the pleasure trap of whole foods

another great article from Jeff Novick:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-novick-ms-rd/a-date-with-disaster-the-pleasure-trap-of-whole-natural-foods/10150918865496819

My current breakfast

I've blogged about a similar breakfast before, but since then I've tried other breakfasts and I think this is still my favorite:

It's rice, fruit and soy milk.  The rice is half brown, half forbidden rice.  I cook up a large batch every few days.  The fruit I buy fresh and freeze in a big bag:

I buy whatever looks good.  Lately it's been strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and bananas.  The soy milk is organic unsweetened non-GMO, e.g.,

A serving for me is about 1/2 cup rice, 1 cup fruit, 1/2 cup soy milk.  It's more on days when I think I need more, and less on days when I think I need less (depends on what follows breakfast).   

I tried oatmeal with fruit and didn't like it as much as this.  This is my version of cereal and milk I guess.   I like the chewy of the rice and the moisture of the milk and all the flavors.  Maybe I'm Chinese and just never knew it until now. :)

Farms 2 Forks immersion

I find it funny that I'm going to this:
http://www.farms2forks.com/immersion/chicago-il/

I planned this long before I started drinking these guys' kool-aide, though, maybe I was and didn't know it.  I just thought this would be a fun way to get some healthy food and hang out with my best friend from college.   I'll get to meet, or at least, see and listen to, Jeff Novick, Doug Lisle, Dr. Esselstyn and his son Rip.  I'm sort of in love with Dr. Lisle.  But I'll get over it.

My friend arrives tomorrow and the immersion is this weekend.  I'm trying not to anticipate it so I don't jinx it, but I am really looking forward to a fun weekend.

my enviable life

I feel guilty about posting this.  I know life is going to throw me a curve ball, as it always does.  I know pain and suffering are inevitable.  But, right now, at this moment, life is really good.   And I have to give credit to the (diet induced?) malaise I suffered the past 3 years.  All those books on positive psychology, meditation, motivation, I even hired a good friend of mine as a career coach--which was awesome by the way--all those things actually paid off.  I think if I wouldn't have developed my malaise, I might not have got unhappy with my job and started trying to figure out a solution.  The solution was simple in the end (but I needed the journey to get there):  going half-time at work, and potatoes.  haha.  Going half-time solved my work and lifestyle issues.  And potatoes solved my malaise.  haha.  Now again, I feel guilty because I know many people would love such a luxury to be able to work half-time.  Sorry about this.  Ironically, this is a benefit of having an insecure job.  I am responsible for funding my salary through federal grants I obtain, and a typical grant has a lifetime of 1-3 years.  My funding horizon was typically that long throughout my career.  As a result, I avoided debts, and I budgeted for a half-time salary.  I always expected to have to go to half-time eventually or change jobs, and it never happened, so I finally got impatient and just did it.  ha.  That was a big step because my career is somewhat demanding and turns people into workaholics whether they want it or not; half-time is not exactly part of the culture.  But I'm old now and I figure i can afford to be eccentric.

So now that I'm half-time, what am I doing?  Well, Wednesday morning is kayaking with Ed:

Today the lily pads were in bloom which I've never seen before:

Friday is "Camrock Friday."  Housemate and I go to Camrock park and first take a walk, and then I take a mountain bike ride. Here I am decked out.  I might look goofy with the elbow and kneepads, but I've broken both a kneecap and an elbow in the last 6 years (not mountain biking), and I never want that to happen again.

Other days include swimming (great training for kayaking), road biking (great training for mountain biking), running, hiking, biking to work (great training for mountain biking), oh, and mountain biking.

Then there is my church.  I'm an active member and I enjoy the community but also the excellent opportunities for community service.

I started playing my flute again.  I'm hoping to read more.  I only started working part-time about a month ago so I'm still learning how to do it.  and I actually work 5 hours a day to make sure I get my 4 in (I'm so dedicated!).  and of course, there is food prep for a healthy diet.  But that is much lower now and will free up more time for living my life.

today's lunch

Today I got back from kayaking a little later than I'd planned, and didn't know what I was going to do for lunch besides some onions and kale and a sweet potato I'd baked earlier this morning.  So I started up the onions and kale, and took a shower.  Then I thought about my work snack:  rice, edamame and corn.  So I mixed that up (I usually have cooked rice in the fridge, and edamame and corn in the freezer).  Then I thought, ooh, throw that into the kale and onions and I'll have it for both lunch and snack.  and here it is:

Easy and yummy!   Housemate wanted some too.  Here it is with my baked sweet potato, to which I added some cinnamon and soy yogurt.  

A very yummy lunch and a yummy snack later on.  Great for building muscles after my intense kayak ride--we went out in a tailwind and curiosity always makes it hard to turn around at a sensible time.  The return trip was quite an endurance test.

Nuts and Seeds

Here is my understanding of what our cadre of mostly plant-based, whole foods diet doctors (Barnard, Campbell, Esselstyn, Fuhrman, McDougall, and Ornish) recommend (note, Campbell is a Ph.D., not an M.D., for what it's worth).

• They all consider oils to be harmful.  I've heard two reasons quoted for this:  1), they are empty calories, at about 120 calories per tablespoon.  2), perhaps more significantly, most are very high in omega-6 fatty acids (more on this below).
• Whole foods fat sources are good for you, in limited quantities.  These include nuts and seeds, avocado and relatively unprocessed soy products (soy milk, tofu, edamame, tempeh).  (NOT isolated soy products used to make tofu hotdogs and sausages and protein supplements).

As far as I know, the only differences in their recommendations are

• Fuhrman has a lower limit to the amount of nuts and seeds that should be consumed by everyone, which is 1 oz.  I think the other doctors do not. 
• Fuhrman recommends an omega-3 supplement (DHA), and none of the others do as far as I know.  In fact, some are adamant in their opposition to this.

These differences may be minor, but this became an important question for me lately as I considered transitioning to a lower-fat diet.  Some people have very low calorie needs (e.g., older women) and 1 oz of nuts and seeds, along with modest quantities of avocado and soy products, can easily put the fat percentage above 25%.  

I highly recommend Jeff Novick's DVDs on nuts and oils.  (I also recommend his DVDs on calorie density and lightening up).  This is the best summary that I know of on the topic.  Here I learned about the important of the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in your diet.  The standard American diet has a very high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids.  We all need a very small amount of omega-3 fats.  Most of us ingest a sufficient amount if we eat a whole foods, mostly plant-based diet with lots of vegetables.  However, we only have so many enzymes available to digest these fatty acids.  If our intake is dominated by omega-6 fatty acids, the enzymes will get used up digesting those.  I hadn't appreciated that fine point until I watched Novick's DVDs.  It might explain something I've been curious about.  I've noticed that some people on the Standard American Diet, who are obviously ingesting large amounts of fat, sometimes appear to have dry, scaly skin and brittle hair.  I suspect they have an omega-3 deficiency--or are unable to digest what they ingest of omega-3, because of the omega-6 imbalance.  I'm just speculating.  Anyway, back to Novick.  He says, as long as we avoid the oils, and excessive consumption of healthy fats, which also mostly have high ratios of omega-6 to omega-3 fats, then we will ingest a sufficient amount of both in proper ratios.  McDougall says the body gets very good at converting the ALAs in foods to omega-3s when it needs them.   The foods with high ALAs, or alpha-linolenic Acids, are flaxseeds and walnuts (hemp too I think).   Novick says if you really want the assurance you are getting enough omega-3s, eat a tablespoon of flaxseed per day.  

Campbell is adamantly opposed to omega-3 supplements.  This surprised me.  I heard him speak about this at the food revolution summit.  He cited studies that show the supplements did not behave as we thought they would.  Here is a quote from the transcript:

"I have in mind particularly a review which was done of a total of 59 different kinds of studies of omega three fats that was published in 2006. This is 6 years ago. It came to the conclusion they simply don't work for reducing heart disease, cancer and diabetes." 

Another study showed that it can increase the incidence of type II diabetes.  what?   He also argues that it's the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 that matters.

I'm still digesting some other articles sent to me by Kristi (thanks!).  

I decided to follow Novick's advice for now.  I'm not setting a lower limit to my nuts and seed intake (eek!).  I am not taking DHA (Dr. Fuhrman's omega-3 supplement) anymore (eek!), I'm eating 1 T of flaxseed most days.  This is a big change for me as I have been following the Fuhrman advice for about 5 years.  eek!

June 19

today's lunch:

sorry, I'm not the greatest at taking pictures.  This was mushroom stroganoff.  It was really good.  I updated the recipe a bit.  I added more spices, more yogurt, and kale (unnecessary but I was in the mood for some kale).  We ate it over buckwheat.