Edit Your Shopping Cart, Edit Your Diet!

I admit it, there are some things that I buy at Costco. I know! I know it sounds so wrong! But with a careful eye there are actually some very good deals. It's like shopping at Marshall's or Goodwill, you have to be patient, open-minded but particular. If you go in LOOKING for inspiration then you will walk out with everything useless under the sun. Costco is a warehouse built by siren song. Or is that Walmart? Anyway.

The Costco near me sells whole organic chickens and ENORMOUS bags of organic baby spinach in addition to 5lb bags of frozen wild blueberries. I maintain hope that I will one day find some sort of free-range meat there, but until then I will settle for organic & antibiotic/hormone free. So my entire membership fee for the year supplies me with several bags of veggies, blueberries and chicken a week...thanks guys :)

However, it is not MY shopping list that is worth discussing. You hear about that often enough! What I like to do when I'm at Costco is scan through other people's shopping carts. It's a weird grocery store form of voyuerism, but I know you do it too! Or at least I recommend that you start. You can tell so much about people by what they are buying!

Then a light went on! People go to Costco and other such stores in order to get thing that they use in bulk. You don't buy 100 snack bags of fritos just for fun...usually. So the things that people put in their carts are what they primarily subsist on, or use, in their every day life. These particular items are used/eaten so often at home that it makes more sense to buy in bulk than it would be buy several times over at the grocery store. So if you are unhappy with your weight or health, then a good stern review of your grocery cart could yield an answer as to where you have gone wrong! If you are to look back at what you ate today, you may forget to list the 8 M&Ms you stole from your coworkers candy dish right? But if you look at your grocery cart with a critical eye you might catch wind of a pattern that is much worse than stealing from your coworkers candy dish!

Cart #1: HUGE multi-pack of toilet paper, 24-count bagels, 3lb cream cheese, double box of granola bars, huge shampoo pack, rack of ribs, 2lb package of sliced cheese, large quantity of deli meat, large box of frozen lasagna, double bag of white loaf bread, large box of those breakfast croissant things, triple pack of spaghetti sauce, double box of brownie mix

So you can probably guess what the person pushing this cart looked like (oh yeah, I am oddball enough to commit cart content to memory). It was being manned by a rather large (read obese) woman who was probably in her mid-40s. To be fair it is possible that this cart was being packed to prepare for a party, even though it was Tuesday afternoon.

So let's play and try to arrange thse foods to get a peak at how her family might eat in a typical day.

Breakfast: Microwaved sausage, egg, and cheese on a buttery croissant OR bagel & shmear

Lunch: White bread sandwich of deli meat and cheese (I can hope for lettuce & tomato)

Snack: Granola bar (or two)

Dinner: Pre-made meat Lasagna

Post-Dinner snack: Brownies!

Okie dokie...this would be what NOT to do. If you read my blog you probably know how I feel about this plan already. But this is SO typical for our country!!! I look at this and see sugar, sugar and sugar, with some bad fat thrown in for good measure...and a delicate smattering of protein. I am aware that I cannot see what this woman had in her crisper, but seeing as how all major meals were accounted for without stretching my imagination I feel like the above layout is probably not too far from the truth. I hope that there is a salad eaten with the lasagna and that the sandwich is piled high with cucumbers and grated carrots, dare I dream for sprouts too?! Her entire grocery cart that accounts for MANY meals tallied up a grand total of 20g of fiber (that is for both full bottles of spaghetti sauce). So you know no one is getting their daily allowance of this important component of a healthful diet.

So next time look at your grocery cart. What are you picking up? Does your cart look more like you ran into a cart at the farmer's market or in the Frito-Lay stock room? Are you looking at waxed skins or cardboard boxes? Unprocessed cuts of meat or meat with ingredients? Sometimes it's good to step back and be critical before you start wondering where it all went wrong!

[I may sound mean, but I actually do wish this woman that I am picking on (her family as well) a lifetime of good health. Let's all hope these folks see the dietary light!]

All-natural Jerky on Etsy

As you know, I'm a Caveman.

Sometimes I need to get going in the morning and I just don't have time to make myself the proper Zone balance Caveman breakfast! Along time ago I let go of the notion of 'correct' breakfast foods and now I'll pretty much eat anything for breakfast. But it needs to be easy (and of course yummy). So I brainstormed and came up with JERKY!!

I have been making beef and turkey jerky for awhile now and boy, is it fun! I love trying different things then seeing what works and what doesn't. I haven't had too many dislikes yet, honestly. I have a good eye and hand for cooking.

So I've listed my favorite jerkies on Etsy so I can share them with others! I don't have a supply just laying around; every order will be made when ordered so I can assure you an absolutely fresh product.

Breakfast Style Jerky: This is so easy to eat and isn't chewy in the least (but please still chew it)!The awesome texture on this one was created by ground meat, crazy lean beef and crazy lean turkey ground together with spices, marinated and then formed into sausage patties. I was inspired by the lovely flavors that make breakfast sausage so good; fennel, coriander, a little agave for sweetness. There's a touch of red pepper as well, mmmm. I think you'll love it!

Steak Jerky: Have you ever had a piece of jerky that actually tasted like meat instead of marinade? They all taste like teriyaki, pepper, smoke...which is perfectly tasty and fine most of the time. Attempts to make Plain-flavor jerky fall flat when people just throw plain meat in the dehydrator. I've created a secret marinade that locks in the steak flavor! This tastes more like the steak you had last night for dinner than any jerky you've ever had!

• Both of these are sold in Half-Pound bags and are awesome for meals or snacks on the go.
• There is only enough salt to work with the heat to properly cure the meat.
• NO artificial flavors or bogus tenderizers, curing agents etc etc. Simply put, no b.s.
• Absolutely Caveman friendly jerky. When I DO use sweetener I use honey, agave, or stevia and never more than 2Tb (or equivalent) per pound of meat pre-dry! Any sweetener is listed in the description and can be swapped out or removed altogether at request.

Check it out at Etsy.com right here!

Newest Weight-Loss Supplement...

The companies haven't come right out and stated that taking their product will help you lose weight, but all their ads suggest that it will! Slender women dancing around in the morning light, a woman seeing her bikini and realizing that summer is quickly approaching and on and on.

Fiber.

That's right! Fiber seems to be the newest drug-free weight-loss supplement and I think it's SO STUPID! Fiber is not a supplement, it's a component of the foods we should already be eating. If you are eating right you DON'T need fiber supplements to poop. If you DO need to supplement then whatever you may think, you are not eating right. Sorry, you're just not (unless you have some diagnosed medical situation in which case you are excused).

Does it really sound realistic to say that you can lose weight and continue to eat white bread egg and bacon sandwiches for breakfast, sugary cereal bars for snacks, big processed meat sandwiches on cunningly labeled multi-grain breads for lunch with sugary soda, greasy processed chips for a snack, then white pasta with sugar-added pasta sauce for dinner with alcohol and then follow it all up with ice cream JUST AS LONG as you add a fiber supplement to your day? I'm praying you said no.

You've heard about soluble and insoluble fiber already in numerous t.v. commercials and magazine ads I'm sure. Real natural foods already contain both soluble and insoluble fiber in addition to quite a bit of water. Consider your average apple okay? This little pocket-sized orb of nutrition is actually about 84% water and has more than 3 g of fiber! So let's really look at this fiber thing.

Insoluble Fiber is the fiber that your body cannot break down and will go through your system without much change. This fiber is going to help "move things along", because it is not terribly processed there isn't much reason for it to stick around. So it absorbs a tremendous amount of water and moves quickly through your digestive system. It helps clean you out in other words. And contrary to what you may be thinking, this type of fiber does not cause gas. Repeat, does not cause gas. The bacteria in your system are actually what cause gas, but they cannot feed on this type of fiber and therefore cannot give off any gas of their own. This fiber is found in your fruit and vegetable skins, so do yourself a huge favor and just stop peeling your potatoes and cucumbers! (The skins will not give you gas!)

Soluble Fiber is the stuff that will gel up in your tummy and make you feel full. It's soluble in water, hence it's name. It also slows the emptying the contents of your stomach into your intestines which actually slows the digestion of the sugars and starches that were in your meal. This is extremely good news for diabetics who can help to control blood sugar spikes by making sure their meal includes soluble fiber! This fiber is the one that may cause you gas, and that is because this guy will ferment. Don't think it's gross, it's a good thing! This process results in the creation of short-chain fatty acids which help to lower bad choleseterol in the blood (think back to all those oatmeal and cheerios commercials) and will do all sorts of good things for your immunity cells, intestinal pH, and helps feed the happy GI bacteria. Soluble fiber is the type that you find inside your fruits and veggies, below the skin. It's also found in oats and such, any plant product that kind of gets gel-y when wet (think cooked oatmeal).

Water is not a fiber but it is such a crucial ingredient to add to make sure that the fiber categories I listed for you work properly in your system. Think about it, the fiber categories are named based on how they react to water. It's that important. With or without fiber, if you do not drink enough water then your body will be MAD at you and will punish you in every way that it can. Lack water and you will be tired, moody, headaches may set it and your bowels will be pissed off. This is your body's in-house memo system: "Dear Brain, We are having trouble working under these conditions. Please deliver water or all systems will strike and you will be sad. Thank you, Bowels"

The following has been copied from the MiraLAX website. Please note how it is that all these laxatives work.

Osmotic laxatives draw water back to the digestive tract,
replacing lost water, enabling a normal, complete bowel movement.
Bulk-forming (Fiber) laxatives: add psyllium (insoluble)
fiber to the stool. These can be used to supplement the fiber in your diet. However, they can sometimes ferment and cause gas.
Stimulant laxatives stimulate the walls of the intestine, causing the muscles to
contract and clear the bowel. They work quickly, but can sometimes cause cramps.
Lubricants, such as mineral oil, lubricate the walls of the
intestine so that stool can pass through more easily. They can sometimes
interfere with vitamin and nutrient absorption.
Saline laxatives work by pulling water into the intestine. These laxatives can
remove electrolytes.

Wow. Fun huh? Notice how they all are trying to get water back to your digestive tract? That's because if you need one of the above mentioned supplements then you are lacking BOTH components in your diet, water and fiber. Please recall the apple I previously mentioned which has insoluble fiber in the skin, soluble fiber in the flesh and is 84% water? Yeah, that apple is looking pretty good about now, right?!

But okay, to be fair, fiber supplements aren't laxatives. But consider that same 1-serving apple that has about 3-4 g of fiber depending on it's size (and including the skin of course). Comparably, one serving of Benefiber has...drum roll please...1.5 g of soluble fiber. So you're still going to have to get your insoluble fiber somehow and it's pretty tricky to get insoluble without soluble because they are normally a joint package. So if you eat white bread and drink Benefiber, don't you think it just may be better for you to eat real whole-wheat bread and save your Benefiber pennies?

By eating unprocessed and whole un-messed with foods you are getting everything that you need in easy little nature-made packages! I was made by Nature, so I'm pretty sure that Nature knows how to most efficiently supply me with all the macro and micronutrients that I need. So I will eat from Nature.

But if you were made by a factory then by all means eat over-simplified boxed factory food and load up on supplements that replace what was originally removed in the processing. I'm sure the factory knows the best ways to provide you with your ideal weight, boundless health and vitality. Sure.

Shorty

This is a short one, but this is important for perspective.

My mother has two of her own chickens. She keeps them in her yard and they eat what insects they can find in the green grass under their claws. She occasionally tosses in some seed, worms that she she finds on the walkway when it rains and the odd handful of corn when she feels like feeding them for fun. They aren't crammed into cages, beaks chopped off so they can't hurt any of the others, never to see the sun, and fed cracked corn which is not part of their natural diet. All in all these chickies have a pretty respectable diet, certainly as chickens go. She loves them because she has always loved chickens (and her kids gave them to her). In return for a happy chicken life, they give her each one egg a day for a total of over a dozen a week! Not a bad gig, huh?

Recently one of her hens laid a behemoth double-yolker that my mom passed onto me. The picture here is of this double-yolker next to a single-yolker that I bought from the grocer. Keep in mind that the single is an Omega-3 happy, cage-free, organic feed chicken egg. STILL note the difference!

And you thought the difference between real and organic-but-still-commercially-grown wasn't that great, uh huh! The yellow to orange color of the egg yolk is created by carotenoids, the same you would find in carrots (lutein and zeaxanthin to be exact). Commercially produced eggs are made yellow by adding synthesized carotenoids to the chicken feed. The deep orange color of my mother's chicken's egg is caused by carotenoids that are naturally occuring in this bird's diet as well as it's exposure to real sunlight. Eggs from free-range chickens have been shown to have higher levels of Folic acid, Vitamin B12, and Omega-3 fatty acids!

It's amazing what kind of nutritional difference occurs when an animal is permitted to eat what it would eat on it's own time in it's own real environment. Think about that and then think about what you are eating. Is it food that you are eating or is it just merely edible?

A lesson on Brussels Sprouts...they're GOOD!

If you cook them right that is! My goal here is to get you started on the road to enjoying, if not loving, these funny little guys.

Brussels Sprouts are members of the brassica family of vegetables and happen to be amazingly, ridiculously, almost disgustingly good for you. Brussels sprouts are actually mini cabbages that grow on tall stalks. Thankfully we can find them sans-stalk (less work when you get home, but not by much) and it is admittedly kind of fun to buy a giant stalk of sprouts. Other members of this group of veggies are broccoli, arugula, beets and cabbage.

So let me try to sway you first with science. Brussels sprouts are really a nutrient powerhouse. One cup of sprouts (plain) has just 38 calories and has so many vitamins and minerals this would be a very tedious read if I listed them all. For short, here are some of them:

Lutein, Zeaxanthin, beta Carotene, phytosterols, Vitamin K, some Vitamin E, Vitamin A (664 IU!), Potassium (342 mg), Phosphorus, Magnesium, Iron, Calcium, Vitamin C (about 75 mg) and you will be glad to know that several components of brussels sprouts & their family members have been shown in studies to inhibit the growth of cancerous cells. (yay!)

As for why you don't like them, it's the sulphur. It is the high sulphur content that is in most of these vegetables that give them that distinctive odor and in most cases flavor that you may find off-putting. It may also be the texture if you cook them too long! So follow me to better buds...

Brussels Sprouts

1 package of sprouts (the tinier & more tightly closed the better)

2 Tbsp butter (for beginners) and 1 Tbsp Coconut oil or olive oil for the rest of you

First rinse your sprouts and slice off the discolored bottom, only a little slice though. You want to keep most of your sprout! Next slice them in half length wise. Throw them all into enough water to cover them and boil them 6-8 minutes (you can steam them also). You want them to turn BRIGHT green, but not get mushy.

Drain them out and while they're dripping heat your butter or coconut oil in a large saute pan. When it's hot enough to sizzle (test by tossing in a sprout leaf and make sure it sizzles at you) toss the sprouts in. Toss around to coat in your fat of choice and then let 'em sit on one side. You want to brown them, get 'em crispy! Flip and toss to brown other sides, letting them sit for a minute or two on each side. They will be browned as they are in my picture.

Keep the heat high and don't over cook. When they are mistreated for too long they will emit the sulphur compounds we don't like! Also, if you really are trying to like them and are starting from hate, add bacon. I'm not a bacon eater, so I don't know, but bacon eaters seem to be adamant that it makes everything taste better. So throw some pancetta into the pan and see what happens!

Please let me know if you try this and what your results were!

Carbs for cave dwellers

I just received a question about carbohydrates and I think that it's a good topic to address. So here it is;

"Where do we get our carbs from now? I was getting all of my carbs from whole
wheat pasta, grains, and beans. Where do I get them now?"

So a quick question to you would be, what do you think vegetables and fruits are made of?

I think we have all been misled to believe that we will all shrivel and die if we do not consume the 6-11 servings of grains a day that the Food Pyramid recommends. Just for curiosity's sake I search-engined various grains and pastas to get an idea, on average, of how many carbs were in one serving of a generic grain product. I looked up beans, pastas, corn, rice and so on. It seems that a rough average is about 35 grams per standard recognized serving. If you eat all 6-11 servings of grains that are recommended, then you are getting 210 to 385 grams of carbohydrates per day. This translates into 840 to 1540 calories per day, EEP! I'm no scientist, but this sounds a might bit...okay, outrageously high!! Supporters of the Paleo diet seem to dwell happily in a carbohydrate range between 100 and 200 grams of carbohydrate per day (some go below 100 grams but this is particularly for fat loss, not for body weight maintenance or for optimal physical performance). It is not the amount of calories alone that concerns me, but the amount of calories that are left (of the 2,000) to spend on lean proteins and antioxidant-rich vitamin and mineral sources!

Quick story: I lived with a group of Australian Aborigines for two months after I graduated college as part of an Anthropology research trip. We were there to study the hunting and gathering techniques that the people used. I, of course, followed along with the women. One morning (and only once) we started with black tea and a piece of seed "cake" that we had prepared the day before. Five hours of gathering thousands of seeds (similar in size and color to poppy seeds) followed by 4 1/2 hours of grinding and pounding on a real stone mortar to create a seed paste which, when poured onto hot clean sand and buried with coals, baked into a "cake". Not really an effective use of time; ten hours of processing for one "cake" about 8" across to feed 6 people? Put your hands 8" apart and you can see that isn't much for 6 people for breakfast.

Then we would head out into the desert to hunt lizards. Along the way we would nibble on wild tomatoes we found. Sometimes we found larvae of various sizes and we would eat those also. We did not eat the lizards until we got back into camp at the end of the day and everything got roasted together and evenly distributed. Most often there was left over wild tomatoes and such and those were eaten for breakfast when there was no seed "cake", which was often. The vast majority of our carb intake for the day was from wild fruits (in this case tomatoes), seeds and berries. As you can see, there was no pasta or italian bread to fuel us along as we walked for miles hunting and gathering. Please note that homo sapiens had been living this particular way for thousands of years before the advent of fettucine!

I think that if you approach the Paleo diet trying to make sure you get the same amount of carbohydrates you get eating grains, then this will goof you up, even if you have the best of intentions. I feel the Paleo diet is much more about nutrition. This diet is about FEEDING your body with nutrients, not drowning your body with mere substance. I have read many blogs trying to get a feel for people's physical reactions to starting this diet. Some feel a little weak for about a week, and that seems to be normal as your body is adjusting to being fed properly (or more efficiently anyway). All your hormones are adjusting, blood sugar is balancing out and your muscles too are getting adjusted. Personally when I first started I felt good for one week and then a little weaker for a few days during the second week. That weakness, however, was only apparent when I tried to lift heavy weights. A weight I had pressed overhead 10+ times the week prior now felt almost impossible to lift. The rest of the time I felt really good! The next week however I was back to lifting that weight and more. Now my sweet tooth has diminished, my desire for coffee has waned (in part thanks to the teeccino distraction), I sleep more soundly and I can still run!

It is true that the need for carbohydrates is going to vary from person to person and that will also change for whether or not you are active. For instance, I feel better eating a banana after an 8 mile run than I do eating one on a rest day. Please do not sabotage yourself by thinking that there is some sort of grain-carb to veggie/fruit-carb equivalance tabulature. If you have been following the Paleo guidelines for awhile and you feel good then you are likely doing it well! If you feel tired then you may indeed need to increase either the amount of carbohydrate you consume each day OR you may need to just the amount of fat you are eating instead!

Yeah, fat is an energy source! This is especially true if you are following the Paleo style of eating. Some folks still hold onto the '90s notion that dietary fat is the devil and they have a hard time adding it into their diet when they go Paleo. Nuts, fish oil and coconut oil are your friends my friend! [They make your body happy and energetic and they make your hair, skin and nails pretty too!]

Americans typically have a skewed sense of how much vegetable matter is adequate, especially in the absence of bread. And you may be suprised to find out how much fat you can eat! If you need some help determining how much you should be eating I would recommend going to the Zone Diet website (http://www.zonediet.com/) and using their block calculations to help get you going. First use their block calculator to get an idea of how many blocks you would need to eat in a day. Then write down what you typically eat each day, or write down what you just ate for the last meal. Include rough estimates of how much of each component there was. For instance, how many cups of lettuce in your salad? How much meat did you eat? Was there a dressing or oil on your meal? Then compare this to the Zone block method and you should see if you are short on veggies or fats.

Start strictly and then do not be afraid to tweak your diet to see what works! You may find out what works straight out of the gate, you may not. If you decide to add or subtract something, give your body a week or two to adjust before you rule it in or out. Be flexible and listen to what your body tells you. Make sure you drink plenty of clean water (unflavored) so that you do not misinterpret thirst for hunger. Eat when you're hungry, stop when you're done. That's probably the hardest part!! There are days when I feel I have grossly over eaten but when I look back on it I realize, "I ate what, too many apples? Too many walnuts? Too much spinach?" Please. Just imagine your cave-dwelling tribe just found an apple orchard and happily gorged; eat fewer tomorrow!

The Promised Coffee-Alternative Review!

Here it is! Are you ready?

Okay, the product I found is called Teeccino. While the sound 'tea' is in the title, there is actually no tea in Teeccino. I suppose that is why they used two 'e's. Anyway, they have blended roasted chicory, barley and other items in order to come up with a full line of coffee alternatives. You buy it and brew it the same way you would with coffee but without the downsides of caffeine. They claim their product is high in potassium and soluble fiber (from the chicory), is alkaline forming, and is free from the chemical residues you typically find in coffee (especially flavored and decaf).

Their claims sounded so good I couldn't help but try it! I purchased their Mocha Herbal Coffee (they say that one is good for beginners because of the familiar chocolate flavor) and the Mediterranean Java Herbal Coffee. Yesterday I came home to find them waiting for me on my doorstep, yay! So of course I was anxious to try them. I decided to try the Java first because I wanted to know if I'd like it before making it for my morning commute. I didn't want to be cursing at a whole cup of "gross" on the way to work.

Anyway, I have a Keurig machine and found that this herbal coffee substitutes scoop for scoop like regular coffee. (Awesome, easy!) I brewed it and it came out that lovely dark brown that coffee does with a little bit of a creamy brown froth. So I took a sip of it black to get the full effect. Complex without being complicated, much like coffee is. It also tasted thick, which is one thing that I couldn't ever find in tea and that I liked so much about coffee. It was slightly bitter, but I think I can correct that by using slightly less in the brew pod. So I put a dash of milk in it to counteract that bitter and voila! I had a real cup of joe! It was dark and strong, complex and delicious and without any caffeine! I know that part is true because I fell asleep on the couch not more than 4 hours later!

This morning I made my travel cup of joe: I used 2 tsp of my regular coffee and then filled the rest of the brew pod with the Mocha (which smells so good I kind of want to chew it). On their website and on each bag of brew they mention that you should wean yourself off of caffeine slowly, even if you don't consume too much now. So that is why I blended the two this morning. Also, who wants to waste? I hate wasting food I've already purchased (referring to the bag of coffee inmy fridge). The combination was delicious; smooth, full and satisfying. Actually, it tastes more like coffee than coffee from Dunkin Donuts. I realized that as I passed a billboard.

I really would like to not have to drink coffee. I really do love it though, but where all the coffee characteristics I cherish can be found in this Teeccino stuff, I wonder if this will be my new juice? I also wonder if, after a couple weeks without coffee, I'll notice a difference having been freed from my daily cortisol-jolt. Am I sensitive without knowing it because I'm so accustomed to it? I dont know! But I'm curious to find out!

*Is this paleo? The ingredients include roasted barley, which we know is not on the list. But I dont think Father Caveman would begrudge me this coffee alternative. I think the water in which the barley has soaked would be better to consume than eating the barley itself or simply drinking coffee. And if we put all these on a scale, I believe Teeccino will lie as the lesser of these evils.

If you are interested in purchasing Teeccino please visit:
www.teeccino.com