"Organic"

I find it amusing at times that people still honestly don't know what organic food is. 

I recall as a teenager seeing a handful of produce (a cucumber & a onion & a bunch of carrots maybe) in the produce department of the grocery store.  I remember not knowing what "organic" meant, but I did see that they were more expensive.

In the '90s the legal definition was declared for organic foods.  To this day there is still no legal definition for "organic" in regards to health & beauty products, which most people are not aware of.  A bottle of shampoo or makeup can put "organic" on the label & it honestly doesn't mean a thing.  I am sure that will change at some point, but it hasn't yet.

A couple of years ago I was grocery shopping & overheard a woman going on about organic food.  It was clear that she wasn't a regular shopper of such things & wasn't very educated either.  She was excitedly telling someone that she had a friend who had suffered a heart attack & was desperately missing cheese in his diet.  And she was excitedly going on about the fact that he COULD have cheese, if it was organic that is.  I was honestly considering approaching this woman to clear up the confusion & educate her on these matters.  But I forget what happened, I was distracted somehow & didn't do it.  Organic dairy products are free of hormones & antibiotics & the cows are fed organic food, but that's all the difference there is.  (oh well I guess there's new legislation on organic milk that a cow must be pastured for a certain amount of time, 4 months out of the year or something like that--of course plenty of companies aren't exactly complying, but that's a whole other issue & a whole other blog).  No dairy products due to heart problems is due to the FAT content in the dairy, not hormones, not antibiotics, & not that the cow ate non-organic food.............

About a month ago I was grocery shopping & overheard someone in another aisle telling someone "and it's organic, so you don't even have to wash it!"  My mouth seriously fell open.  Now I know when I have my own organic garden going at home that I don't use any chemical pesticide or fertilizer (a lot of people who have organic home gardens still use chemical fertilizers without even realizing that it's no longer considered organic if you do that, but that's another issue altogether as well).  But outside, in the big ugly evil money-hungry world, they do things differently.  It's all about the "legal definition" of "organic" & believe me, those companies look for ever possible loop-hole on all those legal definitions, organic included.  So while you are probably thinking that organic food has NO chemicals on it, it's just not true.  It won't have any of the REALLY BAD chemicals on it, but it will still have some & some of those are pretty bad too.  So to be eating food without washing it, even if it's organic, is not a smart thing to do.

Just last week I was looking at recipes online.  I can't remember what the recipe was for, but I do remember looking at it & it specifically said for some item in the recipe "if you chose non-organic be sure to wash it, if you chose organic there is no need to wash it".  Apparently this is some sort of common idea out there.....to not need to wash organic foods.......OK, even if organic foods had NO chemicals on them at all, you still have no idea where they've been & what sort of conditions they've been subjected to.  And I can honestly tell you that most organic produce we buy is FILTHY with just plain dirt when we wash it.  And the organic lettuce always has live bugs in it when you wash it. 

That's all I have to say on that.........for now..........

Weight Revisited (& health in general)

So I followed Suzanne Somers diet for close to 2 weeks.  Then I got sick.  I was nauseated & had a bad headache & was very dizzy for a little over a week.  When I'm nauseated all I can stomach is carbs.  So of course I fell off my diet.

But I have to admit I was not enjoying this diet at all.  I wasn't feeling good, not in a healthy detoxing my body sort of way, but in a heavy, eating too much protein sort of way.  It was also a little too expensive to keep up right now.  Our finances are tight & I've been working hard to stretch the expensive food items like meat--lots of stir fries, pasta dishes, etc to stretch our budget right now.

So I did some thinking about my weight, my health, & food in general.  I know that technically I am not overweight, yet I still like the way I feel & look when I'm a few pounds lighter than I currently am.  I struggle back & forth with this all the time.

And for several years now I have been studying the food system in our country & it is oh so disgusting.  We buy a lot of organic & try to eat as healthy as we can.  But I just keep on learning more & more awful things.  I was a vegetarian for 10 years at one point in my life (from age 15-25).  I ended up stopping just because I didn't like having to be so legalistic about it once you label yourself a "vegetarian".  Like if I was eating out & wanted soup I couldn't order soup with a meat broth, that sort of thing.  So at the age of 25 I decided to just eat whatever I really "wanted" to eat.  And of course I ended up going along with the mainstream eventually & eating meat on a daily basis.

Now there are some meat items that I do enjoy, like roast beef, turkey sandwiches, & a few others.  But for the past couple of days I have stopped eating meat & am doing fine.  Of course it's a little more challenging when I'm cooking for a family of devout meat eaters, but I am confident that I can make it work.  Eating out was never a problem for me in the past when I was a vegetarian, so I'm not even worried about that at all.  Of course I will still allow myself dairy & eggs & fish on occasion, especially when eating out.

This should also help to cut down on our grocery budget as meat is our biggest expense & now I won't be eating any.  So that's also a plus.

So for now I'm putting any dieting plans on hold & just trying to get back into the vegetarian swing of things & I'll see where my weight ends up & then later on decide if I still want/need to lose a few pounds.

For the Love of Cheese

Cheese is a food that people usually feel strongly about. They either love it or hate it.

I am one who LOVES cheese. I love lots of different types of cheeses. And I really can appreciate a good quality cheese versus a rubbery grocery store wannabe cheese. I don't think there is any other food that I am quite so particular or passionate about.

I have to wonder where I acquired my love of cheese from. I think back to my childhood & I can't remember having anything other than boring (not even real cheese I might add) american cheese in the house. Bleh I say! This is one food I don't eat & could easily go for the rest of my life without ever laying eyes on it again. I don't care for "pasteurized process cheese food" Nastiness I say!

Now for the most part I am picky about my dairy products being organic, but it is nearly impossible to find good organic cheese. I really don't understand why this is. I guess there's just not enough demand for it. There are a few varieties out there, but they honestly don't taste good.

I have to admit that one of the things I love about Costco is that they have really good quality cheeses. I usually buy my cheeses there. They do sell a cheddar that is hormone free & that is the one I always buy, but none of the others make any claims like that on their labels.

Right now I have in the house cheddar, parmesan (the REAL parmesan), mozarella (the REAL stuff, not the rubbery stuff you find at grocery stores), smoked gouda, & queso fresco. I don't think I could ever narrow it down to only ONE favorite, but I guess my top 3 would be cheddar, smoked gouda, & queso fresco.

Now one time when we were in Tijuana we stopped at a cheese shop. It was so amazing, the cheeses were so fresh & so good. If you ever go to Mexico you truly HAVE to seek out a cheese shop. They let you sample before you buy. I remember we brought home a white cheddar, panela, crema, & queso fresco. My hubby says his all time favorite cheese is panela. My hubby is also lactose intolerant :( I have to admit the panela was really good, but I still prefer queso fresco myself. And I have tried lots of panelas around here (even going to Mexican grocers) & none are anywhere near as good as the one we got in TJ. The queso fresco at Costco is honestly the best one I have tasted this side of the border.

When lil J was first starting on finger foods I would sometimes give him cubes of smoked gouda & sometimes make him quesadillas with smoked gouda. One day we went to an appointment with a lawyer & it took much longer than expected. Traffic was so bad we couldn't get home fast & lil J was hungry & we had no food with us (I now almost never leave the house without some form of snack or food for him because this happened). I remember we went to Rubios--hubby & I were hungry too & we agreed that we could order lil J a quesadilla. We couldn't believe how he refused to eat the quesadilla!! He sniffed it & licked it & threw it aside & cried for food. Yep, I'm raising a little cheese snob, LOL! He wanted his smoked gouda. He does now eat cheddar also & I plan to introduce him to other varieties as well.

So yeah I guess I'm a bit of a cheese snob. But I think that's the only food I am that way about. And I don't really get extreme about it. But I sure do enjoy my cheese. :)

Weight

A very touchy subject for a lot of people--weight.

I must admit I've been pretty lucky, never really been overweight before. But of course I like to be thin & work hard to maintain my weight. Sometimes I am criticized by people because I want to lose a little weight yet I'm not technically overweight. Well that's my business is all I can say. I'm not trying to achieve being underweight & having less body fat is healthy.

When I was younger (all the way up to my mid 20s) I could eat & eat & eat, I could easily out-eat most people, even men!! And I never gained a pound either, no matter what I was eating!

While in my late 20's I went back to school, I was in the LVN program (licensed vocation nurse). Now this is a FULL time program--beyond full time actually. You are in school a minimum of 40 hours each week & then have TONS of homework on top of that. Add to that the fact that I worked on the weekends & it's total insanity. The LVN program is a full year, including summer school. You carry well over 20 units each semester, with the exception of summer school, I think it was around 18 units for summer school.

By the end of this year I realized I had gained about 20 pounds. This was the first time in my life I had ever gained weight. I realized my stress level was very intense, I was in my late 20s, & knew I had to do something fast.

I was able to lose 15 of those 20 lbs. I did it just by eating smaller portions & doing more cardio. Those were the easy days, the 20s. I always hear people in their 20s (early 20s even!) complaining how hard it is to lose weight & I always warn them they had better get control of their weight now & not later cuz it only gets harder & harder as time goes on.

Of course even though I lost those 15 lbs I was still in school working on my pre-reqs for the RN program (registered nurse). And I was working full time too. Life was still stressful & I was entering my early 30s. I gained a few pounds due to that. And I also found that in my early 30s there was no more easy weight loss like before.

So I got myself a pedometer & followed a plan in a book called "the step diet". You just keep increasing your steps each week & eating less food. I have to say it worked. I got the weight off in time to enter the RN program.

Now because I was already an LVN I only had to do the second year of the 2 year RN program. It was semesters 3 & 4. I have to say that the 3rd semester was really a cake walk for me. I did really well in both clinical & lecture & had very little stress (there is always "some" stress in nursing school no matter what) & I didn't gain any weight at all. But the 4th semester was very tough & really kicked my butt & I did end up gaining 15 lbs.

After I graduated I was determined to drop those 15 lbs. For several months I kept trying to eat healthy, small portions, workout more, etc. None of it made any difference now. I was in my mid 30s now & it was even harder than the early 30s!! I did try to do the step diet again & had no success at all.

I was getting really frustrated & around that time my cousin shared with me that she was doing the south beach diet & having success with it (& that she had done it before & had success then too). I decided to give it a try. I did feel like I needed a structered set of rules to follow.

At first glance I didn't think I could do it. Giving up carbs was impossible for me. But then I decided to take a look at it from a different angle. How was I going to sit back & let my body & it's cravings dictate what I put in my mouth? I got kinda angry about it & I allowed that anger to fuel me. I saw it as a challenge & when my mind is put to something nothing will stop me & so I did the diet & had great success. I was the thinnest I had been in a lot of years. And I was very happy.

I have always wanted to make sure I turn 40 at my goal weight because I know it only gets harder once you turn 40 & it's hard enough now already. I was actually pleased that I was done with school, I felt there should be no more reasons to ever gain weight again in my life & was thrilled at this thought.

And then I found I was pregnant. Not only was I pregnant but it was a long & hard pregnancy for me. I had morning sickness the entire pregnancy & had major food aversions to tons of foods. About the only foods I could stomach & keep down were carbs. Plus there was tons of stress--we had a huge fire in our community, 6 houses surrounding us burned & this caused a great deal of smoke damage to our house, etc. This along with modified bed rest at the beginning of the 3rd trimester all contributed to the whopping 47 lbs I gained during the pregnancy.

Once the baby was born I had lost 27 lbs (the baby, placenta, water bag, all the extra blood volume, & the fluid from swelling). So I had 20 more to go. I kept trying to get back on the south beach diet & I was doing it all according to the plan & I did lose some weight but not much. And I've been stuck for a really long time now.

I'm turning 38 next month & still want to turn 40 already at my goal weight. I have to do something & I have to do it fast. So I decided to try Suzanne Somers eating plan. It's a low carb plan with food combining involved. I did try food combining when I was a teen (from the fit for life book) & I sure did feel great while doing it, it was just too strict for me to keep it up long term. And Suzanne even mentions this program & the fact that she feels it is TOO strict. I am just starting it today, so we'll see how it goes. I have to admit I like the fact that I can have carbs, I just have to not have them with any fat or protein.

I grew up watching my mom & sister go from one fad diet to the next & never be satisfied. I promised myself I would never end up like that. While trying out diets makes me nervous that I am headed in that direction, I still feel that I am not like that.

Number one: I will never put my weight before my health. I will never follow a diet that will harm my health in the process of losing weight. (I have to admit I saw them try several diets that were outright not healthy)

Number two: I don't believe at all that I am doing fad diets, I am only interested in changing my eating habits for life.

I have to admit I do make modifications wherever I don't agree.

Like with the south beach diet: he tells you to use artificial sweeteners & margarine. I absolutely refuse to use either of these, they are made in laboratories with chemicals, they have no place in my body, so I refuse to eat them. I learned to give up sugar completely & used butter in moderation. He also made a big deal about only using low fat & no fat dairy & I didn't always follow that, depending on what it was. To me it's important that dairy is organic (sans hormones & antibiotics) & it can be difficult & sometimes impossible to find low fat organic dairy, & so I would prioritize organic over low fat & would still eat full fat dairy at times.

I like the fact that Suzanne Somers is very into eating healthy & eating REAL food. This is why when I tried to think of what diet to try next her name came to mind. I respect her as a person & wanted to give her plan a try. I am happy to see that she is anti-margarine & anti-artifical sweeteners. Although she has her own sweetener (somersweet) that she's really pushing, but I still don't plan to use it. I'm sure it's great & I'm sure it's healthier than the artificial ones out there, but I would just rather give up sweets. It's shocking to me that people refuse to see that as a legitimate alternative. No sugar & no sugar substitutes, it's not that impossible to do.

So today is day one of starting her diet. I hope to have great success on this. We shall see.....

Michael Pollan's "Food Rules"

This was the latest book I read. It's really short, a VERY quick read indeed. But I really loved this book. I highly recommend it to EVERYONE. Well everyone that EATS, that is (& that would be EVERYONE, would it not?).

So I'm gonna post here his food rules. The book has a page or two of further explanation of each rule, so if anyone wants that on any particular rule just comment & let me know.

First allow me to explain how the book is set up. It is set up in 3 parts. He asks that you adopt AT LEAST ONE (but you can certainly adopt MORE than that) from each section.

His bottom line is this: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." And so the first section of the book deals with the first sentence--it deals with WHAT to eat. The second section of the book deals with the third sentence--WHAT KINDS of foods to eat. And the third section deals with the second sentence--HOW MUCH to eat.

So, without further ado, the FOOD RULES


Part One--What should I eat? (eat food)
1)Eat food (not "edible food-like substances")
2)Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food
3)Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry
4)Avoid food products that contain high fructose corn syrup
5)Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top 3 ingredients
6)Avoid food products that contain more than 5 ingredients (he emphasizes not to be too strict on this, it depends on what it is, but you get the idea)
7)Avoid food products that contain ingredients that a 3rd grader cannot pronounce
8)Avoid food products that make health claims
9)Avoid food products with the wordoid "lite" or the terms "low fat" or "nonfat" in their names
10)Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not (ie margarine, soy-based mock meats, etc)
11) Avoid foods you see advertised on television
12) Shop the peripheries of the supermarket & stay out of the middle section of the store
13) Eat only foods that will eventually rot
14) Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature
15) Get out of the supermarket whenever you can (ie farmers' markets, health food stores, etc)
16) Buy your snacks at a farmers' market
17) Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans
18) Don't ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap
19) If it came from a plant-eat it; if it was made in a plant-don't eat it
20) It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car
21) It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language (think Big Mac, Cheetos, Pringles, etc)

Part Two--what KIND of food should I eat? (mostly plants)
22) Eat mostly plants, especially leaves
23) Treat meat as a flavoring or a special occasion food
24) "Eating what stands on one leg (plants) is better than eating what stands on two legs (fowl), which is better than eating what stands on four legs (cows, pigs, & other mammals). (this is a Chinese proverb & he states he is disappointed that it does not include fish)
25) Eat your colors
26) Drink the spinach water (save water that veggies were cooked in & use in soups or drink it--full of nutrients)
27) Eat animals that have themselves eaten well
28) If you have the space, buy a freezer (stock up on good meats while on sale & buy produce while in season at it's cheapest in bulk & freeze them)
29) Eat like an omnivore
30) Eat well-grown food from healthy soil
31) Eat wild foods when you can
32) Don't overlook the oily little fishies
33) Eat some foods that have been predigested by bacteria or fungi (ie fermented foods & dairy products)
34) Sweeten & salt your food yourself
35) Eat sweet foods as you find them in nature
36) Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk
37) The whiter the bread the sooner you'll be dead
38) Favor the kinds of oils & grains that have traditionally been stone-ground
39) Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself from scratch
40) Be the kind of person who takes supplements--and then skip the supplements
41) Eat more like the French, or the Japanese, or the Italians, or the Greeks
42) Regard non-traditional foods with skepticism
43) Have a glass of wine with dinner

Part Three--HOW should I eat (not too much)
44) Pay more, eat less (ie quality over quantity when it comes to food)
45) ....eat less (calorie restriction in animals slows the aging process & increases their health)
46) Stop eating before you're full
47) Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored
48) Consult your gut (regarding portion size)
49) Eat slowly
50) The banquet is in the first bite (no other bite will taste as good as the first)
51) Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it
52) Buy smaller plates & glasses
53) Serve a proper portion & don't go back for seconds
54) Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper
55) Eat meals (not snacking &/or grazing all day)
56) Limit your snacks to unprocessed plant foods
57) Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does (don't eat gas station mini-mart food)
58) Do all your eating at a table
59) Try not to eat alone
60) Treat treats as treats
61) Leave something on your plate
62) Plant a vegetable garden if you have space, a window box if you don't
63) Cook
64) Break the rules once in a while

Sweet Nothings

In late 2007 I became a bit obsessed with sugar. I mean this in the sense that is probably the opposite of what you are thinking. I became obsessed with getting it out of my diet. I had always been a big carb eater. But in late 2007 I went on the South Beach diet--I had some weight from nursing school that I wanted to lose & was having a hard time getting it off.

The first week or two was really, really tough. I was dizzy, didn't feel well at all. I was actually astonished at my reaction to the lack of sugar in my diet. (for those who aren't nutritionally knowledgable carbs get broken down into glucose in our bodies & affect us just like sugar basically, so you 'could' actually cut sugar out of your diet & not get the results I got if you're still eating lots of carbs) People kept insisting that sugar couldn't do that, it had to be caffeine withdrawals or something like that. But I gave up caffeine back in January of 2003. There was no other explanation than sugar withdrawal.

After the dizziness & feeling sick passed I started noticing how steady my energy level was throughout the day. I REALLY liked this. I began to think it over & I realized that if you ingest something that makes your blood sugar spike up (sugar, carbs, etc) it's also going to end in the blood sugar crashing & bottoming out (what goes up must come down). This is what had been causing my energy level to go up & down so erratically as it had for so many years. I really liked the way I felt on the South Beach diet.

Sometime during this diet my mother in law brought me some info she had on sweeteners. It listed natural sweeteners & how they affected the blood sugar. This was exactly what I was needing to know. Things like maple syrup & honey do cause the blood sugar to spike, even though they are natural. But things like stevia, agave, brown rice syrup, barley malt, & lo han don't. So I then started using those sweeteners. I use all four (have not been able to find lo han for sale anywhere, although it is in my protein shake powder), it just depends on which one I want (based on flavor) for what I'm eating at the time. And there are plenty of things that I just don't sweeten. I've learned to appreciate it's natural taste. This is true especially of drinks like herbal tea (which I used to put a ton of sugar in) & herbal coffee.

As far as stevia goes, I have heard a lot of complaints about it's taste & I have actually tasted some that doesn't taste good. But I remember reading an article somewhere that said it's important to get a really good quality stevia. I was just speed-reading that article, but I do recall it was something about cheaper brands of stevia use all parts of the stevia plant & the better quality brands use only the parts that are sweetest (I cannot recall which part this was though since I was just speed-reading the article).

You may be wondering why I haven't mentioned the big artificial sweeteners: saccharin, aspartame, etc, etc. I refuse to ingest these & I believe they are VERY dangerous chemicals. I don't believe for one second that they are safe at all for us. As a nurse I have seen a HUGE increase in seizure activity in people of all ages, races, etc & in questioning these people I have noticed ONE connection: they all use artificial sweeteners. I know that is not very conclusive evidence, but if you take some time to do some research you will find a ton of bad info on them. I really don't bother because I just don't consume them. (Margarine also falls into this category as far as I'm concerned--just say no to margarine & use some real butter PLEASE)

As a side note: not too long ago there were society norms that appear to have vanished almost overnight. These were norms that said things like "you don't drink soda with breakast", "you don't eat cake for a meal", "you don't eat chocolate in a meal". Sweets & pastries & things of that nature were reserved as a special treat. I think this is a good norm. But somehow it has vanished as I said before. If you take a walk down the cereal aisle it's really really scary. There is chocolate & sugar EVERYWHERE. I was talking with someone recently & they were recounting what they eat throughout the day & were astonished to realize how much sugar they were consuming. It was at every single meal! And this is by no means unusual at all. Even among people like my family, who don't shop at normal grocery stores & consider themselves health-food eaters.

And even if you are proud of yourself for reading labels & not consuming sugar take a closer look. Yet another culprit that is really going to spike your blood sugar (& a huge part of why so many people are diabetic these days) is corn. Corn & corn by-products are in TONS of foods. I have met diabetics who don't understand why they can't get their blood sugar under control when they don't eat any sugar, yet they don't realize they're consuming corn syrup & other corn derivatives at every meal. Corn is very unhealthy for us for a wide variety of reasons--someone recently asked me if there are any health benefits to eating corn & I couldn't think of anything aside from maybe fiber, but you can certainly get fiber elsewhere. Just say no to corn!

There are a lot of people who shrug their shoulders & feel that it's impossible to not eat all this junk. It's been a long time since I've shopped in a regular grocery store, so I can't say how hard it is there. But a lot of regular grocery stores offer healthy brands too. And there are more & more health food stores out there all the time. It's amazing to me how many products you can buy that are sweetened with things like fruit juice & agave & barley malt & rice syrup as opposed to sugar & corn & artificial sweeteners. The same goes for the trans fats (hyrdogenated & partially hydrogenated). I know a lot of people who say they can't stop eating it because it's in everything. Whole Foods market is committed to not selling ANY product that has trans fat in it. It's certainly not in ANYTHING we buy & bring into our home. And of course even if you can't find processed foods without bad ingredients, then why not try rethinking your diet & STOP buying processed foods.....trust me you will benefit from it more than you can imagine.

One last thought. The author Michael Pollan (has written a few really great books on food) has a new book out called "food rules". I plan to get this book at some point when money allows. I saw him interviewed & heard the premise of the book & I love it! Things like "don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" (his example was yogurt in a tube--is it yogurt? is it toothpaste?); and he said when it comes to unhealthy foods (like cake, pastry, french fries)--go ahead & eat them as long as you make them yourself from scratch. Not only are they healthier that way, but he also feels that because they are extra effort to make that this will limit how often you are willing to make them & that this is really how often we SHOULD be eating those types of foods. I really like this motto. The world is eating french fries on a daily basis, yet we all know it's not healthy & they shouldn't be. If you had to take the time to make them yourself from scratch you would eat them a lot less, though, & this is what's best for your body. I just really liked his ideas & can't wait to read that book.