Tuesday, February 17, 2015

This Just In:
Eat Red Meat For A Healthy Heart!
Even The Feds Are Starting To Say So.

The US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee no longer deems natural cholesterol a "nutrient of concern".  Their report will be sent to HHS and the U.S. Dept of Ag.  New gov't dietary recommendations will eventually follow:


But this new attitude only applies to real food that contains natural cholesterol, such as meat, eggs, cheese, butter, stuff like that.

Processed foods with lots of ingredients, including cholesterol, are bad.
Stuff made of white flour and sugar is very bad.  Margarine is terrible.  Never eat it.
All bad cholesterol is still bad.

But Get This:
It Is OK To Eat BACON!
And BUTTER!
Even if you have high cholesterol!
And have a glass of wine, or a drink, or a mimosa if you feel like it.

I've been eating this way for over 10 years:
Red meat + eggs + cheese + butter + fish + poultry + lots of vegetables & fruits, + whole grains instead of white flour.
And I do have alcohol (I abstain from abstaining).

You would be amazed at how good all the veggie and whole grain stuff can taste, if you just allow some time get used to it.  I can barely stand to eat anything with white flour in it anymore.  (Except for an occasional Bacon Lardon Croissant at St Honore Bakery in Lake Oswego, OR... but who's going to tell?)

Humans have an almost infinite capacity to adapt.

While eating this way, I also eat about half the volume of food daily as I did when I was 20 or 30 yrs old.  Makes me feel better, and I don't bulk up as much.  (Way less feeling of acid reflux, too.)  So my wife Heidi and I almost always share 1 entree at restaurants.
But I do get my own salad and martini.
And I still feel good. Satisfied.

When we split a Prime Rib - I Eat All The Fat.
Because It's Not Harmful.  Seriously, It's Not Harmful.
(I know, no one will believe that one, but it is absolutely true.  Heidi still doesn't believe it, but she also doesn't like the fat taste the way I do.  So I eat it.)

However, I eat about as much in vegetables and/or fruit as I do in proteins at lunch and dinner.
It's a good rule of thumb.  I've grown to like extra veggies and no potato with an entree. 
For me, breakfast is usually coffee with half & half, plus a piece of whole grain toast, lots of butter, and peanut butter.  Or scrambled eggs with butter and cheese, and maybe some berries.

At home, all vegetables taste pretty good when sauteed for a few minutes in olive oil, garlic, butter, etc.  All of them.  Even Kale!  I got rid of a lot of pre-made gravies and sauces when I started eating this way, and I actually don't miss those.  Use the excess fat from your meat to add flavor to the veggies, if you like.  That's okay, too.

There are fast, easy and tasty ways to cook almost everything.
You can even nuke leafy veggies for 3 or 4 min, carrots, broccoli, beets, etc. for 6-8 min, then add butter, olive oil and salt.  Oven roasted brussels sprouts are amazingly good.  Even meats don't take as much time as we think on the stovetop.  For good recipes,  always, Google is your friend.

I feel so much better than I did when I ate so much processed stuff.
We can eat it when we're young, but as we age, we may need to adapt.

Fun Fact - Pork is good for us!  Not only Bacon, but Pork Belly, Lardon, Pork Chops, Pork Loin, Prosciutto and Ham.  All good!  (As long as no nitrites/chemicals are added.)
And for a better dish, you can cook pork medium rare.  It's true.
There have been Zero Deaths from Trichinosis in America in over 100 years.

Btw - I recently had a savory appetizer of Bacon Cheesecake at Swine Bar.
Cheese & Bacon, surrounded by greens.  It was great!
I am never going back to the way I ate before.  No possible way.

Fun Fact 2:  Getting fats and cholesterol only from real meat, butter, eggs, cheese, etc, contributes to reaching and maintaining a healthy weight, even if we make no other changes.  That alone helps us!

Real food is real good for us.
Processed foods are bad for our hearts, our weight, and everything else.

More News:  Salt is not harmful for high blood pressure.  I know, also hard to believe, but also true.  The original studies that suggested it was bad were not scientifically sound, but for decades docs and others have just said what they've always said about salt.  No one actually looked at the evidence.  They are just starting to now, including reporting this exact information in The Economist.

Use as much sea salt or kosher salt as you like, because it tastes better.  And besides, no one in this country is ever low on Iodine, and too much of it may be not so good for our thyroid.  Iodine was not part of our original, historical diet.  Meat and vegetables and fruits were part of it.

Cholesterol evidence began pointing this way several years ago, and it looks like it's finally come to the attention of the Feds.

If you cut way back on processed foods, you can eat as much salt as you want, and you'll still take in less total salt than before.  But there are other, much better reasons to cut down on processed stuff.

For instance, the content and type of fats, sugars and white flour in most processed foods combine to make us want to eat more, even when we are full.  The processed and fast food industry knows that their products make so many of us overeat, but they don't care.  All of these things (yes, even my sacred Doritos) actually do cause food addiction and constant overeating.  The companies that make them aren't helping us get any healthier, so we have to help ourselves.

(Don't get me started on pharmaceuticals, and that entire industry.)

And if you really want to be good to your body, and have a much easier time keeping your weight where you want it to be:
Stop Drinking Pop.
Sugared or Sugar Free, that stuff is all crap for us.
Soda screws up our appetite, inhibits mineral intake, and messes with our weight, in a bad way.

And anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup in it should be taxed about One Hundred Thousand Percent.  That's right:  100,000 %.  The stuff is worse than margarine, worse than a Hot Pocket.
So why is it legal, and in so many foods, you may ask?
Because huge corporations that make it have all kinds of expensive, high powered lobbyists.
And all the regular people like you and me have Zero Lobbyists.
That's why.

Stop taking in stuff that's really awful for your health, and you will be surprised at the benefits.

My theory has been:  Even if you still think these are bad in some way, it should be okay to eat at least some of the real stuff you like, for the pleasure, for the quality of life they provide.

No red meat, no butter, no salt, no martinis... that's not living, to me.

Moderate amounts of real food with real flavor - that's good for us.
Not just my crackpot opinion anymore - the science is on our side.
And - hard to believe - We Can Eat The Fat!

One more thing - when we turn 70 or so, we may start to shrink down and waste away like some older people do.  Then we should start eating twice as much as we think we want.  Older people often say food doesn't taste as good as it used to.  Without the pleasure, they eat less, until their strength and even muscle mass declines alarmingly.  So if that's you, eat more.  And if you make it to that age, heck, eat whatever you want!

----- Sorry for this really long post/food rant. -----

As you can tell, I have been thinking about this subject for a long time.

Eat real food.
Eat less food.
Enjoy life more.

This author is way ahead of her time:



What do you think?