WIAW #98: Wrapping Up NYC

I enjoyed last week's photo dump, so here's another photo-dump style WIAW to wrap up my time in NYC.

Premium vanilla bean ice cream with lots of fig jam and crushed walnuts is a delightful way to cool off in the summer heat.

Balanced with a spicy ratatouille (with eggplant, various colored peppers, mushrooms, sweet potato, and random other yumminess).

But when it's really too hot to cook, peanut butter (and soy nut butter, on the right) sandwiches are great.

Slapped together for less messy eating, but still with lots of nut butter - just the way that I like them.

A fruity smoothie can be refreshing.

I tend to love green smoothies, but sometimes the pretty pale colors of just-fruit-and-milk smoothies is a nice change.

These hideodorous green chocolate protein pancakes tasted really, really good - much better than they look (served on vanilla yogurt and baked fruit - I think apples, maybe pear?).

For a NYC splurge, I love Organic Avenue wraps.

They're made with whole food ingredients:

Making them as good for you as they are delicious!

Why, oh why, is there no Organic Avenue cafe/shop in Boston?

I would faint in happiness if they would open one there. I still prefer the Thai Collard Wrap (similar to their Veggie Tahini Wrap, but the sweetness of the mango and the creaminess of the almond butter makes it even better) to the Mushroom Wrap, but both are delicious.

The cauliflower salad is delicious, too, though it's not a meal-sized portion.

But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in flavor.

Sweet from the dates and refreshing from the mint it is, like their other culinary delights, a real treat!

These Maki Rolls from Juice Generation are really delicious, too. Juice Generation has fewer raw food offerings than Organic Avenue (or maybe just fewer in the store) but the pricing is similar and they're just as delicious - and it's all different entrees than Organic Avenue offers, so they complement one another well.

Their Acai Bowls are also beyond delicious, though I don't have a good photo at the moment. 

What's your favorite way to stay cool in the heat?

Can you believe tomorrow is August?

When does summer end for you?

Completing the trine: vive la différence!

First, the obligatory picture of Hannah Spearritt :-)

Women have a harder time losing weight than men. Women retain water more than men for hormonal reasons, but a factor that's overlooked is that, on average, healthy women have higher body-fat percentages than healthy men. This is because women have babies and men don't. Who knew? On the plus side, women produce more DHA than men.

Why should having higher body-fat percentages make a difference to weight loss? See What is the required energy deficit per unit weight loss? The energy deficit required to lose 1lb of body-weight increases with increasing body-fat percentage. It's rarely 3,500kcals per lb.

If you really love mathematics, see The Dynamics of Human Body Weight Change.

From the above paper:- ΔU = ΔQ - ΔW

where ΔU is the change in stored energy in the body, ΔQ is a change in energy input or intake, and ΔW is a change in energy output or expenditure. This is the Energy Balance Equation. As I said back in Back to black, CIAB, pharmaceutical drug deficiencies & nerds.

Where body weight is concerned, calories count (but don't bother trying to count them).
Where body composition is concerned, partitioning counts.
Where health is concerned, macronutrient ratios, EFAs, minerals, vitamins & lifestyles count.

N.B. Poor health can adversely affect body weight and/or body composition, by increasing appetite and/or by adversely affecting partitioning.

July 30th

What I ate today:

Morning: Water

Breakfast:  A smoothie I made with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and hemp milk! Yum!

Lunch:  Another smoothie I made with the Vitamix with strawberries, blueberries, water, almond butter and pecan butter!

Afternoon Snack: One Chocolate Mini Bar with 1 tablespoon of almond butter.

Another afternoon Snack: A handful of cashews and a Mangosteen drink.

Dinner: A curry I made with chickpeas, oats (to thicken the curry), and a lot of spices including turmeric and cayenne pepper, and cilantro with organic chicken.  This is a new recipe I just made and will share it on the website soon!

Dessert: One Chocolate Mini Bar

Nutrients I got today: Protein, magnesium, Vitamin C, Omega 3’s and Iron!

Exercise: 90 minutes of yoga and walked 34 blocks in NYC in the beautiful sunshine!

Affirmation: I am giving up that something is wrong.

Grateful for:  Summer!!!

Love Liana!

Chat with me online www.facebook.com/lianawernergray

For the recipes above go to: http://www.theearthdiet.org/recipes.html

Chow on chow, Parkinson's Law, two ways of doing something, and love.

Another mixed bag of subjects. First, here is Mr Carson C. Chow.

From A Mathematical Challenge to Obesity

According to Mr. Chow, Americans are getting increasingly fat because they're eating increasingly large amounts of "chow", because there's increasingly large amounts of it being produced. That's classic Parkinson's law (consumption expands to absorb the available supply).

According to Armi Legge, over-fat people need to . . . . Eat Less (& Move More).

There are two ways to "Eat Less".

1) Measure everything that goes into your mouth, calculate the calories in it and stick to an average daily calorie limit. Weigh yourself daily and adjust your intake to achieve a certain rate of rolling-averaged weight loss i.e. you consciously create a caloric deficit.

2) Tweak your diet until you find one that you can live with, that results in your belt and/or clothes getting looser i.e. you unconsciously create a caloric deficit. If you can't unconsciously create a caloric deficit, there will have to be some conscious restriction.

1) suits athletes & body-builders, as they are highly-motivated people who have a specific target in mind, whether it be athletic performance or a specific body-fat percentage/muscle mass/appearance.

2) suits the general public, as they aren't generally highly-motivated and won't tolerate hunger pangs.

Unfortunately, "Move More" has to be done consciously. Unconscious "Move More" i.e. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) a.k.a. Spontaneous Physical Activity (SPA) is genetically-determined.

Finally, I read Stretching out. I've been spending too much time on a blog full of fallacies & hate and it's been making me tetchy. I've now disengaged from that blog permanently. Breathe in. Breathe out. That's better!

Continued on Completing the trine: vive la différence!

MyOatmeal.com: PB Lean Review!

I reviewed two MyOatmeal.com blends last week and really enjoyed their customizable healthy oatmeal!

They also offer PB Lean, however, a peanut flour mix that you can also get as an add-in in your oatmeal mixes.

Healthy fat is really important, but if you've already had half a jar of peanut butter that day (shhhhhhh) and still want some more, your stomach might prefer a lighter alternative. Alternately, if you're flying and want peanut butter flavor on the plane (but TSA is cramping your style with its ban on liquids and creams) you can take some PB Lean along in a little jar, add some water, and it's a tasty sub.

I personally love it as a mix-in for smoothies or to use in cooking or baking. You can replace a little of the flour in the recipe with PB Lean for peanut flavor and a protein boost.

It's a light gold color and, in my opinion, looks and tastes more like actual peanut butter than most peanut flours out there. 

The texture is still, of course, different from regular peanut butter. Since some of the fat is removed and you're reconstituting the ground peanuts with water or milk, it won't have that same creamilicious mouthfeel or be as thick and sticky and satisfying. 

As long as you don't expect a direct 1:1 substitute (but why would you? Then eat peanut butter, fat isn't evil, it's necessary!) it's really enjoyable.

How do you use peanut flour?

What are your favorite healthy fats?

Do you add peanut butter or peanut flour to your smoothies?

Gluten-Free Peach Cobbler

Warm from the oven. My gluten-free peach cobbler recipe.

Is Mercury in retrograde? And if so, Darling, do I believe it can wreak havoc with recipes? I started out with a different approach to this peach cobbler recipe, you see. I thought I'd try out the new Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Bisquick mix I bought this week. I imagined a golden topped biscuity crust you could sink your teeth into, a melt-in-your-mouth forkful of shortcake, dripping with warm and sticky-sweet juice.

But what I got was a bone white mound of anemic dough (scarily reminiscent of Play Dough) baked into what can only be described as yesterday's mashed potatoes. It didn't even try to turn golden. And it didn't melt in your mouth like a biscuit. It just sat there on your tongue. Flavorless. Bored. Expecting to be admired without effort. Like those fame junkies who are famous for simply being famous. They haven't actually accomplished anything to garner their celebrity status. They just nurture a deeper narcissistic ambition than your average high school beauty queen. They expect adulation because they exist.

Like an awful lot of the gluten-free foods churned out by corporate entities.

They expect we'll fall to our knees with gratitude just because it sports two little words on its label. As if the virtue of being gluten-free is enough. Enough to get us to shell out almost seven hard earned dollars for two and a half cups of cheap refined starch and the privilege of convenience.

And don't get me wrong. I get the allure. I do.

I mean, you're standing there in the supermarket. It's late. You're hungry. And it's right there in front of you. Right next to the 40 acres of shiny wheat laden stuff you can't have. Ever. And those magic words: Gluten-Free! They sparkle. Someone up there in the land of corporate giants has heard of us! They validate you and your odd little disease.

We exist!

And hence, we may consume.

They are recognizing us now, Sweetpea, because we constitute a billion dollar windfall. The food industry has awakened to the perky reality TV version of celiac disease. And sure, I know. The argument is, It's all good. Any awareness is positive (even though the gluten-free diet may be in danger of losing street cred because of its faddish status with actresses who subscribe to its hyped promise of weight loss).

Can the drive for GF profit lead to better eating, though?

I'm not so sure. If the tepid taste of Betty Crocker's Bisquick is any indication, we have not come a long way, baby. Big companies use the cheapest ingredients they can to conjure stuff for the growing gluten-free demand. That means there's an awful lot of "old school gluten-free" going on (based on Bette Hagman's twenty-year old white rice flour and starch blend, perhaps?). G-free mixes and packaged foods use predominately refined white rice flour and inexpensive starches. A glut of empty calories.

Like @AutumnMakes tweeted yesterday, "...funny how it seems the big corps are years behind the everyday gluten-free bakers..."

Indeed. We humble home cooks have discovered the soft, lovely crumb of sorghum and almond flour. Gluten-free cornmeal and buckwheat. Our baking isn't dull or crumbly, dry, or without pizazz. Our flour choices reflect a preference for taste, texture and higher nutrition. And I think we're smarter than the average consumer.

So for now I'm going to continue to eschew the walk down the center food aisles (as Michael Pollan advises). I'll focus on my own gluten-free flour blends and eating whole foods daily.

And in a pinch, when some wild craving hits and I'm too tired to deal with three separate flour bags, I'll use a GF pancake mix (both small family companies who have been in our celiac corner from the beginning).

And I'll create my own cobbler topping, thank you.



Read more + get the recipe >>

July 29th

What I ate today:

Morning: Green tea with yerba mate

Breakfast: I made Chocolate Balls on the TV show Better Connecticut. Here is the “full length TV show”.  Click here to watch me making chocolates on TV!! J

Lunch: Green juice with parsley, cucumber, celery, spinach, extremely green!! And a berry smoothie with rice milk, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries – Mmm delicious and simple! Also part of lunch was a vegan sweet potato enchilada and a vegan-gluten free chocolate cake at:  It’s Only Natural Market.

Afternoon snack: A delicious organic nectarine

Dinner: The Earth Diet Mac n’ Cheese!

Dessert: One Chocolate Mini Bar

Nutrients I got today: Lots of vitamins and minerals from the green juice, protein, magnesium and zinc!

Exercise: Walking in Central Park

Affirmation: I have a warm and happy heart!

Grateful for:  A warm and happy heart!

Love Liana!

Chat with me online www.facebook.com/lianawernergray

For the recipes above go to: http://www.theearthdiet.org/recipes.html

Doctor says there is no evidence that statins are safe

This paper was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal May 6: 2008

Study title and author:
Statins - Safe?
Dr Herbert H. Nehrlich

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.cmaj.ca/content/178/5/576.abstract/reply#content-block

Dr Nehrlich, a doctor from Australia, discusses the effects of statin drugs.

(i) Statins reduce the body's production of mevalonate through the suppression of a liver enzyme called hydroxymethylglutaryl (HMG) coenzyme A reductase.
(ii) This enzyme is crucial in enabling the body to synthesize such substances as cholesterol, Co-enzyme Q-10 etc., substances that are essential for every living cell.
(iii) So, if you reduce the supply of mevalonate, the liver can no longer keep up production of sufficient cholesterol and has to slow the shipping of cholesterol from the depot (liver) to the various areas in need of it via the bloodstream. Hence, blood cholesterol will be lower in lab tests.
(iv) Mevalonate is not just important in this respect but is heavily involved in muscle metabolism as well as in the production of thromboxane. Thromboxane, of course, is the agent responsible for the important stage in healing called clotting and originates in the platelets of our blood.
(v) Mitochondria are energy factories that MUST have coenzyme Q- 10, the very substance that is in short supply when people undergo statin treatment.
(vi) The dismal success record of statin treatment, combined with their sometimes atrocious side effects (identified and hidden) makes the prescription of statins in humans an assault with unknown and likely dire consequences.
(vii) People tend to die with low cholesterol blood levels.
(viii) May I ask for the studies that have shown that lowering cholesterol is reasonable and thus good practice? Statins are safe? Let us look at the PROSPER Trial and the all cause mortality. It is not improved by statins.
(ix) I prefer to see cholesterol as an extremely vital substance, essential for good health and indispensable when it comes to repair and maintenance of the body.
(x) Statins are now Big Pharma's golden goose and the price of gold is rising.
(xi) If we think of rhabdomyolysis, of transient global amnesia and of the propensity of statins to initiate cancer in many animals, if we consider the truly dismal success of statin treatment then we can skip looking at the plausibility of using these drugs altogether.
(xii) Statins are mayhem to Coenzyme Q-10 and it follows that statins may thus weaken the heart. They may cause cancer in humans.

Dr Nehrlich concludes: "There is no evidence that statins are safe".

July 28th

What I ate today:

Morning: Water

Breakfast: One Chocolate Mini Bar and the the Earth Diet Breakfast Cereal

Lunch: I went to Whole Foods and had chickpea curry with rice.

Snack: One Chocolate Mini Bar

Afternoon Snack:Phresh Greens drink and a lime water

Dinner: Mac n’ Cheese and the Earth Diet Superfood Kale Salad

Dessert: Chocolate Cashew Ice Cream with pecan butter, blueberries and raspberries

Nutrients I got today: Protein & magnesium.  The Phresh Greens alkalized my body.

Exercise: Walking in Central Park

Affirmation: I replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts!!!

Grateful for:  People on the planet who want to be healthy! J

Love Liana!

Chat with me online www.facebook.com/lianawernergray

For the recipes above go to: http://www.theearthdiet.org/recipes.html

Brown Fat: It's a Big Deal

Non-shivering thermogenesis is the process by which the body generates extra heat without shivering.  Shivering is a way for the body to use muscular contractions to generate heat, but non-shivering thermogenesis uses a completely different mechanism to accomplish the same goal: a specialized fat-burning tissue called brown fat.  Brown fat is brown rather than white because it's packed with mitochondria, the power plants of the cell.  Under cold conditions, these mitochondria are activated, using a specialized molecular mechanism called uncoupling* to generate heat.

The mechanism of brown fat activation has been worked out fairly well in rodents, which rely heavily on non-shivering thermogenesis due to their small body size.  Specialized areas of the hypothalamus in the brain sense body temperature (through sensors in the brain and body), body energy status (by measuring leptin and satiety signals), stress level, and probably other factors, and integrate this information to set brown fat activity.  The hypothalamus does this by acting through the sympathetic nervous system, which heavily innervates brown fat.  As an aside, this process works basically the same in humans, as far as we currently know.  Those who claim that rodent models are irrelevant to humans are completely full of hot air**, as the high degree of conservation of the hypothalamus over 75 million years of evolution demonstrates.

Two new studies concurrently published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation last week demonstrate what I've suspected for a long time: brown fat can be 'trained' by cold exposure to be more active, and its activation by cold can reduce body fatness.

Read more »

My dining experience at a concert with Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant!

Turns out there are becoming more and more healthy alternatives! Everywhere!!! Even at a Rock concert...

We decided to go see Robert Plant the singer of Led Zeppelin, with the Sensational Space Shifters! 

Photo by Bric Arts Media - www.bricartsmedia.org

I prepared with wearing my watermelon bag and packing a chocolate mini bar made by Noah! 
Chocolate gives me great energy, especially if I am dancing at a concert!  

www.noahsrocknrawchocolates.com 

You decide if it is the best chocolate in the world! 

We walked through Prospect Park to get to the concert. The scenery was divine, and it reminded me of Central Park! We walked via the Brooklyn Library which was stunning and will stock the Earth Diet book at the end of 2014 or early 2015!

Photo from ProspectPark.org

Brooklyn Public Library

When we got there, we found a nice spot to sit on top of the hill. Some people had their shoes off and were really connecting with the earth and music! My sister was hungry so she went to get food while I enjoyed the band starting. I assumed the food would be typical concert fried and processed food. I was pleasantly surprised when Nadine came back with a bowl full of broccoli sprinkled with chilli spice and a bowl full of beans with goat cheese (I am personally not a fan of goat cheese so did not eat this, and french fries - which can be natural if not cooked in GMO oil and made with GMO potatoes! They also offered a bowl of rice and vegetables, fruit salad and kale salad! How great to have these options at a rock concert! Unfortunately the ketchup was the generic conventional kind with corn syrup - yuk - and I prefer not to eat that even though I do love tomato sauce with fries. I am looking forward to the day when no companies use corn syrup ;) The fries were also cooked in Canola Oil which is a bummer since it is genetically modified and totally toxic for the body - it takes A LOT of energy from the body to digest fries cooked in cheap vegetable oil. But I understand the reason for cooking fries in cheaper oil - so the price can be cheaper and so people will buy it. If the fries were cooked in Extra Virgin Coconut Oil - or 2nd best Extra Virgin Olive Oil the price may be double. 

Our concert dinner! Much healthier than expected!

There was also another food stand that offered Gluten Free and Vegan options like potato chips and ice pops! I got excited about the ice pops, until they told me they are made with white sugar! No thanks! As if orange juice is not sweet enough, why add sugar? Junk food really is just not cool anymore. 

There was also a tent of Runa samples! Runa is a newish brand on the market - a cleaner source of energy tea! They do use natural ingredients, and some are unsweetened and some are sweetened with cane sugar. It would be cleaner without the cane sugar... cane sugar juice would be more in it's natural state. But these Runa drinks are certainly much better for our bodies than soda and energy drinks loaded with chemicals! Runa also have 'natural flavors' on the bottle which I am slightly suss about until I know exactly what natural flavors are used. I do not use any natural flavors in the food I make for myself. It is good to know what we are consuming!

www.runa.org

Aside from the food, the atmosphere was awesome and the music was phenomenal! 

Everyone was having a great time! 

Love Liana, 

chat with me at www.facebook.com/lianawernergray