Recent relevantish reads

I enjoyed these articles and think you might too!

cows at Mountain Home Farm

Soon, Your Food May Dine on Insects — which is a much more natural food source for animals than soy:

However, food producers are likely to feel the pinch as the world’s population climbs to nine billion by 2050, while rising incomes in large countries like China and India lead to greater demand for meat-rich diets. So entrepreneurs, researchers, and even the United Nations are looking for an animal feed less expensive than the soybeans and fishmeal typically used today. Insects like mealworms and fly larvae, a natural food for wild birds and fish, could be a near-perfect replacement. With several startups planning industrial-scale operations, it may not be long before some poultry or fish entrées are raised on a regular diet of bugs.


I backed a Kickstarter campaign to help Mountain Home Farm in Vermont become an all-grass dairy farm. Consider skipping your daily latte and throwing them a few bucks! The campaign has less than a day to go!


Scientists sniffing out the Western allergy epidemic: my obsession with gut bacteria continues.

The bacteria that cover our skin, line our mouths and fill our guts not only outnumber our own cells by about 10 to one but may play a vital role in training our immune systems. Changes to our lifestyles are influencing these microorganisms, and allergies are the consequence.


Monsanto, Under Attack for GMOs, Has a New Defender — this is a WSJ article, so the link may not work, sorry. Monsanto has a young, Silicon Valley-type executive trying to persuade people that the company isn’t evil:

Mr. Friedberg, a former Google Inc. executive, now oversees the “precision agriculture” services Monsanto sells to farmers, a major initiative encompassing high-tech planting equipment, soil and seed analysis, and weather modeling.

The lifelong vegetarian has also emerged as an unlikely champion of Monsanto at a time when the company—and the business of genetically engineering crops that it pioneered—face intensifying attacks.


12 Signs You Need to Eat More Protein covers 12 situations, symptoms, and signs that indicate a direct need for more dietary protein, including:

  • You’re getting older
  • You’re always hungry
  • You lift weights or endurance train
  • You primarily get your protein from plants

Any of those sound like you? Just make sure to get your extra protein from HAPPY ANIMALS!


A Call for a Low-Carb Diet That Embraces Fat

This isn’t really news as we’ve seen a zillion studies with similar results, but apparently “this is one of the first long-term trials that’s given these diets without calorie restrictions.”

Dr. Mozaffarian said the research suggested that health authorities should pivot away from fat restrictions and encourage people to eat fewer processed foods, particularly those with refined carbohydrates.

Translation: Eat real food! 


 Diet Soda May Alter Our Gut Microbes And Raise The Risk Of Diabetes

Remember that the food you eat is feeding your gut biome. Take care of it!

Diet sodas may alter our gut microbes in a way that increases the risk of metabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes — at least in some of us… It’s clear that our gut microbes are not just passive organisms hitching a ride on our bodies, says Kirsten Tillisch, a gastroenterologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “They’re affecting our health in active and powerful ways.”

Recent reads about food, farming, and health

Local Foods: From Fad To Force And What It Means For The Food Industry

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-zacka/local-foods-from-fad-to-f_b_5502757.html

“The trend has gone viral, as consumers are voting ‘local’ with their dollars and having a profound influence on the nation’s food systems. Their enthusiasm has led suppliers, grocers and restaurants to change and adapt by adding locally produced goods to their offerings year-round.”


What you need to know about P90X, Insanity, Weight Watchers, Shakeology, Cleanses, and Nutrisystem

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2014/06/23/what-you-need-to-know-about-p90x-insanity-weight-watchers-shakeology-cleanses-and-nutrisystem/

A quick comparison of the trendy quick-fix diet/fitness products–what works and what doesn’t.


Local to the extreme: This project puts the farm right in the grocery store

http://grist.org/food/local-to-the-extreme-this-project-puts-the-farm-right-in-the-grocery-store/#.U6hWaokqWNI.twitter

“Three days a week in downtown Raleigh, N.C., fans of fresh fruits and veggies can pick up their local tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, potatoes, squash, and blackberries inside a 200-square-foot shipping container… In the 8,000-square-foot, scaled-up version, Greene imagines an open bottom floor that would hold the main grocery and a café for selling drinks and deli meats. Above that, eight shipping containers supported by beams and equipped with side panels for growing herbs and greens, nourished by what Greene calls the “Living River Growing System” — a raceway tank that looks and acts like a stream, filtering and channeling nutrient-filled water to the seven-foot-high growing panels. On top of all this would sit a greenhouse roof.”


These maps show where all the world’s cattle, chickens, and pigs are

http://www.vox.com/2014/6/20/5825826/these-maps-show-where-all-the-worlds-cattle-chickens-and-pigs-live

“The Earth currently has 19.6 billion chickens, 1.4 billion cattle, and 980 million pigs. If you added up all the world’s livestock, they’d weigh more than humans and all other wild animals combined….These maps are useful for tracking the environmental impact of ever-expanding livestock production as well as keeping tabs on the potential spread of disease like avian flu.”


Widespread impacts of neonicotinoids ‘impossible to deny’

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27980344

“The scientists say the threat to nature is the same as that once posed by the notorious chemical DDT.” Neonicotinoids could be poisoning bees, and aquatic invertebrates, which are the basis of many food chains. Their use in a prophylactic way is compared to antibiotics abuse in farm animals.


Why the locavore movement’s next big move is seafood

http://grist.org/food/why-the-locavore-movements-next-big-move-is-seafood/

“Something like 86 percent of America’s seafood intake is imported (most of that is farmed), while we send away most of our own wild-caught fish.”

“We eat more shrimp than almost the next two most popular seafoods combined (salmon and canned tuna)”

“[Alaska] by far produces more seafood than any other state, probably by an order of magnitude.”

“I was trying to figure out if there was a Michael Pollan-esque line like ‘eat food, not too much, mostly plants.’ The best I could come up with was: ‘Eat American seafood, a much wider variety than we currently do, mostly filter feeders.'”


16 Things That Affect Your Gut Bacteria

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/16-things-that-affect-your-gut-bacteria

Foods (red wine! dark chocolate!), sunshine, exercise, antibiotics, probiotics, Roundup (in GMO soy and corn and CAFO animal products), smoking, time, dirt

Confessions of a reformed pescatarian

Greetings, confidants.

As you know from reading about my juice cleanse epiphanies, I have been thinking about reintroducing meat into my diet. I’ve determined that beef is my gateway drug of choice: my metaphorical gut does not want chicken, and I won’t argue with my gut (and, interestingly, chicken is the meat I gave up first when I started quitting meat back in the day), and my psyche is not ready for pig.

I knew that if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right and make sure my beef was from a local, grass-fed, humanely-treated cow, so I visited JM Stock Provisions, a new local/organic/happy meat butcher in town, for an expert recommendation.

The butcher was a font of information about the benefits of eating grass-fed (including that grass-fed beef is the easiest meat for a vegetarian’s system to handle?) and talked me through a few different cuts before recommending a flat iron steak from Timbercreek Organics. I left with a lovely little 2-person steak and very specific cooking instructions to pass on to Mr HP, my trusty steak chef and staunch carnivore, who was not familiar with the cut. I was encouraged to see this article, titled “The Flat Iron Steak: Is it really the best cut of Beef?”

flat iron steak

meat-raw meat-pan

Cooking instructions were:

  • preheat oven to 200 degrees
  • salt and pepper both sides liberally
  • heat oil with a high smoke point (rapeseed oil was recommended; we used butter) in a pan to high heat
  • put meat in the hot pan for 3 minutes
  • flip over and put into the oven for a few minutes
  • remove meat to a plate with a foil tent to rest and reabsorb juices for 10 minutes
  • cut the meat against the grain and eat

meat-cut meat-cooked

I was in charge of the side, and tried a new recipe: Zucchini Noodles with Avocado Cream Sauce. I omitted the tallow/lard–baby steps here, people. It was SO good. Make it.

meat-zoodles meat-meal

The verdict: Steak tastes good. There were some chewy gristly bits–of course–that grossed me out, but the flavor and overall texture were pleasing enough to make me want to continue my beef experiment. I tried to keep tabs on my energy levels and athletic performance over the following couple days, and can’t really say I saw impressive physical effects from the protein punch, but I did feel happy and energized and healthy. I should make a graph.

Happy feelings chart

The above graph represents the increase in happy feelings toward steak, zoodles, and avocados I experienced following this meal. I’ve been making zoodles like mad and adding avocados to EVERYTHING.

Lessons learned: The best meat is local, humanely-treated, hormone- and antibiotic-free, grass-fed, free-range, etc, etc, etc, happy meat; everyone needs a julienne peeler for making zoodles; and avocado makes any dish better.

Protein Powder Wars, Part II

In July, I wondered if, as essentially a non-meat eater, I needed extra protein. I just finished my first 18.6oz container of protein powder, and in the interest of Science, I am starting a comparison chart, below. Thanks to Eating Bird Food for an excellent post on her favorite protein powder, and a discussion of various protein powder uses; and Gabby’s Gluten-Free for educating me with a much more usable chart than the one below. As discussed in my July post, I’m only interested in plant-based, dairy/gluten/soy free, minimally processed, low/no sugar added powders.

Brand Price Protein Source Grams Protein Grams Sugar Comments
LifeTime Life’s Basics $17.43 for 18.6oz (Amazon) Pea, hemp, rice (with chia seeds) 22 2.67 (Vanilla) I ordered this little-discussed-online brand because it was a considerably cheaper intro to protein powder, and it had all three of the important plant protein sources. Also, I wanted something that would taste good when mixed with only water, and comments on Life’s Basics supported that. The flavor was fine–due to the large amount of stevia, no doubt. The consistency was thick from the chia seeds, but I didn’t mind. I think I felt stronger and less sore while recovering with this, but it’s hard to say for sure. I did like the new schedule of protein drink at 7:45, smaller-than-before breakfast at 10.
Sun Warrior $26.07 for 500g (Amazon) Brown rice 16 0 (Vanilla) Just purchased. This one is very popular on the internets.

Thoughts on protein powders

I’m a pescatarian athlete. Being competitive, I want to be faster and stronger than my friends. Some of them swear by their post-workout protein drinks, and I was curious: do protein supplements improve athletic performance? As a pescatarian, do I need a protein supplement anyway, since I don’t eat many animal products? (I do eat a lot of eggs.) If I do need one, what are some options that are minimally processed, and based on protein from plants or humanely-treated animals?

First question: do protein supplements improve athletic performance?

Maybe: The idea is that ingesting protein within a half hour or so of a strenuous workout promotes muscle recovery. Protein drinks are a convenient way to get the protein quickly into your system. I usually eat a handful of almonds directly after a workout, followed by an egg-and-veggie breakfast a couple hours later. Livestrong.com suggests almonds are not the best choice for post-workout protein intake. Shoot.

Maybe not: Robb Wolf posits that unless you’re a competitive (I think meaning elite) athlete, you don’t need to worry about a post-workout meal at all. (See comments on this article; the permalink to the specific comment is broken.) Wolf’s site also says because liquid is absorbed faster than food, a protein drink could spike your insulin levels in a way that protein-rich food would not. Here are some real-food post-workout snack alternatives to liquids.

Answer: Unclear, leaning toward yes.

Second question: as a pescatarian, do I need a protein supplement?

Maybe: Precision Nutrition prescribes protein supplements and branched chain amino acids to vegetarian athletes.

Maybe not: According to this article, vegetarians who eat lots of dairy and soy probably get enough protein. I don’t eat much of either, but I do eat a lot of eggs. Precision Nutrition does not support heavy reliance on dairy for protein intake because lactose intolerance and milk protein allergies are so common.

Answer: Unclear, leaning toward no.

Third question: what are some protein supplement options that are minimally processed, and based on protein from plants or humanely-treated animals?

Many protein powders have some weird stuff in them—additives and fillers to make them palatable. Powders are, by definition, processed foods, so if you try to avoid processed foods, well, there you go. If you’re gluten-free, read the fine print as some protein powders contain glutamine peptides as a cheaper filler protein.

Protein powders generally come in two types: plant-based protein powders, and whey protein powder.

The most common plant-based proteins used in supplements are:

  • Hemp protein
  • Brown rice protein
  • Yellow pea protein

This article gives an overview of the three types above. In it, the author, who is a vegan, gives advice to an active reader curious about protein powders. She seems to rank them hemp, brown rice, yellow pea, from favorite to least, saying hemp protein powder has more fiber than the others, and brown rice protein is hypoallergenic.

Recommended (by people on the internets, not me) plant-based protein powders:

Whey is a byproduct of cheesemaking. If purchasing whey protein supplements, ensure the whey is from grass-fed cows. I read a comment on one site that said Mark Sisson’s Primal Fuel is grass-fed whey, but I could not find evidence of that anywhere on the Primal Fuel site, so I’m guessing it’s not true. A Google search came back with a bunch of grass-fed whey options.

Recommended (by people on the internets, not me) whey protein powder:

So I don’t have a solid answer: do I need a protein supplement or not? This calls for Science! I just ordered a powder and will report back.

Eating animal products responsibly

Eating meat and dairy responsibly can be challenging: always reading labels, asking questions of waitstaff and proprietors, researching stores and brands. I rely on a collection of web sites to help me find my way, and a notable one is The Whole9, a health and wellness site that preaches a very paleo way of eating.

Yes, paleo followers eat a lot of meat, but they pay close attention to the composition of the meat, as any added hormones or chemicals are transferred from the meat to the eater, and the healthier the animal and more natural and higher quality the animal’s diet, the more nutritious the meat or dairy product. The treatment of the animal is important too, since stress dumps bad hormones and chemicals into the bloodstream, and from there into the meat.

The Whole9 has a ton of really good information about eating healthy meat and eggs. They believe dairy products are irritants and cause health problems, so they don’t address milk, cheese, etc in their articles, but the same rules apply: get your dairy from happy, healthy, naturally raised animals.

Without further ado, here are some useful references to help you along your merry responsible consumer way!

  • The Conscientious Omnivore from The Whole9: A great overview of the importance of eating healthy, happy, well cared for and humanely slaughtered animals.
    • The Conscientious Omnivore: Eggs  Covers the hidden cost of cheap eggs, and instructs how to read egg carton labels–or even better: find egg that are so fresh and local, their cartons don’t even have labels!
    • The Conscientious Omnivore: From the Sea  Discusses the pros and cons of wild-caught and farmed seafood. Consumers need to use caution when choosing wild fish as many populations are over-fished. Farmed fish presents similar problems as factory farmed livestock: pollution, chemicals, and animals fed unnatural diets. The Whole9 gives seafood recommendations, including “consider farmed salmon your worst choice in any setting.”
  • The Whole9 crew then did all sorts of cross-referencing about mercury content, sustainability, and Omega-3 content to come up with this list of fish recommendations.

Following links from The Whole9 articles led me to these resources:

  • Eat Wild is a directory of local farms selling grass-fed products, and a resource for both farmers and consumers on the how-tos and benefits of pasture-raising livestock. To sum up, they help you to “find out how choosing grassfed products is good for: Animal Welfare, Farmer Benefits, the Environment, and Human Health.” I can locate local grass-fed farms in the Virginia farm directory, or on the Virginia map, and there’s list of Virginia stores, restaurant, farmers markets, and buying clubs with grass-fed products. Look up your state!
  • US Wellness Meats is a consortium of family farms in the central US, raising livestock that’s free to forage on grass at will, and practicing sustainable pasture management. They ship meat, cheese, and butter around the country, and the farmers’ beliefs about how livestock and land should be treated is worth reading.
  • Heritage Food USA, a site selling grass-fed, antibiotic-free regional or heritage meat, is affiliated with Slow Food USA. They have a manifesto worth reading, the gist of which is “We are proud combatants in the fight to promote difference and diversity in a marketplace dominated by monocultures. In this kind of marketplace, animals raised on pasture without antibiotics are hard to come by, as are rare and heritage genetics that evolved naturally rather than from laboratories designed for meat production and fast growth.

There are many, many good resources out there instructing consumers on the importance and benefits of eating responsibly raised and produced animal products. These are just a few; please share your favorites in the comments!

Another day…

…another scary article about foods that are poisoning you. Prevention Magazine asked seven food safety experts to name a food they avoid, and while most answers were nothing shocking, a couple made me think, namely the potatoes and apples.

I try to buy local and organic whenever I can, but if I see a display of local potatoes or apples next to organic, non-local versions, I’ll generally choose from the local pile, even without the organic label. I guess I shouldn’t assume that local produce is organic, and that local always trumps non-local/organic. As if I needed my produce shopping to be more complicated.

I liked the article’s closing, a great refute to the “organic is too expensive” argument:

If you can’t afford organic, be sure to wash and peel them. But Kastel personally refuses to compromise. “I would rather see the trade-off being that I don’t buy that expensive electronic gadget,” he says. “Just a few of these decisions will accommodate an organic diet for a family.”

The list of foods to avoid:

  1. Canned tomatoes
  2. Corn-fed beef (yay Joel Salatin!)
  3. Microwave popcorn
  4. Non-organic potatoes
  5. Farmed salmon
  6. Milk produced with artificial hormones
  7. Conventional apples

The Omnivore’s Dilemma QotD

If you think eating responsibly is too expensive–

The ninety-nine-cent price of a fast-food hamburger simply doesn’t take account of that meal’s true cost–to soil, oil, public health, the public purse, etc., costs which are never charged directly to the consumer but, indirectly and invisibly, to the taxpayer (in the form of subsidies), the health care system (in the form of food-borne illnesses and obesity), and the environment (in the form of pollution), not to mention the welfare of the workers in the feedlot and the slaughterhouse and the welfare of the animals themselves…

…for if quality matters so much more than quantity, then the price of a food may bear little relation to the value of the nutrients in it. If units of omega-3s and beta-carotene and vitamin E are what an egg shopper is really after, then Joel’s $2.20 a dozen pastured eggs actually represent a much better deal than the $0.79 a dozen industrial eggs at the supermarket.

from p. 200-201, Grass: Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Pasture; and p.269, The Meal: Grass Fed.

Eggs are eggcellent

I eat a lot of eggs. One each morning in my breakfast slop and one in each lunch salad on weekdays, and around one to four on the weekends: between 11 and 14 a week. Conventional wisdom used to say to eat no more than 5 eggs a week. My doctor told me a similar number when I asked him for a guideline a year or so ago, but when told him my egg reality, and he said “okay, as long as your blood work stays clean, go for it.” So off I went, and so far, so good.

It seems the rules have loosened up a bit. The 2011 ChooseMyPlate.gov guidelines from the USDA (replacing the old Food Pyramid) are a little more generous:

One egg a day, on average, doesn’t increase risk for
heart disease, so make eggs part of your weekly
choices. Only the egg yolk contains cholesterol and
saturated fat, so have as many egg whites as you want.

But what about the studies that are cropping up all over the place claiming that dietary cholesterol doesn’t directly relate to blood cholesterol? Who to trust? Well, I trust Harvard:

A solid body of research shows that for most people, cholesterol in food has a much smaller effect on blood levels of total cholesterol and harmful LDL cholesterol than does the mix of fats in the diet.

For most people, the amount of cholesterol eaten has only a modest impact on the amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood.

World’s Healthiest Foods describes a couple studies from the University of Massachusetts which claim a daily egg can reduce your risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, while not raising blood cholesterol levels.

The UK’s Daily Mail reports on research from the European Journal of Nutrition showing that a two-egg-a-day diet can actually reduce one’s cholesterol.

This cholesterol article tells us that only some of the dietary cholesterol consumed actually ends up in your bloodstream, and if you consume excess cholesterol, your body can compensate by producing less cholesterol of its own.

Most studies seem to give the green light to eating an egg a day, but not much more than that. So enjoy your eggs in moderation, and be sure to choose eggs from pasture-raised, humanely treated chickens.

Pumping iron supplements

As an active female pescatarian of child-bearing age, I possess several attributes that could put me at risk for iron deficiency. Looking for a explanation for recent low energy levels, I did some reading on iron supplements. Iron deficiency can cause fatigue, and an increasing iron intake may seem like an easy fix, but iron supplementing can be tricky: excess amounts of iron can cause gastrointestinal distress and even become toxic. It’s safest to get blood work and recommendations from your doctor, and take a daily multivitamin.

iron?

If you want to do some dietary tinkering of your own, though, there are good resources on the Interwebs. I found this National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements article and this Vegetarian Times article to give simple, basic overviews.

Non-meat eaters may consume the daily recommended amount of iron, but the iron is a type, called nonheme, that isn’t as readily absorbed by the body as iron from meat, called heme (as in, comes from hemoglobin, a component of red blood cells in animals). Nonheme iron isn’t as available for absorption by the digestive tract, and the NIH suggests that vegetarians consider consuming twice the recommended daily amount of iron in order for their bodies to store the appropriate amount. The Vegetarian Resource Group recommends an iron RDA of 14mg for vegetarian men and post-menopausal women, and 33mg for pre-menopausal women (the official RDA for those groups is 8mg and 18mg, respectively).

Iron supplements contain either ferric or ferrous salts, with ferrous being more easily absorbed. Look for ferrous fumarate, ferrous sulfate, or ferrous gluconate in your multivitamin. Mine gives me 18mg of iron from ferrous fumarate, which on top of the iron I get from a vegetable-rich diet, should be plenty.

iron?

The bottom line is that those who eat fewer animal products can keep iron stores up by eating plenty of greens and whole grains, and taking a daily multivitamin. It’s probably best not to take iron supplements without the oversight of a physician.

Good sources of nonheme iron:

  • iron-fortified cereals
  • beans
  • dark, leafy greens
  • soy (tofu, tempeh)
  • quinoa
  • blackstrap molasses (mentioned all over the place, but not a very versatile ingredient!)

Suggestions for improving absorption of nonheme iron:

  • Eat iron-rich food with vitamin C-rich foods (fruits and vegetables)
  • Avoid combining iron-rich foods with iron absorption blockers such as coffee, tea, cocoa, calcium, and fiber