Some may say I have too many flashlights…I say there is no such thing! In this gear review Wednesday I review a very cheap and well made flashlight you can buy in a 3 pack at many wholesale clubs across the country. Check them out!
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Should Athletes Eat Fat or Carbs – From the New York Times
I don’t often post a link to another article, but I think this one is pretty important to many of my readers. It just shows the steady move away from fat being the cause of so many things, and more to carbs being the issue. In this case, carbs are finally targeted as maybe NOT being the best choice for athletes. Let me know what ya’ll think!
Should Athletes Eat Fat or Carbs?
Series Revisted: Keys To Paleo Success Part 1/4 – Cooking
I have quickly come to understand what I believe are the major areas one must concentrate on in order to be successful for the long term with a Paleo lifestyle. I’m not talking about specifics when it comes to what you eat, or how you eat, it’s more about behaviors and attitudes. Today’s post is the first of a multi-part series discussing these areas, and today we concentrate on cooking at home.
Some of the biggest complaints I here from my patients about the Paleo lifestyle revolve around cooking. “I can’t cook like that,” or “I can’t cook at all” are what I often get. Being inLouisianapeople just can’t wrap their heads around coming out of the kitchen without biscuits, rice or potatoes playing a major role in dinner. The same is true for any regional cuisine and that cuisine’s traditional staples. It’s almost sacrilegious to tell people that Grandma’s famous dinner rolls gotta go! The Paleo lifestyle revolves around what goes in your mouth, and what goes in our mouths every night has to revolve around a home kitchen putting out the right kind of meals.
Let’s talk restaurants. The first thing I suggest is to get over the idea that you can successfully convert to the paleo lifestyle by eating out every night. Although I do not instruct my patients to count calories when eating Paleo, I do think some obvious restraint is necessary. The average meal at a chain restaurant these days contains 400-750 calories for an appetizer, and 1200-1800 for a main course. These are averages, and many far exceed these numbers. Want to scare yourself more, take a look at the calorie numbers at common kid’s meals these days! Even splitting an appetizer, having an run of the mill entrée, along with a little bread and salad, you still are easily at 2000 calories on a good night. You simply can’t do this 4-5 nights a week and succeed.
Another problem with restaurants is cost. I have absolutely no problem going to a very nice restaurant and spending a little money on a nice meal (in fact, I rather enjoy it!). That said, when one of the biggest issues patients complain about is the cost of eating Paleo, you have to be smart where you spend your money. A 16 oz Ribeye at a local steakhouse is 24-28 dollars, the same Ribeye is 12-14 dollars at my local butcher. Take this evening for example. I am cooking crabcakes with red pepper coconut sauce, roasted asparagus and a side salad. Here are some rough numbers on the cost.
Home:
1 pound of Crabmeat – $16.00
½ bell pepper – $1.00
1 Shallot – $0.50
Paleo Mayo – $0.50
OldBaySeasoning – $3.00 (For whole thing!)
Asparagus – $4.00
Salad Greens – $4.00
Total – $29.00 or $7.25 per person
Local Seafood Restaurant:
2 Adult Crabcakes – $18.00 each
2 Kid’s Chicken Strip Meals (We won’t battle the kids out to dinner!) – $8.00 Each
2 Sides of Asparagus – $4.00 each
2 Waters – $2.00 each
2 Kids Drinks – $1.00 each
Total – $76.00, with Tax and Tip – $95.00! or an average of $23.75 per person
Now this is just an example, and I didn’t even give the kids crabcakes (which they love by the way). There is just no way anyone can argue that cooking at home is not immensely cheaper than eating out. The problem is many people don’t really see this because it just adds up. Ten bucks for lunch here, 50 for dinner there, and before you know it you have spent tons on dining out. I hear it all the time…”It’s just too expensive to cook at home!” Man! Get a calculator and discover the truth!
Another area of concern with restaurants is that you have NO IDEA what they are cooking your food with. Did you know that a Wendy’s chicken sandwich actually contains some beef?! Even nicer restaurants are out for one thing (as they probably should be) and that is to make their food taste as good as they can so you will come back and eat again. They don’t do that, as well as turn a profit by cooking with natural oils or without cutting some nutritional corners. A major part of the Paleo lifestyle is being completely aware of what is going into your mouth. You can’t do that going out to eat unless you know who is cooking for you well, and you are able to given them specific instructions on what to do and what not to do. It can be done, you just have to be very proactive when you order and make them understand how important it is to you that things are done right.
One last issue with eating out is that you are always prone to eat more when going out to dinner. Have you seen serving sizes these days! You go to a restaurant to eat, you are presented with a plethora of options, and given little extras to fill you up while you wait for your food to be cooked. How are we not going to overeat in these situations? How many of us when cooking at home serve an appetizer, bread, salad, main dish, and sides at every meal? When’s the last time your local Mexican joint failed to refill your chips and salsa on demand?!
Enough about eating out, lets talk cooking at home for the rest of the post. I get it, I’m a foodie kitchen dork who loves to cook and make my family happy at meal time. I also have tons of time and don’t work but 3 hours a day….NOT!! Maybe you don’t like to cook? Or is it that you don’t feel comfortable in the kitchen? Or maybe nothing turns out as good as it does at Chilis? Here is a few suggestions.
The first thing I suggest is that you keep a well stocked pantry at all times. When we designed our new house I let my wife essentially do the whole thing…except for my pantry. I knew exactly what I wanted, and I even ended up having the builders rip a wall down and steal more space from an adjacent guest closet to increase the size. No matter the size though, you need to keep pantry staples on hand so you don’t have to constantly be running to the store to get everyday items. If you make it a priority to stock your pantry, you can spread the cost out over 3-4 months and end up with a good stock on hand. I can’t emphasize your pantry enough.
Next I suggest you start easy and slow. Find some easy Paleo recipes on the internet or in a book and follow it step by step. Look here for a place to start! Read and understand the recipe well before starting, prepare your ingredients, and put it together. You just have to try! Don’t have much time, pull out the crock pot and take 10 minutes in the morning to fix dinner before you leave the house! This may sound obvious, but for a while I would stick to meals that you KNOW you and your family will love. If you are new to cooking, and your family is wishing Domino’s was delivering instead, the last thing you want is to try something a little out of the norm and (literally) leave a bad taste in their mouths. Cook some “fast balls down the middle of the plate” for a while to build your confidence, as well as the confidence of those you are cooking for. Once you feel pretty good about some easy recipes that everyone enjoys, start experimenting with new techniques and ingredients. Above all else, try to make cooking fun! Involve the kids and make a mess every once in a while. You are teaching your kids knowledge that will serve them a lifetime if they learn to produce great meals at home.
Another MAJOR component to successful cooking from the home is planning. If I don’t have anything planned for dinner when I leave the house in the morning, we probably have a 75% chance of getting take out that night. We spend more, eat more, and likely are eating some things we should not. Plan ahead for 2-3 days and try to have your ingredients on hand. Check your family schedule every week and look for things that could get in your way. Always have church till later on Wednesdays? Why not try making Wednesdays crock pot night and you don’t have to worry about dinner other than to get home and serve. We usually do go out to lunch every Sunday after church, so it gives everyone something to look forward to on the weekend. Just find a schedule and plan that is right for you and stick to it.
I want to give you guys two quick tips that I have discovered for myself over the years being the cook and planner in the house. First, I used to try to plan meals for the whole week on Sunday, and get everything bought early to cut on my trips to the grocery store. For me that just did not work very well. Almost always, what sounded good for dinner Thursday night when I was planning Sunday night did not sound as good when Thursday came around. This led to more going out to eat, and wasting of food I bought for that dinner if I did not quickly find another use for it. I now plan 2 days in advance maximum (unless I am using the Sous Vide for more than a 48 hour soak). I go to the store more, but it allows me to always keep what we eat fresh and more consistent with the moment.
Second I want to talk cooking temperature. If you have ever watched Mario Batali cook on TV he says often that the difference between a home cook and a chef is in the “aggressiveness of the heat.” What he means is that restaurant food tastes so good because they cook with high eat and are not afraid to slightly burn food to get that umami flavor we all love. Be aggressive, but to be so you have to be there while your food cooks. My wife can’t do this because she tries to do too many things at once and can’t concentrate on just cooking. Not a bad thing, it’s just who she is! To cook with high heat and get great flavor you have to watch and be there for all the action. Work on this and your food will start tasting better immediately.
I know this has been a sort of hodgepodge of thoughts, but cooking at home is absolutely essential to making Paleo fresh, affordable, and consistent in it’s results for you and your family. Make it fun for the whole family to find the best ingredients, visit local farmer’s markets, get to know the guy raising your beef if you can. If this is too much, maybe you can at least get to know the guy cutting your beef for you at the grocery store. One of my major goals as a dad and a cook is for my kids to know where food comes from. I don’t want them to think food comes though the car window, or from a box, or served mainly for us by a waiter at a restaurant. Real food comes from the home. And as I say; Real Food…Real Health.
-E
What Is the Cause of the Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity Epidemic? – Carbs, It’s That Simple!
As most people know, diabetes is absolutely rampant these days and it will be on the rise for the foreseeable future. Why is this? And why is the Paleo diet so effective at treating and controlling diabetes? Lets talk about that today!
Your body is an amazing thing, and God designed it to maintain remarkable tolerances. Blood sugar is very toxic to organs and tissue above a certain level, and it is no surprise that when functioning correctly, your body maintains it inside a very narrow range. The main player in all this is insulin, that is produced by the pancreas in response to elevated blood sugars, and in turn shifts glucose inside of cells where it can do no harm. So you take in a glycemic load, your body senses it and releases enough insulin to maintain sugars at a safe level. Sounds easy enough right?
So what happens if your diet depends too highly on carbohydrates, particularly highly processed carbohydrates with high glycemic indices? Basically your body is forced to produce more and more insulin to maintain a safe glucose level, and eventually two things happen. First your body starts to ignore the released insulin (what is known as insulin resistance) and second your pancreas eventually just burns out and stops functioning. Insulin resistance leads to non-insulin dependent diabetes, and continued abuse of your pancreas in time leads to insulin dependence requiring multiple daily insulin shots. (Both considered Type 2 Diabetes in this case)
Not sure if everyone has noticed, but diabetes is kind of on the rise lately!
Incidence of Diabetes in America
Facts about Diabetes
Incidence of Childhood Diabetes in America
Why is this so? I mean why is diabetes on the rise so much these days? Well, I’ll give you one guess: it starts with carbo and ends in hydrates! Our bodies were designed to run on a certain blend or mix of nutrients, much like your car is designed to run optimally on a certain gas mixture. Over the last 25 years we have altered the formula by increasing the percentage of carbohydrates and decreasing the percentage of fat in the typical American diet. DON’T tell me it’s genetics because last I checked, genes don’t change in 15 years! People love to say that diabetes “runs in my family,” which it may, but what your family eats also runs in your family! We eat so many carbohydrates that we force our Pancreas to keep the accelerator to the floor on insulin production to compensate for our carb-addicted ways. Go ahead everyone, please, give me a different BIOCHEMICALLY PLAUSIBLE explanation for the rapid rise of diabetes in adults and children in America in the last 25 years! PLEASE, comment below with the cause if it is not our diet? Does protein spike glucose in your blood? Does fat do it? No, so all we have left is carbohydrates. Anyone notice something else on the rise in America? OBESITY! They are kissing cousins, they run hand in hand.
How does Paleo fit in? Well that’s easy, it eliminates the fuel to this fire. It takes the burden off the pancreas to produce excess insulin and allows it to relax! It’s that simple, Paleo takes away the oxygen from the fire that is diabetes. No oxygen, no fire 🙂
We often try to complicate things. I mean, it must be a vast number of things that is leading to the obesity and diabetes epidemic in America right? Sorry to disappoint, but it’s actually very simple. We eat more carbs, we gain more weight, we develop diabetes more frequently, and we therefore die younger. But, we don’t die before imposing a tremendous financial cost to society through our illness.
Our society is now all about convenience. Convenience food must remain fresh for extended periods of time, cook up in an instant, and be cheap as dirt. Convenience will be the downfall of American health, in fact it already is.
There is no conspiracy here, diabetes is about ONE thing…Inappropriate intake of carbohydrates. Any other attempt to describe the epidemic, and any other plan to stop the problem is pure fantasy.
Eat Clean, Find An Adventure that MOVES You!
-Ernie
PS – As one of my readers pointed out, this article is about Type 2 Diabetes which is very different than Type 1. The biochemical pathway discussed above traces how adults (and more frequently children) develop Type 2 Diabetes.
Day Hike in the Louisiana Swamps with Kids
Ever visited Louisiana? Or wanted to? Check out our recent hike with some friends at a local state park and have a look at the real Louisiana swamps! What a great time we had!
Family Car Everyday Carry Bag – You and Your Family Be Ready!
Is your family car ready for an emergency or unexpected breakdown? See what we carry for these situations! Share and help others be prepared as well!
Sous Vide Pork Loin Video on PaleoHikerMD YouTube Channel!
Ever wanted a sous vide cooker? Or wonder what it is and what kind of results it can produce? Check out my latest video where I show you how I prepare the roast to cook, soak it, and finish it off in a cast iron skillet. Also, check out NomNomPaleo for her amazing book, iPad App, and Paleo Recipes like the one for Magic Muschroom Powder I use in the video. A Sous Vide is PERFECT for any Paleo Kitchen!
What We Can Learn From Those Who “Age Gracefully”, It’s Not Just About the Genes!
I happen to have access to a wealth of knowledge from a very good and reliable source, my elderly patients! I often ask them questions about all sorts of things just to learn from their vast experience at life. Whether it be tips on growing better tomatoes or fixing an issue with a car, they always come through with what I need.
This morning I saw a gentleman. He is 96 years old, takes only a few medications for high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and a baby aspirin a day. He is normal weight, and despite his age still mows his own lawn, maintains a garden, and rides his stationary bike daily! I asked him today what his diet was like, and here are highlights of what he said, and I’m paraphrasing…
“I have always eaten mainly vegetables and fruit. I don’t mind meat, I just eat enough to get what I need. What I really like is fresh vegetables from my garden.”
“I’ve never been a big bread eater, and I really don’t like pasta because it’s too filling. I’ll eat a sandwich every once in a while, but it’s never been my thing.”
“I don’t eat cheese or really drink milk. It has never agreed with my stomach so many years ago I decided to stop torturing myself and I just don’t eat any of it.”
“Although I like sweets, my momma always told me that too many sweets were bad for me. I’ve always just made a general rule not to overeat sweets. In my 30’s I figured out that when I eat sweets like cookies or cakes I feel tired, they just drain me doc. I just gave them up pretty much 50 years ago or so…”
Who needs all these fancy studies telling us what to do when we have real flesh and blood people whose long-term habits clearly show the secret to longevity! I asked him one more question, what he would choose as his last meal!
“Just give me a big tomato, a knife, and a little salt, and that’s all I need. But, the tomato has to be from MY garden!”
Look for advice from the best possible sources! Look around you, find people who seem healthier than you, fitter than you, maybe even older and wiser as in this case! Compare this case to the hundreds of people I see who are in their 60’s, morbidly obese, on 4 shots a day for diabetes…and their last meal would be Chicken Fried Steak with a Side of Mashed Potatoes and Gravy! It does not take an MD to see the pattern here 🙂
Eat Clean, Find an Adventure the MOVES You!
-Ernie
Video
Geocaching 101- What is Geocaching and How Can I Join in the Fun?
Ever heard of Geocaching? Heard of it, but don’t really have a clue as to what it is?
Check out the latest video on my YouTube channel and learn everything you need to know to get out there Geocaching in no time! Trust me, you’ll love it. If you have kids, you’ll be parent of the year 🙂
Where Are YOUR Priorities? – How the Choices We Make Affect Our Health Long Term
One of the things I hear most often about changing to a Paleo Lifestyle is that it simply costs too much. A few months back when my family and I were on a trip to the Ouachita Mountains along the Oklahoma/Arkansas border we stopped for supplies at a Wal-Mart (certainly no Trader Joe’s in sight in those parts!) As I was checking out the cashier looked at what I had and said “man you eat healthy…this stuff is way to expensive for me and my family!”. What did I have? Meat and Veggies (and I admit, supplies for Smores over an open fire!) I believe the general trend is to assume it is too expensive, and then it becomes a convenient excuse as to why Paleo is not “possible for me.”
Yes, it is more expensive to eat real food than to fill up on processed food. But, let’s look at this example for a moment. Let’s say you go to the local gas station, and there is a mysterious new pump labeled “Discount Gas.” You read at the pump that the gas is absolutely usable in your car, but that it is probably not good for your car in the “long-term”. Short-term it will get you where you need to go, but over the long haul it may lead to some damage to the inner workings of your engine. The kicker is, this gas is HALF THE PRICE of regular unleaded. So, instead of $1.99 a gallon, you can rock $0.99 a gallon! Many of the people using this gas get by, even for a long time, but no doubt eventually it will lead to your engine’s early demise.
So, what do you do? I believe most of us would say that a car is such a big investment, that its just not worth the risk to use discount gas. We simply depend too much on our vehicles to consider using gas that will hurt it’s engine even if the price is so drastically different. Sure, some don’t care and go for the cheap short-term fix, but most would argue that they just can’t easily replace a car, so the extra for better gas is worth it. If you agree with this statement, but you continue to argue for the inclusion of highly processed, nutrient devoid “discount food” into your diet than you need to rethink your priorities! Think about it, you have more concern for the life of your car engine than for your life!
So, where do you get the extra money to pay for real food? Again, have a priority check. What is more important that your health and the health of your family? What is worth more of an investment than that??
- Does your mortgage have you trapped in a house you should not afford?
- Have you leased a car you should not afford, or are you driving a car that uses too much gas for your own good?
- Do you have a cell phone plan that includes everything under the sun just in case?
- Is your cigarette bill so high that you can’t afford better food?
- Do you chronically overspend to the point you are drowning in credit card bills?
- Do you actually watch 300 channels on your cable?
- Do you eat out so much that you are ashamed to actually tell how much you spend eating out every month?!
These are just a few examples, and I’m sure that most of you could think of more. Now I can hear plenty of people saying “Doc, stick to medicine and don’t tell me how to spend my money.” Trust me, I will, I’m not trying to tell you how to spend your hard-earned dollars. I am simply answering a question I get asked all too often, “How can I afford this.” In so many ways where you spend your money is a direct indication of where you place your priorities in life. If you do not place your health at a high enough premium to be worth more of a monetary investment, it is going to be hard to make real long-term changes. In America for some reason food is something where “going cheap” is perfectly accepted, and in fact the norm for most people. Buy cheap food in order to afford other things. The smell of fresh car leather may be nice, and that bigger iPhone 6 screen may make you the envy of all your friends and co-workers, but trust an internist; when you are older, you will envy your friends who seem to have good health. They avoid the hospital stays, surgeries, doctor visits, and significant medical bills you seem to be suffering with. It’s just like saving for retirement. You can spend it all now and work till you are 80, or give up some earthly possessions now to enjoy your later years with less stress and more free time.
So, the question you should be asking yourself isn’t “How can I afford this,” but instead “How can I NOT afford this.”
Start today, start right now. Change your diet, change your life, and change your health once and for all.
Eat Clean, Be Safe, and Find an Adventure that moves YOU!
-Ernie
PaleoHikerMD 