Saturday, March 12, 2011

Food, food and more food

So here's  a dilemna...

I love baking bread. I got a great book by Peter Reinhart "Baking Whole Grain Breads". The recipes are fabulous, and I have two starters in my fridges now. The cinnamon buns were to die for, and I think I'm getting closer to a good rise with the full whole grain recipes.

However, I'm flaring. My joints are unhappy joints, and my cheeks are always rosy but not in a good way (although my lovely husband thinks it's cute). I'm reading again about inflammation, and in addition to getting your Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio right (about 2:1), grains really seem like a no-go. They have a lot of components that promote inflammation and that aren't well digested, including lectins. They also promote increased insulin secretion, which is also proinflammatory.

So...I've been trying to eat mostly vegetables and healthy meats (and eggs), nuts, and some fruits. Which means not playing with my bread book. Very sad on the bread book front...

The good news is, that I get to go meat shopping more often. Sounds silly, but I'm enjoying learning to cook new meats. I've been mostly vegetarian for a lot of my life, and fully veg from time to time (although not recently, as elder son developed full blown allergies to all plant sources of protein about a decade ago --- hmmmm this maybe supports my new meat heavy diet).

Which means I have seen my friends at the Manotick Village Butcher more often (yay!). I have lamb shanks in the fridge now, and can't wait to braise them. Some chicken schnitzel transformed into chicken parmesan with some helpful advice from James earlier this week and the kids loved it. My meatballs with their ground beef are to die for.

It's strange moving from meat maybe three times a week at best to meat twice a day, everyday. However, everything I'm reading suggests that as long as I get healthy meat (read: grass fed) my essential fatty acids should rebalance, and my body should be happier.

Here are some great downloads of articles, for the evidence behind moving towards more meat and vegetables, and less grains.They are from Dr. Loren Cordain who coined the term "The Paleo Diet", and while I'm not going quite that far, there are some great pieces of evidence in there.

Enjoy!

3 comments:

  1. Oh my, someone who says that he has a health theory that must be proven or disproven by experimentation not by opinion or anecdote and who is not making wild claims until such experimentation is done. How very rare and refreshing!

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  2. Umm...most credible scientists work that way (elsewise they don't tend to let you graduate with a phd, at least not from reputable schools (at least according to my experience in Canada -- I graduated with a phd and publish in rigorous peer reviewed journals). Perhaps you've seen a lot of propose theories from those who haven't been trained formally?

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  3. That's just it. Credible scientists work that way, but most proponents of nutrition fads and theories don't. And often those who should be seen as credible (such as the Canadian and American Heart Associations and even Health Canada) propagate such theories even when evidence to the contrary exists - witness what happened when they told everyone that animal fats were bad for your heart (they aren't and in fact are better for you than most vegetable fats and any amount of man made trans-fat).

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