I'm now three weeks into my diet experiment, and have continued the trend of losing one pound per week. I've never actually been on a real "diet" in my life (i.e. a diet to lose weight), since my problem has always been too little weight and not too much. But I can confidently assert that a low-carb diet works for weight loss! It's quite amazing.
Collin gets back from his trip on Monday, and since I will then be cooking his normal portions of carb-laden foods, I imagine that I'll end up eating more carbs again. If I cook it, I will eat it. I understand that much about myself.
One thing I learned in the past three weeks is that sugar-cravings very quickly disappear. Well, maybe not disappear completely, but at least drastically recede. It took less than a week before I could finish a meal and not immediately crave a sweet dessert. That's far quicker than I ever would have guessed.
Not to say that I've beaten my sugar addiction. This hasn't been about abstinence. And in the past week I've been more lax than I was in the first two weeks. I made homemade ginger ale (a 3-liter bottle!) and then there was the small matter of the Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies that were given to me (hey, I lasted three whole days before I even cracked the first sleeve...and when food is a gift, it would be totally inconsiderate to let it go to waste).
But I've been pretty good about flour consumption and whole grains. I've been eating brown rice in my stir-frys and baking whole-grain breads. The only straight-up refined flour I ate this past week was my spinach pasta--two servings that I made into pierogies in order to use up some leftover mashed potatoes (I had needed those to go in a pumpernickel bread recipe).
What I've learned: I could quite easily learn to go without added sugar, and I could adapt quite well to eating mostly whole-grains. I'll continue to shift my diet in that direction, but it'll probably be a slow process. But that's okay. At least now I know I can do it.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Waste Not, Want Not
One of the Permaculture Principles is "Produce No Waste". I'm constantly working with this principle in my home and on my small patch of earth.
How can I close the loop on waste? How can I get out of the importing and exporting business and instead cycle resources continuously around my patch of earth, with nothing entering or leaving the property? These are questions I constantly ask myself.
While getting to the point of having absolutely nothing enter or leave might be difficult, I believe I can make great strides in that direction.
The basic loop on my property is garden to plate to compost bin back to garden. But of course that's not all there is to it and even there there's much to learn and many things that can easily be overlooked.
The kitchen drain is one weak area in the loop. It's easy to have momentary lapses where nutrient-laden water from the steaming of veggies, or the boiling of bagels or pasta, gets poured down the drain instead of being saved for watering the garden or the compost bin, or for use in soup stocks). In moments of laziness I've also rinsed moldy jars of spaghetti sauce down the drain, instead of carrying them out to the compost bin. Fortunately there's no garbage disposal here, so I can't be lazy about my solid wastes.
And without a graywater system installed, perfectly good bath water, dish water and laundry water goes sailing off to the treatment plant instead of out into the garden. Likewise, the lack of gutters and downspouts means that I can't collect water from the roof. If I ever buy this house (and I have a standing offer) then that's something to add to the to-do list. But in all likelihood, since I'm planning to move back east in five years, it won't happen.
The kitchen in general is a dangerous part of the loop, because a lot of things can get overlooked. For instance, when I buy (import) chicken I always buy whole birds instead of parts. I get soup, soup stock, and another meal or two out of one bird. When the carcass has been boiled to death, I'm still left with bones and gristle, which I end up sending to the landfill. I've been trying to figure out how to make use of this, instead of exporting it. I thought about drying the bones and then grinding them to use as bonemeal in the garden. But I'd have to dry them in the oven to keep them away from the cats and other vermin, and that would mean importing the energy to do so. My other option (probably the best one) is to bury them in a deep enough pit to keep away the critters and just let the nutrients slowly return to the land.
Likewise, I need to figure out a use for kitchen grease. I could get into soapmaking I guess, use it as suet to feed the birds in winter, bury it in my bone pit. Right now it goes to the landfill.
I'd also like to raise my own chickens, but the property can probably only support a few laying hens, rather than a whole flock that could give me meat. Meat rabbits are something I've given some serious thought to as well, because one buck and two does could very easily supply most, if not all, of our meat requirements and they have a small ecological footprint and rabbit manure is such a valuable thing for the garden. Having no meat imports would be ideal. Dealing with the dairy issue is another matter. When I move back east I plan to have enough space to get some dairy goats, but I can't see that happening here. I've seen it done here in town, but it would require me importing almost all of their feed.
The garden is another part of the loop where I have to be very careful. Last year a lot of food went to waste because I didn't keep on top of harvesting as well as I should have. The spinach bolted, zucchini grew to monstrous proportions, some cantaloupe rotted because I didn't prop them up. This year I'm determined to stay on top of everything. At least with this part of the loop, waste isn't really waste since it goes on to become compost if it rots on the vine. But it would be nice to cycle all of that nutrition through some human bodies.
Which gets me to the uncomfortable topic of humanure. The cabin I'm planning back in Pennsylvania will have a composting toilet, and the product of that contraption will be returned to the earth. But here, there's not much I can do. I've heard of people using their diluted urine on their gardens--I could do that--but I'd feel like a total freak.
In John Jeavons method of intensive gardening, cover crops are used to improve soil fertility--in place of using animal manures. I'm still importing manure from my friend John (it travels just two miles to get here, but still...). I'd like to incorporate cover-cropping into my gardening routines. With that, and my compost and possibly rabbit manure at some point, I should be able to keep the garden quite fertile. A worm bin would be a nice addition too.
Since I only use hand-tools in the yard and garden, I'm not importing any carbon. I've got a reel mower, shovels, rakes, grass clippers, pruners, forks, wheelbarrow, etc. and not a single motorized device to speak of. Just human power, fueled more and more by the products of the land here.
A fully closed loop (or nearly so)--what I hope to accomplish when I move back home--would look something like this:
- Passive solar heating, high thermal mass.
- Supplemental masonry fireplace for winter, fired by deadfallen timber from the property.
- Chickens, rabbits, dairy goats, bees, worms, and sheep--providing meat, eggs, dairy, honey, fiber and manure.
- All fruits and veggies grown on site.
- Small-scale grain production.
- Cover-cropping.
- Haymaking for winter feed, harvested by scythe.
- A graywater system and rainbarrels.
- A composting toilet.
- Seed-saving.
- Root-cellaring, a springhouse if suitable, non-electric fridge contraption (can't remember where I saw that online--I'll post the link when I find it). [Here it is: Four Mile Island Icebox]
- Efficient wood cookstove indoors and out, outdoor bread-oven, bean pit.
- Homemade soaps, candles, wool items, rabbit skin items.
- Compost bins.
- Spring or well.
- Off-grid, totally non-electric house and property (unless solar or wind needed to pump a well).
- Hand tools (but I'll probably cave in and get a chainsaw).
Until then I need to work with what I've got and continue to examine and re-examine all of my habits, looking for ways I can continue to close the loop here.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
How's That For Ingenuity?
We're starting to finally get some hot weather and when I went outside to water this morning I noticed that most of the spinach looked dangerously close to bolting. So, since I made a commitment to really stay on top of the garden this year and not let any perfectly good food go to waste, I rearranged my day and set about dealing with the spinach.
I decided to turn it into more spinach pasta, rather than just blanching and freezing the stuff. Collin has missed out on the whole spinach harvest, since the spinach was still too small when he left. I thought this way he could enjoy some of it when he gets back (and in a form he appreciates).
So I made a triple batch of pasta--with a pound of spinach in it--about five or six whole plants after they'd been cleaned and de-stemmed. There are still a few little plants left out in the garden but they won't last much longer. Too bad I got such a late start planting it this year, but there'll be a second planting for fall.
Once I got the dough rolled out this time I faced a dilemma--where to hang that much pasta to dry?? It was hard enough rigging up something to hold the single batch I made on Saturday, but a triple batch? Finally, a lightbulb went off. I have a neat little device from back in my weaving and fiber artsy days--an umbrella swift. It's used for holding skeins of yarn when you're winding or unwinding bobbins, etc.
It worked like a charm! You could just stand there and keep spinning it around as the little slats filled up with pasta. Very convenient. So, if you're that one person out there who's making homemade pasta and has an umbrella swift--well, there you go! For the rest of you, I don't have any suggestions. Sorry.
I decided to turn it into more spinach pasta, rather than just blanching and freezing the stuff. Collin has missed out on the whole spinach harvest, since the spinach was still too small when he left. I thought this way he could enjoy some of it when he gets back (and in a form he appreciates).
So I made a triple batch of pasta--with a pound of spinach in it--about five or six whole plants after they'd been cleaned and de-stemmed. There are still a few little plants left out in the garden but they won't last much longer. Too bad I got such a late start planting it this year, but there'll be a second planting for fall.
Once I got the dough rolled out this time I faced a dilemma--where to hang that much pasta to dry?? It was hard enough rigging up something to hold the single batch I made on Saturday, but a triple batch? Finally, a lightbulb went off. I have a neat little device from back in my weaving and fiber artsy days--an umbrella swift. It's used for holding skeins of yarn when you're winding or unwinding bobbins, etc.
It worked like a charm! You could just stand there and keep spinning it around as the little slats filled up with pasta. Very convenient. So, if you're that one person out there who's making homemade pasta and has an umbrella swift--well, there you go! For the rest of you, I don't have any suggestions. Sorry.
A New Food Philosophy
What happens when you take back responsibility for your own food supply?
- You eat healthier and more interesting foods and become a healthier (and more interesting!) person.
- You reconnect with nature and the rhythms of the seasons and become more grounded.
- You feel secure and empowered because you know how to provide for yourself and your family.
- You save money.
- By your simple acts, you protest against industrial agriculture and its destructive practices.
- You become a role-model for health and sustainability.
I've noticed something interesting happening with me this year as I get more serious about growing my own food. I'm starting to understand how everything fits together--ecologically speaking. I'm getting a good sense of how much I should grow of any one thing and how much land and water each thing requires. With that kind of understanding, my eating habits automatically begin reverting to healthier and more sustainable patterns (by reverting I mean going back to the healthier ways of my ancestors).
Okay, so the average person in the US consumes 136 pounds of flour per year. Do you know how much land is required to grow that? What about for a family of four? I believe John Jeavons says we can expect about 10 pounds of yield per 100 square feet. So, at current consumption levels a family of four would need to allow 5,440 square feet just for their wheat.
How much land is required to provide our 89 pounds of beef per person? How much land for our sweeteners?
Once you start to think about all of this, you realize how out-of-balance our diets have become. When we left the farms and started buying our food at the supermarket, we lost our common sense. When we lived on farms we grew sensible amounts of everything. We automatically understood sensible portions on our plates, because we understood sensible portions out in the fields. We had to work those fields so we didn't take anything to wild extremes. But once we shifted to industrial agriculture and mega-supermarkets, we lost that knowledge. At the supermarket, we can buy any quantity of anything. We can buy enormous quantities of anything (and everything). The supermarket is a fantasy land--it makes you think anything is possible. It hides the truth. We obliviously buy our 136 pounds of flour, our 89 pounds of beef, 52 pounds of chicken, 154 pounds of sweeteners... and never for one second consider how much land and water is required to grow and raise all of that.
So we buy ridiculous (and unhealthy) quantities of food. Imagine what our ancestors would think if they saw into our cupboards and fridges and freezers. How their jaws would drop! How utterly irresponsible we would look.
As long as we continue to think that our food comes from the supermarket, rather than from the land, we will continue to allow destructive, unsustainable agricultural practices and we will continue to eat very unbalanced and unhealthy diets.
Growing our own food reconnects us with the real. It gets us out of fantasy land and leads us toward the things that really matter.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
My Beautiful (Grasshopper-Munched) Garden
The garden has bounced back from the hailstorm so I went out and tried to get some pictures. It was not the best time to shoot pictures, but these at least give a broad impression of the garden.
I've got 448 square feet of biointensive beds--the rough equivalent of a 20 x 90 foot conventionally-spaced garden. I love gardening intensively and I can't imagine ever going back to the old way. This year I've got over thirty types of things growing--fruits, veggies and herbs combined: potatoes, red onions, white onions, garlic, radishes, carrots, zucchini, lima beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, spinach, swiss chard, various lettuces, green beans, beets, roma, beefsteak and several heirloom tomatoes, Collin's gourds (several varieties), pie pumpkins, butternut squash, pickling cucumbers, several varieties of both hot peppers and bell peppers, an early sweet corn and a late sweet corn, basil, cilantro, catnip, rosemary, chamomile, dill, parsley, chives and oregano.
I'm also getting ready to plant the fall peas--two varieties. They'll be joined shortly by other plantings for fall--more carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach and radishes. Plus I've got eight little cabbages started in the house and they'll be ready to go out in a few weeks.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Growing Sprouts
Sprouts are little nutritional powerhouses--no other food packs as much nutrition per calorie. They're full of vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein and beneficial enzymes. Best of all they're inexpensive and always in season if you grow them yourself.
And growing sprouts couldn't be easier. Place seeds in a quart-sized canning jar, cover with water and soak for the recommended length of time (this dissolves the plant chemicals that coat the seed and inhibit germination).
(Get down Olive. BAD girl.)
Once the seeds have soaked the soaking water will be yellow. That's all the dissolved stuff that inhibits germination. Place a piece of fiberglass windowscreen over the top of the jar and screw on a lid band (you can also use a few layers of cheesecloth and a rubber band). Drain and rinse (always use filtered tap water or the chlorine might kill off the poor things). Place in a container that allows your jar to rest at a forty-five degree angle. This allows air to circulate and water to drain--you don't want moldy sprouts!
Put the whole thing in a dark place, like a kitchen cabinet, rinse twice a day, and in a few days you'll be enjoying delicious sprouts.
And growing sprouts couldn't be easier. Place seeds in a quart-sized canning jar, cover with water and soak for the recommended length of time (this dissolves the plant chemicals that coat the seed and inhibit germination).
(Get down Olive. BAD girl.)
Once the seeds have soaked the soaking water will be yellow. That's all the dissolved stuff that inhibits germination. Place a piece of fiberglass windowscreen over the top of the jar and screw on a lid band (you can also use a few layers of cheesecloth and a rubber band). Drain and rinse (always use filtered tap water or the chlorine might kill off the poor things). Place in a container that allows your jar to rest at a forty-five degree angle. This allows air to circulate and water to drain--you don't want moldy sprouts!
Put the whole thing in a dark place, like a kitchen cabinet, rinse twice a day, and in a few days you'll be enjoying delicious sprouts.
Supermarket Bad, Garden Good
If only all stores would be so forthright:
I hate supermarkets--everything about them--and the more responsibility I take back for my own food supply the more dysfunctional the whole concept of the supermarket seems to me.
The supermarket: A building with a huge ecological footprint, situated in a vast sea of concrete and accessible to most people only by carbon-spewing transport devices.
The supermarket: An enormous repository of wooden, tasteless and nutritionally-devoid food-like substances.
The supermarket: A giant chemical and pesticide warehouse.
The supermarket: Where there's competition amongst all the thousands of products to see who has travelled the farthest ("I'm ground beef from Argentina." "Well so what. I'm a bulb of garlic from China!"
The supermarket: Designed to bring out the absolute worst in people. Think I'll park my shopping buggy here in the middle of the store exit for awhile, just for the joy of watching everyone struggle to get past me. And when I get out to my car, which is in the spot right up front (because I circled round and round the lot twenty times to land it), I'll just leave my cart right there cozying up to the car in the next space (you know, the one with the immaculate paint job) because really I am so special and I can't be bothered with such trivial matters as returning a cart to its carrel.
The supermarket: That paragon of efficient, just-on-time delivery which always manages to be out of the item I need the most.
The garden: An organic, pesticide- and chemical- free zone producing mountains of tasty and outrageously nutritious food just steps from my front door, and offering bounteous amounts of fresh air, sunshine and exercise in an environment totally devoid of rude and stupid people.
I hate supermarkets--everything about them--and the more responsibility I take back for my own food supply the more dysfunctional the whole concept of the supermarket seems to me.
The supermarket: A building with a huge ecological footprint, situated in a vast sea of concrete and accessible to most people only by carbon-spewing transport devices.
The supermarket: An enormous repository of wooden, tasteless and nutritionally-devoid food-like substances.
The supermarket: A giant chemical and pesticide warehouse.
The supermarket: Where there's competition amongst all the thousands of products to see who has travelled the farthest ("I'm ground beef from Argentina." "Well so what. I'm a bulb of garlic from China!"
The supermarket: Designed to bring out the absolute worst in people. Think I'll park my shopping buggy here in the middle of the store exit for awhile, just for the joy of watching everyone struggle to get past me. And when I get out to my car, which is in the spot right up front (because I circled round and round the lot twenty times to land it), I'll just leave my cart right there cozying up to the car in the next space (you know, the one with the immaculate paint job) because really I am so special and I can't be bothered with such trivial matters as returning a cart to its carrel.
The supermarket: That paragon of efficient, just-on-time delivery which always manages to be out of the item I need the most.
The garden: An organic, pesticide- and chemical- free zone producing mountains of tasty and outrageously nutritious food just steps from my front door, and offering bounteous amounts of fresh air, sunshine and exercise in an environment totally devoid of rude and stupid people.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Ah, Some Good Gluten
Yesterday I baked this loaf:
And I made my first batch of spinach pasta:
I couldn't get a picture of the finished pasta because a storm rolled in and messed up the lighting and then night fell. So I just ate it. Not all of it, mind you--I froze some too.
My recipe was a hybrid of one I found online and one in my pasta cookbook. I used five ounces of fresh spinach, one egg, 4.4 ounces of all-purpose flour, 4.4 ounces of semolina, salt, one tablespoon of olive oil, and then a little water when it wouldn't all pull together for me. (If you don't have a kitchen scale, a cup of each type of flour should be roughly correct, but you may have to make some adjustments.)
First I steamed the spinach until it was completely wilted. Then I squeezed out the excess liquid and pureed the spinach in the food processor. I added the egg and processed until the mixture was smooth. I mixed the dry ingredients, added the spinach mixture and oil, combined it all and added a little bit of water to get it all to come together. Then I kneaded it for ten minutes, wrapped it in plastic wrap and let it relax in the fridge for an hour.
Rolling out pasta dough is always a challenge--this is where a pasta machine would come in very handy--and it takes at least a good ten minutes of hard rolling before it will relax enough to hold its shape. It's a good workout. If you've never made pasta before and try this recipe, don't lose patience. This is normal. Keep going. Once it was rolled out, I rolled it into a log and cut it into narrow strips, hung them to dry for an hour and then cooked up a small batch for a late dinner.
I actually get emotional sometimes cooking, especially when I've got really fresh wholesome and beautiful food. This pasta was the most gorgeous shade of green and I found myself getting a little choked up. Okay, it's a little embarrassing to admit. But I stood there all emotional thinking that here in my little shack, living my simple little life, I really have it better than the wealthiest people on the planet. I've got such abundance here, such incredible richness. The simplest little things, like my ridiculously green pasta, bring such deep satisfaction. Good food nourishes much more than just the body.
And I made my first batch of spinach pasta:
I couldn't get a picture of the finished pasta because a storm rolled in and messed up the lighting and then night fell. So I just ate it. Not all of it, mind you--I froze some too.My recipe was a hybrid of one I found online and one in my pasta cookbook. I used five ounces of fresh spinach, one egg, 4.4 ounces of all-purpose flour, 4.4 ounces of semolina, salt, one tablespoon of olive oil, and then a little water when it wouldn't all pull together for me. (If you don't have a kitchen scale, a cup of each type of flour should be roughly correct, but you may have to make some adjustments.)
First I steamed the spinach until it was completely wilted. Then I squeezed out the excess liquid and pureed the spinach in the food processor. I added the egg and processed until the mixture was smooth. I mixed the dry ingredients, added the spinach mixture and oil, combined it all and added a little bit of water to get it all to come together. Then I kneaded it for ten minutes, wrapped it in plastic wrap and let it relax in the fridge for an hour.
Rolling out pasta dough is always a challenge--this is where a pasta machine would come in very handy--and it takes at least a good ten minutes of hard rolling before it will relax enough to hold its shape. It's a good workout. If you've never made pasta before and try this recipe, don't lose patience. This is normal. Keep going. Once it was rolled out, I rolled it into a log and cut it into narrow strips, hung them to dry for an hour and then cooked up a small batch for a late dinner.
I actually get emotional sometimes cooking, especially when I've got really fresh wholesome and beautiful food. This pasta was the most gorgeous shade of green and I found myself getting a little choked up. Okay, it's a little embarrassing to admit. But I stood there all emotional thinking that here in my little shack, living my simple little life, I really have it better than the wealthiest people on the planet. I've got such abundance here, such incredible richness. The simplest little things, like my ridiculously green pasta, bring such deep satisfaction. Good food nourishes much more than just the body.
Plague of Locusts, Hail, and Wind
Well, I wanted to take some pictures of my beautiful garden this week and post them here, but Mother Nature can be very cruel. Actually, it's not all that awful. The garden will survive. But flattened plants with minced leaves aren't particularly attractive, so I'm going to give it a few days to bounce back before I take some pictures.
The hailstorm produced maybe nickel-diameter hail--not too bad. I hadn't staked my tomatoes so it was bad enough news for them and I'm still not quite sure what I'm going to do about them. My plan originally was to install a horizontal trellis for the vining tomatoes, while just letting the Romas sprawl. But after the phone-line fiasco (see my post "Call Before You Dig...") I got a little nervous about digging anything, and I would have needed to bury the upright supports for the trellis about a foot in the ground--so I just never did it. I still need to call and have the phone company come and mark the lines. Meanwhile, I've got all the supplies for the trellis just sitting around. The beefsteaks and heirlooms have just gone nuts and it would be a challenge to install the trellis at this point. What am I to do?
Then there are the hordes of grasshoppers. I've never seen it so bad. When I first planted out my baby basils the grasshoppers tore through them in a day or two, turning the leaves into lacework. I planted some more basil seeds directly in the garden, assuming that the first crop was a total loss. But now the first crop has mostly recovered and the second crop has sprouted, so the end result of the grasshopper invasion might be more pesto than we can possibly deal with. Last year I just had six basil plants outside for pesto (two more plants indoors for general use). From those six plants with two harvests we got nearly enough pesto to last through the year. This year I planted out twenty-three basil plants and once I thin the new patch to its final spacing there'll be about ten more plants. They're all full of grasshopper holes, so maybe it'll take two munched plants to equal one whole plant, I don't know. Still, that's a heck of a lot of pesto (and think of the olive oil and pine nut bill!). The basil plants aren't the only things the grasshoppers are munching but they've definitely taken the brunt of it. I checked online for an organic control of grasshoppers and there is one, but you have to apply it while the grasshoppers are only 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, so it's already too late for that.
The only other solution would be floating row covers, but I'm not sure that's in the budget for this year. Maybe if I just got enough to cover the most vulnerable plants.
The good thing is that while Mother Nature might do a number on parts of the garden I think it would be difficult for everything to be wiped out. Even if there was baseball-sized hail, something would eventually pop its head back up--though I pray I never live to see that day.
The hailstorm produced maybe nickel-diameter hail--not too bad. I hadn't staked my tomatoes so it was bad enough news for them and I'm still not quite sure what I'm going to do about them. My plan originally was to install a horizontal trellis for the vining tomatoes, while just letting the Romas sprawl. But after the phone-line fiasco (see my post "Call Before You Dig...") I got a little nervous about digging anything, and I would have needed to bury the upright supports for the trellis about a foot in the ground--so I just never did it. I still need to call and have the phone company come and mark the lines. Meanwhile, I've got all the supplies for the trellis just sitting around. The beefsteaks and heirlooms have just gone nuts and it would be a challenge to install the trellis at this point. What am I to do?
Then there are the hordes of grasshoppers. I've never seen it so bad. When I first planted out my baby basils the grasshoppers tore through them in a day or two, turning the leaves into lacework. I planted some more basil seeds directly in the garden, assuming that the first crop was a total loss. But now the first crop has mostly recovered and the second crop has sprouted, so the end result of the grasshopper invasion might be more pesto than we can possibly deal with. Last year I just had six basil plants outside for pesto (two more plants indoors for general use). From those six plants with two harvests we got nearly enough pesto to last through the year. This year I planted out twenty-three basil plants and once I thin the new patch to its final spacing there'll be about ten more plants. They're all full of grasshopper holes, so maybe it'll take two munched plants to equal one whole plant, I don't know. Still, that's a heck of a lot of pesto (and think of the olive oil and pine nut bill!). The basil plants aren't the only things the grasshoppers are munching but they've definitely taken the brunt of it. I checked online for an organic control of grasshoppers and there is one, but you have to apply it while the grasshoppers are only 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, so it's already too late for that.
The only other solution would be floating row covers, but I'm not sure that's in the budget for this year. Maybe if I just got enough to cover the most vulnerable plants.
The good thing is that while Mother Nature might do a number on parts of the garden I think it would be difficult for everything to be wiped out. Even if there was baseball-sized hail, something would eventually pop its head back up--though I pray I never live to see that day.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Woo-Hoo, Our Own Farmer's Market!
I just learned we finally got a farmer's market. It opened Tuesday night and will run every Tuesday from now through October. It's actually one town over--about seven miles away. My little town isn't big enough to support such a thing (we've got a population of somewhere around 200, whereas the next town over bustles with more than 5000 residents). I'm so excited! I didn't hear about it soon enough to attend the first night, but I'll make a point of getting there next week. I hope it catches on and becomes a permanent thing. Anyone can have a booth for $10/night, so if the garden goes too crazy I'll have a way to get rid of the bounty. I can't wait to see what everyone's growing.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Giving Up Sugar and Refined Flour, Progress Report
I've been on my new "diet" for two weeks now and I've lost two pounds. My reasons for eliminating sugar and refined flour have nothing to do with losing weight, it's just happening. However, I always lose weight in the summer so it may have nothing to do with the diet.
But at this rate--a pound per week--I would quickly lose too much weight. Normally I lose ten pounds every summer and gain it back every winter. It's a good little system for my body. Every summer I get down to what I weighed back in high school and every winter I put on a thin layer of padding for insulation. But losing a pound per week is crazy. That would make me underweight for my height in just another four weeks--not good!
Hopefully this will slow down.
I haven't totally given up flour and sugar and it was not my intention to be really militant about it, but I have cut way back. I haven't baked any sweets since Collin left and that's huge. You have to understand, there's always something sweet here to snack on--banana chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, anise cookies, berry muffins, chocolate-dipped almond biscotti, granola bars, occasional doughnuts and puff pastries...etc., etc. I'm always baking sweets. To go two weeks without baking is an accomplishment, to put it mildly.
I did bake one loaf of bread, made of all refined flour--I wasn't supposed to do that--but that's the only doughy food I've eaten so far. I'll probably bake more bread in the next day or two, but I think I'll make it at least partially whole-grain. I'm thinking about making a batch of pasta, too. I want to try to make a spinach pasta with some of the spinach from the garden. I've never tried to do that before. And I just recently got into making homemade pierogies and I'm itching to try some different types of fillings for those, so I may make up a new batch soon. At least those freeze well, so I'm not committed to eating them all at once.
All in all I think I'm doing okay. I'm trying to think of refined flour products as occasional side dishes and I'm trying to keep my added sugar under eight teaspoons per day. I also want to add more whole grains into my diet. I don't think grains are bad, I just think refined grains need to be kept to a minimum.
But at this rate--a pound per week--I would quickly lose too much weight. Normally I lose ten pounds every summer and gain it back every winter. It's a good little system for my body. Every summer I get down to what I weighed back in high school and every winter I put on a thin layer of padding for insulation. But losing a pound per week is crazy. That would make me underweight for my height in just another four weeks--not good!
Hopefully this will slow down.
I haven't totally given up flour and sugar and it was not my intention to be really militant about it, but I have cut way back. I haven't baked any sweets since Collin left and that's huge. You have to understand, there's always something sweet here to snack on--banana chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, anise cookies, berry muffins, chocolate-dipped almond biscotti, granola bars, occasional doughnuts and puff pastries...etc., etc. I'm always baking sweets. To go two weeks without baking is an accomplishment, to put it mildly.
I did bake one loaf of bread, made of all refined flour--I wasn't supposed to do that--but that's the only doughy food I've eaten so far. I'll probably bake more bread in the next day or two, but I think I'll make it at least partially whole-grain. I'm thinking about making a batch of pasta, too. I want to try to make a spinach pasta with some of the spinach from the garden. I've never tried to do that before. And I just recently got into making homemade pierogies and I'm itching to try some different types of fillings for those, so I may make up a new batch soon. At least those freeze well, so I'm not committed to eating them all at once.
All in all I think I'm doing okay. I'm trying to think of refined flour products as occasional side dishes and I'm trying to keep my added sugar under eight teaspoons per day. I also want to add more whole grains into my diet. I don't think grains are bad, I just think refined grains need to be kept to a minimum.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Wow, Garlic Scapes!
I'm growing garlic for the first time this year--Chilean Silver, a softneck variety, and Chesnok Red, a hardneck. When I went to order the bulbs last fall, I didn't know the difference between the softneck and hardneck varieties. I knew one did better in colder climates, supposedly, but I couldn't tell whether my climate on the desert plains of Colorado was considered a colder climate or not. So, that's why I ordered some of each type.
Both are actually thriving in my garden and from what I've learned since last fall, it seems that many gardeners around the country do well with both types. The softneck variety is what you will find almost exclusively in the grocery stores because it keeps much longer than the hardneck variety. It also has a softer neck (imagine that) so you can create a garlic braid with this type. The hardneck variety doesn't keep as well, but unlike the softnecks it sends up a cool flower stalk, called a scape, several weeks before the bulbs mature. Though there's some controversy, most gardeners believe it's best to remove the scapes, as that generally results in larger bulbs. (Others say that by doing so you reduce the storage life of the bulbs.)
The plus side of removing the scapes is that they are edible and delicious. I ate my first scapes two nights ago, quickly stir-fried in a little butter with a dash of pepper-based seasoning salt and some toasted sesame seeds. I was blown away! The flavor was garlicky, but mild--without the bite and aftertaste of garlic cloves. The bulbils were soft and sweet, melting in the mouth. They reminded me of garlic that has been slow-roasted in the oven but these cooked in two or three minutes. I cut the stems into two or three inch long pieces and they had the consistency of something between asparagus stalks and green beans, but with a flavor all their own. As I ate my stir-fry I detected a wonderful smokey flavor but I finally figured out it was coming from the sesame seeds. The sesame seeds really paired well with the scapes and it seemed that the whole dish was crying out to be served alongside a juicy steak or another fattier type of meat--lamb or salmon maybe.
Last night John invited me over for--guess what?--grilled steaks, so needless to say I contributed a scape side dish. It was perfect. I still have a few scapes left and I think I'm going to make a small batch of pesto with those. There are a lot of recipes online for scape pesto. I haven't figured out which one I'll try, but they all sound delicious.
Next year I want to plant a lot more of the hardneck variety just so I can enjoy more scapes!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
The Homemade Brown Rice Syrup Blues, Part 2
I tried making another batch of brown rice syrup last night, changing up a few things. The result? Another jar of mud.
It was not a total failure. The fact that I got eight ounces this time, rather than two, means that homemade brown rice syrup will be economical when all is said and done. By rough calculations I figured that this eight ounce jar cost me $1.21 to make (not counting labor and electricity). So a full sized jar (16 ounces) would cost $2.42. I still haven't been successful at converting all of the starches so when I do, the yield will go up even more and the cost will come down.
Even though this turned out muddier than the last one, it is sweeter and less bitter. The reason it's muddier is because I ground the rice into flour and so some of the unconverted starches were small enough to slip through during the straining process.
Here's what I did this time. I ground a cup and a half of rice into flour with my coffee grinder, then cooked it in nine cups of water for about twenty minutes. I let it cool until the temperature in the center of the pot was below 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I added the sprouted barley.
This time I also did something different with the barley. On various websites that talk about how to malt barley, they say that once the barley is sprouted it's dried in order to halt the process at the right point. I haven't been doing this, since I was using the barley immediately and didn't think it mattered. But this time I dried the barley in the oven for several hours (keeping the temp below 150F at all times). Whether this is a critical step or not, I don't know. But it did have one obvious benefit--when it was dried I could grind it into a fine powder in the coffee grinder. That made it possible to disperse it more uniformly in the rice mixture.
So I mixed the barley powder ( 1/4 of a cup) into the rice mixture and put it in the oven, where I kept the temperature somewhere in between 140 and 150 degrees. I let it cook for seven hours then turned the oven off and left it there overnight. (The only reason I didn't cook it longer is because I was heading to bed). In the morning I strained it. This time instead of using cheesecloth I strained twice through my regular mesh sieve and twice more through a really fine sieve (one of my little two-inch diameter tea strainers--a little tedious!). Still, some of the starches were fine enough to get through. This yielded six cups of liquid, which seemed like a promising amount to start out with. From that I was hoping to yield at least twelve ounces of syrup.
It took about forty-five minutes to boil it down and in the end, as I said, I got eight ounces. It's the sweetest batch so far and also the least bitter, so I know I'm on the right track. I really think the bitterness is coming from the unconverted starches rather than the barley. There still was quite a lot of rice sludge that I filtered out--at least a cup, maybe a cup and a half.
So, next time... (while I was working on this last night my friend John called and I told him there wasn't going to be a next time, but he launched into the "What if Thomas Edison had given up after a few tries, what if Albert Einstein had given up after a few tries" spiel. I told him it's not quite the same--this thing has already been invented. There's really no need for anyone to do it again. But, sigh, I am quite a persistent little bugger so I will probably keep at it until I figure it out.) Anyway, I was saying, next time I'm going to up the amount of barley maybe to as much as half a cup and I will also let it cook indefinitely. The worst thing that will happen if it goes too long is that the sugars will start to convert to alcohol. If I keep tasting it as I go, I should be able to tell when that starts to happen. Then I'll know for the next time to stop just short of that.
Friday, June 26, 2009
The Homemade Brown Rice Syrup Blues, Part 1
A few years ago I decided to try to figure out how to make brown rice syrup. I didn't find a whole lot of information to go on, but I went with what little information I had and did some experimenting. The result was a syrup of the right consistency but muddy looking (kind of like beef gravy) rather than translucent. Worse than that, while it had a degree of sweetness to it, it also had an unbearably bitter aftertaste. So bad that when I finished the experiment I never wanted to see brown rice syrup again nor even a single grain of brown rice. Bleck!
The problem was probably one of three things: either some of the starches hadn't converted to sugar, or I used too much barley which itself may have been bitter, or I let the barley sprout for too long and that caused it to be bitter.
These seem to be the three most important variables: how long to sprout the barley, how much barley to use, and how long to heat the mixture in order to get all the starches to convert.
The basic process, I believe, is this. You sprout some barley. The sprouting process releases enzymes in the barley, which is what will digest the starches in the rice, turning them into sugars. You cook the rice, then cool it to a temperature below which the enzymes won't be destroyed. (I've seen conflicting information on just what that temperature is, but 140 degrees Fahrenheit works.) Once cooled you add the sprouted barley (crushed, or chopped in a food processor) and then let the enzymes go to work. You have to keep the mixture heated to the 140 degree range the whole time (the oven on its lowest setting is the best bet for me) and it will take many hours. Once you've let it digest long enough strain off the liquid through several layers of cheesecloth and boil the resulting liquid down to the desired consistency.
The first time I experimented I tried to control for the amount of barley used. I divided the cooked rice into four different containers. At that point I didn't know whether I should leave the barley whole or chop it up. I thought chopping might help, but I also worried that it might damage the enzymes somehow (shows how clueless I was). So in one bowl I put a tablespoon of whole barley, in another bowl a tablespoon of chopped barley, in a third bowl I put a quarter cup of whole barley and in a fourth bowl I put a quarter cup of chopped barley. Within five minutes, the two bowls with the chopped barley were bubbly, just like when you proof yeast, so I knew that chopping the barley was beneficial. The other bowls followed along shortly thereafter, but at a slower pace. As the enzymes continued their work, the mixtures began to thin considerably. I could tell that the starches were breaking down. The bowl with a quarter cup of chopped barley did the best, so it would seem that more barley is better (sounds logical). However, I don't know if the barley is contributing to the bitter taste, so it might be the case that more is not actually better. It might be faster, but not better.
This week I decided to take another stab at it. Since the last time I experimented I'd come across a recipe in a 1975 issue of Mother Earth News magazine for what they called "Grain Honey" . It sounded similar to everything I'd tried and so I hoped that they had all the kinks ironed out for me, as to amounts and timing and all of that. The only thing I did differently was to use four tablespoons of sprouted barley instead of three. That was because my sprouts were only two days old and I was afraid they wouldn't be potent enough. So after hours of baking, then boiling it all down, I had another syrup of the perfect consistency. It was not quite translucent but at least it didn't look like beef gravy this time. I took a lick. Definitely far sweeter than the last batch...getting close...but wait, ugh, there it was again--that horrendous aftertaste!
So, it's back to the drawing board. Did that one extra tablespoon of barley ruin it? Or did the starches not completely convert? It's frustrating with all these variables to manipulate--the ratio of rice to barley, the time you let the barley sprout, and how long to let the rice cook.
I suspect there's another variable. When I experimented the first time, I chopped my rice in a coffee grinder and made it into a flour of sorts. I figured that the finer it was, the more effectively the enzymes could go to work on it. The Grain Honey recipe leaves the rice whole. So using the Grain Honey recipe, when the rice was done cooking with the barley I had rice in a watery fluid. I put that all in a cheesecloth-lined strainer and squeezed the liquid through. But afterwards I thought, if there are still rice kernels left behind, aren't those kernels still unconverted starches? And as I squeezed, wasn't I maybe squeezing out starch as well as sugar?
It seems that ideally you'd want to convert it all. Using the Grain Honey recipe I ended up with only about 2 fluid ounces of brown rice syrup. If that's all you get, then it would be totally uneconomical to make this at home. The store-bought stuff is cheaper. Yet, I was left with a massive glob of sticky rice. There has to be a way to get it all to convert.
So, it's back to the drawing board yet again. This time I think I'll try the Mother Earth News recipe again, but I'll grind the rice before I cook it, and let it cook much longer.
There are some other possible variables that I'll look into after I try this, but if this works then Hooray! I'll let you know.
[See my follow-up post The Homemade Brown Rice Syrup Blues, Part 2.]
The problem was probably one of three things: either some of the starches hadn't converted to sugar, or I used too much barley which itself may have been bitter, or I let the barley sprout for too long and that caused it to be bitter.
These seem to be the three most important variables: how long to sprout the barley, how much barley to use, and how long to heat the mixture in order to get all the starches to convert.
The basic process, I believe, is this. You sprout some barley. The sprouting process releases enzymes in the barley, which is what will digest the starches in the rice, turning them into sugars. You cook the rice, then cool it to a temperature below which the enzymes won't be destroyed. (I've seen conflicting information on just what that temperature is, but 140 degrees Fahrenheit works.) Once cooled you add the sprouted barley (crushed, or chopped in a food processor) and then let the enzymes go to work. You have to keep the mixture heated to the 140 degree range the whole time (the oven on its lowest setting is the best bet for me) and it will take many hours. Once you've let it digest long enough strain off the liquid through several layers of cheesecloth and boil the resulting liquid down to the desired consistency.
The first time I experimented I tried to control for the amount of barley used. I divided the cooked rice into four different containers. At that point I didn't know whether I should leave the barley whole or chop it up. I thought chopping might help, but I also worried that it might damage the enzymes somehow (shows how clueless I was). So in one bowl I put a tablespoon of whole barley, in another bowl a tablespoon of chopped barley, in a third bowl I put a quarter cup of whole barley and in a fourth bowl I put a quarter cup of chopped barley. Within five minutes, the two bowls with the chopped barley were bubbly, just like when you proof yeast, so I knew that chopping the barley was beneficial. The other bowls followed along shortly thereafter, but at a slower pace. As the enzymes continued their work, the mixtures began to thin considerably. I could tell that the starches were breaking down. The bowl with a quarter cup of chopped barley did the best, so it would seem that more barley is better (sounds logical). However, I don't know if the barley is contributing to the bitter taste, so it might be the case that more is not actually better. It might be faster, but not better.
This week I decided to take another stab at it. Since the last time I experimented I'd come across a recipe in a 1975 issue of Mother Earth News magazine for what they called "Grain Honey" . It sounded similar to everything I'd tried and so I hoped that they had all the kinks ironed out for me, as to amounts and timing and all of that. The only thing I did differently was to use four tablespoons of sprouted barley instead of three. That was because my sprouts were only two days old and I was afraid they wouldn't be potent enough. So after hours of baking, then boiling it all down, I had another syrup of the perfect consistency. It was not quite translucent but at least it didn't look like beef gravy this time. I took a lick. Definitely far sweeter than the last batch...getting close...but wait, ugh, there it was again--that horrendous aftertaste!
So, it's back to the drawing board. Did that one extra tablespoon of barley ruin it? Or did the starches not completely convert? It's frustrating with all these variables to manipulate--the ratio of rice to barley, the time you let the barley sprout, and how long to let the rice cook.
I suspect there's another variable. When I experimented the first time, I chopped my rice in a coffee grinder and made it into a flour of sorts. I figured that the finer it was, the more effectively the enzymes could go to work on it. The Grain Honey recipe leaves the rice whole. So using the Grain Honey recipe, when the rice was done cooking with the barley I had rice in a watery fluid. I put that all in a cheesecloth-lined strainer and squeezed the liquid through. But afterwards I thought, if there are still rice kernels left behind, aren't those kernels still unconverted starches? And as I squeezed, wasn't I maybe squeezing out starch as well as sugar?
It seems that ideally you'd want to convert it all. Using the Grain Honey recipe I ended up with only about 2 fluid ounces of brown rice syrup. If that's all you get, then it would be totally uneconomical to make this at home. The store-bought stuff is cheaper. Yet, I was left with a massive glob of sticky rice. There has to be a way to get it all to convert.
So, it's back to the drawing board yet again. This time I think I'll try the Mother Earth News recipe again, but I'll grind the rice before I cook it, and let it cook much longer.
There are some other possible variables that I'll look into after I try this, but if this works then Hooray! I'll let you know.
[See my follow-up post The Homemade Brown Rice Syrup Blues, Part 2.]
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The Corn Syrup Blues
This post is a response to the propaganda--er, comment--I received yesterday from the Corn Refiners Association on my post about giving up sugar and refined flour. I've been aware that the Corn Refiners Association launched a huge campaign awhile back, but I don't watch t.v. or or read newspapers or magazines, so this is the first time I actually saw one of their ads.
That they have someone actually sitting there every day (the poor sap), watching for every little blog post that mentions corn syrup--it boggles the mind. They are obviously spending millions and millions on a campaign that I can only imagine looks absolutely ridiculous to most people. That's how it looks to me anyway.
Before I really launch into this, here's the blurb they sent:
So, is corn syrup really no different than sugar?
Well, aside from the fact that it's laced with mercury and made from mostly genetically modified corn (okay, sugar beets are now genetically modified, too) are there any other distinctions?
High fructose consumption leads to what is called fructose malabsorption or dietary fructose intolerance. Everyone who consumes more than about 25 to 50 grams of fructose in one sitting suffers fructose intolerance, as the intestines are only able to absorb that much at one time. But some people are truly intolerant in that they are only able to absorb much smaller quantities of fructose. It's the unabsorbed fructose which causes problems by passing on from the small intestine to the large intestine where it begins to ferment.
A can of soda contains about 15 or 16 grams of fructose, so you can see how easy it would be for a person with even a normal tolerance for fructose to have problems if they drink more than one soda in a sitting.
Once the excess fructose ferments in the gut, people will experience gastrointestinal symptoms such as gas, bloating, cramps, constipation, and diarrhea. Beyond that, according to wikipedia, malabsorption of fructose causes reduced levels of tryptophan, folic acid and zinc in the bloodstream.
The University of Iowa did a study on fructose malabsorption and has a nice page summarizing their findings. One interesting thing they note is that when they tested people with unexplained IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) they found that 30% of the subjects were fructose intolerant. So, a significant number of IBS cases may simply be a result of fructose intolerance or pure overconsumption of fructose. Imagine that.
What is disappointing in the Iowa report is their suggestion that the next step should involve a search for ways to make fructose more absorbable. Sure, that will keep it out of the large intestine, but dumping it into the bloodstream is not the answer. Don't these researchers ever consider that there might be a reason the body limits the amount of fructose it can absorb?? Why would you want to override that system? Instead of that, how about counseling your patients to restrict their intake of fructose.
But moving on. Once the fructose is in the bloodstream is it really true, as the Corn Refiners Association asserts, that the body handles it like it handles sugar, and that there is no evidence linking it to diabetes and obesity?
Before diving into the medical studies, it would be helpful to read this excellent article on insulin, leptin and blood sugar. It does an excellent job of explaining the complicated processes involved in metabolizing sugar. The key piece in the article that will help us understand the research on high fructose corn syrup concerns the role of leptin in regulating appetite:
Now let's look at the research. This article in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that consumption of high levels of fructose resulted in lower concentrations of circulating insulin and leptin and concluded:
Another study, in the journal Diabetes, concluded that a high fructose diet led to increased insulin resistance in both liver and adipose tissues, and dyslipidemia (which usually means increased triglycerides and/or increased cholesterol levels).
Here's another study, out just last month: Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans.
I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Even a layperson such as myself can quickly find evidence to refute the statements made by the Corn Refiner's Association. It's not hard to do. They make such a point about how the use of caloric sweeteners hasn't gone up dramatically and that fats and flour consumption have gone up far more dramatically. They fail to mention the astounding increase in HFCS consumption over sugar consumption, and ignore the research that shows that HFCS consumption disrupts the signalling of leptin in the brain that tells you you're full. So, of course people are eating more of all things, but that doesn't mean that corn syrup isn't a major culprit.
Eat corn syrup, never feel full, eat more of everything.
To close, here's one of Dr. Mercola's (many) cogent discussions on this issue:
Dramatic Example of How the Food Industry Lies to You About Corn
That they have someone actually sitting there every day (the poor sap), watching for every little blog post that mentions corn syrup--it boggles the mind. They are obviously spending millions and millions on a campaign that I can only imagine looks absolutely ridiculous to most people. That's how it looks to me anyway.
Before I really launch into this, here's the blurb they sent:
High fructose corn syrup, sugar, and several fruit juices are all nutritionally the same.
High fructose corn syrup is simply a kind of corn sugar. It has the same number of calories as sugar and is handled similarly by the body. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that high fructose corn syrup is responsible for diabetes. It is especially important to understand that Americans are consuming more calories from all types of foods today than what was consumed 30 years ago. And we expend less energy to burn the extra calories. Consider the numbers reported in the February 2009 Loss-Adjusted Food Availability Data by the USDA. Total caloric intake on a per capita basis for Americans increased from 2,172 calories per day in 1970 to 2,775 calories per day in 2007 – an additional 603 calories. Where are all these calories coming from? Major contributors to this 603-calorie increase include 299 calories from added fats and 194 calories from flour and cereal products. Added sugars account for 57 calories of the daily increase.
The American Medical Association in June 2008 helped put to rest misunderstandings about this sweetener and obesity, stating that “high fructose syrup does not appear to contribute to obesity more than other caloric sweeteners.”
Even former critics of high fructose corn syrup dispel long-held myths and distance themselves from earlier speculation about the sweetener’s link to obesity as the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition releases its 2008 Vol. 88 supplement's comprehensive scientific review.Consumers can see the latest research and learn more about high fructose corn syrup at http://www.sweetsurprise.com/.
Audrae Erickson
President
Corn Refiners Association
So, is corn syrup really no different than sugar?
Well, aside from the fact that it's laced with mercury and made from mostly genetically modified corn (okay, sugar beets are now genetically modified, too) are there any other distinctions?
High fructose consumption leads to what is called fructose malabsorption or dietary fructose intolerance. Everyone who consumes more than about 25 to 50 grams of fructose in one sitting suffers fructose intolerance, as the intestines are only able to absorb that much at one time. But some people are truly intolerant in that they are only able to absorb much smaller quantities of fructose. It's the unabsorbed fructose which causes problems by passing on from the small intestine to the large intestine where it begins to ferment.
A can of soda contains about 15 or 16 grams of fructose, so you can see how easy it would be for a person with even a normal tolerance for fructose to have problems if they drink more than one soda in a sitting.
Once the excess fructose ferments in the gut, people will experience gastrointestinal symptoms such as gas, bloating, cramps, constipation, and diarrhea. Beyond that, according to wikipedia, malabsorption of fructose causes reduced levels of tryptophan, folic acid and zinc in the bloodstream.
The University of Iowa did a study on fructose malabsorption and has a nice page summarizing their findings. One interesting thing they note is that when they tested people with unexplained IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) they found that 30% of the subjects were fructose intolerant. So, a significant number of IBS cases may simply be a result of fructose intolerance or pure overconsumption of fructose. Imagine that.
What is disappointing in the Iowa report is their suggestion that the next step should involve a search for ways to make fructose more absorbable. Sure, that will keep it out of the large intestine, but dumping it into the bloodstream is not the answer. Don't these researchers ever consider that there might be a reason the body limits the amount of fructose it can absorb?? Why would you want to override that system? Instead of that, how about counseling your patients to restrict their intake of fructose.
But moving on. Once the fructose is in the bloodstream is it really true, as the Corn Refiners Association asserts, that the body handles it like it handles sugar, and that there is no evidence linking it to diabetes and obesity?
Before diving into the medical studies, it would be helpful to read this excellent article on insulin, leptin and blood sugar. It does an excellent job of explaining the complicated processes involved in metabolizing sugar. The key piece in the article that will help us understand the research on high fructose corn syrup concerns the role of leptin in regulating appetite:
When leptin levels get high enough, meaning you have eaten enough, then leptin permeates into your brain and tells your subconscious brain you are full. At the same time the higher levels of leptin are also telling your pancreas that you are full, which turns off the beta cell production of insulin, as no more taxis are needed.
If you ate the right amount of food for your physical activity level then blood sugar always has some place healthy to go, insulin rises and falls in a controlled manner, as does leptin.
When insulin has too many blood sugar passengers and cells don't need any sugar, then insulin stimulates the production of triglycerides (which can become stored fat). This is how you gain weight. Unfortunately, as triglycerides elevate in your blood they get in the way of leptin getting into your brain. This keeps you eating more than you need to because you don't have a full signal yet, a problem called leptin resistance. This encourages even further insulin-driven triglyceride formation, making it more likely you will gain weight.
Now let's look at the research. This article in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that consumption of high levels of fructose resulted in lower concentrations of circulating insulin and leptin and concluded:
Because insulin and leptin, and possibly ghrelin, function as key signals to the central nervous system in the long-term regulation of energy balance, decreases of circulating insulin and leptin and increased ghrelin concentrations, as demonstrated in this study, could lead to increased caloric intake and ultimately contribute to weight gain and obesity during chronic consumption of diets high in fructose.
Another study, in the journal Diabetes, concluded that a high fructose diet led to increased insulin resistance in both liver and adipose tissues, and dyslipidemia (which usually means increased triglycerides and/or increased cholesterol levels).
Here's another study, out just last month: Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans.
I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Even a layperson such as myself can quickly find evidence to refute the statements made by the Corn Refiner's Association. It's not hard to do. They make such a point about how the use of caloric sweeteners hasn't gone up dramatically and that fats and flour consumption have gone up far more dramatically. They fail to mention the astounding increase in HFCS consumption over sugar consumption, and ignore the research that shows that HFCS consumption disrupts the signalling of leptin in the brain that tells you you're full. So, of course people are eating more of all things, but that doesn't mean that corn syrup isn't a major culprit.
Eat corn syrup, never feel full, eat more of everything.
To close, here's one of Dr. Mercola's (many) cogent discussions on this issue:
Dramatic Example of How the Food Industry Lies to You About Corn
Monday, June 22, 2009
Giving Up Sugar and Refined Flour
One night a few weeks ago I was going through some old papers of mine and came across the folder which contained all of my New Year's Goals, dating back to 1992. Somehow my son coaxed me into reading them aloud--how embarrassing for me and entertaining for Collin! Anyway I noticed one thing that kept coming up over and over again. In fact, you'll find it below in my New Year's post on this blog--"work on limiting refined flour and sugar in my diet".
Virtually every year I add that to my list of goals and every year I fail to make any progress with it. I eat a lot of sugar and white flour. Much less than the national per capita averages but much more than could possibly be healthy.
To my credit there's virtually no high fructose corn syrup in my diet. By varying estimates, Americans are consuming somewhere between 16 and 50% of their calories in the form of high fructose corn syrup. No wonder there's an obesity and diabetes epidemic!
No, my habits aren't that extreme, but neither are they good. As I've mentioned before, I bake all of our bread products and pastries and we almost never eat out, so I have a pretty good grasp on how much we're consuming. I purchase roughly 100 pounds of white flour per year and probably 30 to 40 pounds of sugar. I also go through a quart or two of local honey, a jar or two of brown rice syrup, about 10 pounds of whole wheat flour and incidental amounts of rye, cornmeal, semolina, teff and other flours. I ingest small amounts of corn syrup in the form of pancake syrup and also in the small amounts of processed foods that we're still buying, mostly tomato-based stuff.
Based on USDA estimates each American consumes roughly 136.6 pounds of flour per year (that's refined and whole grain flours lumped together) and 156 pounds of caloric sweeteners (sugar and high fructose corn syrup, mainly). Together Collin and I consume roughly 115 pounds of flour and maybe 60 pounds of sweeteners per year. Since Collin's only here half the time, I calculate my portion of that to be maybe 77 pounds of flour and 40 pounds of sweeteners. Gosh, that sounds obscene!
Well I'm determined that this is the year I will finally tackle this goal. And the first phase of that starts now. Collin left on Friday to be with his dad for the next three and a half weeks and I thought it would be a great time--while I'm alone--to begin making some changes.
The rules are a little hazy, but here's what I'm thinking. Nothing draconian just yet. I can have a little of this and a little of that. I can finish off anything that's still in the fridge. For instance I made homemade hamburger buns and some bagels this week and there's still one of each left in the fridge. I'm allowed to eat those. There's a little bit of leftover pasta in there too that I can finish off. I can't have sugar in my tea, but I think I'll let myself use honey (even though it's really no better than sugar). I've been sweetening my oatmeal with a little bit of brown rice syrup--so little that I can barely taste the sweetness. Fruit is okay, but I never eat extreme amounts anyway. White flour can only be used in very minimal quantities when making whole-grain breads--just enough to lighten things up a little.
And then there's the question of other starchy things. What about potatoes, and rice? I just bought a 5 pound bag of potatoes, so I will eat them. Don't want anything to go to waste, of course. As for rice, I guess I should stick to brown rice instead of white. Blah. I never have been able to acquire a taste for brown rice.
When I told Collin what I was planning to do, he said "But what will you eat, Mom??" I said "I know!!" He knows me only too well.
We'll see how all of this goes. I just wish the garden were a little further along, so I'd have a lot of interesting foods to distract me. I'll post an update once I get a little further into this challenge and let you know how it's going.
Virtually every year I add that to my list of goals and every year I fail to make any progress with it. I eat a lot of sugar and white flour. Much less than the national per capita averages but much more than could possibly be healthy.
To my credit there's virtually no high fructose corn syrup in my diet. By varying estimates, Americans are consuming somewhere between 16 and 50% of their calories in the form of high fructose corn syrup. No wonder there's an obesity and diabetes epidemic!
No, my habits aren't that extreme, but neither are they good. As I've mentioned before, I bake all of our bread products and pastries and we almost never eat out, so I have a pretty good grasp on how much we're consuming. I purchase roughly 100 pounds of white flour per year and probably 30 to 40 pounds of sugar. I also go through a quart or two of local honey, a jar or two of brown rice syrup, about 10 pounds of whole wheat flour and incidental amounts of rye, cornmeal, semolina, teff and other flours. I ingest small amounts of corn syrup in the form of pancake syrup and also in the small amounts of processed foods that we're still buying, mostly tomato-based stuff.
Based on USDA estimates each American consumes roughly 136.6 pounds of flour per year (that's refined and whole grain flours lumped together) and 156 pounds of caloric sweeteners (sugar and high fructose corn syrup, mainly). Together Collin and I consume roughly 115 pounds of flour and maybe 60 pounds of sweeteners per year. Since Collin's only here half the time, I calculate my portion of that to be maybe 77 pounds of flour and 40 pounds of sweeteners. Gosh, that sounds obscene!
Well I'm determined that this is the year I will finally tackle this goal. And the first phase of that starts now. Collin left on Friday to be with his dad for the next three and a half weeks and I thought it would be a great time--while I'm alone--to begin making some changes.
The rules are a little hazy, but here's what I'm thinking. Nothing draconian just yet. I can have a little of this and a little of that. I can finish off anything that's still in the fridge. For instance I made homemade hamburger buns and some bagels this week and there's still one of each left in the fridge. I'm allowed to eat those. There's a little bit of leftover pasta in there too that I can finish off. I can't have sugar in my tea, but I think I'll let myself use honey (even though it's really no better than sugar). I've been sweetening my oatmeal with a little bit of brown rice syrup--so little that I can barely taste the sweetness. Fruit is okay, but I never eat extreme amounts anyway. White flour can only be used in very minimal quantities when making whole-grain breads--just enough to lighten things up a little.
And then there's the question of other starchy things. What about potatoes, and rice? I just bought a 5 pound bag of potatoes, so I will eat them. Don't want anything to go to waste, of course. As for rice, I guess I should stick to brown rice instead of white. Blah. I never have been able to acquire a taste for brown rice.
When I told Collin what I was planning to do, he said "But what will you eat, Mom??" I said "I know!!" He knows me only too well.
We'll see how all of this goes. I just wish the garden were a little further along, so I'd have a lot of interesting foods to distract me. I'll post an update once I get a little further into this challenge and let you know how it's going.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Popping Pills for Health
To me the whole concept of popping pills for health is a bizarre one, whether we're talking prescription pharmaceuticals or herbal remedies. Health doesn't come from a pill. Health comes from whole foods and the right lifestyle.
My biggest gripe, naturally, is with pharmaceuticals. The body wasn't designed to be assaulted with straight chemicals. It has an elegant system already in place to extract just what it needs from food, air, water and sunlight. Dump straight chemicals into that system and the whole thing gets thrown off-kilter. Dump multiple chemicals in there and you get bizarre interactions nobody could possibly anticipate.
According to statehealthfacts.org, run by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2007 the average American between the ages of 19 and 64 had 11.2 prescriptions filled. Children from birth through age 18 averaged 3.9 prescriptions and seniors aged 65 and older averaged a staggering 28.6 prescriptions. And those numbers slightly underestimate the facts because the data excludes the 6.9% of prescriptions filled via mail-order. Even more shocking is to view the state-by-state statistics, particularly if you check out the southern states.
Granted, most of these represent monthly refills so it might mean a person is taking two or three medications year-round, rather than 28.6 different medications. I would hope so. But even three chemicals assaulting your body on a daily basis is three chemicals too many, in my opinion. The problem is that the majority of these drugs only treat the symptoms and do nothing to address the underlying biological cause of disease and often create more problems than they solve. They can create a lifelong dependency and often require regular visits to the doctor for blood work and other tests, thus further lining the pockets of the medical establishment.
My problem with herbal remedies and other supplements is somewhat different. For one thing, the industry is unregulated and I just don't trust that what you're getting in a lot of cases is really what the label states you are getting. Now, I have great faith in herbal remedies, but if I'm going to take one, I'll take the straight herbs or I'll make the remedy myself. I guess I'm just not a very trusting person. A little gelatin capsule filled with unidentifiable powder has no appeal to me.
For another, holding the belief that popping pills of any sort leads to health probably leads me farther away from true health. To be healthy we need to dispel the notion that there is quick fix, a cheater's way to achieve well-being. It's the attitude that's the problem here. Health is as much mental as it is physical.
My approach to health involves eating my medicine, preventatively. My diet is my medicine. Each year I work to create better and better medicine for myself. When I read a few years ago that the Bushmen of the Kalahari regularly ate from 85 different plants while enjoying good health and relatively little disease, I began trying to incorporate a greater variety of foods into my diet.
My goal was to eat from at least thirty different types of plants per month and over the course of the year incorporate at least 85 different types of plants. I tried this for a few months and failed miserably. I think the best I did was about 22 plants. This was a few years ago. Now that I'm growing a garden again, I should start charting my diet again. I have over thirty types of things planted out there, so I should easily be able to reach thirty plants per month while the garden is in full swing at least. I don't know about the 85 plants per year, but it's something to aim for and when you include herbs, beans, nuts, seeds, and grains as well as fruits and vegetables how hard could it be?
My biggest gripe, naturally, is with pharmaceuticals. The body wasn't designed to be assaulted with straight chemicals. It has an elegant system already in place to extract just what it needs from food, air, water and sunlight. Dump straight chemicals into that system and the whole thing gets thrown off-kilter. Dump multiple chemicals in there and you get bizarre interactions nobody could possibly anticipate.
According to statehealthfacts.org, run by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2007 the average American between the ages of 19 and 64 had 11.2 prescriptions filled. Children from birth through age 18 averaged 3.9 prescriptions and seniors aged 65 and older averaged a staggering 28.6 prescriptions. And those numbers slightly underestimate the facts because the data excludes the 6.9% of prescriptions filled via mail-order. Even more shocking is to view the state-by-state statistics, particularly if you check out the southern states.
Granted, most of these represent monthly refills so it might mean a person is taking two or three medications year-round, rather than 28.6 different medications. I would hope so. But even three chemicals assaulting your body on a daily basis is three chemicals too many, in my opinion. The problem is that the majority of these drugs only treat the symptoms and do nothing to address the underlying biological cause of disease and often create more problems than they solve. They can create a lifelong dependency and often require regular visits to the doctor for blood work and other tests, thus further lining the pockets of the medical establishment.
My problem with herbal remedies and other supplements is somewhat different. For one thing, the industry is unregulated and I just don't trust that what you're getting in a lot of cases is really what the label states you are getting. Now, I have great faith in herbal remedies, but if I'm going to take one, I'll take the straight herbs or I'll make the remedy myself. I guess I'm just not a very trusting person. A little gelatin capsule filled with unidentifiable powder has no appeal to me.
For another, holding the belief that popping pills of any sort leads to health probably leads me farther away from true health. To be healthy we need to dispel the notion that there is quick fix, a cheater's way to achieve well-being. It's the attitude that's the problem here. Health is as much mental as it is physical.
My approach to health involves eating my medicine, preventatively. My diet is my medicine. Each year I work to create better and better medicine for myself. When I read a few years ago that the Bushmen of the Kalahari regularly ate from 85 different plants while enjoying good health and relatively little disease, I began trying to incorporate a greater variety of foods into my diet.
My goal was to eat from at least thirty different types of plants per month and over the course of the year incorporate at least 85 different types of plants. I tried this for a few months and failed miserably. I think the best I did was about 22 plants. This was a few years ago. Now that I'm growing a garden again, I should start charting my diet again. I have over thirty types of things planted out there, so I should easily be able to reach thirty plants per month while the garden is in full swing at least. I don't know about the 85 plants per year, but it's something to aim for and when you include herbs, beans, nuts, seeds, and grains as well as fruits and vegetables how hard could it be?
Monday, June 8, 2009
Call Before You Dig...Your Garden. Seriously.
I learned that the hard way this weekend. Definitely call before you dig anything--not just footers and trenches and post holes--anything. If your little kid is going to be out in the dirt with his Tonka trucks, call and have them locate the buried lines first. I'm serious.
Here in Colorado, the Public Utility Commission only requires the phone company to bury their lines 6-12 inches. That's gardening depth, that's kids-playing-in-the-dirt depth, that's a depth people (like me) might not even consider real digging. But, take my word, any digging is digging. Planting a tiny sapling is digging. And rototilling is digging too--my next door neighbor cut through his phone line with a tiller.
So there's my public service announcement for today. Call before you dig.
Here in Colorado, the Public Utility Commission only requires the phone company to bury their lines 6-12 inches. That's gardening depth, that's kids-playing-in-the-dirt depth, that's a depth people (like me) might not even consider real digging. But, take my word, any digging is digging. Planting a tiny sapling is digging. And rototilling is digging too--my next door neighbor cut through his phone line with a tiller.
So there's my public service announcement for today. Call before you dig.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Gardening Frenzy
I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided to expand the garden to 400 square feet this year. That's a lot of work for one woman to pull off. The three new beds went in where there had previously been lawn, so I had to remove 300 square feet of sod first before I could even get to the double-digging. I also had the brilliant idea that I should transplant the sod into some sketchy parts of the front lawn. Well, that lasted through the first bed when it became clear that the re-sodding part of the project was slowing down the more critical part of getting the garden dug. At that point all of the sod started going into the compost bin.
It hasn't helped that I do everything the hard way, but I'm committed to my methods. It's just been me, my shovel and my gardening fork. No sod cutter and no roto-tiller here.
Slowly, I'm making progress. The original bed is fully planted, and the first new bed is two-thirds planted (I'll finish it tonight when it cools off a little). The second bed is de-sodded and almost completely double-dug. I've got about four more feet to go. I should finish that tonight as well. The third bed is de-sodded and I've got compost and manure spread on top, ready to be incorporated when I dig it, hopefully tomorrow.
My friend John brought over an enormous load of aged manure last month, at least two cubic yards, maybe a bit more. Collin sifted it all for me with the sifter I finally got around to making this year, and he helped to spread it and the compost on the days he was here. It's great that he's old enough now to make a significant contribution. He tried out double-digging one day, but I think it will be another year or so before he can take over a good portion of that task. But next year it'll be much easier, since there won't be any new beds.
I'm still hardening off the tomatoes and peppers, so it's not that big of a deal that the beds aren't done yet. I won't have the earliest tomatoes in the neighborhood, but I should have oodles of them. I did unfortunately discover that the new beds contain a lot of cutworms (the original bed had none whatsoever), so hopefully I can defend all of my baby plants from them. I'm scrounging up all kinds of things to use as cutworm collars.
It's definitely a frantic time, but it feels so good to be out there every day, playing in the dirt, feeling the sun on my face, taking in the smells of springtime. Yesterday while I was digging a trio of vivid orioles landed in the nearest tree. What a treat! All of this has been work, but it's fun work and very rewarding.
It hasn't helped that I do everything the hard way, but I'm committed to my methods. It's just been me, my shovel and my gardening fork. No sod cutter and no roto-tiller here.
Slowly, I'm making progress. The original bed is fully planted, and the first new bed is two-thirds planted (I'll finish it tonight when it cools off a little). The second bed is de-sodded and almost completely double-dug. I've got about four more feet to go. I should finish that tonight as well. The third bed is de-sodded and I've got compost and manure spread on top, ready to be incorporated when I dig it, hopefully tomorrow.
My friend John brought over an enormous load of aged manure last month, at least two cubic yards, maybe a bit more. Collin sifted it all for me with the sifter I finally got around to making this year, and he helped to spread it and the compost on the days he was here. It's great that he's old enough now to make a significant contribution. He tried out double-digging one day, but I think it will be another year or so before he can take over a good portion of that task. But next year it'll be much easier, since there won't be any new beds.
I'm still hardening off the tomatoes and peppers, so it's not that big of a deal that the beds aren't done yet. I won't have the earliest tomatoes in the neighborhood, but I should have oodles of them. I did unfortunately discover that the new beds contain a lot of cutworms (the original bed had none whatsoever), so hopefully I can defend all of my baby plants from them. I'm scrounging up all kinds of things to use as cutworm collars.
It's definitely a frantic time, but it feels so good to be out there every day, playing in the dirt, feeling the sun on my face, taking in the smells of springtime. Yesterday while I was digging a trio of vivid orioles landed in the nearest tree. What a treat! All of this has been work, but it's fun work and very rewarding.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Oat Graham Pancakes
I few years ago I started trying to incorporate graham flour into some of our baked goods. Graham flour of course is what gives graham crackers their distinctive texture and taste. What many people don't realize is that graham flour is a whole wheat flour and therefore much more nutritious than refined flour.
After some experimenting I found that many of our favorite recipes didn't adapt well to the switch to graham flour (even trading out only half of the refined flour). The change in texture and taste was far too dramatic to please our palates. However, in the process of experimenting, I did create one recipe where the graham flour worked very well--that was the following recipe for oat graham pancakes. Even my son who is not a big fan of oats--and certainly not a fan of anything whole-grain--likes these pancakes.
This recipe makes 8 pancakes, just right for my son and me. If you have more mouths to feed you'll want to scale it up.
Oat Graham Pancakes
1 egg
scant 3/4 cup milk OR 1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup plus 1/8 cup rolled oats
1-1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup whole-wheat graham flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
In a medium bowl, lightly beat the egg. Stir in the milk, oats, and brown sugar. Add the melted butter. In a small bowl, combine the graham flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir. If the batter is too thin, sprinkle in additional graham flour. Heat a griddle over medium heat, brush lightly with butter. Cook pancakes until bubbles begin to burst through to the top, flip and cook until bottom is golden. Serve with your favorite toppings.
Apple variation: to the dry ingredients add 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and a pinch each of ground allspice and cloves. To the final batter add 1 finely diced apple (or about 1/2 cup).
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