Sugared Soda Consumption, Cell Aging Associated in New Study
Apparently this study found that not only do sugary sodas taste great, they also mutate your DNA! Made me wonder about the choice of words to market the Big Gulp.
By the way, if you drink four 32-ounce sodas during the week, in one year you will have consumed enough to just about fill a 55 gallon barrel.
Photo courtesy of darkreactions
This article was first published on October 20, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.
One of the most frequently cited reasons for not eating healthier is “I can’t afford it.” That ranks right up there with not having the time or the know-how. I understand all of those. There is no magic formula to address them either. They can be overcome with a little effort and dedication if you are willing.
But today, once again, I’m talking about affordability. Affordability doesn’t always line-up with ease. For one thing, the USDA recognizes that “produce prices tend to be more volatile” than prices for staple foods. I think this statement can extend beyond produce to any fresh food. Prices for food free of stabilizers, preservatives and other chemicals has a reduced shelf life and is effected more by seasonality. This reduced shelf life translates into lost profit for retailers if the product isn’t sold and with a little effort, you can turn this to your advantage. For instance…
This package containing two tuna steaks was in the local markets sale area. If your on a tight budget, the slightly more than 40% reduction in price can move fresh tuna steaks from the realm of a special evening meal that needs planning to, “Hey, how about this for dinner?”
The steaks in this particular package found their way into a grill-pan. Prior to that, they were briefly soaked in a whisked together mix of:
I spooned it over them while they were cooking in the pan.
Cooked for a little less than a minute on each side they were then put on a plate to rest.
I followed up with a little of the oil mixture above that had been set aside and a tiny bit of wasabi paste.
End result, a delicious, affordable tuna steak for about half of what you would expect it to cost.
When relying on cost-savers to eat healthy, you do have to put forth a little more effort to ensure you are still getting a quality product. I would recommend that you shy away from reduced-price meat that has been highly seasoned if you can avoid it. Firstly, there have been cases where grocers were accused of using lots of seasoning to hide meats that were about to go bad. Second, you can’t be sure what that seasoning contains and one goal of healthy eating is to get more control over what goes into your body. If you shop at a reputable grocer you should have no issues.
Concerned over cost saver meats/poultry/seafood? Read more:
This article was first published on October 19, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.
Need a quick, affordable breakfast? Try this one on for size. A word of caution, you better be hungry.
Slice up a couple of jalapeño peppers, half an onion, and toss them into a skillet with some butter to sauté. While that’s going on, I cracked two eggs into a bowl and beat them well. I prefer to add about a tablespoon of heavy cream to my eggs, but that is not necessary.
Next, pour your eggs into the skillet. Grate some cheese of your choice, I used a mix of Colby Jack & Pepper Jack. Put a bit of the cheese into the eggs and set the rest aside. Give the eggs a quick stir.
The little wife picked up a package of chicken at the store pretty cheap. OK, real cheap. I took one of those that was already cooked, diced it up, and in it went. The whole thing took about twenty minutes and cost less than the price of a fast food breakfast. It tasted better too.
This article was first published on October 14, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.
He says none of it adds up to food but is just a chemical nostalgia. link
Janice Norris quoting Bruce Weinstein in her article Let’s Take Back Out Country. Her story is an excellent read. She is convinced that eating real food can make us lose our taste for the fake stuff.
That is something I can attest to personally. After years of eating a less than healthy diet, I made some changes in the way I ate and lived. Those changes affected my tastes.
I will never forget the moment in the produce section that I walked past the tomato bin and was struck by a completely foreign idea. I wanted a tomato. I’d never wanted a tomato in my life before. In fact, I’d check everything that might have tomato on it before I’d dive in. Quite frankly, maybe “inspected” everything is more accurate than “checked”. I was serious about not eating tomato.
Today, I love tomato. I make sure to get them for salads, burgers, and anything else they can go on. I’ve had the same experience with mushrooms and other foods.
Janice is right on target.
This article was first published on October 11, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.
We were talking about a dinner we’d made and the wife pointed out that this was a myth-busting meal. Whether through ignorance or malice I cannot say, but low-carb diets are often maligned as not containing enough vegetables. So, I present to you a veg-heavy stir-fry.
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We’ve turned food preparation time into family time together. Everyone gets in on prepping the ingredients before we start cooking two batches. We’re blessed to have two wok-style pans. That way I can add a little sausage and egg into mine as well as a little extra kick. We each took what we wanted and tossed it into a pan of hot oil.
Myth buster. Low-carb is not low-vegetables. Secondly all of the ingredients for this, allowing about $3.00 for the oils, cost about $15.00. These two pans worked out to six individual meals. Myth two busts an excuse too, at $2.50/meal it’s hard to claim eating healthy is too expensive.
cura ut valeas
This article was first published on October 9, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.
Let’s consider “fast food” and home-cooked food for a minute. Eggs are (or should be) a staple food of low carb & real food diets. They are often considered a perfect food for their nutrition profiles. One would think in a pinch, ordering eggs at a restaurant would be safe.
For starters, when I consider what the two look like a minute or two before they land on my plate, I certainly prefer the ones made at home.
| Home | McDonalds |
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I realize that the whole out-of-sight out-of-mind applies here as well as anywhere else. So even if the distinctly less-appetizing look of those eggs doesn’t make you want to never eat them again, check out the differences in the ingredients between eggs cooked at home and eggs reheated elsewhere.
The cream in the homemade eggs is an option of course. It makes eggs smoother and more appetizing to one of the kids. Even with it…. well, here are the ingredient lists compared using McDonalds own information.
| Ingredient # | Homemade | McDonalds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | eggs | eggs with sodium acid pyrophosphate |
| 2 | cream | Citric Acid and Monosodium Phosphate |
| 3 | Nisin Preparation | |
| 4 | Liquid Soybean Oil | |
| 5 | Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil | |
| 6 | Hydrogenated Soybean Oil | |
| 7 | Water | |
| 8 | Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil | |
| 9 | Salt | |
| 10 | Soy Lecithin | |
| 11 | mono and diglycerides | |
| 12 | Sodium Benzoate | |
| 13 | Potassium Sorbate | |
| 14 | Artificial Flavor | |
| 15 | Citric Acid | |
| 16 | Vitamin A Palmitate | |
| 17 | Beta Carotene |
cura ut valeas
This article was first published on October 7, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.
One of the reasons I hear time and again for not eating healthy is, “I can’t afford it.” That used to be one of my personal favorites. If you think the only way to eat healthy food is to eat only locally grown, super-organic, ultra-natural whatever, then you’re right. That’s not the only way.
You do have to be dedicated. You do have to understand that making better food choices involves effort. That’s not a bad thing because EFFORT IS FREE!
The effort involves looking in the right places in the store when you are there. Our local Market Street has the best produce around, and a quick trip in the store netted me a meal on the cheap.
Put everything but the sausage in a pot of water, and boil for an 1 1/2 hours or so. Heat up the sausage in the microwave or a skillet.
This made my entire meal plus provided servings of truly excellent green beans for two others.
This article was first published on October 5, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.
News flash… Brun-Uusto Cheese is delicious.
This cheese tastes great. The flavor really comes out when eaten warm. We usually cut it into cubes and pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds.
Tonight, we tried the Jalapeño version. Cut into sticks and dropped in a hot skillet for a few minutes, this try it served warm cheese makes a perfect low-carb cheese stick. As a matter of fact, whether low-carb or not, it makes a delicious cheese stick.
This article was first published on September 29, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.
I had a little bacon that needed using, and I wanted to try something a little bit different. So… I decided to try a different take on combining bacon, cheese, and jalapeño. I was going to call them Bacon Jalapeño Boats but calling so small a treat a boat seemed somehow inappropriate.
I got out the KitchenAid and put the food grinder attachment on it. It took about fifteen minutes to run about a pound of bacon and half a block of sharp cheddar cheese through it to end up with a ground bacon cheese mixture.
While this was being done the jalapeños were prepped. Prepping involved cutting them in half lengthwise and removing the seeds.
The ground bacon mix had a little garlic powder and a bit of onion powder added to it. This was mixed in thoroughly and spooned in to the pepper halves. Afterwards they were cooked in an oven preheated to 375. Then they were broiled for about five minutes until the tops started to brown. I pulled them out and let them cool just a minute or two. They looked good and I had to try one. How would it taste?
RESULT!
This article was first published on September 26, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.
“Long-term, the saturated fat and cholesterol content of the diet will raise the … bad cholesterol and increase the risk for cardiovascular disease, particularly heart attacks.” (link)
The quote is from an American Heart Association over a decade ago. The AHA finally moved away from the low-fat diet as the cure-all for heart disease years ago and now recommends no more than 24-38 grams of sugar per day. For the record, this is too much sugar but it is progress for an organization that is loath to suddenly give in to the fact that it’s been giving poor health advice for much of its existence.
Even if you don’t follow a low-carb or real food diet, this has to concern you. If it doesn’t, well, I’ll just say I hope it does.
How’s that look. Tasty? Read the nutritional information on this waffle and you’ll find the ultimate Combo it comes with has a whopping 91 grams of carbohydrates. IF you’re a calorie counter, we’re not, that’s 1,350 calories represented in that picture above.
I’ve got to give them credit, their food laboratory must have got it right; and they’re honest. They proudly proclaim, “Full of baked in flavors you’ll crave day and night.” Maybe Howard Moskowitz or one of his successors “optimized” their waffles for them. No doubt IHOP has designed these waffles to do exactly what they say they do, make you crave them.
This article was first published on September 24, 2014 and was recovered using AI and web.archive.org.