Category: Nutrition and eating

Quinoa and Buckwheat

These are not grains but seeds, and so can be sprouted. Put them in water for 24 hours, then thoroughly rinse the sprouted seeds. To cook, bring the water or vegetable broth to a boil, then on low heat for 20 minutes. 

The thorough washing and then the sprouting process does two things — minimizes or eliminates the antinutrients and massively increases the nutritional value of both seeds. 

This combination is a very healthy addition to a salad or can be used to make bread or pancakes.

First Pie Attempt

Inflexible Diet Regimens

What I find is that people who follow a particular diet too fanatically often rationalize and therefore attempt to dismiss the weaknesses in their diet.

For instance, the followers of the carnivore diet take issue with the idea that saturated fat can produce heart problems or that eating all that much fiber is necessary. Problem is saturated fat has been proven to cause a spike in blood cholesterol, which you don’t want, and everyone now knows that getting plenty of fiber is critical for supporting a healthy microbiome. So instead of being typical deniers of these facts, those who follow a carnivore diet should instead figure out a way to minimize, to the extent possible, their saturated fat intake as well as a way to boost fiber consumption.

Another example would be followers of the vegan diet. Here the problem isn’t what most people think — getting enough protein — but instead getting enough Omega 3 fats DHA and EPA. Everyone knows that the body can be very inefficient in converting ALA to both of these other Omega 3 fats, so that eating a large amount of, say, flax meal isn’t going to correct this deficiency. Yesterday, I listened to an ethical vegan who tried to make the argument that science hadn’t actually proven that getting substantial amounts of DHA and EPA was all that critical — I say, baloney! Here again, what vegans should do instead is admit this shortcoming and perhaps introduce a small amount of wild-caught salmon to their diets to address this serious deficiency.

I think a lot of the confusion about food stems from this inclination of fanatics committed to a certain way of eating who attempt to rationalize and dismiss the shortcomings in their diet. The unfounded assertions they make lead to a lot of confusion, particularly when they say — and they frequently do — that science supports their point of view when in fact it clearly doesn’t.

Vegan Deficiencies

Oil Issues

There are a lot of issues with having much oil in one’s diet.

First and foremost is that oils, even the so called “better” oils, don’t have the nutritional punch to justify the calorie impact. So it is much better to eat actual olives than to use olive oil because the olives have all the nutritional profile of the olive, including significant fiber. Much of that nutritional profile gets stripped away when they create the oil.

It has been discovered that all oils have a deleterious effect on the body’s production of nitric oxide, which is key in protecting the elasticity and health of one’s arteries and blood vessels. So oils may undermine one’s heart health.

Consumption of oil makes the blood flow in one’s body much more viscous. The higher the viscosity of one’s blood, the weaker the flow. Why is that important? It is important because blood flow is the key mechanism for delivering oxygen and nutrients to the cells. Therefore, oils can undermine the health of your cells.

For these and perhaps many other reasons, don’t believe the hype that there are specific good oils that promote your health. They don’t — none of them do. You should minimize and/or eliminate oils in your diet, including cooking with oil.

Challenge

Premeal “Cocktail”

I put 2 tablespoons of chia seeds into a 12-ounce, cold-pressed greens juice that I get from Whole Foods, and let the chia seeds expand and soak in the liquid. I add a large dollop of Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar, which is fermented. I grate fresh ginger and add a tablespoon. I add 2 tablespoons of Psyllium Husk fiber. I shake the bottle frequently so that all the ingredients meld together.

I take 3 or 4 large gulps of this solution 20 minutes before my main meal of the day. The expanded Chia seeds as well as the fiber slow down the absorption of any carbohydrates in the main meal, so that you get a much reduced insulin spike. The vinegar in Braggs as well as the fresh ginger improve digestion and so your actual absorption of the food that you subsequently eat. It’s not what you eat, but what you actually absorb from your food that matters.

Fructose

Keto or Not Keto?

 I do 20:4 5 days a week on a vegan plant-based, complex carb diet where the average carbs is around 240 grams and the average calories is 2100. But on 2 days a week, I do a vegan Keto diet (just 800 calories) where the net carbs is only 10 grams, so that the subsequent fasting periods for those two days kicks in the ketosis much sooner because of the low carbs digested. I also do one 48 hour fast every month. That 48 hour fast has the 2 Keto days on each side of it. I put all my meals into cronometer.com. It is clear to me from cronometer, comparing the high complex carb diet to the Keto diet that the former has much more nutrition. But I do use Keto on those 2 days to boost ketosis. People who do Keto 7 days a week get their ketosis from Keto, but I get mine from intermittent fasting boosted by Keto — there’s a significant difference there. Personally, I don’t think the Keto diet is a very healthy one.

Health — No Accident