Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Food Rule 37

“The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.”

Well, that’s cheerful.

As Michael Pollan points out in FOOD RULES, white flour is not much different from sugar, in that the body processes white flour as it does sugar. Whole grains are better; we all know that.

It’s hard, though, SO hard, to turn down a piece of bread. Even going gluten-free, while it’s harder to find good bread, doesn’t exempt me from that temptation. Some of my very favorite memories of Dad baking when I was a kid are of fresh bread, recently out of the oven, slathered in butter. 

And there are some things for which there are just no substitutes! Cauliflower doesn’t make good toast, even as it makes good pizza crusts.

I limit the amount of bread I eat on a daily basis, typically to one slice at breakfast. It’s very rare for me to have more than that. I love it, but I also know that it’s better to have in small amounts.

So keep in mind that your body treats white flour like sugar…and limit them both!

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Drink the Spinach Water

Um…say what?

Jolie. You don’t literally mean to DRINK the water from cooking veggies?

Well, no. While I do love spinach, I don’t literally mean you should put your veggie water over ice and drink it with lunch.

Here’s the exact text from Michael Pollan’s FOOD RULES. This is rule 26: 

“Another bit of traditional wisdom with good science behind it. The water in which vegetables are cooked is rich in vitamins and other healthful plant chemicals. Save it for soup or add it to sauces.”

Think about it.

How often have you cooked vegetables – of any type – and drained the water off before adding seasonings, or butter, or mixing in other ingredients? What a waste to send all of that down the drain!

Have you ever made your own chicken or beef broth? How about veggie broth? It wouldn’t be that different to save the water from cooking vegetables and mix it with homemade broth or use it to boost store-bought materials.

Do you do this already? I’ve done it on occasion but not often enough! If you haven’t done it, what could you see yourself using spinach water to cook?

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Food Rule 27

Food Rule 27: Eat Animals That Have Themselves Eaten Well

Ok, first things first. If you’re a vegetarian or a vegan, then this topic probably doesn’t much apply to you. I don’t advocate for starting to eat meat if you don’t already do so, unless you find yourself unable to thrive on a vegetarian or vegan diet. And if that’s the case, I have suggestions for you on resources & people to talk to you if you feel strongly about staying vegetarian or vegan. I believe we should all eat whatever diet suits us best, as long as the food we eat is responsibly sourced and healthy.

And as long as that diet includes dark chocolate. (Ha!)

But I digress. (Surprise, surprise!)

On the other hand, the overall point that it seems to me that Pollan is making with this rule is that our food should be high in nutritional quality and low in chemicals. If you’re a meat eater, you will get more nutrients from animals that have had healthy diets and good lifestyles. The fats will be healthier, and the meat (as well as milk and eggs) will contain higher levels of the vitamins we need. Pasture-raised meat and free-range poultry can be satisfying both from an ethical perspective, as the animals have better lifestyles, as well as from a nutrition perspective. There is, after all, an advertising slogan that the best milk comes from happy cows. It really isn’t all that ridiculous a statement! Economically, it isn’t always feasible. So-called factory-farmed meat and eggs are frequently considerably cheaper than pasture-raised. 

At the end of the day, the important thing is to eat real food that’s been minimally processed. (And no, by that I don’t mean eat raw chicken. That’s a terrible plan.)

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Food Rule 25

An advertising phrase you may have heard goes along the lines of eat the colorful spectrum. (And yes, I’m totally avoiding the specific wording!)

I can totally work with that concept, as long as it’s more about fruits and vegetables and less about high-fructose corn syrup.

Michael Pollan’s food rule 25 is eat your colors. There’s an old wives’ tale about a healthy plate of food featuring multiple colors. As it turns out there’s good science to it! Colorful fruits and vegetables frequently contain valuable quantities of phytochemicals. Carrots and spinach and peppers, oh my!

Let’s look at a short list of colorful veggies and the nutrients they provide, shall we?

Beets provide vitamin B. Broccoli, peas, peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes provide vitamin C (among other things). Carrots and sweet potatoes supply beta-carotene. Peas, spinach, potatoes, and sweet potatoes provide iron.

Some of these are better cooked, and some are better raw, as shown in the following brief list:

• Beets (either cooked or raw)

  • Vitamin B (group)

• Broccoli (either)

  • Calcium

  • Vitamin C

• Carrots (either)

  • Beta-carotene

  • Vitamin A

• Peas (either)

  • Iron

  • Vitamin C

• Peppers (either)

  • Vitamin A

  • Vitamin C

• Potatoes (cooked)

  • Iron

  • Vitamin C

• Spinach (either)

  • Calcium

  • Iron

• Sweet Potatoes (cooked)

  • Beta-carotene

  • Iron

• Tomatoes (either)

  • Vitamin C

Let’s not leave fruit out of the conversation, either! (Although, arguably, tomatoes are fruit. I still won’t put them in a fruit salad!)

• Apples

  • Vitamin C

  • Potassium

• Bananas

  • Potassium

  • Vitamin B-6

• Blackberries

  • Vitamin C

  • Dietary fiber

• Blueberries

  • Vitamin C

  • Dietary fiber

• Cherries

  • Vitamin A

  • Vitamin C

• Dates

  • Magnesium

  • Dietary fiber

• Grapefruit

  • Vitamin A

  • Vitamin C

• Oranges

  • Vitamin C

• Pears

  • Vitamin C

  • Dietary fiber

• Raspberries

  • Vitamin C

  • Dietary fiber

• Strawberries

  • Vitamin C

  • Potassium

On these cold, cold days, simply thinking about colorful fruits and vegetables, harvested on a sunny, warm day makes me happy! While getting locally grown produce is always best, I’m grateful for grocery stores so that even during the winter I can have an orange, an apple, spinach, and colorful peppers, just to name a few.

What colorful spectrum will adorn your dinner plate tonight?

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Food Rule 23

Michael Pollan’s FOOD RULE # 23 is as follows: Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food.

I find it interesting and amusing that I randomly turned to that item in the book today when looking for a topic that sparked my interest. I’d recently realized that we have had meat on our menu a lot in the past few weeks and I also realized that it went with winter and cold weather and an apparent biological need for more insulation. (Not that I don’t have plenty of that already - too much, in fact!)

The American Heart Association recommends limiting meat intake to 5.5 ounces per day. (Psst - by the way - that pork chop in the photo? That’s a 5 ounce chop. It was plenty!!)

A prediction at the beginning of 2018 was that Americans would average - AVERAGE - eating 222.2 pounds of meat per year.

Let’s do the math, shall we?

222.2 pounds is 3,555.2 ounces.

3,555.2 ounces in a year works out to 9.740274 ounces of meat. Per day. ON AVERAGE.

The AHA recommendation comes out to 125.46875 pounds of meat per person. That is over 96 pounds under the expected average consumption.

In 2018, we were predicted to eat almost ONE HUNDRED POUNDS more meat than is recommended for a healthy diet.

I feel the need for a spinach salad. Anyone else? Without bacon. And for me to say “without bacon” is something of a big deal.

Let’s be honest. Anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy a steak. (Or bacon. Or chicken. Or chicken wrapped in bacon. You get the point.)

But whoa. I’m picturing 9.74 ounces of meat a day and that is a lot. That is too much. That is an overwhelming amount of meat. Yikes.

I found it intriguing that Pollan referenced Thomas Jefferson supposedly using meat as a “flavor principle,” so I went looking for more information. As referenced on the web site for Monticello, Jefferson could not be called a vegetarian as we think of vegetarians today, however, meat was not the primary focus of his meals.

Huh. That founding father guy was kinda smart.

Eat more veggies. There are many great and tasty ways to get protein in the diet that don’t include 9+ ounces of meat a day. But maybe, just maybe, sneak a small steak in every once in a while. (Unless, of course, you’re a vegan or vegetarian, in which case, maybe not so much. Why change what’s working?) I’ll definitely be revisiting my menus and trimming out some of the meat we’ve been eating!

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Food Rule #30

I’m still struggling a bit with vacation brain, and when I’m struggling to come up with a topic I enjoy going back to Michael Pollan’s book, FOOD RULES, for inspiration. Today’s random number, 30, sent me back to August of 2017. I was certain I’d done a #winewellnesswednesday post about the difference between organic, natural, and chemical-free, and I was right!

Food rule #30 is as follows: Eat well-grown food from healthy soil.

He even says it would have been shorter & easier to say, “eat organic.”

As I wrote in 2017, what we put onto and into the soil matters, and that’s the point Pollan wants to drive home here. The quality of the soil in which the food is grown matters. Using quality (hopefully chemical-free) fertilizer, rotating crops, and paying attention to the land? That’s a really good start for really good food.

And because vacation brain is still ruling my life…here’s a link to the post from 2017. :) 

http://www.makeonechange.today/new-blog/2017/8/30/wine-wellness-wednesday-organic-natural-chemical-free

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Food Rule #7

Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.

As with a couple of weeks ago, I’m getting back to Michael Pollan’s FOOD RULES. And this one is something I go back to time and time again: keep the ingredients simple.

I am reminded of a time when my husband and I were each enjoying mini ice cream containers from different companies. I happened to take a look at the ingredients on mine and there were five or six, and all of them were things I could pronounce and I could buy separately. The one he was eating? I lost count at about 28 ingredients, a majority of them didn’t look like food, and I couldn’t pronounce some of them, never mind handing the list to a third-grader.

Processed, store-bought food can have multiple and unpronounceable ingredients. It doesn’t have to.

Check the labels.

Can you read everything? More to the point, can you pronounce everything? Can you buy them all separately and make your own whatever-it-is? 

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Food Rule #42

Regard nontraditional foods with skepticism.

For this #winewellnesswednesday, I’m getting back to Michael Pollan’s FOOD RULES.

(I blame my husband for today’s number. Never ask a sci-fi fan for a number. It’s a really good chance they’ll choose 42.)

Pollan’s point in this rule is to look at so-called innovative updates to traditional foods with a healthy dose of skepticism. And I think he has a point. Soy sauce (gluten-free)? Absolutely. Soy isoflavones? Huh? What are those supposed to be and why are they food?

For me, this goes back to eating whole foods that I can pronounce as much as possible. It’s hard, sometimes, to do, particularly when in a hurry or when traveling. And I’m getting much better at planning ahead and taking my own foods when I’m traveling, as well as having more whole-food-based-stuff available at home that I can eat in a hurry. (I know, I know, that’s not a great word. Let’s agree to get over it.) I like being able to pronounce the ingredients. I like eating things with limited numbers of ingredients. And, honestly, there aren’t many ways to improve on a spinach salad when the spinach in question comes from one of our favorite farms. Spinach isoflavones? Huh? Nah. I really hope that isn’t a thing. (Also? Gesundheit!)

Whole foods, made in more traditional ways, and minimally processed. These are good things.

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Food Rule #19

If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.

For this #winewellnesswednesday, Michael Pollan’s FOOD RULES #19 is my topic. Generally speaking, I think he has a point.

If what you’re about to eat is a plant product, and by that I mean you can readily identify the actual growing plant that produced your food, then absolutely! Go for it! Chow down. Keep in mind that some plants are indeed NOT edible, of course, and be aware of any food allergies you or someone else might have as you’re preparing or purchasing food. I thoroughly enjoy knowing where my food comes from, and, if possible, knowing the people who grew it. For example, last weekend I roasted a spaghetti squash that we grew where I work part-time. (It was delicious!) Not only was that from an actual plant, it was from somewhere very specific.

If what you’re about to eat is a mass-marketed, mass-produced mass of chemicals that have never been closer to a plant than the grass growing outside the factory, maybe give it a second thought. Is all food that’s produced in factories evil? Not at all! A lot of it can be really good for you. Rice and quinoa, for example; you wouldn’t want to have to harvest it yourself. It’s processed at a factory and comes in a bag or a box. Does that make it bad? Nope!

In large part, eating whole, real food is always going to be best. I’ve mentioned it before (and it’s also in FOOD RULES): try to stay at the periphery of the grocery store as much as possible. If you have the option, try to get as many of your groceries at a farmers’ market as you can! Check the ingredients. If you can’t pronounce them, maybe you don’t want to eat them. It isn’t always practical to eat whole, real food that comes from actual plants instead of from factories. It’s a good thing to strive for.

What plants are your favorites when preparing meals? :)

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Food Rules #64

Ok, so last week for #winewellnesswednesday I went back to Michael Pollan’s FOOD RULES and started at the beginning, with rule 1: Eat food.

Now, just to be contrary, I’m skipping to the end of the list with rule 64: Break the rules once in a while.

I like this rule. This is a good rule. This is a good rule that I am sometimes very good at following! It can also be rephrased as, “All things in moderation, including moderation.” :) Ha!

Healthy habits are important.

Maintaining those healthy habits on a day-to-day basis is also incredibly important. Personally, it’s how I’ve lost (and maintained!) 50 pounds in the past several years.

Here’s the thing: there are going to be times when you throw the healthy habit out the window, at least temporarily. I’m not advocating for it daily. That leads to too much indulgence, which can lead to setbacks, which can lead to feeling aggravated and potentially giving up on the healthy habits.

From time to time, however, breaking the rules is good for you! Obsessively sticking to healthy living, to the point of excluding enjoyment? That is not good for you, and potentially not good for people around you. Counting calories? Ok! Watching your fat intake? Ok! Watching your carb intake? Ok! Whatever you need to do to feel good about what you’re eating is important, and everyone will be different. But doing it to the exclusion of pleasure in what you’re consuming? Not so good.

I have tried to build a healthy habit of not eating potato chips or French fries on a regular basis. This one is hard, because I looooooooooove allthesaltycrunchythings. I’ve mostly successfully substituted lightly salted nuts for the chips, which works since I also really enjoy almonds and cashews. Every once in a while, though, I will allow myself to give in to the craving for a serving of either fries or chips; usually sour cream & onion or barbecue. Temporarily? It’s a fun thing to eat. Regularly? Nope; at least, not any more. I’ve tried for long enough to not eat fries & chips that even when I do, they don’t register the same enjoyment. And in the long run, that’s a very good thing.

What rule are you going to break on occasion? Enjoy!

Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Food Rule #1

Well…we all know where the road paved with good intentions goes, right?

DING! Is that chocolate cake in the oven? (Gluten-free, of course!)

Who, me? Easily distracted? Naaaaaaaaaaaah…wait, was that a shiny squirrel?

Meanwhile, I digress.

A year or so ago I read FOOD RULES by Michael Pollan, which I found to include some very interesting information. I thought at the time, “Gee, it would be fun to write #winewellnesswednesday posts about some of these topics!” I did a couple and then…well…y’know. Distractions!

Hey! Who drank my coffee??

So! Back on track with thoughts on FOOD RULES. :)

Having done rules 12, 52, and 53 a while back, I thought I’d go all the way back and look at rule 1: Eat food. This seems simple enough, right? Hold that thought! Have you ever looked at the ingredients in many of the things that are presented as food? Other rules in the book address topics such as not buying foods that are advertised, and shopping the margins of the store, as well as not buying anything with ingredient a third grader couldn’t pronounce. Seriously! There’s an ANIMANIACS cartoon that addressed this really well, listing off all of the ingredients in a couple of treats and many of them simply don’t sound like food. Highly processed items are presented as food and honestly, while some of them are delicious, they’re not actually quality items that we should be eating. How many different derivatives of corn or soy do we really need in our diets, anyway?

We did a compare and contrast once of the ingredient list of two different kinds of ice cream. (Because really. Ice cream! It should be simple and as long as the lactose doesn’t bother me, it’s one of my favorite things!) One of the brands had more than 25 ingredients listed, and many of them were either unpronounceable or sounded unpalatable. The other brand? It had five ingredients. Five! I think you can guess what ice cream we usually buy now!

Real food. It’s even better if you know where it comes from. Local is awesome, even though it isn’t always possible. (There aren’t any orange trees near us, for example.) Real food that you’ve cooked yourself is even awesomer. (YES I KNOW. Not a word. I like it anyway.)

What real food have you enjoyed recently? Cheers! Here’s to your health!

Wine & Wellness Wednesday: Shopping! (Food Rules #12)

My latest reading fascination is FOOD RULES by Michael Pollan. Initially, I thought the title meant “food RULES,” as in “food is AWESOME.” (And, of course, it is!) What it actually refers to is a list of 64 guidelines that Pollan put together after writing IN DEFENSE OF FOOD. (I haven’t read that one yet. It’s on my list!)

I haven’t read them all yet, even though it’s a super short book, but I came across one that jumped up and down at me and yelled “Me! Me! Talk about me!”

Soooooooooo…which of Pollan’s rules was so emphatically asking for attention?

#12: Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.

Grocery stores carry all sorts of both foods and food-like substances. If you think about most versions of the American grocery store, the perimeter of the store is where you find more of the whole foods and/or the less-processed foods. The middle is where you find things like Cheetos and breakfast cereals that turn the milk weird colors. The perimeter is where you find fresh vegetables, fruits, the meat counter, and the dairy cases. (Granted, not everything in the dairy case is an actual food, but you get the idea. And not everything in the middle of the store is unhealthy.)

Why is the perimeter of the store better? Processed foods (while often delicious) are loaded with all sorts of stuff that isn’t good for you, such as high amounts of sugar, preservatives, fats, and other junk. It’s much better for you to take those whole foods and process them yourself – by cooking at home! Plan your grocery shopping ahead of time by having a menu and a list, and focus on the periphery of the store.

Cheers! Here’s to your health!