A food memoir of weight loss, family recipes, digital cookbook and nutrition information for family and friends
Back in the good old days a dozen eggs cost just $0.89 cents. See Egg Salad (because you will be eating more eggs).
Two months ago I Just Paid $5.59 for a Dozen Eggs!
Can someone, anyone please explain to me what the hell is happening?
Blaming the recent sky high cost of eggs on bird flu was big news.
Maybe all of those egg laying hens got better…
I write a phrase, then wait for what follows. Then hold still as nothing more comes. Then I delete the first words and fall back into silence.
Maybe all that has been written before is enough. Maybe it’s time to say less—time to hide quietly beyond words and positions and insights. Maybe it’s time to allow what has come before to be what has already happened.
Maybe it’s time to stop. Maybe just this morning or maybe tomorrow too. Maybe only occasionally. Maybe not at all for a long while.
We’ll see.
Blog post by David Rynick May 11, 2021 – https://davidrynick.com/blog/
I feel the same way today.
The false dichotomy between conventional and organic isn’t just misleading, it’s dangerous. Our constant attention on natural versus synthetic only causes fear and distrust, when in actuality, our food has never been safer.
Eating fewer fruits and vegetables due to fear of pesticides or the high price of organic food does far more harm to our health. Conventional produce has the same nutritional content and is as safe to consume as ‘organic’ produce. Most of Americans already don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, and produce contains important nutrients, fiber, and other substances that are extremely important to our health.
From a scientific point of view, organic foods are not superior. If you want to spend more money on them, go for it. But don’t buy organic because you think it’s better for you or for the planet, because it’s not. Organic foods are not healthier…or pesticide free. — https://news.immunologic.org/p/organic-foods-are-not-healthieror
I’m beginning to think I read too much. But every now and then I come across very interesting and useful information. The entire article is about a 10-15 read and is worth your time.
The amount of product labeled Organic in my freezer and pantry are minimal compared to everything else. But if the quality isn’t better or the nutritional value isn’t superior then my choice is to save money at the store whenever I can.
Nutritional quality of organic foods: a systematic review – https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)26563-6/fulltext
www.instagram.com/p/DA9atmIzx8D/
Nice short synopsis of the Simian Diet trial from Dr. Belardo.
What do you get when a blogger https://theveganword.com/about/ analyzes the number of vegan restaurants from a vegan restaurant listing website https://www.happycow.net/?
You get modern day journalism. You get this:
The Cities With The Most Vegan Options Worldwide – https://www.statista.com/chart/19612/share-of-restaurants-classified-as-vegan-friendly/
Once a fringe movement, it is now firmly mainstream, something that is being reflected by increasing vegan options in restaurants and supermarkets.
Nope. Still a trendy thing on the fringe. Don’t take this the wrong way. I haven’t eaten any meat in several days. But please try to do just a little bit of serious research before jumping to conclusions.
Oh sorry, I forgot this was a food blog. If you’ve read this far, thank you for reading my mini-rant. And to think I started this post thinking about making a new to me chickpea recipe.
Electronic Sticky Notes
25 Vegan Chickpea Recipes – The First Mess
30 Recipes with a Can of Chickpeas
Keep it simple. Eat more plants.
Sunday 10/6
Straight to the point. My BMI is back in the overweight range. I was hoping for a random uptick with a gradual return to my 173-175 range but it has not happened. I now fluctuate between 177 and 178. Another pound or two and my skinny jeans won’t fit anymore. So the research geek in me took over. I wanted to know why I’m gaining weight after years of keeping my number down. Lack of enough exercise was an obvious reason. But I also felt my metabolism changed (again) so down the rabbit hole I went. The deeper I went the dots starting connecting.
I recall reading somewhere that successful weight loss maintainers changed their diets multiple times in their lifetimes. I found this to be true in my case. Remember The Biggest Loser television show? I found this fascinating study Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition – https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.21538. Fascinating because the participants with greater long-term weight loss also had greater ongoing metabolic slowing. It appears my metabolism is slowing down not just from age but also from the fact I’ve maintained my weight loss for a long time.
And if this wasn’t bad enough I stumbled upon Metabolic adaptation is associated with a greater increase in appetite following weight loss: a longitudinal study – https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2023.10.010. Lose weight. Appetite increases!
The universe opened up her secrets to me. I need to change my diet (again).
Take Home Lesson
Long-term weight loss requires perpetual behavioral adaptation to offset persistent metabolic adaptation.
In plain English, I have to eat less or I’m screwed. Because I already know I’m in the one third category.
About 10 percent of older people living in their own homes do not eat enough and one-third of people over the age of 65 eat too much. More than half of older people in hospitals or nursing homes have malnutrition (poor nutrition or diet). – https://www.healthinaging.org/a-z-topic/nutrition/basic-facts
Sunday 9/22
My Mom loved hard boiled eggs. But beyond the egg, what she loved was her hot sauce. Tabasco, the one of a kind hot sauce from Avery Island, Louisiana. Mom always ate her boiled eggs with Tabasco and we’re not talking a few drops here and there. She would cut the boiled egg in half and hit that thing with so much Tabasco you literally could not see any yellow.
I thought this was disgusting.
I was 25 years young when I was introduced to the strange land known as Texas. What do you mean these chips are not potato chips? What’s that tiny bowl of red stuff? I was and still am a Jersey Boy from the mean streets of Newark. Seriously, people eat chips made from corn dipped in this red stuff?
It was not love at first bite. But like many other things in life I learned to love Texas and all things about the Lone Star State. This Jersey Boy met and married a Dallas girl and we created two more Texans. I acquired my desire for Thai food in Texas which then led me to other forms of spicy heat. The years sped by and when the Sriracha craze hit I never got on that train. I did keep a small bottle of the Huy Fong chili garlic sauce in the fridge which became my go to sauce when I needed to heat up my mild bland homemade chili made specifically not spicy for the someone else I live with.
My chili garlic sauce had to get tossed because the expiration date was years ago. I guess I never used this sauce as much as I thought. Today is the first day of Fall and chili season grows near. I needed a replacement hot sauce. The Tabasco, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, some cheap Mexican hot sauce and the omnipresent jar of medium salsa were just not going to work for me.
Then suddenly (Devine Intervention?) this hit the grocery shelves.
Thanks Mom. I hope you are enjoying your hard boiled eggs wherever you are.
Sat 09.21.24
While I am not quite sure what I plan to do in my “retirement years” I am convinced my work on this planet is not yet done. So I continue to read, steal time here and there to write and wait patiently for a sign.
“All you have to do is pay attention; lessons always arrive when you are ready, and if you can read the signs, you will learn everything you need to know in order to take the next step.” from THE ZAHIR
Read the signs: this is an individual language joined to intuition that appears at the right moments. Even if the signs point in the opposite direction from what you planned, follow them. Sometimes you can go wrong, but this is the best way to learn this new language.
Warrior of the Light, a http://www.paulocoelho.com.br publication — Paulo Coelho
Mimi and Papa by Madelyn. I’m the one on the right.
The spirit of the writer is different than the spirits of other artists. Writers are quirkier. Not as quirky as some painters or the guy who builds things out of toothpicks but quirky nonetheless. These artists qualify as top of the heap quirky. All I want to do is write. Is this too quirky?
I haven’t thought about or read much from Paulo Coelho recently. There was a time in my life when the signs were everywhere. Then they stopped. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention. Maybe they just stopped. Well, much to my surprise when I wasn’t looking for a sign one just shows up. I stumbled upon the article on Dr. Hinohara and at the top of the list of his longevity tips was…
DON’T RETIRE
I just finished reading The Writing Life by Annie Dillard and I realize my writing will never achieve the level of the great ones. From this short book on writing you can tell Dillard is pretty quirky. Maybe I’m not quirky enough to have chosen the writing life. But I am OK with my underdeveloped talents as I was OK with deciding not to pursue writing for a living. Too hard, too demanding, too much time spent writing words into the void where no one reads what you’ve written. Maybe if I took this writing thing seriously I would have gotten a lot better. Maybe if I had become a better writer the angels above would have tossed down a bit of luck. Maybe it’s not too late to start writing better. It’s always easier to work tirelessly on your art when you don’t depend upon it to put a roof over your head, food on the table, clothes on your back. I have always had a day job.
I still have a day job. I still write nearly every day, personal journal, online journal, blogs, grocery lists on scraps of paper. And it doesn’t matter if anyone reads my writing or not. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, waiting for the next sign.
The Artist is on the left. I’m the one on the right. I’m the writer.
I remember back in the good old days a dozen eggs cost just $0.89 cents. See Egg Salad (because you will be eating more eggs).
WAIT…that was only three years ago.
Research suggests that those who consume more protein tend to live longer and stay stronger and healthier later in life than those who consume less. But where you get your protein matters. Plant-based sources like legumes, nuts and whole grains seem to be especially beneficial, whereas protein from red and processed meat has been linked with shorter lives, Dr. Lars Fadnes, a professor of global public health at the University of Bergen in Norway, wrote in an email. How to Eat for a Long and Healthy Life – https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/02/well/eat/foods-longevity-aging.html
Nice article. The last time I checked the link the NYT article was freely available and not sitting behind their paywall.
One key point was not covered in the article. Pizza! Tomato sauce for polyphenols and cheese for healthy fats and calcium. You already know what not to put on your pie to improve the health benefits.
garyskitchen.net 