Category: Thoughts About Food

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Craft Beer and Health

via Craft Beer and Your Health.

Before I continue I admit I’m thinking about beer and it’s only 10:00 am.  But for years I’ve used my Saturday mornings to catch up on medical and health news.  Last night The Boss went to The Mall after work so dinner got pushed back.  By the time The Boss got home it was like “why cook?” so we went out to an Italian place for a quick meal.  I managed to eat an entire half tray sized piece of lasagna and I started thinking this can’t be good.

I woke up Saturday morning and expected the worst when I approached the bathroom scale.  Friday I was 190.  This morning I was…190!  There was no damage from the half tray of lasagna.

Must be the craft beer.

So with that thought in mind I wondered if craft beer (in absolute moderation of course) could possibly be healthy.  Click through on the link (yeah, I know the research is self-serving) but I found the article enlightening and there are plenty of legit reference links.

Tonight our tiny town in Oklahoma is having its very first foodie/craft beer/food truck/pop up store/live music street festival.  Roughtail brewery Roughtail Brewing Company | Home. will be serving two of their near beers (3.2 ABV).

I am excited.

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Stroke Rounds: Potassium Tied to Lower Stroke Risk

via Stroke Rounds: Potassium Tied to Lower Stroke Risk.

Women (mean age 63.6) who consumed the most potassium each day (>3,193.6 mg) had a 12% lower overall risk of all stroke (hazard ratio 0.88, 95% CI 0.79-0.98) and a 16% lower risk of ischemic stroke (HR 0.84, 95% CI 0.74-0.96) when compared with women consuming very little potassium (<1,925.5 mg/day), reported Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, PhD, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues.

I had a banana with breakfast.  I’m going to pop a few prunes now.

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Pistachios Improve Metabolic Profile in Prediabetes

via Pistachios Improve Metabolic Profile in Prediabetes.

Beneficial Effect of Pistachio Consumption on Glucose Metabolism, Insulin Resistance, Inflammation, and Related Metabolic Risk Markers: a Randomized Clinical Trial.

This study was funded by the Western Pistachios Association, now known as American Pistachio Growers (U.S.), and Paramount Farms.

Hmm…  The diets were isocaloric and matched for protein, fiber, and saturated fatty acids.  But were the foods identical between the control group and pistachio supplemented group?  Food preparation methods controlled for?  Interesting little study nonetheless.

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Going Greens: Edmond’s Upward Harvest lives the gospel of local, sustainable growing practices – News OK

via Going Greens: Edmond’s Upward Harvest lives the gospel of local, sustainable growing practices | News OK.

Upward Harvest Home.

I was at the market the other day and I saw potted plants strategically located throughout the fresh produce section.

Why is the grocery store selling plants?  Indoors, no less.

I really didn’t give it much more thought until I stumbled across this article in the local paper.

How cool is it to have an organic hydroponic farm in your town?  Read the article and check out the video.

Kind of makes the earthquakes bearable.

Sort of.

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Regular Fish Consumption and Age-Related Brain Gray Matter Loss – American Journal of Preventive Medicine

via Regular Fish Consumption and Age-Related Brain Gray Matter Loss – American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Frozen fish sticks were a staple of my diet in childhood.  After growing up on seasoned breading, tons of ketchup, and imperceptible amounts of non-specific minced white fish I’m surprised I even eat fish at all.   Growing up in New Jersey was one hell of a ride.  Despite wanting to get the hell out of there as soon as I could, NJ still holds many positive memories.  Some of my favorite memories are about going to The Shore.  We didn’t go to the beach or the seashore.  We went to The Shore and where we ended up was defined by which exit on The Parkway.  And for you non-NJ readers I’m talking about the Garden State Parkway.

I didn’t get to The Shore as often as I would have liked.  But when I did make to Exit 117, then east on Routes 35 and 36, I would always find a local seafood restaurant.  After grabbing a table (you never got “seated” in the places I liked to visit) the first question was always the same:

What came in this morning?

Simply broiled, a little butter, a little lemon.  Doesn’t get any better than that.

I just hope I ate enough to have increased my gray matter volumes in the hippocampus, precuneus, posterior cingulate, and orbital frontal cortex.

Postscript

My family vacation every summer was at Exit 4B at the Admiral Motel.  Another story, another time.

 

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Harvard Study – Why I’m Eating More Yogurt

Diet weight harvard study.

via Harvard Study – Why I’m Eating More Yogurt.

A little over three months ago I attended a wedding.  When the pictures from a number of sources started showing up I noticed something that disturbed me.

“Who is that old fat guy?”

It was time to get serious, again.  The last time I got serious the scales tipped over 370 pounds.  I say “over” because I stopped weighing myself when the scale hit 370.  I was twenty years old.  So I got serious and lost over 200 pounds.  After nine months of employing strict lifestyle changes I got down to 163.

Pictures don’t lie (unless they were Photoshopped).  I needed to drop a few pounds.

At weigh-in this morning the scale showed 187.  I’m 13 pounds lighter than I was at the wedding.

Must be the yogurt.

 

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Colony Loss 2013-2014 – Bee Informed Partnership

Colony Loss 2013-2014 | Bee Informed Partnership.

 

The Bee Informed Partnership (http://beeinformed.org), in collaboration with the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is releasing preliminary results for the eighth annual national survey of honey bee colony losses. For the 2013/2014 winter season, 7,183 beekeepers in the United States (U.S.) responded. Collectively, they managed 564,522 colonies in October 2013, 21.7%  of the country’s 2.6 million colonies.

For the winter of 2013/14, 23.2% of managed honey bee colonies in the U.S. died. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents (65.4%) experienced winter colony loss rates greater than the average self-reported acceptable winter mortality rate of 18.9%. The 2013/14 winter colony loss rate of 23.2% is 7.3 points (or 23.9%) lower than the previous years’ (2012/13) estimate of 30.5% loss. (Figure 1) and is notably lower than the 8-year average total loss of 29.6% .

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