add everything else for another 10.  that's my guess.  maybe cook the eggplant for even longer.

The ground seeds remind me of ricotta cheese so this feels kind of like an Italian dish.  

You can add beans or edamame too.   I often add edamame to the leftovers.

june 20-22

It was a busy weekend so no time for blogging.   I worked Sat and Sun nights (my usual blogging time) to make up for goofing off Friday and Monday.  But I ate great.  We've been eating lots of berries because they are cheap and delicious!   Let's see if I can remember it all.

Sat. morning I had a smoothie and half a cantaloupe.  then some watermelon at our work day at church.  then grocery shopping so a late lunch which was pea-guacomole and carrot sticks and red bell pepper "sticks" for dipping. I also had a box of blackberries.  Dinner was salad made from lettuce & greens topped with berries (strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries), ground hemp and sunflower seeds, and orange vinegar.  The berries were especially good today. Housemate said she prefers  the fruit salad by itself.  I can see that, as it's more of a treat on its own.    

Sun. morning was a smoothie and half a cantaloupe.  some more watermelon at church. more grocery shopping again.  got a bag of cherries.  I've learned that when I get a bag of cherries I end up eating the entire bag of cherries.  I wish I had more discipline but I don't.  So it's good to just eat smaller meals on those days.    Lunch was essentially the bag of cherries.  it was good...  then I made a big batch of eggplant & veggies.  This has become one of my favorite cooked meals.  Housemate doesn't like eggplant, so I made her version with potatoes.  I had a small portion after making it at about 3 pm.   For dinner we went to a diner with a friend and I brought along another helping of the eggplant & veggies.  

Today, more visitors.  Brekky was a smoothie again, and half a cantaloupe.   Lunch at a state park was avocado-mango salad and fruit salad for dessert (strawberries, raspberries, banana, and cantaloupe).   Dinner was leftover eggplant dish (still one more serving left!), some carrots, while visitors ate pizza.  oh, I added some edamame to the eggplant dish.   had a few frozen peas while preparing.   half an orange for dessert.  oh, and a couple of Tbsp of pumpkin seeds.  

I'm probably eating too much fruit but this time of year, that's to be expected. 

Disciplined Reading

Here is a great post from BTW.  Here are the 5 issues (with links) that Professor Bruce Ashford, from SBTS) discusses:

1. On Disciplined Reading
2. What Should I Read? Choosing from a Vast Array of Options
3. How Should I Read? Tips on Getting the Most from Your Reading
4. Why Should I Read? Other Advantages of Reading
5. Questions, Answers, and Concluding Thoughts

june 19

Another busy day.  It took me all day to recover from the lentils.  I finally felt normal tonight.  I'm going to cut back on the beans.  I don't care if I don't build muscles.  I have enough.  I froze the rest of the lentils for another time.

Brekky:  1/2 cantaloupe, a carrot, a little spinach.  I didn't eat this until about 11 am because I was still full in the morning.

Lunch:  about 4 pm.  I was finally hungry!  smoothie.  I made this about 11 am though.  This was my first smoothie of the season using garden greens!   Here they are:

chard, collards, and arugula.  It was about 5 oz.  I made my recent favorite smoothie.  It was very good.  oh, I added a small mango to it, which is probably why it was better than usual.   I also ate an apple with the smoothie.

Dinner: salad.  This was really good.  I like salads.  I like them more than beans.  Well, I like beans, just not how I feel after eating too many of them.  I did have 1/2 cup of edamame on the salad.  That is a bean (soybean).  That doesn't seem to bother me.  This salad had lettuce and spinach (local, yum), a cut-up apple and peach, avocado (a whole one, though small, yum), edamame (frozen, heated in microwave), and orange vinegar.  It was yummy.   I also ate an orange while making house-mate's orange juice.  and a carrot while making the salad.   

june 18

brekky:  not too hungry.  half a cantaloupe.  Ate some carrots and spinach while making soup.  It was pretty much this recipe for lentil soup.   I made a large batch to take some over to a friend.  I used 1/2 cup wild rice mixture, and 1/2 cup wheatberries, because that was all I had.  Normally I would have used 1 cup of the rice.  But I kind of like the wheatberries mixed in.  They give it a crunchy taste.   I used 4 cups of red lentils.  I like the 4:1 ratio of lentils and rice/wheatberries.  Like last time, I blended up cauliflower and zucchini into a creamy sauce, and added kale.  

lunch:   not too hungry.  ate a bowl of the lentil soup, and some fruit salad.   was still pretty bloated for my workout in the afternoon.

dinner:  still not too hungry.  ate a small bowl of soup, salad, and some fruit salad at my friend's house.   Then I got a little hungry when I got home.  maybe the hard workout finally got my appetite going.  I ate some cherries and berries (too many, oops).

I have to say, I'm overdosing on the beans. They are making me too bloated.  I'm probably eating too many of them.   And this time of year, I'd rather eat the berries and vegetables.  The berries are cheap and good right now and that's a rare treat.   The co-op is starting to fill up with local veggies, mainly greens right now.  I got some asparagus today.  So I think I'll cut back on the beans.  I definitely don't want them every day.   

A Little Tidbit

I'm gearing up for a new series of posts based on some fascinating reading I've been doing lately. I'm not going to spill the beans, but I will give you a little hint, from a paper written by Dr. Robert S. Corruccini, professor of anthropology at Southern Illinois university. I just came across this quote and it blew me away. It's so full of wisdom I can't even believe I just read it. The term "occlusion" refers to the way the upper and lower teeth come together, as in overbite or underbite.

Similar to heart disease and diabetes which are "diseases of civilization" or "Western diseases" (Trowell and Burkitt, 1981) that have attained high prevalence in urban society because of environmental factors rather than "genetic deterioration," an epidemiological transition (Omran, 1971) in occlusal health accompanies urbanization.

Western society has completely crossed this transition and now exists in a state of industrially buffered environmental homogeneity. The relatively constant environment both raises genetic variance estimates (since environmental variance is lessened) and renders epidemiological surveys largely meaningless because etiological factors are largely uniform. Nevertheless most occlusal epidemiology and heritability surveys are conducted in this population rather than in developing countries currently traversing the epidemiological transition.

In other words, the reason observational studies in affluent nations haven't been able to get to the bottom of dental/orthodontic problems and chronic disease is that everyone in their study population is doing the same thing! There isn't enough variability in the diets and lifestyles of modern populations to be able to determine what's causing the problem. So we study the genetics of problems that are not genetic in origin, and overestimate genetic contributions because we're studying populations whose diet and lifestyle are homogeneous. It's a wild goose chase.

That's why you have to study modernizing populations that are transitioning from good to poor health, which is exactly what Dr. Weston Price and many others have done. Only then can you see the true, non-genetic, nature of the problem.

veggies, greens, & seeds

This is similar to beans, greens & seeds, but has veggies instead of beans.

Ingredients:

some veggies: I used a beet, a zucchini, some mushrooms, and some cauliflower

some onion or leek: I used 1/2 leek.

some greens: I had kale, mustard greens, baby bok choy.

some seeds: I used 1 Tbsp pumpkin and 1 Tbsp hemp, grind in coffee grinder

some herbs: I had tarragon, rosemary, cilantro, and chives from the garden.

I used a pressure cooker (PC) which made it go fast, but you can do this with a regular pot, steaming everything. Cook the longer-cooking things first (beets for 3 minutes in the PC). Then add the shorter-cooking stuff and cook some more (everything else but the seeds and herbs, 2 minutes in the PC). Then add the ground seeds and chopped herbs. Use whatever veggies, greens, seeds or nuts, herbs (dried or fresh) you have on hand.

It was great!

june 17

busy day. brekky was half cantaloupe, some cherries, and a carrot.

lunch: it was really good but I ate too much, because I prepared too much and I didn't want them as leftovers. bad planning. I made veggies, greens, & seeds. I snacked on a carrot and some spinach while preparing, oh and on the berries as I made fruit salad for housemate. They were really good. California berries are really good right now.

dinner, out and about: smoothie, beans from a few days ago, a few pieces of watermelon at a dessert potluck. Then at home, some cherries, peas, carrots and spinach, and an orange. that was a bit too much again, oops. I have been working out a lot this week, but still. It's wasteful to overeat, and not healthy.

Speaking of overeating, let's talk about gas for a minute. People think beans give you gas. I've found this week that eating 1 cup of beans a day doesn't give me gas if I don't overeat. And not eating any beans, but overeating gives me gas. So gas is a good indication for me that I'm overeating. Housemate will say, "this is more than I wanted to know."

The Lyon Diet-Heart Study: A Few More Thoughts

Although the degree of atherosclerosis (hardening/narrowing of the arteries) correlates with the risk of heat attack, the correlation isn't perfect. In fact, if you read my previous post on 20th century coronary heart disease trends in the U.K., you know that the frequency of heart attacks rose dramatically during the first half of the century, while the prevalence of severe atherosclerosis stayed the same or even declined.

If you accept the standard idea of how a heart attack occurs, first the coronary arteries become narrowed due to atherosclerosis. Then a clot forms, which lodges itself in a narrowed artery, blocking it and cutting off the blood supply to part of the heart muscle. The clot may be the result of a ruptured atherosclerotic plaque.

If you're unlucky, the loss of blood to your heart causes arrhythmia, or a loss of coordination of the heart muscle. This can cause it to pump blood inefficiently, sometimes resulting in death. Arrhythmias are estimated to account for about half of all heart attack deaths in the U.S. Sometimes they occur without a coronary blockage as well.

Omega-3 fatty acids seem to affect all three parts of the process: the atherosclerosis, the clot formation and the arrhythmia. Supplementing fish oil, even in the absence of reduced omega-6, may slow the progression of atherosclerosis according to a controlled trial.

Where omega-3 really shines is its ability to prevent clots and arrhythmias. In the DART and Lyon trials, the benefits of improving omega-6:3 balance appeared much more quickly than would be possible if it were acting by reversing atherosclerosis. This may have involved the blood-thinning properties of omega-3. The most dramatic effects were on sudden cardiac death, often the result of arrhythmia. Omega-3 fatty acids potently suppress arrhythmias in animal models.

You can have severely narrowed and calcified arteries, but if a clot never shows up, you may never actually have a heart attack. The modern industrial diet is extremely thrombotic (clot-promoting), probably in large part due to the combination of excessive omega-6 and insufficient omega-3. If the artery blockage doesn't cause an arrhythmia, the heart attack may not be fatal.

Omega-3 fats seem to prevent heart attacks on multiple levels.

The Lyon Diet-Heart Study: Background
The Lyon Diet-Heart Study
The Lyon Diet-Heart Study: Implications
Polyunsaturated Fat Intake: What About Humans?

june 16

brekky: 1/2 cantaloupe, new favorite smoothie, carrot. The smoothie was very filling.

lunch: wasn't hungry! wow, I guess those beans and greens and seeds really do fill you up for a long time. So I just had 1/2 cup peas and a carrot. I wasn't even hungry for that but thought I might want the energy for my afternoon workout.

dinner: had plans to be out, so had a carrot, smoothie, cup of beans. then after grocery shopping, some blackberries and cherries.

Prager Quotes

I have several scratches of paper on my desk that contain quotes I've wanted to post for a while.  All of these are from Dennis Prager.

"Just as a mirror reflects what your body looks like, so writing is the mirror of  your mind.  If  you can't write clearly, you are not thinking clearly." [This makes me think instantly of preachers in the process of sermon preparation.  Clear thinking is critical to communicate, and so we should strive to write our manuscripts clearly in order to accomplish that goal.]

"The older one gets it is goodness that moves you to tears."  [As opposed to sadness or evil.  The thought was that true goodness/human kindness is more rare, and thus, more moving.]

"What do you think your parents most want you to be?

1. Happy
2. Smart
3. Successful
4. Good

[Dennis made the comment that option #4 is generally never considered, but is truly the most worthy "hope" of any parent, that their children become good people. I'm sure this was from one of his Happiness Hours.]

Corruption in Nigeria

The testimony of Nuhu Ribadu, former Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria, before the House Financial Services Committee in May 2009 is a stirring call for addressing corruption in all of Africa and the fatal effects that allowing corruption to continue is having on the continent.  Here are some excerpts:

Today, after one civil war, seven military regimes, and three botched attempts at building real democracy [since gaining independance in 1960], there is one connecting factor in the failure of all attempts to govern Nigeria: corruption....

The African Union has reported that corruption drains the region of some $140 billion a year, which is about 25% of the continent's official GDP....  On a regional dimension, it is estimated that some $20 billion leaves Africa annually through the illicit export of money extorted from development loan contracts. This money is deposited in overseas banks by a network of politicians, civil servants and businessmen. This figure is now roughly equal to the entire amount of aid from the US to Sub‐Saharan Africa every year....

I have always held the belief that the laws needed to check these problems often already exist; what is lacking is the culture of enforcement. Enforcement blossoms only where there is the necessary political will, and this political will must be strong at the very top....

The UK’s Commission for Africa estimates that the assets stolen from the continent and held in foreign bank accounts amount to $93 billion. If Africa can succeed in tracing and repatriating such stolen wealth, the next chapter in the story may truly turn a new page, and the days of aid dependency can start to wane....

I urge you to view the fight against corruption as the ultimate humanitarian effort, for surely there is no stronger chain to shackle the poor to their lot. Corruption may have taken some shots at us, but what it is doing to ordinary Nigerians every day is far worse and far more fatal.

When corruption is king, there is no accountability of leadership and no trust in authority. Society devolves to the basic units of family and self, to the baser instincts of getting what you can when you can, because you don’t believe anything better will ever come along. And when the only horizon is tomorrow, how can you care about the kind of nation you are building for your children and your grandchildren?

What Does the Bible Teach on Immigration?

Here is a new book by James Hoffmeier (an OT prof I had at TEDS) that takes on the subject. The link is the an interview about the book. Looks like a worthwhile read given our present cultural debate on the subject. To whet your appetite:

Does the OT operate with similar distinctions that we have today between documented aliens and illegal immigrants?

What I learned in my study is that there are three relevant terms used in Hebrew (ger, zar, nekhar). Different English translations render the words differently. The TNIV and NLT render them all as “foreigner.” That is misleading and incorrect.

Zar and nekhar indeed refer to foreigners or visitors, people passing through a foreign land.

Ger or the verb gwr, which together occur more than 160 times in the OT, refer to foreign residents who live in another land with the permission of a host. A good example of this is found in Genesis when Joseph asks permission of pharaoh for his family to move to Egypt (Gen. 45:16-18). When they arrived, the brothers asked pharaoh if they could sojourn in the land (Gen. 47:1-4), and Pharaoh allotted them a section of the land of Goshen or Rameses (Gen. 47:5-7).

The law is clear that ger is not to be oppressed, but to receive equal justice, and have access to the social support system of ancient Israel. And there was a provision for religious inclusion, but they were also obligated to live in accordance with the laws just like the Israelites.

The Law does not, however, extend to the zar and nekhar such benefits and services. From this I conclude that ger was viewed as a legal alien.

The mistake of some well-meaning Christians is to apply the biblical laws for the ger to illegal aliens in American even though they do not fit the biblical legal and social definition.

It seems to me that in the public square those who are using the Bible in the immigration debate assume that the Bible endorses the idea of providing sanctuary for illegal aliens. Do you agree?

The OT Law is very clear about the practice of sanctuary or accessing the cities of refuge. The former was for those living in proximity to the Tabernacle or Temple, while the city of refuge were scattered throughout Israel for easier access.

The purpose of sanctuary was not to avoid the law or one’s sentence, but to get a fair trial in the case and only in the case of accidental death (cf. Ex. 21:12-14; Num. 35:11-15, 22-29; Josh. 20:1-9).

So when American cities offer their cities as sanctuary from federal law, or when churches offer their facilities as a refuge for illegal immigrants who have been tried and order deported, they are neither following the letter or spirit of the OT law.

A recent example of this was the case of Elvira Arellano, a woman who had been ordered deported by a judge because of her undocumented status. She was given sanctuary in a United Methodist Church in Chicago for more than a year. In my view, such a practice neither follows the letter or the spirit of the biblical law regarding sanctuary.

"...we are tired of being your anthropological wet dream."

WOW!  I'm all for well-rounded, grounded, reasoned discussion related to helping the poor in contrast to mere emotional pleas.  This article is one of them.  An African businessman starts his article at Huffington Post by explaining his gripe:

"In the course of starting a business based in Africa, I was referred to a former Silicon Valley CFO who had made enough money and now devoted his life to helping the world's poor. As I began to explain my project to him, which involved setting up manufacturing plants in Senegal, he kept encouraging me to buy crafts from local artisans rather than setting up manufacturing plants. Despite the fact that he had become wealthy through a capitalist world and lived a comfortable lifestyle that depended on tens of thousands of factories around the world, his vision of helping the poor was strictly limited to microfinance and local crafts. My vision of manufacturing in Africa was frankly repulsive to him."

He concludes:

"My vision for Africa is one in which it becomes the first region of the world to create a socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing base. But key to that vision is that Africa does create a manufacturing base. Because we will never be helped by those Americans who are strictly selfish and self-indulgent, I am appealing to those Americans who want to help to transcend their romance with foreign aid and microfinance, and begin to take seriously investing in African manufacturing and purchasing products made in Africa. Yes, pay attention to the kind of manufacturing that produces the goods you buy. But also remember that we Africans deserve the same respect and quality of life that you have. Microfinance and arts and crafts alone will not get us there."

june 15

brekky: my new favorite smoothie. I used kale and spinach and a little arugula as my greens. also had 1/2 cantaloupe.

Lunch: beans, greens and seeds. While preparing I had a small bowl of cabbage salad and 1/2 cup peas. Dessert was an orange.

Dinner: beans, asparagus and seeds. While preparing I had a small bowl of cabbage salad and 1/2 cup peas. Dessert was a banana. I wasn't hungry for dessert. should have left it off.

All of this food was really good and satisfying. In fact, I think I might have eaten just a little bit too much. The beans do fill you up. I probably had more than a half cup with lunch and dinner, so will watch that in the future.

Building a Basic Pantry

I came across this article at community health talk.com and thought it was quite handy.  I do cook, but not on a regular basis.  But I thought this might be a great resource for college students or even grads starting out in their first place.  It could even be a great refresher for the well-established.  Worth a glance.

beans, greens, & seeds

I listened to a Fuhrman telecon about how to build muscle in which he recommended that you eat a high-quality protein meal combining beans, greens and nuts& seeds after exercising. Protein gets excreted from your system if you don't use it (i.e., build muscle), so it's good to eat it one or two meals after exercising. It turns out that this is an easy and delicious meal to make. Here are two examples, from today's lunch and dinner.

First, make a pot of beans (or just use a can!). Today I made a mixture of lima and pinto. I soaked them overnight, then rinsed, and cooked with a chopped onion for about 3 hours. At the end of cooking, I added from fresh herbs from the garden. Today that was chives, dill, a little cilantro, and tarragon. The garden cilantro and dill will end soon, but the basil will be strong soon, so there should be something all summer long. For fun, I added 2 tsp of fig vinegar. That was unnecessary but good.

Next, chop some greens and one other veggie. or more. whatever you want. My greens today were kale, baby bok choy, and mustard greens. I made enough for two. It was probably about 10 oz, so 5 each. I didn't measure it. It went into a big pot. I also added some mushrooms and a can of tomatoes. I cooked them in the pressure cooker for 2 minutes (or steam for 15 minutes or so). I ground up 1 Tbsp of hemp seed and 2 Tbsp sunflower seeds in the coffee grinder (the meal served two people). I added that to the greens, poured 1/2 cup beans on top, and the seeds. The seeds mixed with the cooking liquid and made the sauce a little creamy. It was fabulous.

For dinner, my greens were asparagus. okay, that doesn't count as greens, but it's a healthy vegetable. I added sesame seeds to the asparagus and pressure cooked for 2 minutes. then I thought I could grind them but I realized after cooking that you can't really separate them. So I thought, they might not digest well, so I ground up 2 Tbsp of sunflower seeds. Added that and juice of 1/2 lemon to the asparagus, topped with 1/2 cup beans. And added more herbs that I had picked for lunch. It was fabulous too!

I may be doing this sort of thing a lot. It's an easy way to get a high-nutrient, high-protein meal!

Donations Gratefully Accepted

I've been incurring significant costs buying books and photocopying journal articles for the blog lately, so I've decided to add a donation button to the right sidebar. Anyone is still welcome to read posts and participate in the community, regardless of whether or not they donate. If you feel like you'd like to chip in, I'd appreciate it.

The button takes you to a PayPal webpage, where you can securely donate either with a PayPal account or using a credit card.

Drifting Away

At my church's men's retreat in the Spring the guest speaker referenced this quote by C.S. Lewis. I was not familiar with it and it has taken me til now to look it up.

"We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?" - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

This is particularly poignant for me as I consider the value of routine and personal discipline in life. There is eternal significance to creating good habits AND bad habits. I didn't go to church this morning. I actually slept in. There is no great sin in not attending church every Sunday. Sometimes one actually needs a true Sabbath. "Sometimes," as a wise elder once told me, "the most spiritual thing you can do is go to sleep." But these "sometimes" can turn into habits (or erode good habits) that are safety nets for our faith.

Who can tell which drop causes a glass to overflow. So too, which step (or inaction) is the step that shipwrecks our faith?  Be careful lest  you fall from your secure position, Peter warned.  Not only should we guard our hearts and take captive every thought, but we should also subject our bodies and its natural urges for sleep, satisfaction, and comfort to the lordship of Christ, lest we drift away by not paying attention.

Flag Day and Baseball in 1976!

Thanks to HA - I never knew this story:

june 14

Brekky:  wasn't too hungry, just snacked on the fruit salad I was preparing for my lunch potluck.  I probably had a full serving.  The fruit salad had strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, bananas, and grapes.  Oh yeah, I had a box of blackberries too (6 oz I think).  So yeah, I guess it was plenty of food.

Lunch:  at the potluck, the food was quite healthy.   I had my fruit salad + a delicious lettuce salad.  Then there was a black bean salad and a corn & asparagus dish.  I had small amounts of those--would have had more but I didn't want too much salt.    They were good.  I should point out the reason I'm sensitive to salt now is that since I don't add any to my food, my kidneys are used to retaining all the sodium I consume.   So when I consume a large amount, my body bloats up from retaining the sodium.  In contrast, most Americans excrete large amounts of sodium every day which is why their sweat is salty.  The kidneys have to work pretty hard to do this.  (I learned this from a Dr. Fuhrman telecon).

Dinner:  cabbage salad and the leftover fruit salad.  snacked on spinach, 1 carrot, and 1/3 cup frozen peas while preparing.  I guess I look at that as the first course.  The local spinach is so good I just love to eat it plain out of the bag.

I didn't snack today.  I felt hungry in my stomach  at 4 pm (according to Dr. Fuhrman, that is not real hunger, which you feel in your throat).  I told myself to wait, and went out and worked on turning and rearranging the compost pile, and then realized I wasn't hungry anymore.  Then I was hungry at dinner and it was good.   It really is easier to not snack, just eat 3 meals a day, and focus on your life and not food.

Please Excuse...

14. Please excuse jimmy for being. It was his father’s fault.

Sotomayor in a Paragraph

Matthew J. Franck from Bench Memos summarizes the background material provided by Sotomayor for her Senate confirmation hearings this way:

In sum, we can say that Judge Sotomayor has, with few exceptions, given just three or four speeches to public audiences in her career—the same three or four, over and over and over.  One of her repeated themes is on the virtue of race-conscious and sex-conscious bias in judging.  Like her other themes, this one cannot be "walked back" by White House claims that she "misspoke" or could have made her point differently.  She is, on the evidence of her speeches, a great self-absorbed bore, a mediocrity as a writer, and a polished practitioner of identity politics.

Spelling, writing, and accuracy with names is not necessarily a pre-requisite for a Supreme Court Justice, but it does reflect a lazy habit (at least with the spelling and names, which are easily checked) that is pause-worthy, especially if the candidate's energies are being funneled exclusively into the third area - activism.  The reason this is such a troubling combination is because lazy thinking combined with ideological rigidness is ripe for not being able to see the "unintended consequences" of her decisions, and even worse, not caring - something Obama said he wanted.

june 13

Today I kind of pigged out, oops.  and the reason is because I let myself snack.  at least it was healthy.

Last night when I got home I was a bit hungry.  I ate as described in my June 11 post.  I got home about 8 pm and saw some lettuce, kale, and arugula in the garden that needed harvesting!  Excitement.  So I made this smoothie, using mixed berries.  It is now my current favorite smoothie.   I liked it so much I had it again for brekky this morning, using blueberries (I had no other food in the house).   Then I went off to do manual labor at my church.  That made me hungry, so I came home for a very quick lunch before heading off to a memorial service.  Well, I still had nothing in the house except frozen berries and spinach so I had another smoothie!  this time with raspberries.  I also had some frozen peas and an orange.  It was a good lunch.  At the memorial service, they served tons of food, which I wasn't expecting.  I had some fruit salad and bean salad.  The bean salad was super oily and salty.  I just had a small amount but I can feel the salt--my fingers are swollen.  I'm so sensitive to it now.   Then I went grocery shopping, loading up on all kinds of fabulous local veggies!   When I got home and was putting away the groceries, I snacked a bit.  When I snack a bit, it leads to lots of snacking.  So I ate a box of blackberries, some grapes, a fresh fig, a carrot, and some pistachio nuts.  Well, I wasn't that hungry when dinner came around but that didn't stop me from snacking while preparing, and then eating a fair amount.  I snacked on edamame, an orange, some grapes, and too many pistachio nuts while preparing cabbage-apple dish.  I was full after all that. 

One thing I noticed today was that there was so much food available everywhere I went.  It really does seem to be the case that every social event in America needs to have lots of unhealthy food at it.  No wonder most people are overweight.  We had a huge box of donuts at the beginning of our work day, along with coffee and cream, after most people probably just had breakfast.  Someone brought lunch for us at 11:30 am.  Then there was tons of food at the memorial service, most of it baked goods and sweets and candy and pasta.  Now that I think about it, every social event I go to has food in it. Tomorrow I have church, where there's always food,  followed by a potluck with some friends.   Next Wednesday I'm going to a dessert potluck.   I requested that fruit salad be on the menu (I'm a guest so they don't want me to bring food).  I'm planning to go to the movies next week; where everyone will be eating popcorn and candy and coke.   It's kind of interesting.   I wonder if sociable people are more overweight!  How can they help it?   Then there's the bar scene.  I have drifted away from some friends because I lost interest in drinking--that wasn't my intention, but I just don't have much interest to go to bars now.  I'm somewhat immune from the SAD (standard American diet) now.  But all that food does probably trigger my own food cravings.

I'll try not to snack tomorrow...Part of it was the excitement of getting my favorite foods from my favorite grocery store after a week on the road.  And I probably allow myself to do this because I wonder if perhaps I'm a bit underweight.  But even if you want to gain weight, I think 3 meals a day should be enough.  I feel better when I rest my digestion in between meals.  And of course, that is what Dr. Fuhrman recommends.   

okay, time to watch a movie at home with no food because we already ate and aren't the least bit hungry!