Local food finds-Rio Star Grapefruit Marmalade

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con' oilo, eating, food finds, localvore, rio star grapefruit

One of the awesome parts of eating whole foods is the joy of discovering products you wouldn't touch when your mind was in "diet" mode. I mean when I was first losing weight and learning how to keep it off, sugar was verboten. Splenda was my friend. 

These days, I've learned that I can indeed consume sugar in moderation. Novel concept! Knowing this frees me up to go out and try interesting new things. One of those new things is locally produced Rio Star Grapefruit Marmalade!

The awesome folks at Con' Olio advertised this bad boy of their facebook page a few weeks back. I finally made it in to grab a jar for sample purposes. Made by the wonderful folks at Confituras, this locally made (and regionally sourced) marmalade is a combination of Texas Rio Star Grapefruit, cane sugar, local honey, vanilla bean, and a smidge of lemon. 

I am a grapefruit junkie. One of the best parts of eating locally in Texas is grapefruit. I've got close to 7 pounds of grapefruit sitting in my fridge at the moment. I don't eat it as diet food, I just eat it because it tastes awesome! One of my big achievements as I switched eating patterns- eating grapefruit without adding sugar. So I'm perfectly happy with naked grapefruit. 

Getting to eat grapefruit marmalade? That's like hitting the lottery. I get the amazing flavor of grapefruit, with some added sweet. This stuff has my ideal blend of tangy and sweet. Like any good marmalade it's got bits of peel tossed in for good measure. It's a current breakfast favorite. The nice thing about eating it with breakfast is that it just adds in fuel to my workout. 

A little goes a long way, so I don't need much more than a teaspoon on my whole grain toast in the morning. It's becoming a morning favorite. 

What are some of the local food treasures you've found as you wander around your town?

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Walmart shifting to cheap, healthy food in 5 years?

Several media outlets today are reporting that Walmart is promising to go lower salt, eliminate trans-fat, and lower sugar over the next 5 years. Additionally they are planning on reducing the cost of fruits and veggies. 

This can have a huge impact on making healthier food more widely available. Walmart is present in a wide range of communities with limited access to healthy and affordable food options. Now the bigger question is, will this actually result in healthier food as defined by Pollan and company? The reality is that it costs more money to produce healthy food. Walmart is saying it's willing to absorb the cost and not pass that along to customers. 

That means that somewhere along the way the increased cost of production is going to get passed along.  The question is where that cost is going to show up? Lower wages? Reduced benefits for employees, lower profits for the producers of that food?

 

 

The nostalgia effect?

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food history, food rules, michael pollan

So how much of the slow food/food rules movement is based in nostalgia? I mean think about it. There's an impression that if we can just go back to the right point in time of food history and replicate how people eat, we will find the perfect diet. 

Off the top of your head, can you think of a point in time where there was a "perfect" diet?

The great grandmother rule

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food history, food rules, lutefisk, lye, michael pollan

Pollan argues that one way to define food is to ask yourself if your great grandmother would recognize the item as food. On the surface, this is a good way to determine if something is "food". What you miss though is that humans have been special engineering food items much longer than we realize. 

Karo corn syrup makes it's first appearance in 1902. Vanilla extract shows up in 1847. The first synthetic baby foods start showing up in 1867, and margarine shows up in 1870. Now granted, it was probably less common for great grandma to have vanilla extract, Karo syrup, and synthetic baby food. If nothing else, the cost of those products would have placed them out of the reach of many people in great grandma's day.  So why did these products continue to lead to other products? Time. We forget that key component to the equation. 

No microwaves, moderate to limited availability of ready made food sources, in short if you wanted to eat something, you needed to make it. It wasn't just food that took time. Every household chore took longer. Washing, mopping, cleaning out the oven, and food preparation required serious effort and labor. So the evolution of these "easy" products was in direct response to the need to cut time somewhere. 

So if great grandma had various enhanced food items available, what does that do to the food rule? Just how far back do you go in search of "real food"? That's going to completely depend on your time limits and your desire to go back. I tend to look at the middle ground of things that both great grandma and I would consider "food". While she may have considered lutefisk   a food item, I tend to steer clear of foods preserved in lye, which is a caustic chemical used to clean my floors. Come to think of it, I might need to really apply the same standard to my once a week soda habit.

The reality is, at all points in human history, we have been eating foods that are not ideal for our health and wellbeing. Part of this journey for me comes from figuring out where that line is. 

What is food?

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diet, food rules, health, michael pollan, what is food

Mirriam- Webster defines food as, " material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy; also : such food together with supplementary substances (as minerals, vitamins, and condiments). By that definition, a wide range of consumable items qualify as food. 

The folks at Oxford Dictionary define food as, "any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth." With the addition the word nutritious, the meaning of food changes. 

In the last several years, we've added a value qualifier to the word food. There's an argument made that products which are designed for consumer to consume don't meet the definition of food. That's one of Pollan's  key arguments in his Food Rules concept. Pollan argues that these "food like substances" are not real food. They are chemical concoctions designed by scientists, not designed by nature. 

Yet depending on the definition you chose, these designer consumables are indeed food. They combine protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals into a substance used to sustain growth, repair the body, and support various vital processes. After all, the commercially designed feed that goes into pigs, cows and chickens does indeed fulfill those requirements. 

So if we proceed to add the word nutritious into the mix, it appears on face to change things up. Nutritious comes from the word nourish, meaning to "nutrure or rear, or to promote the growth of."  So nutritious leads us to look at food types as foods which promote growth or encourage. There's a positive value associated with them. 

So how do we associate these values with the things we eat? Is blowfish, a fish valued for the toxin it produces, better for you than a cheeseburger from McDonald's? Why? The blowfish requires minimal preparation, yet prepared incorrectly it can lead to major illness or even death. The McDonald's cheeseburger won't kill you with the first bite. Are both items food? Are both items nutritious? What changes between the two?

There's no easy answer. At what point does human manipulation of an edible item change it from a nutritious food item to something else? Where do we draw the line?

Food Rules- BUSTED!

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additives, fitness, food rules, health, michae pollan, sushi

I'm fuming. I just had a major food rules boo-boo. The irony, the break in rules occured with sushi. 

FISH. Fish and rice to be specific. Honest to pete, nothing is sacred. 

The set up- I decided that I wanted to kick off the weekend with a little fish. I hit my local H.E.B. grocery store and cruised over to the fish counter. Nothing really jumped out at me. (Which is good given that I didn't really want my food to jump at me.) So I shifted over to the sushi bar. I happen to like sushi. I'm still learning about it, but I've got no issues eating raw fish. Or raw beef. But I digress. 

I did a quick eyeball and bypassed the various California roll options and shifted towards the Deluxe Sushi box. I grabbed a tuna/salmon variant and wandered back up to the front for checkout. Came home, sat down for an early dinner and began to munch. 

As I chewed, I gave a passing thought to the label on my box. I was curious about calorie counts. So I flipped the box over and started reading. I'm running down the label (4g of carbs and 3g of protein per piece for those interested), and my eyes stray to ingredients. 

I see the words, "high fructose."

Big, flashing alarm bells go off. Whyfor is there high fructose ANYTHING in my fishies? 

I start piecing the label that I'd ripped off the box together. High fructose corn syrup in the vinegar. Potassium sorbate. Acetic acid. Aspartame.

… So not only is there fake sugar in my sushi, there's fake sweetener.

Yeah. The vinegar is used to prep the rice, so it's all through the meal. I mean that's the point of sushi. Fishy bits and the spiffy rice. Full of chemicals. One of which I work very hard to not ingest ever.

I know better. I am a devoted reader of labels. This caught me off guard. It's sushi. Not a chemical bomb. Yet within my humble fish I discovered a plethora of chemical non yummy.  

I finished the sushi. I've got issues not finishing meat products I've purchased no matter where they come from. I believe if an animal dies to be on my plate, I need to respect that death and not just throw it away.  So meat doesn't get tossed. But man am I ticked. Yes it's my fault, but yeeish! It's a fresh prepped item, it spoils, and it doesn't glow green in blacklight. It's what I'd tell my clients is a safe food option. 

Amazing how that perspective changes when you actually check what's in your food. 

Once more with feeling

So the original idea for trying to follow "Food Rules" for a year kind of petered out.  Since it's the beginning of the year, I'm thinking it's a perfectly good time to go ahead and kick things off for a second shot. This time I can use what I've learned to refine my particular rules. 

1) Eat food.

-whole food products as often as possible. 

-aim for low ingredient lists (5-7).

-local source when able.

-avoid foods which add things in which should be there all ready.

 

2) Mostly plants.

-Meat once daily.

-Enjoy the pretty green veggies.

-Grains are perfectly fine.

 

3) Not too much.

 

4) Do not set up for failure.

-Protein supplement as needed. Look to find one with minimal ingredients. This was a BIG problem for me when I tried this before. So I'm going to add it to my rules. 

-Fish oil caps.

-Greens supplement as needed. 

-Green tea is my friend.

 

5) Break the rules 10% of the time.

 

Simple- not easy. So with that, off we go. 

Life in the Doldurms

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food rules, michael pollan, motivation

Well bother.

A couple of weeks goes by and not word out of me. Which also coincides with a case of me not sticking too hard to the food rules. Looks like we've hit the Doldrums. You know what I mean, that spot where the wind just sucks out of your sails and you sit there thinking, "I don't wanna do this".

As simple as it is in concept, it's actually hard to make lasting lifestyle changes. We are in a society today where we get bombarded day in and day out with messages telling us to take short cuts and make things happen faster. Everything is packaged to drive us towards convenience and ease. Workout programs emphasize speedy results. Food is packaged and marketed with an emphasis on fast and easy. If you aren't watching things carefully it's incredibly easy to just get bowled over by the cacophony of voices pushing you to do things the easy way.

Which brings us back to one of the major problems we have as a society. We get so focused on easy that we forget that at some point in time, work and effort does need to get expended to make things happen. The glut of easy to use food like items has made it easier to not think about what goes into your mouth and body. Which makes it in turn easier to not think about what you need to do in order to take care of said body. It's a nice little vicious cycle that leads right back to fat and unhealthy on the couch.

You don't go through life with the wind constantly in your sails. That's one of the first things you learn in sailing. Eventually, that wind that's carried you will die down and you are gonna be stuck in the middle of nowhere, calm seas, and empty sails. There are whole chunks of the ocean where you hit those periods of calm seas and no winds. Sailors called them the Doldrums. You had little choice but to wait for time and the current to carry you out.

Now I could wait for time and current, but that's kind of a pain. So like the cartoon characters, I've got a little fan stashed away in my boat with a loooooooooooong extension cord. It's important to know when you need to provide your own wind.

Tomorrow I've got a trip scheduled to head over to a local farm and help with picking the crops. It's a great way to get me back in touch with what I'm trying to accomplish this year. It's about learning how to eat, understanding where my food comes from, and then working to achieve high end physical results.

Good way to get a little wind back in the sails and get myself out of the Doldrums.

Rule #5- Don’t eat foods containing sugar in the top three ingredients

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fitness, food rules, health, michael pollan, sugar

This is another clear no brainer.

By law, manufacturers are required to list ingredients by weight. So if the top three ingredients contain sugar, you can bet it's a significant part of the product.

(As a side note, I'm reaching a point where I wince at using the word product. I don't want product, I want food dangit!)

Now this seems clear and simple. Sugar is a treat food, plain and simple. It's not something the human body is used to consuming in bulk, it's designed as a source of quick energy, and bottom line is we eat way too much of in the US.

Thing is, the manufacturers are sneaky. There's a lot of ways to hide sugar. For example, this is a list of different types of sugar.

1. Barley malt
2. Beet sugar
3. Brown sugar
4. Buttered syrup
5. Cane juice crystals
6. Cane sugar
7. Caramel
8. Corn syrup
9. Corn syrup solids
10. Confectioner’s sugar
11. Carob syrup
12. Castor sugar
13. Date sugar
14. Demerara sugar
15. Dextran
16. Dextrose
17. Diastatic malt
18. Diatase
19. Ethyl maltol
20. Fructose
21. Fruit juice
22. Fruit juice concentrate
23. Galactose
24. Glucose
25. Glucose solids
26. Golden sugar
27. Golden syrup
28. Grape sugar
29. High fructose corn syrup
    
30. Honey
31. Icing sugar
32. Invert sugar
33. Lactose
34. Maltodextrin
35. Maltose
36. Malt syrup
37. Maple syrup
38. Molasses
39. Muscovado sugar
40. Panocha
41. Raw sugar
42. Refiner’s syrup
43. Rice syrup
44. Sorbitol
45. Sorghum syrup
46. Sucrose
47. Sugar
48. Treacle
49. Turbinado sugar
50. Yellow sugar

I imagine some of those caught your attention. Take a look at the boxes you have in the house again. Do you see rice syrup listed in the first three ingredients for a child breakfast cereal? Guess what- sugar. Yes it's "healthy", yes it's organic. It's still sugar, still in the top three ingredients and still needs to go the way of the dodo.

With that out of the way, I'm pleased to note that workouts are stringing together nicely. I've got a good rotation of daily walking combined with resistance work and interval training going. The battle with the dinner table still isn't getting easier. I think I'm about to institute a no television rule to go along with the must eat at a table rule.

So why get rid of high fructose corn syrup?

Tags

fitness, food rules, health, hfcs, high fructose corn syrup, michael pollan

When last we left our intrepid hero, she was ensuring that the last of her High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) containing items had been removed from the hacienda.

Now thankfully since I've been eating healthy for a good number of years now, the amount of HFCS in my house is minimal. Now odds are good you've been reading the news and watching tv over the last few years. You are aware that HFCS is a bit of a lightening rod food for folks. In some circles it's being touted as the food of the Devil! On the other hand you have the good folks with the Corn Lobby who insist that HFCS is a natural sweetener. Who's right? The answer is both of them.

First things first, high fructose corn syrup is indeed made from a naturally occurring product- corn. Said corn is taken through a series of steps in a factory setting. Those steps include, milling the corn, separating out the starch from other solids, adding naturally occurring enzymes, and finally filtration. 

You can safely say that HFCS is made from naturally occurring ingredients, but is not something found in nature. 

Now the research is still in progress about just how much of a negative impact HFCS makes on the human body. The picture is not clear yet that this particular form of sugar is worse for you then other forms of sugar. By that I mean there are not multiple, peer reviewed studies that clearly demonstrate a causal link. What can be stated is that HFCS is a wide spread source of additional sugar in many foods. Sugar is a simple carbohydrate and a source of calories. Ingesting too many calories without enough exercise leads to growing waistlines.

For people looking to improve diet, cutting extra sugars is a great way to do just that. HFCS is also a product that was not on great gramma's shelf. (It was invented in 1957). So if you are looking to shift away from highly processed foods, looking for HFCS is a great way to do that too.

On face that seems easy yes? Did you take a look at your fridge for HFCS containing items?

Things you may have found-

Skinny Cow Ice Cream bars

Nutrigrain bars

Special K cereal

Yoplait Yogurt

Smuckers Grape Jelly

Clausen Pickle Relish

Ben and Jerry's ice cream

That's just a couple of the items you may find in your fridge. We won't even go into your sodas, assorted kinds of kid food, and salad dressings.

You've got a pile of stealth calories in those foods, several which masquerade as healthy food. No go. Just because a product is natural, that doesn't make it healthy. Remember, arsenic occurs in nature too. Not sure that's on my good eats list. 

Again, the research is still out on HFCS being the tool of the devil. At a minimum, for someone trying to eat healthy and lose weight you do not need those added sugars.