More Milk!!

There I was this morning just about to write about the use of Zones at HHF and instead I glanced at the email Inbox. Big mistake leading to a change in topic.

Loren Cordain had sent out an email about The Paleo Diet and in particular an article he wrote on Dairy: Milking for all it's Worth

I won't refer to this as a long article as it really qualifies as a book. Anyway the tome writes off milk and milk products as the cause of a large number of health problems. Based on loads of research, studies and statistics there is an overwhelming case against milk it is difficult to argue against the arguments.

 

A good summary of findings is in Q&A

In a comment elsewhere the author in responding to a question in Dairy and Saturated Fats said “I suspect that raw milk would elicit a similar response”.

If you give this a bit of thought you might come to the same conclusion as I do and that is the vast majority of people drink pasteurised and processed milk and its by-products and the research provides a cloud over its food value and its health benefits.

So what about raw milk? Well you may want to take it on trust as I do that being an unadulterated product it is probably not too bad for you especially if you come from a gene pool that has an affection for the product.

And so we make our own decisions on this.

But just on diets lets make some observations:

Paleo (Loren Cordain) is High Animal Protein, Low Carbohydrate

The China Study (T. Colin Campbell) is No animal Protein

Joel Fuhrman is some Animal Protein but mainly Plant Based

Atkins (not so popular) is High Animal Protein Low Carbohydrate

Leslie Kenton (decades ahead in nutrition) High Animal Protein, Low Carbohydrate

Bernstein (Diabetes) are Low Carbohydrate, High protein

CSIRO is High Protein, Low Carbohydrate

Low GI laps over everywhere

And finally the Traditional Mediterranean is balanced.

 

In all contradictory advice I'll take the middle road.

What is in the Pantry that should not be there

I opened a pantry door (we have more than one pantry) and spotted something. In fact I spotted two things and then looked further and then went and looked in the other pantries.

The first thing noticed was the castor sugar. Then there was(were) the jam(s)

It turned out that the jams are there for visitors. Some like sugared fruit on toast in the morning. Fair enough we all have our own poison. Some years ago we gave up jams and composted the bulk of our sugared fruit supplies and just kept a few varieties for the odd visitor.

The castor sugar? That was a left over from the days when we used sugar in cooking according to the pastry chef Jean. We now use either honey, Stevia or rarely Dextrose. The castor sugar will find a new home in the Cave and used as priming sugar for bottling beer, cider and sparkling wines.

I see a half empty jar of treacle. That was from making Worcestershire sauce some years ago. It was such a tedious recipe and really wasn't worth the effort. A compost candidate.

Vegemite, mmmm. Well maybe that better stay. The ingredients list isn't that bad and we only have it every month or two. Lovely on toast with lashings of butter. Vitamin B as well to make up for the colour and preservative.

Out in the Cave there are a few jars of  jams and pickles. Gifts from friends and visitors. A bit sugary. Most have been composted and these few remainders are now well past used by date.

So that is about it.

Over the last few years we have gradually eliminated rubbishy foods from our diets especially the sugary kind. We have even cut down on the home made oven roasted olive oiled chips on Fridays. Now its not every Friday. Moderation.

What do you do with a bountiful harvest. Too much of a particular fruit? Freeze some, give it away or talk to the chickens about it.

Juice seems to be a another popular end product. But what about the vitamins and minerals in the skin  and pips. Citrus pith has all the bioflavonoids which work well with the acidic juice and fibre in the pulp.

We enjoy watching cooking shows but not Master Chef and My Kitchen Rules with their annoying pauses in speech. The things that really annoy us in any cooking show or book are when a fruit or vegetable is adulterated to make the dish pretty. No concern is apparent as to the nutritional value being discarded. It often seems that looks override or that flavour must be extracted and concentrated rather than the entire product valued for its different beneficial features. Sometimes just too much over cooking.

There have to be some treats in life but as much as possible rubbishy food should be the exception. Treats now are the first home grown Tomatoes or the first Asparagus. Freshly shucked oysters from Karuah, home made chocolate with honey as the mild sweetener, fresh fruit from the garden with yogurt, that glass of your own wine or cider. Even just trying a new recipe which innovates the way a vegetable is prepared or cooked. The palate does change. And it can't be all that bad for your health.

What is in your pantry that should not be there?

Are you maximising the nutritional value of the fruit and vegetables you use?

They say it's best not to try and change everything at once as that will lead to failure. Get in the habit of adding something good to your diet or removing something bad (not both) one thing every 40 days or so and change your diet and your health.

Sourdough Pizza, Sourdough Biscuits, Diet and Exercise

On a roll today. Rather than use the remaining sourdough material leftover from the pasta making for more  pasta we decided to give pizza a go. And it worked fine. The topping on one of the two pizzas was the leftover Marinara from the pasta dish plus onions, mushrooms, olives, preserved capsicum and cheese i.e. leftover pieces of Havarti, Cheddar and Provolone were grated over the top. The base of sourdough was rolled out very thin and fitted to a pizza tray and baked for 15 minutes to harden it a little then the topping was added. The crust tastes a little different from the traditional pizza base but it is after all sourdough.

There was a little bit of dough still remaining which was rolled out very thinly and had some Caraway seeds added then cut into strips about 30 mm wide and baked until crisp. A perfect base for some Camembert or Colby that was in the fridge.

The morning started with a punishing round of Aquarobics. It was cold out and it was cold in and we remained cold all day. Probably the combination of fasting and exercise. Anyway the pizza and wine warmed us. As long as you have something to look forward to each day all is well.

There was a recent podcast from the ABC's The Health Report covering aspects of diet and exercise. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/the-lifestyle-challenge/4953496

It was extremely interesting. Our take on it was that it is irrelevant which diet you undertake be it Paleo, Atkins, CSIRO, Low Glycaemic, 5:2 Fast etc. It is more important to adhere to one that works for you and that you are happy to stick with because that is the secret. You need to stay with it indefinitely. There are no easy solutions. Calories are calories and the only way to lose weight or prevent long term weight gain is to restrict/reduce your calories. Making sure your food is fresh and balanced is a must. None of the faddy stuff like eating only Apples for weeks on end. The goal is to keep the body healthy as well as keep the weight down. A balanced diet of fresh unprocessed food with good variety and not too much of it.

Exercise will not help you lose weight unless you get into training of Olympic proportions. Exercise is to keep you fit and healthy. A balance of Aerobic activity and muscle building activity. Some exercise is better than none of course. BUT... be aware that to really obtain and maintain fitness you must improve on your performance all the time. If you walk around the block each day you will have to walk around faster next week or go around twice or something else. And that was the good news.

The Mulberry tree is producing masses of fruit and we are having some with yogurt each night. A few years ago we made a batch of jam using just the fruit and no sugar and we still have some left. We are not fans of making jam with sugar preferring to eat the fresh fruit. Because of the variety of fruit trees, vines etc we are rarely without some form of fresh fruit. The Citrus are still hanging there and we have some of those each day as well.

The new baby chickens are doing well.

One little baby peeking out

Two braver babies feeding