This video is the first in a series that will cover how to eat healthy while traveling. It is a little more difficult than cooking your own real food at home, but it is not impossible. Remember, there are two parts to healthy eating: quality and quantity. Sometimes you will have to sacrifice one or the other a little depending on your situation, but you can get usually get close to the proper quantities, and it is usually fairly easy to manage your portions (just don’t eat with your eyes).
Video
21
May 09
Authors@Google: Michael Pollan
A compelling talk from Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma
A few key points that Pollan makes:
Don’t get your food where your car does.
Gas stations have become processed corn vendors. High fructose corn syrup packed snacks on the inside, Ethanol for you car on the outside. Don’t be eating from the same food chain as your car.
If your Great Grandmother couldn’t tell you what it is, it’s probably not food.
Does anyone really know what is in a Twinkie? If your great grandmother (or you for that matter) read a label on a food product, and couldn’t tell you what all of the ingredients were; probably not good for you.
Nutritionism has lead people down a path of self delusion.
Since when can you taste a nutrient, smell a nutrient, feel a nutrient? Our Western culture has become so scientific about our food, and the tiny chemical properties that compose it, that they have lost sight of the bigger picture. Many foods must be eaten whole in order for us to imbibe the nutrients they contain.
Real food has a shelf-life!
Decomposition is a natural process of an organic organism. If what your eating doesn’t rot, what is it made of?
For much more information, please watch the full video. The question period at the end is especially good.
10
May 09
Gary Taubes Defends Eating Fat.
Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health
10
May 09
Paleo Diet in a Nutshell.
A brief synopsis of what the Paleo Diet is all about. Everyone learns differently, and if you require moving pictures to sink the benefits of Paleo eating habits into your head, then here they are. Watch and learn.
Meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, an NO SUGAR. Quite simply the easiest and cheapest change you can make to your lifestyle if you want to mprove your overall quality of life.
17
Mar 09
Alice Waters on Slow Food
Alice Waters, author of The Art of Simple Food
To paraphrase:
We all make decisions about what we want to eat and how we spend our money…some people want to buy Nike Shoes, two pairs. Others want to eat good, sustainable food.
The point being made here is that good food should not be some elitist luxury, but rather a restructuring of our priorities. Do you need another pair of Nike’s? Or would you be better off spending that money on good quality food?
From the perspective of a recent university student, a lifestyle often associated with late nights of partying and frequent binge drinking, it has been my experience that people are very quick to call organic food expensive, and complain about being unable to afford it. A claim not often grounded in logic however, as most students will spend more money in one night at the bar than on a typical grocery bill.
Good food should be the last item sent to the chopping block when funds are tight. In a down economy, the best resource you can invest in is your health.
16
Mar 09
Robb Wolf of CrossFit HQ on Insulin Resistance
Today’s CrossFit WOD post came with a video on insulin resistance that nicely coincides with the post I wrote a few days ago about the insulin response.
In the video Robb Wolf explains how our body’s resistance to insulin happens very much analogous to they way our olfactory reaction to perfume is very strong when we first smell a new scent. That smell fades however as our noses become desensitized to the perfume’s aroma. To experience the smell with the same intensity as the first inhale, we either have to increase the amount of perfume (similar to having to increase drug dosages to maintain effectiveness), or decrease our exposure to it. The sad reality is that most people choose the former when it comes to insulin levels.
When insulin resistance occurs, the body has trouble releasing the energy that it has already stored in fat cells, and thus asks for more food to burn as instant energy in the form of hunger pangs. If this demand is satiated by carbohydrates, as is common in North American eating habits, the cycle continues to repeat itself, and fat stores grow while energy levels need continuous “topping-up” with more carbs.
To elaborate what I said in the post on the insulin response, eating low Glycemic Index (GI) carbohydrates, in conjunction with fats and protein, will keep your blood glucose levels low, and thus maintain a normal insulin response.
You body is stuck in an evolutionary past where sugar was relatively non-existent. Due to this environmental scarcity, when a sugar source was eaten your digestive system became very good at instantly storing it as fat, not knowing when the next opportunity for such a high energy intake would be.
If you would not like to be in a constant battle with your genetics, limit your intake of high GI carbs, and cut the refined sugar.
Robb Wolf is both a scientist and athlete as a personal trainer at NorCal Strength & Conditioning. Robb is an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. In addition, he is a USAW Olympic Weightlifting coach, and a certified CrossFit Coach, the highest level of CrossFit training certification, possessed only by a handful of strength & conditioning coaches throughout the world.
Additionally, Robb is co-publisher and editor-in-chief of The Performance Menu.
11
Mar 09
Mark Bittman supports Michael Pollan’s call to arms for food
Eat FOOD, mostly plants, and not too much.
An idea put forth by food expert Michael Pollan in his book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
These words are so simple, yet so powerful. It seems rather ridiculous that this idea needs to be sold back to the average North American consumer. Unfotunately, we have deviated away form real food.
Here is a video presentation from Mark Bittman, a food expert that is concerned with the ecological and health impacts of our modern diet. The video was recorded at the EG 2007 Conference in Los Angeles, California. Bittman offers further support to Michael Pollan, the idea that began this post.
Mark Bittman is a bestselling cookbook author, journalist and television personality. His friendly, informal approach to home cooking has shown millions that fancy execution is no substitute for flavor and soul.
You can read more from him on his blog: Bitten, his New York Times column The Minimalist, or check out one of the cookbooks he has authored, How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition): 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food
and The Best Recipes in the World
You can also check out Mark’s recent appearance on ObsessedTV.com with Samantha Ettus, a recent addition to the online TV domain from Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV fame.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
