Adding Michael Pollan to my reading, listening list...

I have Google Alerts set up on a number of topics, some fun, most serious and related to health (mine or someone in my family). I remember seeing Michael Pollan's name in some of the articles I've read but have not taken the time to listen or find out more. He has been around for quite some time.

Based on some quick reading this morning, Pollan speaks common sense. I love his 7 Rules for Eating. I agree with so much that was attributed to him in the article.

We are obsessed with health in the United States. Yet we have some of the worst eating habits and the worst rates of diseases. It seems everyone is on a diet. I prefer not to think of what I do as a diet --- that is a brain thing as to me a "diet" is negative in my mind, it is something temporary with a specific goal of losing weight for the majority. Sometimes it's a change in reaction to a health scare (heart attack, etc.).

I also think everyone has to find their own way, find a way of eating 

I eat a certain way, I tweak it as I learn more, as I pay attention to my body...but what I'm trying to do is follow Pollan's #1 rule --- I don't eat anything that my grandmother (in my case, my great-grandmother) wouldn't recognize as food. As part of that, I basically try to eat like most did before manufacturers started messing up our food by processing it, spraying our foods with tons of chemicals and pesticides, modifying our foods so they wouldn't die when sprayed with pesticides, filling our cattle with hormones and antibiotics, feeding fish, chickens, and cattle with "foods" they were not intended to eat...I could go on.

We wonder why we are so ill? Why younger people are in the midst of a diabetic epidemic? Why ADD is happening with more and more frequency? Why Alzheimer's Disease and dementias are rising...and to younger and younger ages? Why our population is so obese? It's more than one thing, it's not just food. But food plays a huge part in it!

OK, stepping down from that soapbox! 

I like his 2nd "rule" --- don't eat anything with more than 5 ingredients or ingredients you can't pronounce. And his 3rd --- stay out of the middle of the grocery store, shop the perimeter... and definitely his 4th --- don't eat anything that won't eventually rot!

On the 4th I do bend it a bit. Only because in a tiny, tiny way I am a mini-prepper. I want to have enough food to eat if we lose electricity for a few weeks (which happened to us a few years back during a winter snowstorm). I like frozen foods much, much better than canned or freeze-dried, but if you don't have a freezer ya gotta have somethin' to eat.

The rest of his rules are good also. 5 - don't eat so much, leave the table a little hungry, 6 - eat around the table with family, not the TV and 7 - don't buy food where you buy gas (or I gather if you read the rest, at fast food joints).

Of course, I paraphrased his rules. I would add a few others --- eat organic whenever possible (but especially the Dirty Dozen) and go Non-GMO to avoid all the extra pesticides if you can't find organic.

He is correct when he notes that our food "rules" have changed over the years. One day something is bad, the next it is good. Villains change to heroes overnight. We find that studies promoting certain lifestyles were done by the food industries that would benefit. We find that studies done that changed our way of eating were flawed. New science decides that salt isn't all bad, that cholesterol isn't the bad-guy they thought it was, that it's good to eat fats...and so on.

I'm going to check a few of his books out of the library. I'll let you know what I think. I may just go see if he is on YouTube first. I'll add some links below if I find anything interesting or new.

Ha --- just took a look at the videos and it seems that in addition to talking diet and food Pollan talks a lot about psychedelics. (Here's a first-pass search result: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=michael+pollan&qpvt=Michael+Pollan&FORM=VDRE)

https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20090323/7-rules-for-eating#1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Pollan

On the hunt for sugar-free frozen potatoes...(Healthy Eating Post) - updated

I am a lazy cook. I used to do gourmet meals, spend time in the kitchen, but there's just way too much to do in life these days. I'd rather be in the studio!

Given there's only two of us, buying fresh often results in a lot of waste. I toss half of what we buy sometimes simply because we like variety and we can't eat a whole bunch or bag before it goes bad.

I'm not into buying real potatoes, cleaning and cooking them either. Yep, lazy cook. I will at times but when I want hash browns for breakfast or fries for dinner I want them now.

If you've read any of my past posts you know I don't eat any form of added sugar. It works for me...maybe not for you. I have found so many benefits from cutting it completely out of my diet over the years! Plus I've learned it's easier to ditch it all rather than try to eat just a little. I always want more and the craving cycle starts.

I've looked for frozen potatoes without added sugar over the past few years without success. Now that I'm moving to a much higher plant-based diet I wanted, needed, some potatoes. I got serious about finding some.

Who would have thought that finding hash browns, home fries or other frozen potato products without added sugar would be a problem? Did you know that your Ore-Ida, Alexia, etc. have sugar on them? It's getting harder and harder to find things that don't have some form of added sugar.

I know many of you are saying something along the lines of "who cares?". If you're diabetic they tell you not to eat potatoes anyway, sugar or no added sugar. Most of you already think I'm over the top with my 'no sugar' life-style! Give up cookies? cake? candy?

If you're eating sugar and you know it, that's one thing. But if you are eating sugar in your blue cheese salad dressings, mayonnaise, and other items that don't need or call for sugar, it seems kind of sneaky. According to some statistics over 80% of what you buy these days has added sugar. I dare you to go to the store and fill your cart up with things that have no added sugar...and try to go just five days without sugar. Bet you spend those five days craving the stuff, talking yourself out of giving it up. You will go through withdrawals.

I recently watched a fairly short documentary narrated by Katie Couric titled "Fed Up". If you have kids, or you struggle with your weight, I'd highly recommend that you watch it.

Here's the trailer:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCUbvOwwfWM)

I looked at every single bag in the grocery store's regular frozen food section. No luck. Every single bag had added sugar, plus many had things I couldn't pronounce. I went on-line looking at ingredients. No luck until...I finally found ONE company that doesn't add sugar to their potatoes: Cascadian Farms.  (http://www.cascadianfarm.com/products/frozen-potatoes). Guess where I'll be heading later today??? They sell them at Kroger in their healthy section. They probably sell them at Publix and other stores, too. They are organic, too! Big plus.

Here's another documentary, from Canada that's well worth watching.




 And one more (I keep finding them and adding):




I found some interesting sites while on my search:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=48 - interesting take on the much-maligned potato
http://www.potatopro.com/ - loads of information
http://www.potatoesusa.com/index.php - United States Potato Board

Shopping at Sams Club (Healthy Eating Post)

I was pleasantly surprised to see more organic offerings in the aisles as I wandered. There is very little I will buy at Sams aside from paper products as they only stock the most popular selling items. Sadly that means some of the most unhealthy stuff that exists usually.

They've always had a sampling of organic fresh veggies such as spinach, kale and lettuce. This time I noted they had carrots --- non-GMO labeled, too. I found a number of things that were labeled non-GMO.

I didn't find any organic fresh fruit. Maybe they had some frozen organic but I already have enough so didn't check it out.

The organics things they had on the dry / non-refrigerator/freezer aisles included some soups, some chips and a few other items. All but one of them had sugar of some sort. I don't do sugar. It was nice though to see a better selection.

I found some non-GMO/organic rice with kale and chia seeds that I grabbed to try. Very good, had it for dinner when I got home. It's microwavable stuff, too. I hate to spend the time cooking any more, just too much to do in this world. Dislike cleaning up even more than cooking...

re: Healthy Eating Post - I thought I'd start labeling them with that title just so those who could care less will know to skip them. That is assuming anyone at all is reading along...

Cluck, Cluck, Cluckin' to wipe out the human race...

OK faithful readers, you may remember my earlier post, "Chickens of the World Unite". The United Egg Producers (no, not chickens who've united to strike for better benefits... we're talking humans who produce eggs. Well, that sounds even stranger. I don't know too many humans who produce eggs. Hmmm, I don't know any who produce eggs. Come to think of it, I don't know anyone in the egg producing business aside from some individuals who raise chickens... yep, I've taken this one as far as I'm going to for the moment, time to get back on track ya think?)

The United Egg Producers are really going after those rotten people who "produce" free range chicken / hen eggs. They've added a new wrinkle this time, they're going after those pesky ORGANIC chicken / hen egg producers, too.

They're getting smarter and smarter in their campaign to erradicate free range and / or organic egg producers.

Who usually eats organic and free range eggs? I would imagine a lot of those healthy egg eating people recycle and drool when Al Gore starts talking about riding a bike to save the world from global warming. Oops, goofed. It is not "global warming" it is "Global Warming". You have to capitalize it to emphasize the IMPORTANCE. You'll know we're in crisis mode when it's no longer "Global Warming" but it's "GLOBAL WARMING".

If you eat free range and / or organic eggs, you're killing the planet. You're destroying the chances for your children to live and breath and enjoy cold weather.

Yep, according to the United Egg Producers, henceforth known as UEP, converting current egg producing from the in-the-cage-beakless-hormone stuffed-antibiotic loaded system to organic would increase the effects on GLOBAL WARMING by 40%. Switching to free range would increase it by a mere 10%. Stick with the status-quo stuck-in-a-cage-for-life system and an expert says it decreases the effect on GLOBAL WARMING by 10%.

So, eat cheaper eggs. Save the world! Stop the chickens from uniting or they'll want to stop taking drugs and hormones, they'll want to leave their cages and roam free... it's a chicken conspiracy. They're out to destroy the world. And here I thought all they wanted was a chance for unlimited worms or whatever it is they eat...

Has anyone done a study to see what the affects of Global Warming would be on chickens? We know that in a nuclear war roaches will survive. Are the chickens plotting to annihilate humans and thus rule the free-range world? I think we need to study this issue and study it quickly. I think I need to go scramble up a few organic eggs.

I only eat organic free range eggs. Guess I'm in cahoots with the chickens on this one. Maybe they'll let me live when they take over the world in 5 or 6 hundred years...

Here's the press release:

Traditional Eggs May Have Lower Impact on Global Warming
Egg Industry Proves to be Greener than other Livestock

ATLANTA, Jan. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- While some animal rights organizations have been campaigning to ban traditional cage eggs in the U.S., it turns out that these eggs may be best for the environment.

A study conducted by Adrian Williams, PhD., senior research fellow at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom, found that the traditional cage egg production currently used by most U.S. egg farmers decreases the industry's effects on global warming by 10 percent, while converting to all free-range egg production would increase the effects on global warming by 10 percent and converting to all organic egg production would increase the effects on global warming by 40 percent.

Free-range and organic egg farms are more environmentally intense because their need for more green space, food and energy.

The research examined the energy and food levels for farm production on 10 different agricultural and horticultural commodities such as potatoes, tomatoes, beef, milk, poultry, and eggs. In addition to the varying production findings, the study found that egg production as a whole is less harmful on the environment than other livestock. Egg production takes less global energy thus producing less greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The study was funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs in the U.K.

Grocery shoppers can find UEP Certified eggs by looking for the UEP Certified logo on cartons of most brands of eggs, since 95 percent of the eggs produced in the U.S. come from farmers who participate in the program. UEP developed the United Egg Producers Certified animal welfare program (www.uepcertified.com) to assure consumers, retailers and foodservice professionals that egg cartons carrying the UEP Certified logo are from farmers who adhere to the highest scientific standards for egg production and undergo independent audits from the USDA and Validus to ensure 100 percent compliance.

UEP developed the UEP Certified program for modern egg production out of scientific guidelines established by an independent advisory committee of the top animal welfare scientific experts in the U.S. The USDA, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission have approved the UEP Certified logo. The International Egg Commission has recognized the program as a model from which to create animal welfare programs in other member countries throughout the world. In addition, the Food Marketing Institute and the National Council of Chain Restaurants also endorse these guidelines. To view a complete copy of the UEP Certified Guidelines and to learn more about the program visit www.uepcertified.com.