The Daily Masticator

The 'Freshman 15'? No, I've got the San Antonio 20.

2012-01-30T12:44:00.000-08:00

I left Seattle more than 2 years ago feeling the healthiest and fittest that I've felt in my adult life. I had had two years straight of eating mostly farm-fresh organic food, small amounts of high-quality meat and dairy, daily home fermented veggies, was doing regular physical activity, and was armed with all the whole foods nutrition knowledge that could possibly fit in my head. Nothing could get in my way.

Well, except for San Antonio.

Now, I'm not saying that San Antonio causes people to gain weight, but it does provide a very good example of how environmental factors contribute to weight gain in our society. Our weight is determined by several factors, including lifestyle (I do pretty good here, plenty of veggies, very little screen time), genetics (again, I'm pretty fortunate here), and physical environment.

According to the Men's Health "America's 10 Fattest (and Leanest) Cities" for 2010, San Antonio's grade was an 'F', as the 7th fattest city, while Seattle was graded with an 'A', as the 97th fattest city (or rather, the 4th leanest city).

My personal observations from living in each of these cities lead me to agree wholeheartedly with these city grades. In Seattle I could find a bike path to any destination I could ever dream up vs. in San Antonio, I'm lucky to find a sidewalk. In Seattle there was a natural foods market in every neighborhood vs. in San Antonio the natural food superstores are located only in one area of town - the most affluent area and there are no small, independently owned natural foods markets that I have found yet in any part of town.

I guess the point is, while it is not San Antonio's fault that I am gaining weight and feeling unfit, the environment here makes it so that I must work much harder to seek out wholesome foods and find ways to move my body.

Disrupted Cycles

2012-01-23T13:21:00.000-08:00

Our world is made up of cycles, some longer like the cycle of the seasons, and some shorter like the change from daylight to darkness to daylight once again.

These cycles along with geography served our ancestors well, by providing them with adequate food and nutrition throughout the year to live without the chronic diseases that plague us in the current era.

How inconvenient these cycles must have been, as it seems our modern society is always trying to find ways to make time stop in the most favorable (profitable?) step in any cycle.

Ways we disrupt the natural plant and animal cycles that become our food:

* Disrupting seasonality by extending growing seasons of fruits and vegetables with artificial lighting to accommodate the "any food at any time" expectation in the grocery store

* Disrupting fertility with artificial lighting in chicken coops to promote highest yield of eggs per day from the flock

* Disrupting growth cycles by feeding grain to our cattle who's rumens are designed to eat grass to fatten them up faster and faster than their grazing ancestors

* Disrupting aging cycles with pasteurization, irradiation, and use of preservatives that destroys our food's natural microbiology and ability to age gracefully

Nutrition "facts" that perpetuate the idea that the disruption of natural cycles is ok:

* The idea that there is an optimal range of macronutrient (carbohydrate, protein, fat) distribution, when this is blatantly ethnocentric as macronutrient distributions vary greatly with what was available to traditional peoples based on their geographic location and seasonality

* The idea that there is an optimal "recommended daily intake" of micronutrients, when this notion is blatantly incompatible with eating a traditional diet based on the seasonal availability of foods

* The idea that in order for food to be safe, it must be devoid of microbiology

* The idea that bigger, faster, and cheaper is desirable when it comes to our food

Disrupting the natural cycles that connect us with the turning of the earth creates imbalance and disease in our food systems. Is it really such a shock that our modern diseases are that of hormonal and metabolic imbalances? Perhaps it is our bodies mirroring the world around us...

And then perhaps the key to health is not focusing so much on what will cure us from the inside out, but rather what will restore the natural cycles in our surroundings to support our health from the outside in.

How Texas Won My Residency - A Goat Story

2011-10-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Me & my bro sometime in the 80s.

It is impossible to remember when I started liking goats, but a thorough photo search this morning found my earliest goat photo at about age 6 or so... I don't remember if this is the same goat encounter in which I was subsequently head butted by a goat, resulting in several shed tears. But none the less, here I am, more than 20 years later: the proud care taker of three beautiful pygmy goats!

It had been well ingrained in me by my parents that if you put your intentions out into the universe, your needs will be met at the appropriate time. My love for goats has been strong these last few years, and as anyone who knows me can tell you, I let anyone who would listen know that it was my goal to be a goat mamma.

That was a fact. What was undetermined was the when, and the where. I had been sitting on the fence between Texas and Alaska this summer, ready to plunge over into one state or the other. My physical body was in Texas, but of course my heart and drivers license registration was all Alaska.

Then I found them. On Craigslist, of all places.

Mamma Bluebell, Liberty (on left), and Justice.

I got the email from Whiskey Creek Ranch the end of July, "two kids just born, girls, you still interested?" The next week was a blur with erecting the goat shed and pen; probably the most beautiful goat pen you've ever seen!!

The goats, two baby girls and their mamma, came home with us one weekend early August, and the next several days were spent staring at them in wonderment.

Check. Mark that dream off my list. Goal = obtained.

The next week or two I endured the DMV line to get my Texas driver's license and I registered to vote. My parents were less than thrilled about my final decision to root in Texas for now, but the trauma was blunted by their satisfaction that my vote could help in the state of Texas make some better decisions.

I hope the goats are happy here. I enjoy our time together; the babies prance about and play 'queen of the rock pile' with each other. Mamma likes her food but keeps her distance from me. It is relaxing to sit in the pen and just watch. Occasionally the girls will come up to me for some sniffs and some scratches.

The girls nibblin' on alfalfa.

"Goats will eat anything." Lie. Whoever said that hasn't met my goats.

It is now October and the ranch recently experienced a chicken death by an unknown predator. The drought has been hard on the wild animals and word is that they are moving in closer to people to find their grub. The new hurdle is finding a guard animal to watch after the goats 24/7. Although, I suspect mamma goat would be a fierce opponent against wild animals if provoked...

Next year's goal will be to breed the young ones, bottle feed the kids, and set up a milking routine so that I may experiment with cheese making!! Will start putting my intentions in that direction...

Texas, you won this round.

Food Safety: what every masticator should consider

2011-10-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Foodborne illness reports seem rampant in the news as of late. And it seems the burden of food safety is repeatedly passed onto the federal government to monitor and impose rules and regulations to keep us safe rather than working to empower individuals to make more local, healthier food choices.

Listeria on cantaloupes is the recent publicized outbreak that has killed more than a dozen and sickened many more. Always our most vulnerable population carry the brunt of foodborne illness morbidity and mortality, as their natural immune system is not able to attack the ingested pathogens.

So what is the problem? And more importantly, what is the answer?

If you side with the federal and local governments, the problem is not enough regulations and oversight and the answer is business as usual and increase regulations on farms large and small for decreasing risk of food borne illness via sanitation and oversight measures.

If you side with food and small farm advocates, the problem is that our food is coming from a ever-shrinking pool of corporations that own a ever-expanding percent of the food market and the answer is to buy local and support small farms.

(Another thought is that we, as a population, are becoming more susceptible to foodborne illness due to the increase in diabetes and other diet related illnesses that suppress the immune system.)

Like all problems, there is no one answer. The answer likely lies somewhere in between. It may be unrealistic to expect the dismantling of large agri-businesses and to change the culture to value food produced locally from small farms in the near future.

However, it will be detrimental to our future if we do not work our rear ends off to try to make a shift to making our food system a more local model for the safety and health of our nation long-term. In the mean time, increasing regulations for the large corporate food producers will likely be important, but all new laws and regulations must take into consideration the differences between small scale farms and large corporations and adjust the regulations accordingly so small farms are not further disadvantaged.

I would like to propose the following ideas for consideration:

1. Any item we put into our mouth has the potential to make us ill

** Therefore, any food we consume has the potential to make us ill

2. Small farms produce small quantities of food and ship to a smaller radius of consumers whereas large corporations produce large quantities of food and ship to a larger radius of consumers

** Therefore, less people are sickened by a outbreak caused on a small farm than a large corporate producer and most likely the outbreak source will be identified much sooner with a small farm than a large corporate production

3. Small farms are often run by the owner and his/her family who do the majority of the labor whereas a large corporate producer is more likely to pay low wage laborers to do the work of harvesting and producing

** Therefore, small farm labor tends to have much more stake and pride in the safe and clean production of their food

4. Germs are not bad; in fact, each of us carry around 3-5 pounds of bacteria in our body at any time - I would be accurate in saying that we rely on bacteria for life

** Therefore, destroying all bacteria is not the answer; rather building up our gut flora and immunity is key to preventing food borne-illness; this is best done by eating whole foods and regular physical activity for all around preventative health benefits

Every day we make the choices of what we put into our bodies. Buying at the grocery market vs. buying food at a local farmers market not only affects your risk for foodborne illness and all around health, it also impacts the future that we wish to create for generations to come.

Imposing more and more food safety regulations may make you feel safer, but it is not a long term solution. The fact is, any food may make us ill. And regulating choice away from us, like what is being attempting with further regulations disconnecting consumers to raw milk, is not a sustainable choice.

** People with certain diseases, are of older age, or have conditions associated decreased immunity DO need to take extra precautions against food-borne illness

The fruit of my summer

2011-06-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

The Texas heat has hit. One hundred degrees will be the norm here for the next 4 months with no rain in sight after an extremely dry winter and spring. This Alaskan girl has somehow acclimated to this strange climate, with the help of fruit.

Fruit growing from trees outside the front door is a thing of dreams up North; but here the plums, nectarines, peaches, tomatoes, and peppers grow with ease despite the dry, harsh climate. (With some help from the hose of course.)

I feel positively spoiled, with this bounty of fresh fruit ripening outside my window. I know that this will be a hard thing to leave behind when I return home. Perhaps I am merely craving what is locally available because this is my geographic location at this time, but at this moment it is hard to image a life without avocados and tomatoes.

Two weeks ago the plums ripened. Small, deeply purple plums warmed by the sun and delicately sweet on the tongue. The crop (one little tree's worth) was hardly enough to warrant a load of canned plums, so I enjoyed most of them fresh, two or three with every lunch for a week, then made a bit of meat-plum sauce to freeze and enjoy as needed.

Lamb is my most favorite meat right now, and why not some savory yet sweet plum sauce to accent the gamey flavors of the lamb! Only five ingredients and it was divine.

Lamb with Savory Plum Sauce

Serves 2

2 lamb chops

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup ripe plums, chopped

2-4 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup pinot noir or other red wine

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pat the lamb dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a cast iron pan (or other oven safe pan) over medium-high heat. Add the lamb and sear, turning about a minute per side, until browned on all sides. Transfer skillet to oven and heat until cooked to desired doneness, approximately 8-10 minutes.

While the lamb is in the oven, prepare the sauce. In a saucepan, add the plums and sugar and heat over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add the wine and increase the heat, bring to a simmer. Add more wine if desired. When you pull the lamb from the oven, transfer the lamb to a plate and allow to rest for ~5 minutes. Pour all the pan juices into the plum sauce and simmer for another two minutes. Continue to simmer until desired consistency, remembering that it will thicken as it cools.

Serve the plum sauce over the lamb, with some pooled at the side for color and dipping.

To lighten up this dish, serve it with a garden fresh salad; seen here with a Cucumber-Tomato Salad with a Mint-Yogurt Dressing. Also served with a Smokey-Cheesy Polenta.

My Avgolemono - a story of a once in a life time soup.

2011-03-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

I love cooking; I love that what I create will never again be re-created, no matter how hard I may try. Cooking is fluid, with a life of it's own. Every ingredient perfect for the moment based on seasonality, geographic location, and dumb luck that it was in my fridge when I opened the door.

Today, while reading through my newly aquired cookbook, A Bird in the Oven, and Then Some by Mindy Fox, I came by a recipe for Avglomeno, a soup I have wanted to make for some time. And one of those dumb luck moments struck - I had all the ingredients sitting in wait for me in the kitchen and a fresh batch of chicken broth simmering away on the stove.

Avglomeno soup is a classic greek soup which literally translates to "egg-lemon" soup. It was a soup that was served at a restaurant I worked at for some time. It is a soothing soup that warms the soul, like chicken noodle soup. For some reason I had been intimidated by the recipe in the past, despite it's simple ingredient list.

Today I was not intimidated. I knew that today's soup would be like no other Avglomeno soup ever made before, as the chicken stock simmering away was made out of carcasses that had cooked in the smoker for 5 hours yesterday. The smokey aroma had been filling the house for the last several hours and I knew this was just the recipe to showcase it's unique flavor.

The soup came out beautifully. It's silky texture and soft lemon notes were just as I remembered, plus the hauntingly sensuous hint of smoke that permeated each spoonful.

Back to the name of my blog post. A thought occurred to me while I was mixed the broth with the egg-lemon mixture, I realized that this soup will be enjoyed today and maybe tomorrow, but never again will I have a soup just like it again.

And this is what I love about cooking.

A homemade broth is never two times the same. It varies with the flavor of the bird, whatever vegetables are added to the broth, how long it is cooked, and what it is added to.

For some reason lost to me, the larger society seems to enjoy consistency. The idea that you can go to eat at anywhere in America and beyond and know that what you are getting will look, taste, and feel exactly like it did every time you've had it since you began ordering it many years ago.

We are often upset when we go to our favorite restaurant and it doesn't taste "the way it did the last time" we got it. We love cake mixes and boxed meals because they always turn out tasting exactly the way we thought they would. We are annoyed when we can't recreate Aunt Bettsy's cassorole like the way we remember it, despite meticulously following the recipe.

Before chain restaurants, before box cake mixes, and before the majority of us moved into cities and severed our close connection to growing food and butching our own animals, no two times making a recipe would be the same. Each meal could be enjoyed once (or as long as the leftovers lasted) and then new meals would be created from the ever changing supply of food available to the families.

This is what I desire, to make a truly delicious and nutritious dish and fully enjoying it, knowing that this dish defines this exact moment, and to cherish it and let it nurture myself in that fleeting moment. I desire to accept that every moment is special and that the next moment will be different, and wonderful in it's uniqueness and impermanence.

Avglemono Soup

Adapted from recipe by Mindy Fox

6 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup rice (short-grain prefered)

3 eggs

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

Fresh ground pepper

Fresh ground salt

Handfull of shredded chicken, fully cooked

Bring the chicken broth to a simmer and add the rice. While rice is cooking, beat the eggs in a medium sized bowl. Whisk in the lemon juice a little bit at a time (I used a fork and that worked just fine). Next wisk in 1 cup of broth into the egg-lemon mixture, slowly adding a dribble at a time to avoid clumping of the egg. When the rice is tender, remove the pot from the heat and add the egg-lemon-broth mixture, whisking the whole time. Add pepper and salt to taste. Add the shredded chicken. Ladel soup into your favorite bowls and enjoy slowly, loving every moment.

Baby Chickens!

2011-02-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

Bertha, my black and white chicken, was killed a couple months ago by an unidentified creature of the night leaving me with one lonely orange chicken. What plays over and over in my mind is the woman with a backyard full of chickens talking to a group of a chicken meet-up group (myself included) telling us that she only sells her chickens in threes, because if one dies, they still have a buddy to go through life with.

Not wanting my chicken to be lonely and definitely not up to the task of offing her for the sake of a nice winter stew, I decided it was time to get some new friends for her.

It took a few weeks of hm'ing and ha'ing, but as the weather started to warm and Ginger got settled into her new and improved chicken mansion I felt that it was time. A lucky day of getting out of work a few minutes early found me at the feed store picking out the four cutest little chicks that ever hatched out of eggs!

They aren't as excited about me as I am of them, but they tolerate my existence and may even be grateful for the food I replenish daily for them. They on the bedside wardrobe in a box with peep holes drilled into the side and a heat lamp shining overhead. They grow exponentially during the day while I am gone at work and chirp continuously throughout each night, soft and sweet chirps that make the memories of the stressful day at work slip right out of my body.

Today two of them popped out some tail feathers while I was gone; all four of them are starting to seem like lanky middle schoolers, all legs and attitude. The pecking order is being established.

We take excursions out to the greenhouse where the chicks can run around relatively free and work on their huntin' skills. T-rex set her name in stone by being the best hunter and catching at least 6 grubs and pill bugs in one outing! Cheeks, Peaches, and Irene are a little bit of late bloomers when it comes to huntin' bugs, but I trust they will step up to the challenge.

It will likely be a few more weeks until they can join Ginger out in the chicken coop so I am looking forward to these remaining days of physical proximity to my new little friends.

How to Skin a Squirrel

2010-11-21T15:47:00.000-08:00

A year or two ago I bought the book, Dressing and Cooking Wild Game, which details the process of skinning, gutting, and portioning creatures large and small and showcases such recipes as: Venison and Beans, Southern Fried Squirrel, Raccoon with Sauerkraut, Woodcock in Chablis, and Bear Steak Flamade.

I bought the book to prepare me for the big move back to Alaska. I imagined myself in a little cabin outside of Bethel, Alaska, with no distractions and putting all my energy into cooking, preserving, and quilting. I fantasized about hunting, or at least accompanying a hunter, and going through the process of preparing an animal from the beginning (well the end, if your perspective is that of the creatures...).

As you all know, my plans didn't work out quite like that, and I found my way to Texas, quite surrounded by distractions and behind schedule on many of my personal goals while ahead on my professional ones.

Rabbit meal, March 2010.

But, I have used the book twice now! The first time was when I bought a rabbit from the Austin Farmer's Market when my friend from Alaska visited me last spring; the book came in use for portioning the rabbit for the French-inspired rabbit in wine sauce with mushrooms and baby onions we enjoyed while she was here.

And now I have used it again for skinning a squirrel! Slightly unsuccessfully, I might add, but we'll get to that.

Recently I was introduced to a self-identified redneck, who is quite the hunter and fisher. As we discussed food one day, he boasted to me that he's eaten just about any kind of meat I could think of, and of course, I wanted to know if he'd had squirrel. He had! And he said he'd get me one, mostly, he said, just for the comical aspect of watching me try to skin it with directions out of a book.

Skinnin' Day:

About a week later, he brought over a freshly killed squirrel, kept cold in a lunch cooler with a side of beer. When he pulled the little guy out of his plastic bag coffin, I was not prepared for how sad he looked! His little face scrunched up with some blood on the side of his head, all cold and dead!

I guess I started a bout of nervous laughter then.

One squirrel, in a mason jar.

When I regained my composure, I picked up my knife, opened up the book, and gave it a go!

Step 1 on How to Skin a Squirrel: "Cut through the base of the tailbone, starting on the underside of the tail. Stop when the bone is severed; do not cut the skin on the top side of the tail."

Yeah... It didn't work out quite that way for me. My new friend said that that wasn't the way he did it and graciously took over for me at this point when it became apparent I was going to make a dramatic mess of our little guy.

He made a cut through the skin on the squirrel's back and ripped the skin from the meat with his hands. At the wrists and ankles the skin comes to a stop and the joints are severed, leaving a little naked creature.

Step 6 on How to Skin a Squirrel: "Cut the head off. Remove any glands and clean out the body cavity. Several long hairs usually remain on the wrists; cut these off with your knife."

After the head was cut off and the innards were removed (I guess we forgot to cut off the stray hairs), I popped the little dude in a mason jar and put him into the fridge to wait for the next day's meal.

Grillin' Day:

I prepped up a platter of veggies, grabbed a bottle of white wine, packed up the squirrel, and headed over to grillin' time. Grilling... BBQ-ing... Whatever. A non-native Texan told me that grilling is what they do in California, BBQ-ing is what they do in Texas, but according to my new friend, it's all about the time and temp of the cooking process, and according to a quick google search, he is most right.

Mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, and
eggplant - drizzled with olive oil, salted
& peppered - all ready for the grill!

As true Texan, my squirrel-cookin' friend had never put a vegetable on the grill before, but - as true Texan, he was up to the challenge and cooked the vegetables to perfection. ("What about corn, you've grilled corn on here before?" "Nope, don't think so." "Oh.")

He also cooked up some venison that he caught this past weekend, a beautiful piece of backstap and some venison/pork sausage.

The squirrel cooked away for 15 or so minutes, turning it once, it's meat coated in herbs and spices and looking quite delicious! Once the meat and veggies were done cooking, the spread on the table was looking amazing and I was quite ravenous. I picked up my little squirrel leg and took a good chomp of it.

Squirrel, grilled to perfection, hanging out
next to some tasty venison.

Quite tasty!! I hate to use the clique "it takes like chicken", but it really did kinda taste like chicken. A little tougher, a little - um, littler.. but all in all, yeah, kinda like chicken. I was doing really good until I saw those little hairs poking out at the little wrists and elbows. The hairs the book warned us about and we did not heed. Unfortunately, that grossed me out a little.

So why a squirrel? To me a squirrel represents the great abundance of food around us, but how we limit ourselves to such a small variety of known and acceptable foods or how we buy exotic delicacies from across the reaches of our world, but so rarely tap into our local resources.

Am I going to start eating squirrel every day? Um, no. But I don't really eat meat of any kind very often, so it's not a dis to the squirrel or my extremely accommodating chef, just likely not going to become a habit.

Ok, now on to the next experience! Raccoon?! Maybe.

The complete feast! Leg o' squirrel, venison, grilled veggies, and
a side of tabouli (only because I had it in my fridge...).

Julia's Mayonnaise

2010-10-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" sits on her stone perch above my kitchen work space - tempting me with adventures in cooking that I have not yet embarked upon and reminding me that there are others out there like me, who believe that butter, like water and air, is essential to life.

Mayonnaise seemed a perfect first adventure, as I already had all the ingredients lying around... Fresh egg yolks from my lady birds, some olive oil, fresh herbs from my window sill, salt, lemon juice, and a little mustard.

It took maybe 5 minutes to make and the result was a beautiful golden, creamy spread for my bread!

So here it is, the recipe for homemade mayonnaise, adapted from Julia Child's recipe:

1 egg yolk at room temperature, add to warmed bowl (I put it in the oven on low for a couple of minutes) and beat yolk with a folk until tacky, about 1-2 minutes

Add 1 tsp lemon juice, a touch of salt, and a touch of dry or prepared mustard and beat for 30 seconds more

Drip in oil of choice, beating with wire whisk continuously. As mixture thickens, oil can be added more rapidly until 1/2 to 3/4 cup oil is incorporated per yolk

Add in fresh chopped herbs if desired and season to taste

Mission successful! Seen here on ciabatta bread with tomatoes, onions, and purple basil.

Next time though I think I will choose a less flavorful oil than olive oil as I felt it overpowered the less dramatic flavors of the yolk and herbs.

Vitamin D-eee-licious!!

2010-10-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

* This posting is dedicated to my friend Erin, who lives in Juneau, Alaska.

Vitamin D is on the tips of everyone's tongues these days. Its role in the human body as a hormone is vast and affects everything from growth and development and neurological health to the prevention of many cancers and possibly type two diabetes!

(Its marketing range is enormous, industry LOVES all the attention to yet another miracle nutrient.)

The Institute of Medicine's recommendations for adequate intake (AI) for vitamin D is 200 international units (IU) for everyone under 50 years of age, 400 IU for ages 51-70, and 600 IU for person's 71 years of age and more.

And the new recommendations that will be out any day now will be even higher; many clinicians already recommend 2,000 IU daily as a maintenance dose, up to 50,000 units once per week for 8 weeks to treat deficiency.

Anyways, this information is widely available and frankly, pretty dry. What I would like to share with you, lovely reader, is a sense of empowerment that you CAN meet your needs without a pill! But first, a couple of provocative questions...

How did we survive BEFORE vitamin D supplementation?

1. Vitamin D is synthesized in our skin from a reaction between UVB radiation and the cholesterol in our skin at a whopping 10,000 UI per 10 minutes of sunlight exposure!

In Juneau, the only months this is possible is April through September, and in the hours of 11 am to maybe 4 pm. Farther north, the window of time shrinks further.

2. Vitamin D from our food is found in the same organs and tissues that they would be found in human organs and tissues so an understanding of where vitamin D hangs out in our bodies will paint a picture of dietary sources:

It is synthesized in the skin - traditional diets included the skin of animals
It is transported from the skin or intestines to the liver - traditional diets included livers
It is transported from the liver to the kidney - traditional diets included kidneys
It is transported via the blood - some traditional diets included blood
It is stored in fat - traditional diets did not shy away from animal fats!

So why is vitamin D such a big deal these days?

1. Vitamin D from the sun is blocked by about 95% from even very low SPF sun screen. The same precautionary measure that decreases skin cancer risk, increases the risk for vitamin D deficiency.

Babies are swaddled up and sun protected like never before in history. Which justifies the recommendations for all breastfed babies to be supplemented with vitamin D.

We, as Americans, are going less outside. Especially kids, who need the vitamin D for growth and development and older adults, who need the vitamin D for bone health.

2. Vitamin D from food is most commonly consumed in it's enriched sources: milk, juice, and cereals. While this is important, it is really very sad.

You see, the traditional sources of vitamin D have become foods that are rarely or never eaten by the general public (organs and wild fish), or are the same foods that have been vilified by the media and medical world as "bad" foods (lard, butter, chicken skin) due to the misinformation of the lipid hypothesis.

Seal Oil 8 IU per oz

Whale Oil 63 IU per oz

Wild Salmon 265 IU per oz

Sardines 134 IU per oz

Shrimp 9 IU per Shrimp

Butter 8 IU per Tbsp

Egg 18 IU per Egg

Cod Liver Oil 1350 IU per Tbsp

(Data obtained from websites listed in links below, note that the quantity of all nutrients of food are variable depending on species, age of animal, region, and season.)

Unfortunately, many of the foods that likely contain vitamin D (liver, kidney, chicken skin, and lard) do not have data for vitamin D content in the national nutrient database. But you get the idea...

The health campaigns of the eighties pushed for low fat diets that changed the way that Americans regard traditional fats. Instead of using butter, we used margarine. Instead of using lard, we used Crisco. Not only did this change hurt us because of synthetic trans fatty acids reeking havoc on our arteries, also it decreased the amount of vitamin D in our diet. Vegetable oils, while wonderful, are devoid of vitamin D.

Along with the changes in physical activity and sun exposure, decreased vitamin D in the diet contributed to what researchers feel is an epidemic in low vitamin D levels in this country - and all the health problems associated with it.

And we have lost the trust in ourselves and our bodies. Deep down I believe we know what is good for us, and if we weren't so concerned about all this nutrition jumbo-mumbo and just listened, really listened, to what our body was telling us, we would choose the right balance of food to get all the nutrients we need to live long, satisfying lives.

Photo: Sardines and Pasta, aka: Cleaning-out-the-Pantry Surprise!

And now for something completely theoretical...

The huge discrepancy between how much vitamin D that can be synthesized in our skin by the sun in 10 minutes and how much can be eaten in one day through diet leads me to theorize that there may be something to the seasonality of dosing of vitamin D that is adaptive to humans.

(This theory led one of my preceptors during my internship to state her sense of "worry" for me as an almost-dietitian who was supposed to spout nothing but "fact" from peer reviewed journal articles... But I'm sorry, scientific fact follows theory, and I refuse to silence my instinctive mind.)

In conclusion:

Vitamin D is the new hit vitamin, and research in the area is young. It is so young, that is hardly even controversial yet! In all my reading about vitamin D, I have only really found one critical, well cited opinion piece that raises some doubt to the miracle of vitamin D supplementation. Link provided below.

So, do you feel empowered to make a choice?! To supplement or not to supplement vitamin D? There is a huge body of evidence to support supplementation of vitamin D, however, for those of you who choose not to, there are options to increase your intake through diet, as our ancestors did. The most whole foods vitamin D supplement that you could choose would be cod liver oil, with has been used historically and has many health benefits associated with it!

(Always buy supplements from top quality, reputable companies that test for contaminants. The liver of animals is super-duper nutritious, but the liver is also the detoxifying organ, therefore unhealthy animals have very unhealthy livers.)

Useful vitamin D links:

Article: Widespread vitamin D supplementation questioned

Linus Pauling Institute on vitamin D

National Institute of Health fact sheet on vitamin D

Nutrition Database

Why supplement?

2010-08-21T18:32:00.001-07:00

Recently I was asked about what I thought about using supplements.

Well... I happen to think a LOT about supplements and have more to say on the subject than the average consumer, so it was a very awkward question to ask me in the last 60 seconds of a car ride in which I was dropped off at home... I ended up saying something wish-washy like "food first" and "expensive urine" or some other weak comment.

What I would have said, given at least 30 minutes of this sweet man's time, was as follows: the only true indication for high-dose vitamin and mineral supplementation is when a deficiency exists.

I can say this with conviction based upon three major principles; firstly, on the principle of supplements being developed within the constraints of several hundred KNOWN nutrients and plant phytochemicals, secondly on the principle that such high doses of these known ingredients are not found naturally occurring in our foods, and thirdly, daily supplementation further removes us from the seasonality of nutrient intake that kept our ancestors alive for generations.

So let's pick these principles apart a bit more...

1. Supplements consist of several hundred KNOWN

nutrients and phytochemicals

Obvious? Perhaps. But it seems to me that this simple fact is often forgotten. You've seen the ads for various vitamin and supplement products. We all know that vitamin D and calcium are good for our bones.

Yet the conclusion that is drawn from the scientific research by capitalists always comes up lacking.

Vitamin D and calcium good for bone health? Easy! Take vitamin D and calcium supplements! But consider this, when we eat a food, for example - sardines, we get so much MORE than just vitamin D and calcium. In addition we get protein, zinc, phosphorus, copper, manganese, and potassium. All of these listed nutrients are important in bone health. Not only are they individually good for bone health, they work synergistically for bone health and a deficiency in one may impair the absorption and/or utilization of another.

Even if we took a pill with all of the known bone health nutrients, it still may not have the desired effect. Here's why, food supplies us with both a variety of scientifically sound "important" nutrients for health AND a boatload of nutrients we don't even know about yet that may be important for health.

If you thought we knew it all, think again. Not even do not know all of what is in our food that makes it good for us, it takes many many years of research to determine what levels of a particular nutrient are needed for normal body function, and what levels make it toxic to the body.

Which leads in perfectly to point #2.

2. Supplements supply nutrients and phytochemicals in doses higher than naturally occurring nutrients in our food supply

Toxicity of a nutrient occurs very rarely from food sources. The only one I can come up with off the top of my head might be vitamin A, if you ate like a whole cow liver and have renal failure... I'm sure there are other isolated cases, but nothing compared to the problems that can incur from vitamin and mineral supplementation of doses not of this natural world.

Every time a new wonder nutrient is found in connection to curing some disease, we play around with what is the right supplement dose of it to sell to the public. An example used often in my education was the example of vitamin E. Vitamin E is a great antioxidant so researchers felt that a population who would benefit greatly from antioxidant support was smokers, in the prevention of cancer. Sadly, vitamin E supplementation in this population led to and INCREASED risk of death from hemorrhagic stroke, and therefore vitamin E supplements are no longer indicated for smokers for the prevention of cancer.

Dietary sources of vitamin E are safe for smokers, and everyone else, because they are in their natural matrix, combined with many other health-supporting nutrients.

The idea that if a little of something is good for you, than a lot must be REALLY good is in one word: false.

Every time a new wonder nutrient is found, hundreds to thousands of our animal companions are put into scientific experiments to discover the toxicity levels. While I understand that this research in important to protect the health of humans, I find it's necessity a sad testament to species egotism.

I have heard the concern many times from folks about the changing levels of micronutrients in our world's soil related to conventional farming practices that may be depleting our entire food system of optimal micronutrient levels. I hear this concern in conjunction with notion that while vitamin and mineral supplements have not been needed in the past, they are needed now for prophylactic measures against deficiency.

While I 100% agree that nutrient soil depletion is a problem with our conventional food system, I believe it is a call to grow your own food and buy from small, local, organic vendors rather than a reason to run out and buy small, aesthetically pleasing packages of over-processed 'nutrients' from the same store shelves that support the monocultures and poor industry practices that contribute to soil depletion.

3. Supplements taken daily further remove seasonality of

nutrient and phytochemical intake

I'm not going to write too much here because really, Michael Pollan says it better than I in his books, and obviously, he is a much better writer than I.

But the cliff notes are as follows: there is a shift in the way we view our food, a shift away from seeing the plant or animal grow, followed by the harvest or kill, followed by the family meal - into a scientific, deconstructed idea of nutrients.

Traditional societies ate the food available, which at that time (depending on the location) may have been berries, fruit, and fresh meat in the fall, dried meats, squash, and preserves in the winter, tender greens and game animals in the spring, and a bounty of fresh vegetables and fish in the summer.

This traditional diet provides an abundance of particular nutrients at different points in the year. For example, vitamin C and D were rich in the summer months, while salt and B12 were rich in the winter months from preserved meats. Was this a mistake? Did mother nature F-up by varying the type and quantity of nutrients available throughout the year? I highly doubt it.

Now, with pills, we can take all the nutrients that we deem important in a fairly equal dose daily, around the calendar year - thus eliminating the peskiness of seasonality of our nutrition.

I have no research to share with you that will convince you that removing seasonality from our nutrition is a harmful practice, but taking supplements is a personal choice, in which I feel that you may benefit from a historical and seasonal perspective of nutrition to aid you in your decision to supplement, or not to supplement.

Personal reflections...

The Linus Pauling Institute, a source I trust and rely on for scientific advise for micronutrient use, recommends a multivitamin as well as additional vitamin C, D, E and calcium supplements daily. Even the Weston Price Foundation, my beloved source of traditional wisdom meets scientist, recommends cod liver oil as a supplement for everyone.

This presents an interesting ideological dilemma for me. You see, the science is important to me. And I know that there are many people across our world who are nutrient deficient and benefit from the science of dissecting our food into smallest of particles! However, with this science has followed the capitalistic ventures of a small percentage of the population who do not have YOUR best interest in mind when promoting supplementation.

Here in America, there are many people who are nutrient deficient, and this is a result of poverty and poor diet choices available for super cheap (among other things...). However, these are NOT the same folks buying dietary supplements. No, studies show that overwhelmingly, the heavy supplement users in this country are white, middle to upper class, and already in pretty good health. This is attributable to marketing, marketing, education, disposable incomes, and marketing. Did I mention marketing?

And so I guess my message is rather narrow in it's target audience; I plead to the white middle to upper class who take supplements as a precautionary measure to combat the frights of aging to consider how best to spend their money and worries in this complicated world:

Choice A) Buy supplements for $10-40 per bottle, hope they actually contain the ingredients listed (highly unregulated industry, often less than the stated quantity is inside, or else the potency of the ingredient is greatly diminished due to extraction methods, packaging, and shelf life, and worse case scenario possibly contaminated with heavy metals from processing), and hope to reap the benefits claimed by the label.

Choice B) Use the money you would have used for supplements and buy high quality produce and meat from your farmers market, not only nourishing your body and soul, but also contributing to a vibrant community by keeping your dollars local.

We are amazingly adaptive creatures, making due for all generations previously without the micronutrient support of pills through eating a varied, whole foods based diet rich in plants and healthy animals. Some folks are not in a financial place right now (myself included) to follow such guidelines to a T, but every way that you are able to support your health with wholesome foods is nourishing you in ways that scientists can't even fathom yet!

We are not just machines that need specific nutrients to function properly.

We are humans and we need food.

So eat up!! And show me some color on that plate!!

The Pharmaceutical Industry's Wet-Dream (Starring McDonald's)

2010-08-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

Do you like fast food? If you could eat it, (cardiovascularly-speaking) risk free, would you? The newly published article in the Journal of Cardiology seems to believe that this is what people do want, and even more so, that it would be in the interest of public health to counteract the unhealthy choices made by citizens by providing free pills as "condiments" to unhealthy food choices.

This narrow-minded view of the world and it's health problems is pervasive in our current times and it is important as eaters, health professionals, and citizens of the world to bring awareness to the fundamental problems in this proposed "solution" to the health disasters of the Western food model.

The article being referenced is:

Can a Statin Neutralize the Cardiovascular Risk of Unhealthy Dietary Choices?

Emily A. Ferenczi, Perviz Asaria, Alun D. Hughes, Nishi Chaturvedi, Darrel P. Francis - American Journal of Cardiology - 15 August 2010 (Vol. 106, Issue 4, Pages 587-592)

(Image from article, titled: New concept in fast food risk reduction.)

"Given the frequency of fast food consumption and the adverse health consequences of the foodstuffs supplied, we propose that the fast food industry is well placed to offer advice and supplements to counteract the cardiovascular harm arising from the foods they purvey."

"A generic statin could be added to the panoply of items in the self-service tray, at littlemarginal cost, in combination with other healthy lifestyle suggestions."

The authors feel that providing low dose statins as condiments to fast food, a person can essentially 'neutralize' the cardiovascular harm caused by the meal by taking the supplemental pill. They are basing this theory on their calculations of relative risk reductions of statins compared to the risk of cardiovascular events from eating the elevated amounts of saturated fat and trans fat found in fast foods.

I refer to this notion as narrow-minded because again, like so many narrow-minded health campaigns in the US, it is focused on quantity of fat in the diet and ignores the quality of fat in the diet and the contribution of cheap, nutritionally inadequate carbohydrates to the prevalence and incidence of diabetes in our country. Diabetes being a HUGE risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

While statins may decrease cholesterol levels and promote favorable results in your lipid panel owing to a pat on the back from your doc, they do not combat other venues of ill health that a diet rich in fast food will take you down. A low fiber, low fruit and vegetable, low micro nutrient diet sets you up for other health complications, such as: inflammation, diseases of the intestinal tract, and diseases caused by impaired immunity. Currently there is research that suggests statins having a protective affect against cancer, but I have read conflicting evidence on this, so I think we won't know for sure either way for several years as more people chronically taking statins age.

"Reports have concluded that statins have a favorable "benefit-to-risk" ratio, with only rare adverse effects reported in hepatic, renal, and muscle tissue..."

For a better idea of the risks associated with statins, visit the Mayo Clinic's website on the benefits vs. risks to make up your own mind if the risks are worth it to you. The highlight of the page for me is where it lists the populations that have increased risk for statin side effects.

The populations at increased risk are WOMEN (50% of the population), over the age of 65 (10% of the population in Texas), persons with diabetes (10% of the population 18 years and older in Texas), and persons taking multiple medications to lower cholesterol (a phenomenon called polypharmacy; I have no statistics on this regarding cholesterol-lowering medications, but polypharmacy is a huge issue in our pill-popping culture and no doubt would present a significant percent of the population).

So basically, my crude math finds that at the very minimum, 60% of the population is at increased risk for side effects that include permanent liver damage and muscle breakdown.

"We can conclude that the documented safety record of statins is substantially better than that of fast foods, which carry not only direct cardiovascular risks but other risks due to obesity."

"It cannot therefore be reasonably argued on safety grounds that individuals should be free to choose to eat lipid-rich food but not be free to supplement it with a statin."

Wow. Then I must be completely unreasonable in saying that drugs are prescribed by physicians with years of education and experience because of all the things that can go wrong if people without the educational background were able to self-medicate as they saw fit. It is a physicians' responsibility to look at the entirety of the patient's health profile including the medications they are already on and make recommendations based upon this information.

Medications as well as herbal supplements must go through detoxification pathways in the liver before they exit the body. This means that in addition to the potential medication-medication and medication-herbal and medication-food interactions that may harm a person, there is also an increased stress on the liver with more and more chemicals added to a person's body.

Saying that because we can choose our foods therefore we can choose our medications is totally irresponsible. The reason that we can choose our food, besides the fact that food is essential to life whereas statins are not, is because food, for the most part, kills us very slowly. A diet of fast food takes upwards of 40 years to kill us; whereas overdosing on pharmaceuticals can kill us within hours, days, or months. The authors do state that more research would need to be done on how much statins you would have to take for it to be toxic (ie. kill you), but they do not even touch the problem of polypharmacy.

"We envisage a future in which fast food restaurants encourage a holistic approach to healthy living. On ordering an unhealthy meal, the food will arrive labeled with a warning message similar to those found on cigarette packets ("This meal increases your risk for heart disease and death"), and on the tray, next to the ketchup, will be a new and protective packet, "MacStatin," which could be sprinkled onto a Quarter Pounder or into a milkshake."

A) I'm deeply bothered by the use of the word 'holistic' in such a non-holistic setting. I get that they are trying to say that a combination of drugs and lifestyle is the way to attack the issue, but combining two therapies is hardly considered holistic.

B) The authors suggest the MacStatin coming with a leaflet that details other healthy activities you could engage in for your health and information about statins. Health literacy, the ability of people to read and comprehend health information, is a gigantic problem in the US! National surveys consistently find that ~50% of the population is considered low literacy and are at risk for "non-compliance" with health and medication instruction due to misunderstandings of the instructions.

Do the authors really feel that their leaflet is going to be read, much less understood by the vast majority of Americans? How many languages will such a leaflet be available in? How many people taking the statins will understand that large quantities of grapefruit juice interact with the drug? What does "large quantities" even mean?

"We suggest that the MacStatin concept not be rejected on the grounds of condoning unhealthy diets, any more than seatbelts should be rejected on the grounds of an appearance of condoning speeding."

Oh, bringing out the big guns! I love (sarcasm dripping from voice) how the authors chose the example of seat belts to back their campaign for widespread statin use as good for public health reasons. Seat belts - strips of strong fabric that hold you in place in the event of a car accident, with or without speeding involved. Statins - a pill that causes biochemical systemic changes in a person's body based on the good fat vs. bad fat misinformation of our time. Totally the same. Yeah.

I suggest the MacStatin concept be rejected not on the grounds of condoning unhealthy diets, but on the grounds that it is insane, irresponsible, and is positively counterintuitive to the direction I believe the country needs to go!!

That direction being a lessened reliance on pills and a revitalization of small family run businesses, farms, and food systems.

The MacStatin concept is profitable for the pharmaceutical industry and the fast food industry. It is you and I and the health of our country that will pay, big time. The fundamental problem with this article (which I still believe in the back of my mind is some kind of demented April Fools joke, several months late...) is that it claims to be about public health but it is not at all in the interest of public health, it is merely a business-as-usual tool for the richest 2% of the country to profit more off the ill health of the many.

Health does not come in a pill. Sorry folks. But please don't let them fool you. Health comes from within, and can be nurtured with love and food that was raised in loving conditions. I don't care how many statins you take, it will not erase the damage of a fast food diet.

Family & Friend Update!

2010-08-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

1. Finished the Texas State University dietetic internship!

What a year.

One year ago last month I arrived in Texas to start the dietetic internship. I was one of the lucky 50% nationally who was placed in an internship, thanks to Dr. Friedman, an amazing woman and my dietetic internship director whom I can only speculate chose me out of the stack because of my natural health perspective. My own state, Alaska, did not choose me, which I took as a sign that my travels are far from being over before I settle down!

The 10 month internship was absolutely inspiring and provided me with a wide variety of experiences throughout central Texas, from Austin to San Antonio. I am eternally grateful to all my preceptors for making this experience possible and for nurturing my passion for nutrition!

I only cried a couple of times. It wasn't all roses. I was broke and slipping further and further into debt, working 32 hours a week unpaid with graduate classes taking up my free time with assignments and lectures. I struggled with being true to myself and my beliefs while also being respectful to my preceptors and instructors. Most of the time successful, but on a couple of occasions bringing me much inner turmoil that inspired several of my previous blog postings.

Now with it behind me, I look back and genuinely smile. I jumped through every hoop placed in front of me and the pay off is tremendous. I learned so much and the completion of the internship allowed me to sit for my exam to become a registered dietitian and to pursue my dreams of spreading the word of natural health through whole foods within the folds of mainstream "accepted" nutrition professionals.

2. Passed the Exam for Registered Dietitians!

Nothing motivates you for passing an exam like having a job that hired you contingent on the passing of that exam and having your internship director tell you that there would be a special place of hate in her heart for you forever if you did not pass it.

Well I passed it!! (Thank goodness...) And you know what, it really wasn't too bad! Besides the fact that the spectrum of the exam ranged from what temperature to cook a roast, to dishwashing chemicals, to management theory, to diet prescriptions for random disease states... It was actually quite reasonable.

Good luck to all my classmates who are studying for the exam as I write!! You will rock it.

3. New job at a hospital in San Antonio, Texas!

There were five very different job directions I could have gone after the internship. San Marcos WIC had a community dietitian position offered to me that would have provided me the opportunity to talk about health and nutrition to mothers and to support breastfeeding in a population with notoriously low breastfeeding rates.

I was also offered a job at a long-term care facility in New Braunfels, a little town that I just love in the hill country and an opportunity to work with some lovely, very big hearted people.

I considered pursing the job at the San Antonio food bank; a job that would entail teaching nutrition classes to youngsters and would have been a very fun and creative job in the community!

And finally, I considered pursuing a job with Meals and Wheels and More in Austin, which honestly would have been the most perfect job for me but I couldn't take the gamble of turning down a full-time job with benefits for a part-time job that I may not have been offered if I interviewed for it.

I chose the hospital job at the hospital because I felt that it was the best career move and because the people I would be working with struck me as able to provide a very nurturing and supportive environment to get my dietitian feet wet in. Also - it is a teaching hospital, which in my mind is the only way to go because there is a spectacular level of collaboration between professionals in patient care that you won't find very often in a traditional health care setting.

I am looking forward to learning all about what can go wrong with the human body, to better understand what really motivates people to treat their bodies well!

This is only the beginning...

I love you Juneau, but leaving to pursue a career in nutrition was the best thing I have ever done for myself. With my education and experiences, I hope to lead a fulfilling life by helping others in their nutritious endeavors!

New Beginnings

2010-07-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

I have moved again. This is my 10th house in my 4th state of residence in the 8 wonderful years since bringing home Sebastian from the Juneau pound. My guess is that a more pessimistic person than myself may view this as a personal flaw: always moving, always needing change.. However, I am not a pessimistic person.

Moving is a wonderful opportunity for me to reassess my life and to work at more closely matching my actions with my ideals. Every move I learn about what is really important to me and I alter my surroundings to best nurture this discovery.

This time there are three major points that I wish to nurture with this move:

1. Be fully independent. No more housemates. Living alone on my previous student income and before that on server's wages that was spent largely on the good life was not conducive to renting a house alone. During those times having housemates was the more favorable than renting an apartment, so that was the choice I always made. But no more.

Honestly the hardest part about having housemates for me is never finding a person with similar views on TV watching. The constant droning on the TV in another room followed me around like a mosquito in every house I have shared. Good-bye TV!!

2. Live simply. Always on my list of important things, but this time around I am re-invigorated to work on my simple skills, such as: quilting, gardening, and preserving foods! Goals that have been put on hold over and over due to course work and finances, this is my big opportunity to move forward on them! Well.. After I pass the RD exam that is..

3. Surround myself with beauty. This was accomplished in my last residence as well, but will be even more important with my new job being in a metro hospital. There is so much pain and tragedy in a large city, as well as kindness and beauty, but I find myself easily depressed by the extreme poverty and wealth, the traffic, and the chain stores that plague the cities. My house must be my safe zone, surrounded by nature and peace.

So the house I chose is 45 minutes away from the medical center, situated on Lake Medina, and although it is in close proximity to the neighbors, it is just the most perfect little house for me and Sebastian.

The owners are a fire fighter turned construction worker and a super-mom/artist. The house is speckled with art and is a cozy nest, having one bedroom and a U-shaped main room consisting of the kitchen, dining nook, and living space.

"Are you lonely out there yet?"

This was the concerned text I received this morning from my friend Liz, who lives in the San Marcos area.

Yes, I now live an hour to two hours away from the handful of friends that I have made since moving to Texas a year ago and yes, I imagine that it will be another lonely winter this year. I am no stranger to lonely, she comes and goes at different times in my life.

But I am happy. And I am grateful for my time here on this beautiful Earth with my most trusted canine companion.

An Overweighed Culture

2010-06-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

Being in the field of nutrition it is hard to separate myself from the dominant notion that body weight is important. So many people seem to be using food to either lose weight, gain weight, or to somehow manipulate their physique. Food often loses it's pleasure and becomes a tool for people to alter their image, and often the measure of success is a number on a scale.

As a personal stance of rejection of the dominant weight norms, I have chosen not to weigh myself for the last several years. I knew that the day would come when a doctor or nurse would ask to weigh me and I imagined myself getting on my soap box and explaining to them that there are MANY markers of health and that no, they may not weigh me because I did not feel that it would give them any useful information on my health status.

Well, the day came. And I wimped out I guess. I went in for a physical exam as part of the pre-employment process for my new job and the nurse asked for me to get on the scale. The thought of rebellion fleeted by and I let it pass, choosing not to make a scene at my new place of employment. Actually, I found myself a little curious... What did I weigh?

So I decided as a compromise that I would not look at the scale nor would I ask what the number was, but if she told me that would be that. And of course, she told me.

When I work with clients I try to help them focus on other markers of health than the number on the scale. But this is not an easy task with at every turn health care professionals are weighing them and either shaking their finger or congratulating them on the changes in that number. As a culture I feel that we are overweighed.

Not only are health care professionals weighing us as every visit, we do it to ourselves! Weight has became so important to us that most folks have a scale in their own home and can tell you to the pound how much they weighed today, yesterday, and a year ago. For many, it is an unhealthy habit, moving them away from actually being in touch with their bodies and listening internally for changes in their health.

If the idea that health is more than a number on a scale interests you, I recommend checking out Linda Bacon's book: Health at Every Size and Marc David's book: The Slow Down Diet. Both authors discuss how your relationship with food is the key to health and happiness, not the number on a scale. These books helped me on my journey to making peace with food, I hope you find them useful!

The Question of Calcium

2010-06-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

The question, at least in my mind, is:

how did the dairy industry claim such a monopoly on the widely abundant nutrient known as calcium?

(Calcium, a mineral we must obtain from food and makes up 1-2% of human body weight, 99% of which is stored in the bones and teeth.)

During my internship I have watched milk and dairy products pushed at every sort of individual ranging from children to the elderly to type 2 diabetics to pregnant women and well, just about everyone else out there. I have even heard myself recommend for folks to include 2-3 servings of dairy in their daily diet. While this is going on, I try to figure out how this happened. Here are my thoughts, semi-organized in one place for the first time..

1. Fear of aging. Loss of bone mass is a natural process of aging, and yet we greatly fear it. Loss of bone mass along with the loss of lean muscle results in falls and fractures in older adults and can be predictive of impending mortality. Supplement and pharmaceutical companies have profited from this immensely and a term "osteopenia" was created so they would have something to treat. Read NPR's story on osteopenia if interested. The dairy industry has also jumped on this train and recommended milk for older adults, despite the high level of lactose intolerance in this population, especially in persons of Asian, African, and Native American decent.

You see, when we drink our mother's breast milk, it contains lactose, a milk sugar, AND lactase, the enzyme that helps us digest the milk sugar. Some cultures have a long relationship with ruminant dairy consumption after their breast milk years, and others have less than a 50 year relationship with it. For the cultures that subsisted off ruminant dairy, most of the dairy was fermented into yogurts or cheeses, which are highly digestible dairy forms, the milk that was drank was in its raw state, therefore also contained the lactase enzyme to aid digestion. These cultures also produce some lactase in their intestines, but the amount produced decreases with age. The cultures that are brand new to ruminant dairy consumption are reported to not produce any lactase and since the dairy they are likely drinking is pasteurized and the natural enzymes are destroyed: gas, bloating, and general intolerance is experienced.

So that made you curious right? You are wondering: how did the traditional cultures of Asia, Africa, and North America manage to survive without dairy if calcium is so important?!

Here is the kicker: calcium is a truly abundant nutrient in the food supply, if you are eat a whole foods, varied diet. In Asian cultures the primary source of calcium was likely to be small fish eaten whole or from broth in which fish bones were boiled for several hours in the presence of an acid to extract the mineral. Just as calcium makes up our bones, it makes up the bones of all animals. In African and North American populations primary calcium sources may have either been from green leafy vegetables and beans or from bone broth of game animals, again cooked for many hours in the presence of an acid.

2. It is easier to push dairy than it is to push green leafy vegetables. Milk tastes good. It is a creamy, delicious beverage that is a beautiful blend of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. Uh-oh.. Fat. Saturated fat! Calories! Better fix that! The dairy industry responded to the fat-phobic culture by skimming off all the tasty stuff and selling us the leftovers, sugar and protein. New problem, now it doesn't taste as good! Ok, no problem, the dairy industry responded by adding sugar and flavorings and marketing to a group that is practically trained to dislike green leafy vegetables: children. Now in schools there are rows milk 'products' that have about the same amount of sugar as a soda and because they are low-fat, hits the blood stream nearly as fast, but we allow it. Why?

Because the kids need calcium.

This is true. Kids do need calcium! Most of our bodies calcium reserve is deposited before the age of 30. Kids need calcium, they also need many other bone nutrients, and they need physical activity! (Gotta give the body a reason to store plenty of calcium, sitting in front of the TV does not give the right message, if you know what I mean.)

Where is the Vegetable Council to pay billions of dollars in advertising to entice kids to eat their green leafies?

Yeah, that may not happen for quite some time. We do have the federal government offering forth the Health People 2010 initiatives, which suggests to people to increase their fruit and vegetable consumption, however the resources of the federal government are used differently than the funds of the Dairy Council. And the Dairy Council has great monetary influence on the federal government, so recommending to folks to switch out one cup of milk per day with a serving of kale or chard would be squashed. Hopefully with further changes to the Farm BIll and the Child Nutrition Program we will have the ability to make steps in the right direction to offer a variety of calcium foods, but as it stands now, dairy is the winner.

3. The dairy industry had a big ol’ seat at the table when the food guide pyramid was made. The food pyramid was designed to help Americans get a nutritionally adequate and balanced diet. Sound too good to be true? It is. I would elaborate on this further, but instead I will let you ponder it if you so desire.

I hope I don't come off as anti-milk to you! I happen to love milk! And cheese.. And yogurt.. Mm. Good stuff! I am one of the lucky ones that it agrees with very well in the quantities that I like to eat it. However, I am proposing to you (as an eater and/or as a health professional) to think outside the milk carton and to think of calcium as an abundant ingredient in our world with many culturally appropriate and preferential ways to consume it.

Some fun ideas for adding extra calcium in your diet: cook a whole chicken and make your own bone broth by adding a splash of vinegar to the pot and simmering the carcass in water for 24 hours, add a clean eggshell to your vinegar jar (it disintegrates) and use as you normally use vinegar, or save your eggshells and add to your soil for calcium-rich soil which in turn makes for calcium-rich vegetables!

Anna's Bone Health Recommendations:

1. Eat plenty of green leafy vegetables

2. Eat a variety of foods

3. Skip the soda.. Seriously people.

4. And move that body!

Living a full (fat) life

2010-04-12T12:16:00.000-07:00

Fact: Americans are gaining weight and many will experience health consequences in their lifetime that will be

complicated by their weight status.

Myth: Full fat foods are making

Americans gain weight.

Traditional diets have always included high quality sources of plant and animal fats. Check out the Weston Price Foundation for detailed descriptions of the importance of full fat foods in our diet from a modern and historical perspective.

The idea that dietary cholesterol and saturated fats lead to heart disease oversimplifies (and/or ignores) the issue of the changing quality of animal foods we consume and the American diet as a whole becoming more refined and nutritionally inadequate. Current research published this year finally raises some good discussion of the saturated fat & heart disease link among the medical community. A large meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Siri-Tarino et al. "showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD." (CHD = coronary heart disease, CVD = cardiovascular disease) The authors suggest in a later publication that the role of refined carbohydrates has a much larger role in CVD than currently given credit for.

As the giant nutrition dork I am, I spend my free time searching on PubMed for articles pertaining to the differences in nutrient profiles of grass-fed animals to grain-fed animals. Articles dating back to the early 70's document that the nutrient profiles of grass-fed animals is significantly different than that of grain-fed animals! Meat, milk, cheese, and butter from grass-fed animals is higher in omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and lower in cholesterol than products from grain-fed animals. This is because these animals have evolved over many hundreds of years to eat a diet of grass, not grain and industrial by-products. And we evolved to eat these grass-fed animals, not grain-fed animals. Really, health problems (for the animals and for those who eat the animals) on the rise? Is this so surprising?

These research studies were, and still are, being conducted not to advocate for healthier animals by letting them remain in the pastures, but rather to find a new way to manipulate the animals' diet in order to produce the fatty acid composition they desire without subtracting from their profit margin. This is how 40 years worth of research on the health disparities between grass-fed and grain-fed ruminants gets ignored; scientists feel that they can do better than nature. Even if the perfect concoction of industrial by-product feed was fed to cattle and produced the fatty acid composition that health experts believed was best for us, would it really be as healthy as an animal eating the food from the earth in a manner like its ancestors?

Our national culture has demanded cheap food, and that's just what we got. The price is cheap, and the quality is cheaper. And again, I am fascinated by the idea of xenohormesis; the idea that when we eat a stressed, obese animal, we ourselves become stressed and obese because ingesting the animal product sends stress signals in our body to produce stress hormones and prolonged release of stress hormones lead to weight gain.

So processed foods. The word "processed" is deceptive and not accurate. We have been processing our foods for thousands of years through procurement and preservation practices. What is new is that we are removing nutrients from our food and then adding back laboratory extracted and/or synthesized ingredients not naturally present in the food via our current mass-processing and shelf-stabilization techniques. We are the petri dish on this one, folks.

Let's look at the nutrition ingredient facts for a fat free cheese compared to a full fat cheese, just for fun:

Kraft Singles Fat Free Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Whey, Skim Milk, Whey Protein Concentrate, Water, Contains Less Than 2% Of Sodium Phosphate, Dried Corn Syrup, Milk, Salt, Sodium Hydroxide, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Sodium Citrate, Lactic Acid, Whey Protein Concentrate, Lactose, Maltodextrin, Sorbic Acid As A Preservative, Artificial Color, Yeast Extract, Carrageenan, Cellulose Gum, Artificial Flavor, Citric Acid, Cheese Culture, Natural Flavor, Xanthan Gum, Butteroil, Enzymes, Vitamin A Palmitate. Trivial Source Of Fat. Milk.

(Goodguide's rating: 4.9 for health, 5.3 for environment)

Tilamook Extra Sharp Cheddar, Vintage White

Cultured Milk, Salt, Enzymes.

(Goodguide's rating: 3.1 for health, 10 for environment)

So what is the difference between these two cheese choices?

1. Well, the fat free cheese has had every drop of fat removed followed by the addition of a bunch of crap that mostly are the byproducts of other industries to make the cheese taste and feel like cheese in your mouth whereas the regular cheese has the same three ingredients that cheese has had in it since humans started making cheese.

2. Notice that the Kraft singles has vitamin A added to it. Butter is naturally rich in vitamin A as well as contains small amounts of vitamins E, D, and K. Vitamin A, E, D, and K are all fat-soluble vitamins, meaning that they need to be in the presence of fat in order for our body to absorb and utilize them. Kraft singles give you the vitamin A, but without fat, this vitamin A will be coming out the other end in a day or two.

3. The Kraft singles are cheaper than Tilamook cheese. Here is the sad irony, it is cheaper to buy milk from unhealthy cows and add in a boat load of additives than it is to treat cows well and culture the milk in the traditional fashion.

4. Goodguide has decided that the Kraft cheese is "healthier" than the Tilamook cheese. This is based off of the "good fat" vs. "bad fat" misinformation of our times. (I apologize for the overuse of quotations, folks - but it feels so necessary!) All fat has important biological functions in our bodies, and while it is true that Americans and westernizing nations consume an excess of fat, it is because we are eating an excess of calories. So of course this results in excess fat in the diet, but it also results in excess of simple carbohydrates. Excess simple carbohydrates (think white bread and pastries) are primarily responsible for the deposition of central adiposity (fat around the organs), not dietary fat. (Central adiposity is much more dangerous to our health than subcutaneous fat evenly distributed about our bodies.)

Hm, so interesting, eh? I don't know about you, but I'll take the full fat cheese, myself - perhaps just a smaller portion.

So if you wish, pick up a glass of whole milk or a slice of whole milk cheese from local farms that raise healthy animals and congratulate yourself. You have just done something great for yourself and your community!

In the simple yet right-on words of Michael Pollan:

"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

Preserving with salt - a case study

2010-04-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

Salt.

What a glorious, simple, and incredibly useful ingredient! Essential in the kitchen to bring the dish together: salt is the orchestrator, if you will will, tactfully combining the different instruments together to make pleasing music.

But also salt has been used for thousands of years to preserve foods, LONG before canning and refrigeration came around. Salt can be used to preserve meats, fish, and vegetables for a year or longer. While I haven't had experience preserving my own meats (yet), I have been known to play with lactic acid fermentation of vegetables and now - citrus!

For lactic acid fermentation, creating a brine of salt and juices from plant matter makes for an environment inhospitable to pathogenic organisms and allows for lactic acid producing bacteria to thrive and pre-digest our food for us. Also, they are probiotics when eaten and aid in good disgestion. The salt acts to pull fluid and tannins (what makes the raw rind bitter if eaten) out of the plant matter via a solute gradient.

What I found when making this recipe, is that I believe the salt also pulls pectin (the stuff used to make jam & jellies, derived from citrus) out of the rind as the liquid in my jar is very thick and gooey! Pectin is an awesome prebiotic (feeds the beneficial bacteria in our intestines, so I will have to find some fun ways to use the brine as well. I have read that the brine is superb in Bloody Mary's as a salty-citrus-y kick in the pants! Will have to try this..

Preserved Lemons

12 lemons

Lots of salt**

1 cinnamon stick (optional)

1 bay leaf (optional)

3 cloves (optional)

4 coriander seeds (optional)

4 peppercorns (optional)

Sterilized mason jar

Knife

1. Cut 6-7 lemons into fourths, but cut only to 1/2 inch of bottom, leaving the sections attached at the bottom. Pack lemons with salt, approximately 1 tablespoon salt in each lemon.

2. Put a tablespoon of salt in the bottom of the mason jar and pack the lemons tightly in the jar. Add optional ingredients as desired, throughout lemon layers. Sprinkle a layer of salt over the top.

3. Cover with lemon juice squeezed from remaining lemons. All lemons should be submerged, you may need additional lemon juice.

4. Cover and set in a warm(ish) place out of direct sunlight for 30 days, shaking each day to distribute salt brine. When the 30 days is up, you can refrigerate it, or not. Just keep all remaining lemons submerged in juice as you remove some for use.

**Don't use iodized table salt or any salt with additives. Sea salt should be ok. I used Kosher salt and then was sad to later find out that it contains anti-caking agents, so watch your ingredient label.

Preserved Lemon Basmati Rice

3 cups freshly cooked rice (hot)

1 preserved lemon rind, pulp removed

1 handful fresh basil

2 tablespoons butter

1. Combine and enjoy! (If you don't want the lemons super salty for your dish,

rinse them with water before you use to remove some salt.)

Makes a great side dish or a component of a main; seen here with shrimp sausages from the Kocurek Family Charcuterie (Austin Saturday farmer's market).

I am looking forward to making a tagine - a Moroccan dish made with preserved lemons and delicious!!

And folks, don't stress about the shaking the jar every day. I didn't, and they turned out perfect! Another reason I love fermentation!

2 tips I've read about juicing lemons but haven't got around to trying yet. Supposedly, you can get more juice from your citrus if you:

a) Put them in the freezer for a couple hours then remove and let return to room temperature.

b) OR - boil them in water for 2-3 minutes, remove, allow to cool.

The cost of produce: it is time to reframe the issue!

2010-03-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

It is a gorgeous day in Central Texas! I spent the morning walking with a friend around Townlake in Austin and stopping by the Austin Farmer's Market to pick up some meat and veggies for the week.

My friend pointed out (several times) that the food at the farmer's market is expensive and used this as a reason not to pick up a couple things that she would have liked to get. I very rudely suggested that she quit calling the food expensive and to instead call the food beautiful.

What I really meant was:

I understand that in this current economic time it is important to be careful with one's funds and to make the dollar stretch. However, when it comes to the price of food, it is not that farmer's market food is too expensive, the real issue is that grocery store food is too cheap.

Grocery store food is too cheap because grocers buy food from huge growing and processing companies that use chemical fertilizers and insecticides to grow their monoculture crops and do not (in many cases) pay a living wage to workers.

Farmer's market food is a fair price to farmers so that they can live and work off the land and provide us with sustainable food systems by supporting biodiversity on their farms.

So what I'm saying is...

Let us reframe the idea of cost for our produce! If we are able and willing to support local food, then understand that the money we are paying to the farmer provides a living wage to the farmer. It is the grocery store produce that gives us the illusion that growing food is cheap and is a major contributor to the loss of family farms in America.

(Don't get me started on government subsidies for corn, wheat, and soy and the impact this has on making processed food cheap and grocery store fruits and vegetables - in comparison - quite spendy.)

Reframing the issue has the potential to change the culture of wanting our food cheap to wanting the growers of our food to earn a fare wage. This, in time, may actually yield the result of local food being cheaper! How? By helping the government switch its priorities from giving money to the multinational corporations in the form of subsidies to revitalizing the family farm and the communities they support.

While our budgets may not allow for buying local foods at different times in our lives, changing the language and thought around food costs may ultimately influence the way we vote, how we interact with others, and hopefully a larger cultural switch that will make the local choice the affordable choice for the future.

Always dress up your meal!

2010-03-25T16:48:00.001-07:00

I love watching my dog eat, in a weird kind of way in which I am mortified and curious at the same time. You see, I open up a package of chicken necks and toss out about a half pound of meat onto the grass outside and it takes him approximately 2.2 seconds to chomp and scarf the food down into his cute little belly.

Thankfully, most of us humans don't eat this way. (Actually, I had a boyfriend that did, and I loved watching him eat as well! In that weird kind of way..)

And when we do, what happens? Acid reflux, indigestion, gas, bloating, malaise, ect. You know what I'm talking about. I worked at restaurants as a server for a few years and it took a lot of intention and practice to slow myself down after so many nights of shoveling food in between tasks.

Here's what I propose to you: challenge yourself to eat slowly and really enjoy your food! Food is beautiful. Food is colorful. Food provides us with the energy to follow our passions. Let's give it the respect it deserves!

One easy way to start is to present your food in such a way that it helps you slow down and be grateful for it's presence. I don't care if it's rack of lamb or leftover pizza for dinner! Make it look pretty.

Why? Dressing up your food with a beautiful presentation brings your consciousness into what you are about to fill yourself with. You may find yourself eating slower without trying. You may find that you are better able to identify fullness signals and stop eating sooner than if you ate quickly, without thought.

Before we eat, the act of seeing and smelling food activates our "cephalic phase". Which is a fancy way of saying: our body prepares for the food by getting the digestive juices going! We need these juices to properly digest our food and to get all the nutrients we need out of it. Rushing into eating and eating quickly does not ramp up our digestive system as well as slowing down and putting time into the preparation.

Also, putting intention into our eating, or "mindful eating" has the additional component of keeping the blood flow where we want it, in our gut!

Having an argument while eating, or watching tv and the like, shunts blood flow from our gut and compromises digestion! Don't believe me? Give it a try. Eat stressed out one day, then eat relaxed and slow another day - pay attention to how you feel for a full hour after your meal. Gassy and tired? Or energized and happy?

Food is more than nutrients. Food is a connection to the Earth, to ourselves, and to our loved ones. Taking time for a meal and making it look beautiful can enrich your life in so many ways. Let me know YOUR favorite way to take time for yourself and eat mindfully!

Easy ideas for dressing up your dish:

Add a garnish
Add color!
Sit at the table to eat
Put your meal on your "special occasion" dishes every day
Arrange, stack, position components in an eye pleasing manner
Always display food as if you were at a fancy restaurant

(Photos: brussel sprout greens with tomatoes and onions, eggplant relish on crustinis, tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, and shrimp over whole wheat pasta and mustard greens)

Citrus Vinegars

2010-03-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

It is spring in Texas! The wildflowers are out, the chickens are laying, and the tube tops have emerged from the depths of my closet!

It is also time for everything light and refreshing -

Here is the easiest thing you will make all season: Citrus Vinegars

This was shown to me by my fellow Bastyrian & current housemate, Jeanette.

What you need:

1 large mason jar

Vinegar to fill jar

Rind of several citrus fruits

Step 1: Cut the rind from the citrus fruit and place in jar,

Step 2: Cover the rind with vinegar and put a lid on the jar,

Step 3: Let sit for 20-30 days or until desired potency is reached,

Step 4: Strain (or not) and enjoy!

Tip: Don't go buy a bunch of lemons or limes just for this, just have a jar of vinegar sitting around and add rind to it every time you happen to be using a lemon for something else!

Now what do you do with your creation?

Add it to:

Salad Dressing

Salsa

Marinades

Stir-fry

Pasta Sauces

What you are basically doing with flavored vinegars is pulling out the flavor compounds (in this case the terpene 'limonene') from the rind with a solvent (acetic acid). Terpenes are compounds in plants expressed to deter insects and bacteria and are therefore expressed best in environments in the absence of chemical insecticides or the like. Besides just smelling good, terpenes contribute to the positive health benefits associated with citrus fruits! (Citrus fruits are highly researched for their cancer protective qualities.)

The shelf life of a natural product is shorter than what we are becoming use to on the market shelf. With time, the compounds break down and are prone to oxidation (this is why you want to keep your oils and natural products out of sunlight!), so be sure to date your creations. Use your vinegars within 6 months, give or take. Though honestly, unless you make a truckload, I doubt you could hold onto them that long! Mmm Mm.

Oh yeah, and whenever using the rind of a fruit, please buy organic or scrub the dickens out of it.

UPDATE: MARCH 22, 2010 4:09 PM

I jumped the gun a bit and used some of the lemon vinegar I made a week ago for a cabbage slaw. It was DELICIOUS! Here's the recipe:

1/2 head cabbage, slivered
6 green onions, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 head ciliantro, chopped

1. Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl.

1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup lemon vinegar
pinch salt
dash pepper
1 chipotle pepper, chopped (canned: chipotle in adobo)

2. Mix dressing with fork until homogenous
3. Pour dressing over cabbage mixture and toss to coat
4. Enjoy!

Refrigerator Cowgirl

2010-01-21T16:32:00.000-08:00

I may not be able to rope and wrangle, when I dance I step all over them cowboy's boots, and my fashion sense is none too popular 'round here - but I tell you, when it comes to looking in the fridge and pulling together something tasty for dinner - that is my gift!

I remember back to all those years of grumbles about leftover night at the Ray/Macnak abode, (but mom, what were they BEFORE they were leftovers?!) when my brother and I would have to buck up and face the meals of the past week stirred together in the most unlikely of preparations.. But you know what, it really did prepare me for this experience we call life!

The week before Christmas I watched as my bank account, credit line, and gas tank all puttered to empty while by some stroke of dumb luck, my pantry was well stocked with dry goods! Today - four weeks later - while I haven't had time to grocery shop yet, financial aid is finally in my bank account and I can look back and examine what I have accomplished. For example, I did not starve, beg, or steal. That's pretty good, eh! Ok, so I came up with some pretty good dishes too. Combinations of leftovers, free food given to me by my last rotation, and really cheap staple foods (onions, potatoes..).

For example, tonight's meal was all of these aforementioned things and was still delicious, nutritious, and well balanced!

Recipe for Po' Girl Slop

1/2 red onion

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 - 1 cup leftover herbed brown rice (cooked in chicken broth)

1/4 head of lettuce, shredded

1/2 avocado*, sliced

1/8 dressing of choice (mixture of olive oil, vinegars, soy sauce, mustard, honey, salt, pepper, and garlic)

Saute the onion in the butter on low heat until browned. Add leftover rice and heat through. Prepare shredded lettuce on a plate. Top with onion and rice mixture. Arrange avocado slices on top. Drizzle with dressing. Enjoy!

*Sorry Alaskans, but in Texas I can count avocados as "cheap staples" (please don't cry).

Now, if I can work this skill of mine into my career someday that would be pretty cool. Imagine if you will: me coming over to your house, rummaging through your fridge and pantry, and coming up with a yummy meal all the while sharing with you the magic of making food out of "nothing". Yeah.. I can see it..

Discussion of raw milk and of the quirky little road it is sometimes down..

2010-01-18T14:21:00.000-08:00

Within the last couple of weeks several people have been asking me questions about raw milk. I like to provide folks with several online resources so that they can come to their own conclusion and give it a try when they are ready. So while looking at the Weston A. Price Foundation for some good info, I came across a raw milk dairy just down the road from me! (25 miles down the road..) I don't know how I didn't notice it before as I had done such an online search when I first moved here, but better late than never!

MooJesus combines a raw milk dairy with organic produce with yea, you guessed it, Jesus. This really fascinated me because I wanted to know how the connection was made between religion and whole foods health. So I had to see for myself.

My friend Liz, who is positively the most up-for-anything-even-if-it's-totally-weird kind of person that I have met in the last ten years, said she would go with me. We went on Saturday afternoon and drove along the long country road out of Seguin into the picturesque Texas cowlands. To get to MooJesus (aka: Everything Jesus) we had to go through two private gates and past a several ominous out buildings.

We knew we had reached our destination when we saw the giant cross looming before us.

Liz and I parked the car and got out, surveying the scene. There were two houses that both looked equally inviting and non-inviting, so it was a fifty-fifty chance we would walk into the appropriate one. Somehow we made the right choice and I entered the one story house. I opened the door and froze. A roomful of smiling faces stared up at Liz and I as we stood motionless in the doorway. Had we interrupted bible study? Was this an exclusive party? No and no, they were just a jolly and welcoming bunch of folk.

The room consisted of several tables filled with folks slurping on smoothies. There was a chalkboard in the front of the room with a picture of a cow and some words about Jesus. The bookshelves and tables were laden with educational material about nutrition, organics, and religion.

We sat at a table with a sweet grandmother type and a mother of a couple of the kiddos running around. We were given a menu that had a huge variety of farm-grown produce, dairy products including housemade cheeses, grass-fed beef and pork, bean sprouts, and organic staple foods. We were on a bit of a time frame, with dinner planned at a friend's house before country dance lessons down at Cowboy's, so Liz and I started filling out the order sheet.

Oh how to describe what happened next... Well I'll start by saying that they are on country time or Jesus time, whichever moves slower! We shared a delicious organic fruit and ginger smoothie and watched with awe and horror as the farm staff moved about with such high energy and speed and yet somehow got so little done! We tasted their signature Nutzola, a cabbage slaw, agave-sweetened buttermilk, and housemade bread with a big ol' dollop of fresh butter. We took a short walk outside and marveled at the beauty of the farm. We thumbed through the available literature and attempted small talk with the patrons and staff.

An hour later, we received our bag full of milk, cheese, onion, a sweet potato, and grass-fed ground beef. We laughed the whole way home about what a quirky, interesting place it was! I lamented that I did not even have a moment to ask the pastor the questions I had about involvement in the Weston Price chapter and about how she made the link between religion and healthful foods, but that if I had asked such questions, we would have been there all night!

Alas, we missed dinner, but still made it on time for the dance lessons. I jested that they may have the power to slow down time on the farm, but that it puts the rest of your day on frantic fast-forward!

Sunday I drank a quart of milk. It was delicious. I compared it side by side to the Central Market (HEB) brand milk and here are my observations: the raw milk has a creamier taste, texture, and appearance whereas the Central Market milk is very white and hits the pallet twice. Both taste good, but here are my perceived benefits of raw vs. pasteurized and homogenized:

1. Nutritionally - Raw milk provides intact enzymes and bioactive compounds that aid in the digestion and absorption of milk nutrients. Cows that eat grass give milk with more omega-3 fatty acids than conventional milk and is therefore less inflammatory. And don't forget the idea of xenohormesis, the idea that by eating food that are unhealthy and lived a stressed life, we ourselves become stressed and unhealthy.

2. Environmentally - Treating milk to kill bacteria encourages the evolution of heat-resistant bacteria, just as antibacterial medication encourages antibiotic resistant bacteria. The waste and methane produced by cows on conventional lots is unsustainable and damaging to our ecosystems.

3. Morally - Raw milk dairies are small, family run operations in which the income from charging fair prices can sustain the farm and support their family and communities. The money from conventional milk is falsely cheap and does not provide a fair income to the dairy workers.

4. As a creature of this Earth - Raw milk is created the way nature intended, free of tampering from large corporations that rarely have our best interest in mild. Raw milk has been consumed by generations of peoples whereas conventional milk has been around for a little over a hundred years and only popular within the last couple of decades as small dairy farms become uncommon and people are filled with fear about the microorganisms that share our world.

Everything stated above is my opinion, based on my education, life experiences, and understanding of the history of our food systems. I highly encourage you to do your own research into the matter and use your own common sense when deciding how you wish to navigate these controversies around food and food activism.

Pasteurization became necessary as farms became larger and combined the milk of hundreds of cows into common pools for distribution across farther and farther reaches of land. If the pasteurized milk on the stores shelf was sold as raw, you better believe that food-borne illness would be running rampant because the cows are not likely to be eating grass and milking practices are very unlikely to be as sanitary as those on a certified raw dairy farm.

Raw milk is a luxury that not all of us can experience throughout all of our life changes. Raw milk is not a safe choice for folks who are unable to find a trusted source of raw milk and is not a safe choice for individuals who are immune compromised. In the immune compromised person, introducing any new bacteria, even beneficial bacteria, may not be safe.

Ok, enough for now! Have fun out there finding what works for you in your life! It is all an adventure.. Sometimes down weird and quirky little roads..

Being happy wherever you find yourself

2010-01-11T13:45:00.000-08:00

It has been six months now since I landed in Texas and not a full moon goes by without several folks questionings my seriousness about loving being in Texas and my intention to stay beyond my internship. Interesting the reasons why they think I wouldn't like it: uneducated folks running rampant, "ugly" terrain, too hot, too cold, too dry, too (insert weather issue here), republicans ruling the land, ect. These arguments seem to me to be arguments that could be made about any state or region if that is the lens in which you look at the world with.

I choose to see the beauty of a place that I live.

Texas is not grossly different from the other places I've lived. Everywhere has it's own beauty to offer and is filled with all sorts of different people making a great variety of choices about how they are living their lives. Texas is not better or worse than Washington, Alaska, Oregon, or California. All these states have areas they excel in and areas for improvement.

This internship was not my first choice; with all my heart I wanted Alaska to take me home so I could begin my career working with the local foods in my community. But this is where I ended up and to make a stink of it would be to add bad energy to a whole year of my life. Not worth it. Now I am not a spiritual person, but I do feel that there is a reason I am here and I intend to stay here long enough to let that reason come to fruition.

I have some goals for while I am here: gardening, preserving harvests, art projects, fiber working, hanging out with goats - all of which are challenging on a budget of zero.. but just one more reason to stick around!

It is a lonely life here, but I have been lonely before.

Some days I wake and look outside and all I can feel is blessed; I am blessed to be alive on our beautiful planet and blessed to have the resources to follow my passions. Other days I am mad at myself for ever having left Juneau and denying myself the experience of being rooted in a community and being surrounded by people that love me. (But Anna, there is time to have this experience as well.. Someday..)

This past week I have been crazy working on my resume to begin getting it out there. My initial job search will be focused on clinical dietetics for non-profit or government hospitals. I may have to be less picky as internship completion time approaches. In a perfect scenario, I would find a job in a smaller town where I could live like I do now, off the beaten path a bit.

Week 10 - Dietetic Internship

2009-11-17T16:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry family and friends. I've just wasted 60 minutes (again) trying to qualify my observations, experiences, and self-reflections about my internship experience here so to share them with you by "blogging", but I have failed and my time is precious these days, so I am giving up for now.

Just so you know - the internship is going AWESOME and I have had exceptional feedback from my clinical preceptors about my performance at my rotations. Everything was been fulfilling and challenging. No complaints besides the usual, "our health care system is seriously f*ed up," and "oh my good lord, I can't believe we give sick people that to eat/drink".

Take away message from my experiences thus far: nurture yourself - some of us can't avoid a hospital stay, but most of us can.

Spend some time for yourself today.

3 Fairs in 3 Months - Lovin' Texas!

2009-10-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

Guadalupe County Fair & Rodeo

October 10th, 2009

I went by myself at 2pm to catch a fiddler's contest. It was grand - the youngest fiddler was 7 years old and the older was 78 years old. I tried to look friendly and dressed appropriately for a fair, but still was unable to strike up a conversation with the locals. Everyone was there with extended family and looked busy. I exaggerate.

At 5pm my friend Liz met up with me. We watched the FFA members show off their sheep and listened as the judge would say the most improbable things about the winning sheep. For dinner, Liz had the largest corn dog I have ever laid eyes upon and I ordered a $4 sausage sandwich. We then walked over to the petting area where the animals looked sad and in dire need of freedom. It was very upsetting, but we took our photos with them anyways.

They don't call it a Texas longhorn for no reason.

We popped our head into where the Miss Rodeo or whatever they call them were all dressed up like dolls and were put on the spot to say something thoughtful to the crowd. It was like loading up your sushi with wasabi, you know it's going to be painful - but you like it. We stopped by the Master Gardeners booth and learned an alternative name for Sorgum: Milo. They gave us some free seeds and I dropped a dollar in their donation jar.

The rodeo came around, and in honor of breast cancer awareness, all the cowboys were dressed in pink. Hot. Did you know that the reason the horses and bulls buck is that their testicles are bound? Well, now I know too. We left early to beat the rush, and gosh I'm glad we did. You have never seen so many trucks in one place as the parking area for a rodeo.

Comal County Fair & Rodeo

September 26th, 2009

Jeanette, Jason, and I rolled in about 3pm. We walked around the gigantic fair grounds and headed for the livestock barn. The petting areas were clearly meant for the kids, but I got right in there and cuddled the baby cows, pet the silly goats, and kissed the baby chicks. Next we went into the plant room and oo-ed and aw-ed over the native plants. Next door was a taxidermy room where I saw a bobcat, a wild hog, and a bunch of other stuffed animals. Next door to that was the room with all the winners of various craft arts from around the county. There was canned foods, pies, vegetables, quilts, photographs, paintings, and more.

I bought my first cowgirl hat for $20. It's fabulous.

We ate fried pickles and fried oreos. I know you will have to try it too to truly know what it is like, but really - don't bother. It was just as weird and wrong as it sounds. Then we ate gyros and listened to some live music. By the time the rodeo came around, I was accidently too intoxicated to enjoy it. I become emotional during the National Anthem and cried.

Blanco County Fair & Rodeo

August 15th, 2009

Jeanette and I drove into town at around 11am, just missed the parade but just in time to see the crowds of folks getting their BBQ from the outdoor pits made by big burly men with two-pronged forks.

The fairgrounds were quite vacant, the fair rides sat lonely and unused, the only action was a group of men throwing washers into a hole. I later learned the game is called Washers. We sat on the benches, watching and trying to figure out the rules. Then we wandered over to where some cowboys were team roping; it's where two guys chase a young cow and one guy lassos him around the horns and the second guy lassos him around the ankles. It was about 105 degrees.

About 6pm folks starting pouring into the fair. The rodeo was to start at 7pm. We finally got to talking with some locals and shared a picnic table with them as the Washers game was finishing up. I made a dumb-ass of myself by walking across the playing field in the middle of the game (thanks a lot Lone Star). By the time we went into the rodeo arena, there were no bleacher spots left. We sat on the ground with the kids, which ended up being awesome.

There were so many families there. There was one rodeo event called Mutton Bustin' in which little kids held on for dear life to some sheep that were sent bolting across the field. Another event had the littlest of all the kids run around barrels on stick horses. It was enough to send an independent, free-spirited gal like me into premature ovulation.

Chili times in the hot south.

2009-10-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

My first time at the VFW hall in Geronimo, Texas was a Sunday afternoon in August. I guilted my poor housemate into accompanying me to a dance there advertised on a blinking neon arrow sign standing outside the hall. We entered and it was awkward for a few moments, until a woman who looked like she was in charge came over to us and said hello. Then she said the most improbable thing, which in actuality was the most perfect thing she could have said, "Aren't y'all my new neighbors?" And yes, we were. Our neighbor, Barbara, also turned out to be the head of the women's affairs at the VFW.

Barbara chatted with us for a bit and then sat us down at a table with two pairs of the cutest older folk couples ever. The atmosphere was dark and dingy, just the way I like it. The women were all dressed in floral pattern dresses, nylons, and sensible shoes or else high waisted jeans, a tucked in Western-style shirt, and cowgirl boots. The gentlemen led their partners to and from the dance floor and continuously wiped sweat from their brows. I eventually got in three dances before we swished down the last of our wine coolers and departed. As we departed Barbara gave us a schedule of the VFW upcoming events.

October 3-4: Chili Cook-off

Hmm. As two nutrition students who love to cook, we felt we were up to the challenge! With almost two months to prepare we were confident we could whip up something competition worthy. Later that week I made my first chili. It was packed full of vegetables, beans, meat, and three different kinds of chili powder - it was ok. Next up was Jeannette, she made a white chili, made with vegetables, white beans, chicken, spices and a touch of cream - it was pretty good. We schemed about how were could make our chili ideas into awesome chilis, we talked to locals about where to buy spices, meat, ect. We had a plan.

Then the internship started. The plan fizzled out. And this time it was for the best. October 4th rolled around and I had a lot of procrastinating to do, so I headed over to the VFW hall to see what this Texas chili is all about.

I was 30 minutes early for the tastings and again it started out very awkward as I was the only person under 60 there, and again Barbara saved me from awkward land and introduced me to some very lovely folks. It was then I learned all about what fools we would have looked like had we brought our chilis to the cook-off!

a) You must cook your chili on-site (tail-gating, RV-ing, ect.)

b) There are Bean chilis and there are Meat chilis, there are NO Bean and Meat chilis

c) Bean chilis consist of beans and "gravy"

d) Meat chilis consist of meat and "sauce"

e) Absolutely no identifiers in the chili (i.e. vegetables)

I guess they will let anyone be a judge because somehow I was allowed to sign up to be one. Beans judging was at noon and there were four contestants and 7 or 8 judges. There is a whole big process to how they de-identify the chilis so that no-one can know who's is who's, but I won't even go into that. Anywho... We judged them on appearance, aroma, texture of beans, flavor, and overall goodness. I thought they all kinda sucked, but whatever.

Next at 1pm was the meat chili tasting. Of course, the case study I had to finish no longer seemed important and I just had to know for myself about this Texas chili thing! I signed up again and this time sat down with about 15 judges to taste 23 chili entries. I knew I had my work cut out for me. You only have to take one spoonful, but to really get a sense of the chili, it takes two. I dove into the first chili, then the next, and the next. This time there was one score that encompassed the areas of taste, after taste, aroma, red color (yes, red color), and overall awesomeness (I think they called it something else though).

I took my job as a judge very seriously, cleansing my palate between each chili, taking a long whiff of the chili, then tasting and fully experienced each chili. I'm not going to lie folks, after about 10 of 'em, they all kind of taste the same. I mean, some have more cumin, some are a little spicier, but when you are talking about meat and sauce, there really wasn't a huge variation. Perhaps my palate is just young and unexperienced in the ways of the chili.

So 46 bites of chili and an hour later, I rolled myself home. I knew I hadn't quite yet fully experienced this Texas chili thing. The final piece was to make it myself, the way they do. At the cook-off I met a one-eyed, sweet-as-pecan-pie woman named Lynn Hejtmancik, who told me she was once the CASI Terlingua International Chili Championship Winner and her award winning chili recipe was online.

[Background info: CASI stands for Chili Appreciation Society International. They are a charity organization based upon chili cook-offs. You see, each chili contestant pays $10-$20 to submit their chili in the over 500 chili cook-offs every year. The prize for the winning chilis are "CASI points", if a contestant gets 15 or more CASI points within the year, they are eligible to cook-off at the Terlingua International Chili Championship. CASI boasts of giving over 1 million dollars to charities each year, the bulk of which is raised in Texas.]

I looked CASI up online and found Lynn's recipe, from 1988. A week later I went shopping for all the packaged ingredients I needed and gave it a go. My chili ended up just as good as some of those cook-off chilis, so I can be sure sweet Lynn recorded the true recipe. As you can see from the photo and the ingredient list, this is far from our whole foods cooking ideal. And that's ok. Texas chili is an evolving and curious creature. For a whole foods version of competition chili, you would need to blenderize your cooked vegetables, which according to the old-timers at the Geronimo VFW, adds an unpredictable and unreproducible element that won't get you to the championships.

The lessons I am taking away from this experience is:

1. Know the rules before you enter a competition.

2. Just 'cause it wins a championship doesn't mean it's better than the way mamma cooks it.

3. VFW hall = fabulous.

Lynn Hejtmancik - Austin, Texas (1988)

http://www.chili.org/lynn.html

Ingredients

2 lbs - "Chili Grind" Beef Chuck Roast

1 tbsp - Bacon Grease

Bag #1

3 tbsp - Chili Powder

1 tsp - Garlic Powder

2 tsp - Onion Powder

1/2 tsp - Black Pepper

1/2 tsp - Salt

1/2 tsp - Cayenne Pepper

Bag #2

3 tbsp - Chili Powder

1 tbsp - Cumin

2 tsp - Garlic Powder

1/4 tsp - White Pepper

1/2 tsp - Oregano Powder

Pinch - Basil

1/2 tsp - MSG (Optional)

Other Ingredients

1 can (14-1/2 oz) Swanson Chicken Broth

1 can (14-1/2 oz) Swanson Beef Broth

1 can (8 oz) Hunts "No Salt Added" Tomato Sauce

1 Knorr Beef Bullion Cube

1/2 tsp - Light Brown Sugar

Cooking Instructions

Heat Bacon Grease in cooking pot until very hot (smoking)

Add "Room Temperature" meat, grey until it starts to make it's own juice

Stir continuously, add both cans of broth, and 1/2 of Bag #1

Cook covered at a medium boil for 45 minutes

Uncover and stir every 10 minutes

Add water as needed

After 45 minutes, add the rest of Bag #1

Add tomato sauce is tender, and add Bag #2

Add 1 beef bullion cube

Add 1/2 tsp light brown sugar

Use the following to season to taste:

Salt

Cayenne Pepper - for hot front taste

White Pepper - for hot front taste

Brown Sugar - for a sweeter taste

Ready to eat - Better the next day

Adventures in Gardening

2009-09-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

What I love about my rental property here in Nowhere, Texas is that for the first time EVER in my life I have a huge amount of land that is dumpy enough that whatever I do will be an improvement upon it and there is no hyper-dictoral landlord leaning over my shoulder, or who is even present for that matter.

The garden is coming along famously - eight weeks into our time here and we have two raised beds enclosed in a shoddy but functional fence and one garden bed converted out of a horse trough. We are growing anything and everything, only letting seasonality play a minor role in what we grow. I mean, it's Texas! I think they only have two seasons, spring and summer, right?

At the same time as I am planting my first garden, I am reading The $64 Tomato, by William Alexander, who details the ups, downs, and financial woes of an ambitious gardener. Whereas I am not nearly on his scale of a 22-bed garden, I do see parts of my story written into many of the pages. (I hope it has a happy ending.)

Growing organically seems to mean feeding the bugs more than feeding us. I guess it takes a couple years to cultivate the kind of ecosystem that favors the bugs that don't eat every plant in sight, therefore I accept the fact that I may not actually get to eat very much of the organic vegetables that grow this year. So far we have lost 3 cucumber plants, watched many squash atrophy, and observed every okra leaf get nibbled smaller and smaller each day. For some reason the collards in the trough are fairing better than the fenced garden, but I'm sure its only a matter of time before a deer comes over and thanks us for putting the salad out at such a perfect grazing height for it.

William Alexander and I have both discovered that growing your own food is rarely cheaper than buying produce from the grocery store. However, harvesting the rare vegetable that the bugs and deer are kind enough to leave behind for us makes it all worth while.

Why? Because it is so easy in this age to become disconnected from where our food comes from and there is something so core to our human-ness about being able to provide nourishing food for ourselves and loved ones.

Spending time with chickens

2009-09-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

My housemate and I spoke of getting laying chickens before we even made it to Texas. What could be better, we thought, then collecting fresh eggs from chickens that really eat bugs and turn our vegetable scraps into a perfect protein?!

Three weeks ago I found a posting on craigslist for two laying hens, about a year old. We took off one day to take a look at them, boxes filled with a little hay and bird handling gloves - just in case. The chickens lived in a four by four foot raised chicken coop and were never permitted to run around in the yard. They ate 100% feed.

These details were not ideal, but of course I had fallen in love the moment we had seen them, so there was no going back.

It took the lady over an hour to coax the chickens to the door of the cage and rustle them into the cardboard boxes. Then we drove them home and let them go in their new huge chicken coop. They pecked around, made some odd noises, and started pooping around the coop. Doing chicken things I guess.

These being my first chickens, I really didn't know what to do with them, but we got some advice from chicken-owning-neighbors that we should keep them in the coop for two weeks, then when we let them out they will always come back to roost at night. It seemed reasonable so that is what we did.

This last Saturday was the two weeks mark and I let Ginger and Bertha out to peck around the property! Good news - the dog did not eat them.

They give us an egg or two a day, plenty for our house of

three to have eggs at breakfast when we like. The egg yolks stand tall and proud in the egg pan, enticing us with their deep orange color. The egg white has a well defined inner circle and outer circle, just like a healthy egg should. We thank our chickens for their gifts with frequent visits with snacks and cooing words of appreciation. I love visiting them every morning with a "Hello ladies!"

Next time I will definitely raise the lil buggers from chicks to get the whole experience and to control their food from the beginning, but getting them a little older fits my lifestyle at the moment and I am happy to have done it this way.

From a nutrition view, the eggs are fabulous. But the chickens give us something else too, a relaxed companionship. Many times now I have closed myself in with the chickens and sat on the hay stack to just watch them. The simplicity of their lives slows me down and comforts me. They are gentle little creatures.

My new home in Texas:

2009-08-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

I live 10 miles away from San Marcos off the I-35 and I have to say, it's pretty much paradise. The house sits on an acre and is surrounded by a huge open sky and one or two never-seen neighbors. Living in San Marcos was not an option because no houses were available in the sweet old part of town, and the areas zoned for multi-family housing were college party blocks that would have made for a very sad and irritated Anna. I popped into Austin one day to check out the housing scene and get an idea for the length of drive to get in/out from different sections of the town. I came to the conclusion that day that Austin was not the place for me right now. After living in Seattle for the last two years, I relished the idea of living away from "fun".

When Jeanette and I saw this house we knew we had something special. And it was SO cheap. Well, Seattle cheap. It is not perfect and sometimes smells a little funny, it's as hot as a baked potato, and we have had to remove all sorts of wildlife from the inside of the house to the outside - but its got character and it certainly charms the socks off of me just about every day.

This photo of the back yard shows the potential for a chicken coop (structure on the left), a vegetable garden (started last week, in front of the chicken coop), and maybe a boarding place for some goats if anyone asks!? Anyone? Ah well, chickens and vegetables for sure.

Jeanette and I have spent the last 20 days exploring our surroundings - mostly the three towns of size within a 10 mile radius and the little establishments in between. We are learning the local customs and native language, which - although spelled the same - sounds very different! For example: a beer cozy is a "coozy", said in a sentence, "ya'll wanna coozy?" I have also found that some bars do not carry "Obama" beer (aka Corona) and close at 9 pm.

When I am not driving around to get glimpse of cowboys and fuzzy farm animals, I stay home and indulge in domestic activities. I have cleaned out the garage and made it into a recycling station and wood storage room. Jeanette and I put together the garden and I have seedlings of okra, cucumber, beets, collards, and eggplant poking out of their egg carton temporary homes. This week I went on a stenciling frenzy and made a couple art pieces for our ranch. And of course I cook. Today I made a wonderful potato and roasted garlic soup made from chicken bone broth.

So "boiled down", my life here is going famously and I have appreciated the huge outpouring of support and love from friends and family on my transition to this new place, new time in my life. Next week orientation for my internship begins. This time between Bastyr and Texas State University has been a beautifully relaxing and rejuvenating time and I feel ready to jump into my career path and hopefully inspire others to live, love, and eat with joy.

Texas, the land of styrofoam and plastic

2009-08-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

Well I am here in Central Texas! The land is beautiful, the people are friendly, and the BBQ joints are... a culture shock!

The first BBQ joint we went to we stepped in the door and looked around at the super long picnic tables, the tray line counter, and the plastic silverware and we thought to ourselves, "whoops, I guess we chose an odd one." We ate our meat served with meat with a side of meat with plastic silverware on butcher paper over a tray that may or may not have ever been washed in mostly silence, silence broken by the occassional, "hm, interesting.." We left there feeling very full and concerned about how the lack of fiber would stop up our bowels for the next week and popped into a pub in downtown San Marcos for a beer. A beer that I could not really drink because all ready there was turmoil down under.

It was 36 hours before my stomach and intestines returned to normal function.

So it was a weird joint, right? Well we were determined to try it again, somewhere maybe a little more.. restaurant-y, less cafeteria-y? So when Jeanette's parent's offered to take us out for dinner, we chose a BBQ joint in downtown New Braunfels that I googled and found some good reviews for. I put on a fabulous dress and my favorite jewerly and put some goo in my hair for a nice night out on the town. We drove up to the BBQ joint and the parking lot was packed at 6 pm - a good sign!

We walked in and the first thing I did was gasp. Jeanette and I looked at each other. We could not believe it! It was just like the other joint but with a fast-food look about it more than cafeteria! Order at the counter, eat out of styrofoam containers with plastic utensils, and wow, at least they had side salads.. served in plastic containers. I quickly got out my phone to see what other restaurants were in the area, my intestines twisted and moaned, but it was too late. Jeanette's parents were ready to order - splitting a "2-kinds of meat" with sides of salad, coleslaw, and baked beans. I put away my phone and ordered the "1-kind of meat" with some coleslaw and loaded up on some sides of BBQ sauce and pickled jalepenos.

We sat at a booth, everyone staring at the freak who dressed up nice to eat at the fast-food BBQ joint, and settled into our meats. Sadly, I could tell that the seasoning was really good on my pork, but something about the meat made me nauseous and I filled up on the cole slaw instead, occasionally pecking at Jeanette's macaroni salad.

With guilt tugging at my soul, I threw away our plasic and styrofoam dining materials in the overflowing trash can and left the joint.

21 days out of Seattle, 3 days until Texas

2009-07-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

Spent my first week in Portland with a dear friend from my high school days. We went to a little river one day and soaked up the warmth with occasional dips in the cool water. Fourth of July we drove up to a property in Washington and watched an intimate fire works show. My dog, Sebastian, spent the night hiding under the steering wheel in my car, panting up a storm and generally quite miserable.

Next popped into Trinidad, CA to see my cousin Carl who treated me to a delightful dinner at a local coffee shop of fresh tamales. Drove through Arcata, waving at the grocery store I used to shop at and visiting the park at the opening of the bay.

Spent the next week with my Aunt and Uncle in San Andreas, CA. Lounging around, eating delightful meals, swimming in the nearby quarry, and learned how to knit. Next went over to my 93 year old grandmother's house and spent several days hanging out with her, eating more and listening to her stories of my young father and the depression.

I took a day trip to Lake Tahoe, then continued on to Las Vegas, taking the long way through Yosemite National Park. Passed through so many different ecosystems I was in a constant state of awe at our planet's beauty!

Now I'm in Las Vegas, hitting the road tomorrow to make the final three day trek to San Marcos, TX! I am hoping that I remember some of my schooling by the time the internship begins, in late August.

Graduation!

2009-06-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

My parents came through town for the graduation ceremony at Benaroya Hall on Monday, June 22nd.

We trotted around Pike's place and bought spices then had a gourmet lunch at a fancy little restaurant Saturday. Sunday we went to the Asian Art Museum on Capital Hill then had a delightful picnic in the park of salami, Beecher's cheeses, olives, bread, and a touch of wine. That night we ate out at a Mexican restaurant in Greenwood area.

Monday was spent taking photos, saying my final good-byes to many a wonderful classmate, and of course, walking across a huge stage to accept my slip of paper from the president of Bastyr University.

It was an unruly day, filled with long moments of boredom followed by a laughing attack during the president's speech to the undergraduate class 'cause we couldn't hear a word he was saying to us due to the acoustics of the stage!

Thank you for all the congratulations and good wishes from my friends and family!

It is so amazing to be transitioning out of this place in my life and moving in a new direction.

This beautiful life.

2009-05-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

I have been so blessed in my life being surrounded by folks who love good food.

From my parents who cooked a delicious meal every night, to my earliest job in a sandwich shop showcasing a bounty of freshly chopped vegetables, to being a fine dining server in which presentation was as important as taste, to my dear friends Erin and Andrew who constantly challenge themselves with new flavors and culinary experiences, and finally to my life here in Seattle with a pod of nutrition students to whom local and organic produce means the upmost vitality and health.

Last night I was invited to dinner at a friend's house for "Tacos and Mojitos". I got there about 7 p.m. and Sara was in the kitchen chopping garlic and tending to the chicken. As more folks trickled in we spread out the preparation jobs so that a couple of us were mashing the fresh mint into the sugar and lime juice for the mojitos and a couple of us were making corn tortillas and tending to the sauteed vegetables.

For 7 broke college students, we put out quite a feast! The spread was chicken and vegetables, chili sauce, guacamole, two kinds of salsa, scallop ceviche, sauteed greens, and homemade tortillas. At first when we dug into the food and filled our plates there was silence broken only by some mummers of pleasure with each bite.

The result: a very happy and full Anna who could no longer muster the energy to go dancing.

Simple Scallop Ceviche

2 cups bay scallops or diced large scallops

Juice of 6 + limes

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 jalapeno pepper, diced

1/2 red onion, diced

1 avocado, diced

handful of cilantro, chopped fine

smoked paprika

salt & pepper

cumin

Place in bowl with enough lime juice to cover. Let sit in refrigerator for 4-5 hours or until no longer raw in the middle. Drain lime juice and add remaining ingredients to scallops. Season to taste.

Eating with the dogs

2009-05-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

Taking a look at this photo of my fresh wild caught pacific salmon you may not guess that it was intended as dog food.

My dog, Sebastian, eats a diet of 90% raw meat, 10% veggies and leftover grains or legumes. I spotted salmon trimmings at PCC about a month ago for $2.99 per lb and quickly bought it up for Sebastian. As I was feeding it to him, I noticed how much meat was actually on these so-called trimmings!

The next time I bought it, I bought about $5 worth, put it in a oven pan with a thin layer of water and cooked it up for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees sprinkled with salt, pepper, and dill. The meat was perfect. Positively delicious.

The best part: I ate my heart out, as you can see from the plate, and Sebastian also got a full belly from all the skin, fins, and less perfect pieces!

I am very fortunate for the wonderful food I eat, and so is Sebastian. Now if only he'd get a job.

Getting ready for Texas!

2009-05-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

The stars seem to be aligning for this transition.

My acceptance to the graduate program at TSU came through the mail the other day and I am counting on a financial aid award amount to be figured out very soon which, I got a tip, will cover a little over tuition - big relief!!

I will be moving up in the world with a "professional" vehicle (i.e. one that doesn't look like it was dragged out of a swamp) to start off my journey: a 2001 Honda CRV.

My trip is theoretically kickin' off in the first week of July and will take me through Oregon and California to visit friends and family. There is also a nutrition conference in the Mid-west I would love to hit on the way - decision pending.

I look forward to the travel fare of bread, cheese, avocados, and salami. Which is perhaps one of my fondest memories of both my road-trip with Evelyn and my time spend in Europe all those years ago.

I will arrive in San Marcos early to mid August. And yes, I am aware that it will be quite warm about that time of year.

If Alaska had accepted me, I would not be able to take this month long road trip this summer. Driving around seems like ecologically a bad choice - but somehow it is always emotionally and spiritually fulfilling to me in ways I can't describe. I do enjoy living in a home with all the amenities, but another part of me loves not living anywhere and just waking up each day with a new destination in mind.

I look forward to the day that I "settle", but also I am grateful for my opportunity to still live life without such restrictions.

For the love of popcorn...

2009-05-13T20:09:00.001-07:00

It was a long day and I had an excruciating headache for half of it.. Time for some comfort food! Some folks are drawn to chocolate or sweet, but I go for the popcorn every time.

Oh how I love to play with the spicing of my fluffy friends! Today I think a dash of turmeric, a healthy sprinkling of salt, my favorite curry powder, and cilantro all heated up together in a pool of olive oil and butter.

My greasy fingers picking up one little piece of popcorn at a time, relishing it, and reaching for t

he next. Almost like being back in the womb!

Well, not quite. And yet it is very much my comfort food.

Nightshades and Dairy Foods

2009-05-12T18:18:00.000-07:00

Dairy is high in calcium and good for our bone health.

Nightshade plants, including eggplant and tomato, contain alkaloids which are believed to pull calcium from the bones.

It is thought that when eating nightshade plants alone you are taking the calcium out of the bones, but in when eaten with dairy you are putting more than enough calcium back into the equation to balance it out!

This makes not only pairing nightshades with dairy nutritionally wise, but has the added benefit of being just plain delicious!!

My meal tonight was one I had a strong hankerin' for on my way home from class. It is marinated eggplant in a Indian-yogurt curry sauce over rice.

Here is what I did:

I cut up my eggplant into little cubes and set them in a bowl with the diced green onions and a bit of canned roasted tomatoes. In another bowl I combined the marinade ingredients of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, agave nectar, mustard, salt, pepper, garlic, garam marsala, and curry spice. I poured the marinade over the eggplant, added some plain greek yogurt, and let it sit while I made a phone call, tidied the kitchen, cooked the rice, and fed my dog; it sat for maybe 45 minutes. I sauteed up the eggplant in some butter for 10-12 minutes and topped my rice with it. Voila, dinner is served.

Did I measure my ingredients? Sorry, not today. Sometimes I find it the most fun to just throw some ingredients together and see what happens!

5 dollars a dozen

2009-05-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

I have $12 in my bank account, 2 unpaid bills, and a pile of school debt half the amount my parents paid for their home.

So why did I buy one dozen eggs for 5 bucks when the grocery store sells them for $1.50?

I love how each egg is different. One is little and spotted, another is large and white, while yet another is dark and more of an oblong shape. I love how when I crack that puppy open her yolk is firm and golden. How fresh and real it tastes.

But what I love most about these eggs is trust. I trust that the chickens who laid these eggs are healthy and happy and poking around in someone's yard. I trust that they are being provided a good life and transfered some of that positive energy into my daily breakfast.

I am fortunate to be able to choose the 5 dollar eggs as this may not always be the case and is not the case for many out there. But for now, it is the right choice for me.

Congee - Medicine for the bowels

2009-05-10T18:27:00.000-07:00

I was trying ever so hard to do some homework when it occurred to me that I shouldn't be suggesting to my paper patient to eat a food I hadn't even tried!

So I popped into the kitchen and threw together my first congee, or rice porridge:

1 cup arborio rice

6 cups broth

1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger

1 Tbsp fresh grated turmeric

1 Tbsp soy sauce

Simmer it all together for 2 hours (longer if desired) and enjoy! Garnish with cilantro.

So what's it good for? Think of it as chicken soup for the intestines. Most of our immune system lies in our gut and this brew is sure to give it a lovely rest to rejuvenate itself. The turmeric is highly anti-inflammatory and the ginger is good for you in so many ways I don't know where to start!

The congee is also a warming food, soothing you in cold, rainy weather, or when you are trying to beat a bad case of the swine flu. Hangover cure? Why not!

Mmm Mm!

(secret: I couldn't wait the two whole hours, only made it one hour. The rice looks similar to maggots, but the flavor was sweet, salty, delicate, and the texture was delightful!)

Meet the Goat or Goat Meat?

2009-05-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

Goats are cute, soft, quite like pillows, and full of unique personalities. Would I be comfortable eating one if I had time to hang out with it first?

I am reminded of the part in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when at the restaurant at the end of the universe the main course is rolled out to the guests and in a most courteous manner describes the different cuts of meat off of its body that would please the guests most.

Like Arthur Dent, I too feel a disconnect between the meat I eat and the life that it came from.

Moving home to Alaska meant that I would have the opportunity to learn to hunt and feel what it is like to complete the circle. Now that Texas is my destination, I wish to spend time on a farm and see how folks dance the line of pet vs. dinner.

Changing Seasons, Changing Palate

2009-05-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

Salad for a Sunny Day:

Garbanzo beans, iceberg lettuce, strawberries, green onions, and a touch of avocado! Topped with a homemade vinaigrette and done.

Secret ingredient: share with friends.

The season has changed. Just a couple of weeks ago I was craving lamb and stews but as the sun becomes warmer and more extroverted, I find myself making salad upon salad and chompin' away!