Ttogull

I have now read 8% of "The Big Fat Surprise", the book by the author of the article above. So far, I am finding it very enjoyable. It is well-written. I'd have to say that her conclusions about fat will be preaching to the choir for many. Some new details I did not know, such as the lean parts of venison like the tenderloin were tossed to the dogs by extreme meat eating cultures. Maybe that is why my hunting buddies always gift me the tenderloin. So far, the book is building a solid picture of manipulation, distortion, and suppression of evidence, and this angle in the fat wars is new to me. I have a separate interest because I am a former academic from another field and have seen the "idols of the mind" first hand. I am reading the book simultaneously with others, but I wanted to say it is a good read for those interested in the fat wars.

I've never tried it, but some sort of white bean cooked in the liquid might be interesting.

I was thinking along the same lines. Our family of three had ice cream for dessert the same night I read Lisa Shock's original post. It was a pint of ice cream, but we had plenty remaining after. Maybe enough for a second night's dessert. Jeni's goat cheese and cherries. But I got to thinking. I've eaten a pint before. And more of a quart than one person should. In those instances, however, it was always the big, national brands. I'd bet they monkey with texture and other things to make that possible. Eating a pint of jeni's ice cream is unthinkable to me. My personal take on the label issue is that nearly everything that has a label should not be eaten! I make an exception for Jeni's ice cream.

I'm not sure that the low carb diet is generally correct. It might be the right diet for some - and I have no standing to argue against those for whom it is the right diet - but in think the case against carbs is generally overstated and as dogmatic as the low-fat and vegan camps. Before I started all of this, I was hypoglycemic. Carbs would send me into a tailspin of cravings. I tried low carb for about a month. I lost weight, but in my heart I knew that a diet that eliminated beans, baked potatoes, and rice was not for me. Once I crossed the threshold of about 80 g of fiber per day, my weight loss accelerated no matter what I ate. My hypoglycemia is gone. To be sure, I have lost my taste for many carbs. Honestly, I cannot find a pasta that does not taste rancid to me. Not sure what that's about!I think you are right, though, that the article is reaffirming rather than groundbreaking. However, I think the world at large is still afraid of fat, as I was six months or so. The cap (?) portion of a grass-fed ribeye has become one of my favorite things, and to think I've been denying myself its fatty glory for most of my life kills me...

Correct me if I am wrong, but from a previous thread that you and I were in, I believe you said that "carb" as you use it above refers to net carb. I.e., you enjoy your fiber too. I might be mistaken. I have found that because my fiber is so high that I can handle starches too, like in rice (only white, not brown, because brown usually has rancid fats) and potatoes. I have no desire to eat non nutritious carbs and have not had a carb craving since last year. +1 on the percentage vs amount. I would never have dreamed a 4 oz portion of meat would be all I could eat!

I think most of the magic is in the fiber. I am a big fan of the guy who founded the Human Food Project, and its motto is something along the lines of "No one needs to tell a giraffe what to eat, so why should humans be any different?" He is the one who got me started on high fiber. My body is now self-regulating, and I do not have to use any will power to avoid foods or to avoid eating too much. If I eat a lot one day, my body responds by naturally suppressing my hunger the next day or by making me want to be more active. I have never been like this up until about 6 months ago, which is when I started high fiber. I'm talking plants and berries, not bran and oatmeal. If I buy a cauliflower, I get one with leaves wrapped around it. I eat the leaves and the stem core, while the family eats the flower. Lots of green onions. Raw garlic whenever possible. I think the fats, however, are important too. It's probably simplistic and I'm not a food scientist, but I think of good fats like butter and grass fed meat as adding to my body's good fats (HDL, fluffy LDL, etc.) while reducing bad fats like vegetable oil reduces my body's bad fats (small dense LDL). Plus the food just plain tastes better, is more satisfying, and a smaller amount provides more energy. The connection is through the gut microbiota. All of the good things that have happened to me -including the absence of seasonal allergies - has been shown to be a potential result of having a healthy, diverse gut microbiome. And fiber feeds the gut microbiome and makes it happy, at least in my case.

In the context above, I was referring to the taste of the food. Whereas, e.g., I usually had oatmeal with skim milk for breakfast, I now have a two egg omelette cooked in goat butter with cheese from grass fed cows. With some added vegetables, of course. Full fat yogurt instead of no fat. No obsessive trimming of fat from, say, a ribeye from pastured animal. Butter on baked potatoes. Lard in my beans. After a lifetime of being told to avoid saturated fats and to use vegetable oils, I had to overcome my aversion to are the good fats. Tasty stuff! But I get lots of fiber, more than 100 g per day (I supplement too). And the amount of meat I eat is far less than I ate before, even though the calories as a percentage from fat is higher. I find the typical restaurant portions of meat to be ridiculously large (I often take about half home) and the vegetable portion to be far too small. I usually order two or three veggie sides and eat them myself.

I thought this was an excellent article, probably because it affirms my own thinking. I have not yet read her book, but I have preordered it. The article, IMO, is a start but does not go far enough. Maybe her book does. First, the quality of meat matters. The meat reflects what the meat eats. Animals fed high quality food and what naturally suits them are going to produce meats that have healthier fats. Taking an idea from a book I'm reading, if you were a cannibal, would you want to eat the average American on a junk food diet? Shudder... Gimme an American who eats pastured animals and butter from grass fed cows! Second, there are studies that purport to show (red) meat is bad for you. People that eat lots of meat have more disease. Reread the articles and/or studies with the following mindset: People whose diet has high percentage of meat don't eat many vegetables. People who don't eat vegetables have lots of diseases. People who eat lots of vegetables but little meat don't get these diseases as often. The studies also sometimes show that adding a little bit of veggies completely negates all the bad effects of meat. It's a plausible alternate explanation, but not as newsworthy. Meat kills! Vs. Eat your veggies! I did not understand the points in the WSJ article linked and my points until recently. Slightly more than six months ago, I was borderline obese, and my doc wanted me on statins, despite the risks. Embracing fats, plants, and fiber, I am now 40 lbs lighter, healthy weight, better than "optimal" lipids, and many - no all - of my chronic aches and pains are gone. I have no seasonal allergies for the first time in decades. My doc said he has never seen such a dramatic change, ever. And the eating has never been better.

I eat with it quite frequently. It has its own taste, very distinctive. I love using it for omelettes, particularly when I add scallions. It is fantastic with potatoes, such as in hash. Somebody might have mentioned it, but it is an indispensable ingredient in red-red stew. Even in lentils it is very good.

The fatalii is my favorite! I made a mango-fatalii ice cream that was awesome. I made a straight-up fatalii fermented hot sauce - just fatalii, salt, and maybe some water. I had it just a few days ago with cochinita pibil. It's a match made in heaven. And very hot!

I made my sauces last Fall, and now I find that they are my go-to sauces. Wonderful taste and complexity. I made mine differently than the PPW book. I don't like sugar, especially in hot sauces. I think the reason for leaving the chile mash at room temp for two days and then refrigerating for a month is to avoid mold growing on the top. I left mine set room temperature for probably about a month. I got a little mold, but Sandor Katz assures it is harmless. I am still alive, I think. If you keep your sauces in the fridge, the vinegar is more for taste. I used no vinegar. The xanthan gum is also unnecessary unless you object to shaking your sauce well before using. Garlic and tomato are great ingredients to add, as I mentioned previously. I'd now add to the soy sauce and or fish sauce. Big umami kick.

Precisely! Scientists tell us that antibiotic overuse in farming is ok. Scientists tell us GMO is ok. We see from studies that maybe there are unintended consequences. I try to limit my exposure to antibiotic chickens. Why not let me limit my exposure to GMO chickens? And get this: I am not anti-GMO. I am pro-transparency. Granted, I would tilt towards more natural foods,but I have no ideological bent.

GMO genes are less dangerous to transfer than the zillion natural bacterial toxins in our gut bugs. The antibiotic resistance genes show up in the bacteria in unexposed people, not in the people themselves. And we all carry these bacteria with resistance genes already. Don't think this is a logical worry.

I am not an expert on this topic. I would enjoy a truly neutral point of view on this topic. I have a background in research, and I have personally witnessed the "top experts" in my field dismiss out of hand findings contrary to results that overturn their own research that created their reputation and legacy. In one case, the editor of a prestigious and influential journal literally locked his office door and hid when someone proved mathematically that his results were incorrect and misleading (something occasionally possible in my field). This "top expert" was able to squelch the contrarian's publication in all top journals. Moreover, the "top experts" control which publications and grants are accepted, so the field is soon populated by parrots that echo the party line. Soon the parrots are promoted, who then have their own reputations to protect, and the cycle continues. I entered research because I thought it was about learning. The exchange of ideas. Back and forth. Instead, it is the protection of one's own work. Nobody reads anyone else's work, even in the referee process. Publication and grant rejection are based on reasons that obviously have no relation to the study being evaluated. Acceptance too, if it follows party line. I left research. I distrust anything the "top experts" say. That said, I am fascinated by recent work involving the gut microbiome. Things are in their infancy. And the results are astounding. I have improved my health in probably no less than 100 ways by focusing on feeding the bacteria in my gut. My quality of life has improved. And I am not one of those suffering from debilitating autoimmune diseases. Just an average middle-aged guy. There is evidence of horizontal gene transfer in the gut. The bacteria trade genes back and forth. Maybe this is good, but what if we inadvertently make it bad? My concern, related to dcarch's, is what if all the GMO stuff transfers genes to our bodies that are harmful? I have read that studies (true?) show that genes related to antibiotic resistance show up in people who have not taken the antibiotics in question, but are otherwise exposed. If something goes wrong and the genes in GMO food somehow express differently in humans, how do we take it back? If the study of gut microbiome is in its infancy, and the effects on our health are seemingly profound, of what value is the research done by the "top experts"? I am willing to be convinced, but only by someone I trust. There were 3 people I trusted in my former profession, and all were marginalized by the "top experts".

Agreed. Sandor Katz even mentions this in his books. Also, your kraut is going through stages. There are generations of bacteria, with the early ones providing food to later generations and flavor to you. Introducing bacteria from already finished products shortcuts the process, bringing in the later generations too early. No risk, but it is claimed that the final product is less complex, less tasty. For some things, there is a stage where everything gets really slimy and gross looking. There is a certain bacteria that does that. Then a later generation kills that one and eats the slime. The slime disappears. It is all very fascinating.

From personal experience, what Dave the Cook said + 1, all else equal. I've never found the added cold mass from doing two instead of one to appreciably add to the cooking time. It probably helps to spend a good amount of time preheating though. Works with all kinds of stuff. Roasting two chickens is the same as roasting one, etc. Quite frankly, I've found more variation from shoulder to shoulder. I've BBQed two shoulders of nearly identical size side-by-side and have had one take hours longer than the other. I've looked at the recipe online, and based on a helicopter read it looks amenable to a fantastic BBQ trick: cook your pork early, timing it for, say, 2-3 hours before you would have otherwise planned to have it ready. When it is ready, wrap the shoulders in foil, wrap that in some clean, nonscented (and possibly disposable) towels, and then place in a cooler. Then maybe lay some towels over the cooler for added insulation. That will stay very hot for a long time. Then you have complete flexibility on choosing when to eat, plus the added assurance that it will be ready.

@phatj +1 I lost the weight I needed before Thanksgiving. Since that time, my weight has mostly trended down despite big eating holidays, a couple of colds, interruptions and restarts of exercise, eating out, etc. No calorie counting. On active days I eat more; on sedentary days I eat less. My body tells me how much to eat, and I have no urges to override it. After decades of contrary experience, this is wonderful. The thing is, though, that since starting low-carb, high-fat, I've started routinely adding carbs with no ill effects. This is handy when everyone wants to go to a pasta or pizza place. What has made this possible is resistant starch, particularly raw potato starch (gotta eat it raw). I'll let you do the search. I agree with most of what you said, except that carbs are the culprit. Getting rid of them might fix the problem, but the long term prevention seems to be something different.

I am not an expert. I once went in search of pasteurized eggs, and they were harder to find than I thought. Like Smithy says, it's a selling point and they are more expensive and clearly labeled. I have a friend who has chickens for eggs. He is always telling me how the weather affects the taste of the eggs. If it rains, the chickens eat more bugs, and this affects everything from taste to color to hardness of the shell. I imagine Spanish tortillas don't taste right in the US is because the US chickens don't eat the same as much as anything. Iberico pork, for instance, tastes like no other pork I've had.

FWIW in my state in the US I can buy eggs at farmers markets that have not been cleaned. The vendors have all told me that the eggs do not need refrigeration unless I wash them.

I agree on the seitan. I've had some amazing stuff at some vegan restaurants (Candle 79 in NYC and a local vegan Chinese place). You have to concentrate to know you are not eating meat in some cases - in others, it is pretty obvious. For the stew I might think about 50-50 seitan and mushroom, probably shiitake (for the distinguishable part). I can't imagine tofu being convincing. I switched to vegan for a while, vowing I'd never try to emulate meat dishes. Soon I was trying to emulate meat dishes. I've never had any success - despite having tasted others' success - but I was taught that trying but failing is a great teacher. For me it was. I learned a lot about texture and taste. My general cooking is better as a result. I think the desire to emulate meat might also have to do with (in addition to the reasons already mentioned) that food provides a certain comfort. Often texture, independent of taste. Think gooey cheese. That cheese could be the finest, or it could be the crappiest American in a grilled cheese. For me, the texture of meat was not so much an issue. But now I do not eat pasta, but I love casseroles. I've started making imitations of my previous casseroles that substitute (depending on context) kale, collards, broccoli, or cauliflower in place of noodles. For whatever reason, I find that I *prefer* the noodle substitutes, thus accomplishing my goal. So I do understand why one might want meat substitutes. I think djyee100 almost says what I want to say: Concentrating on veggies - and making them the centerpiece - forces one to learn a lot. For me, gone are the days when the meat was the meal. Now, most of the time, the best veggies I can find are the meal, and the meat is chosen to complement and is much more modest in quantity. Our family has cut our meat consumption by 50-75%, but our meals are better and more satisfying than ever.

I don't know if irreplaceable is the right word. I too have bought frozen and fresh Hatch chilies, and they add something unique. To me, every chile has a unique taste. I think you could make something better than canned quite easily. If you had Hatch chilies, great. If not, you can make something really good anyway. As Fechef suggests, I'd start with with a base of roasted peppers like Anaheim or "banana peppers." Roast them under a broiler or on a grill if you like smoky. Look up the technique if you do not know. Peel the skin off and remove seeds (important to remove bitterness and toget right texture). The frozen hatch chiles I've had are already roasted. Also roast whatever peppers you want for heat, but hatch sauces are, IMO, about taste not heat. Thai bird is the wrong taste to me. Serrano and jalapeño are better. Also roast garlic and onion. Blend all of these, run through a medium sieve and cheesecloth (for enchilada sauce). Mix with apple cider vinegar and oil (I see corn oil suggested, but cannot recommend for health reasons). Salt and sugar as you want. It will blow away the can.

Thanks for the heads up! Rattlers are my favorite. I posted that two years ago.Too funny! I just saw November... I needed more anyway.

Thanks for the heads up! Rattlers are my favorite.

Am I missing something? Wrong link? Try Biscuta's link, not Smithy's. On my pooter, it shows $3.00. Or free if you borrow under Prime membership.

Probably connected to an article yesterday in NYT. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/health/organic-milk-high-in-helpful-fatty-acids-study-finds.html