DIY Food Adventure: Slow Cooker Carnitas with Confetti Slaw

CrossFit Santa Cruz

My CrossFit gym is embarking on a new kind of challenge, simply cooking and preparing your own food called the DIY Food Adventure.

So starting today, I am going to try to cook/prepare all my food--which is certainly going to be a tough one when I am moving this coming weekend.  But trying is an important step--despite that annoying Yoda quote my husband always throws at me: "Do or do not; there is no try."  To me there is a try with the intention of doing--it just doesn't always make it.  And with food, the LAST thing you want to do is beat yourself up over every transgression from your ideal.  Live your life and try your best.  My parents used to never get mad at me if I screwed up a test or grade in school as long as I "tried my best."  And we all know when we have really "tried our best" and when we haven't.  

The Prep

Sunday was the mega grocery shopping trip, spending about $150 at New Leaf, our local, better version of Whole Foods.  That bought us a slew of produce (I missed the farmer's market this weekend) and a 7.43# slab of pork shoulder roast for carnitas.  We also have store-bought eggs that are best for hard-boiling (I've tried the fresh ones and they just aren't as easy to peel or hold together as the shelved varieties with a little more age on them).  Finally, we bought whole chickens to roast for lunches and dinner that night.

Hard-boiling method a la America's Test Kitchen:

• Place 6 store-bought eggs (omega-enriched and as close to farm as you can get them from the store--but trust me, store-bought is better than fresh for hard boiling) in a sauce pot filled with water to cover the eggs and sprinkled prodigiously with kosher salt. 
• Allow the water to come to a boil over high heat.
• When it is rapidly bubbling--meaning large bubbles breaking the surface, rolling-style--turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner, cover, and let stand for 10 minutes (a little longer if you cook more eggs or a little less if you really lagged on catching that boil--we've all been there and heard the water splattering rather than the boiling bubbles).  
• While the eggs are finishing, get out a big bowl and fill it with ice and water and once your ten minutes are up, add the eggs using tongs (not your hands, silly) and let them cool off in their ice bath like you'd love to do post-WOD.  

Perfect eggs and NO sulfur smell.  Done in less than 30 minutes start to finish.  Store in the fridge.

Here is the Roasted Chicken recipe we used, from Thomas Keller, posted on epicurious: My Favorite Simple Roasted Chicken Recipe.  Although the photo above was taken after an overnight in the fridge, it hopefully still captures a little bit of that brown, crispy goodness from when it was pulled from the oven.  I can't believe how juicy and flavorful the meat is and how that salt really makes it delicious.  It is like a brined bird, but SO much easier.  Better than rotisserie.  And just about as simple as buying pre-made.  Seriously. 

We had some roasted chicken for dinner that night--couldn't resist it fresh and crispy--alongside steamed artichoke hearts dipped them in melted grass-fed butter.  Yum!

I also made a roasted red pepper and baby bok choy stir fry to have more veggies in the house--perhaps for dinner variety or lunches/snacks.  Here is the recipe I used (substituting grapeseed oil for olive oil and yellow bell peppers for red ones): Baby Bok Choy with Yellow Bell Peppers Recipe.

Slow Cooker Carnitas

Don't have time to spend 3-4hrs watching a pot of carnitas?  Here's the answer: slow cook it!  Sweet and as spicy as you want it, this versatile, delicious pulled pork is definitely a staple in this household.

Cooking Time: 6+ hours on Low in the slow cooker, 45 minutes or so on the stovetop to brown

Quantity: Never as much as you would love to have to last forever.

Ingredients:

• pork shoulder/butt--as big as you can handle and as untrimmed of fat as you can get.  I like to get as many meals as possible so 5# is a minimum.
• orange juice or any juice--we've tried a bunch with success (the small ~15oz bottles do well)
• salt
• pepper
• garlic (cloves or powder)
• spices to taste (ex. cumin, cayenne, you name it!)

Method:

First, pour the orange juice into the slow cooker pot and add your salt, pepper, garlic, and spices.  Swirl to dissolve and distribute.  

Then, cut the pork shoulder into fist-sized hunks. DO NOT trim it of its fat--you need it for frying.  Add the hunks to the pot and then toss them in the OJ mixture to coat each one.  Next, mash them down into the juice and set your pot a-cooking: Low for 6 hours or so--we've done less for smaller batches and more for larger ones.  You just want to make sure it is fall-apart tender, but you are going to still cook it more, so it doesn't have to be a 12-hour affair.  

Once it's done with the slow cookin', it's on to stage 2: the fryin'.  Dump the contents of the slow cooker pot into a huge stove-top pot (like a stock pot--NOT non-stick) and heat on the higher side of medium high--like 8 out of 10.  It'll boil away for about 30 minutes or so depending on the quantity of meat and liquid until it starts to stick and that is when the fun begins.  Start your scrapping as soon as it starts a-stickin'.  A strong spatula (read: metal, NOT plastic) works wonders.  Come back often to re-scrape until the liquid is basically completely gone and you feel like it is just going to burn or dry out if you leave it in there much longer.  

Then, if you have a ton of fat in the pot still (this used to happen to us, but hasn't in a long time--probably because the butcher still partially trims off some fat despite my efforts), you can drain the meat before storing and keep that fat for a butter substitute.  If you don't have much liquid, just dump the meat and juices into a storage container.  It'll last for a week in the fridge, but ours never stays around that long :)  

Serve with Confetti Slaw (below), salsas, guacamole or just avocado, on lettuce leaves as tacos, in eggs, or however you want to enjoy that unbelievably delicious porky goodness.

Confetti Slaw

A beautiful symphony of flavors, texture, and crunch!  Basically a play on the Crunchy Slaw I made for my Hearty Paleo-Zone Chili, this slaw is more finely diced for ease of incorporating with the meat and being picked up by utensils.  It is a great way to add some veg without it overpowering the dish.

Prep Time: 15 minutes or less

Quantity: a truckload

Ingredients:

• head of green cabbage
• head of red cabbage
• bunch of cilantro
• 3 or so limes

Method:

Remove damaged outer leaves from the cabbages and any wilted, brown/black cilantro leaves.  Cut the cabbages into hunks and salad spin them to rinse.  Add them back into the salad spinner bowl once you rinse it out (the outer one, not the colander) for storage and assembly of the slaw (yes, it makes that much!).  

In small batches, food process the cabbage into a dice.  This takes patience not to over-stuff the food processor and have to fish out large chunks when you upend it into the bowl.  Not fun.  If you move fast, the multiple batches won't be too annoying.  It beats trying to hand-chop every piece down to a dice.  Believe me, I've tried and made a mess.  

Once the cabbage is done, rinse the cilantro, remove any woodier stem sections, and food process that too.  Add it to the bowl.  

Finally, roll the limes on the counter to release some juices, then cut and juice (it pays to have a citrus juicer).  Add the juice to the bowl and stir it up.  Taste and add more limes if you have them (or lemon juice can substitute).  I would wait to salt it until serving your portion because I have ruined a whole batch with over salting before--I think the citrus can accentuate it.  Add any other flavors you desire.  The Confetti Slaw should add a gorgeous splash of color and a nice lime scented crunch to your dish.  Load it up on the carnitas for a great meal!

Let me know how you like to serve your carnitas and if you've tried my recipe!

What To Drink Part 1: What's Wrong with Juice?

I'm taking a break from the D to discuss all the hubbub about drinks lately.  Have you heard it?  There's a soda tax being debated by politicians.  There's also a stink about flavored (Read: sweetened) milk served in schools and whether or not sports drinks are good for everyone, even after exercise.  Even kombucha has been pulled from the shelves in most supermarkets.  And is fruit juice really healthy like we all thought?  Let's start sipping this topic!


What's Wrong with Juice?


You have probably already read my post Just Say No...To Juice?, but if you haven't now's your chance.  Basically, the problem with juice is that it is too concentrated--you just can NOT eat enough fruit to get the equivalent amount of sugar that is in juice--you'd get sick!  And don't kid yourself, fructose is a sugar, just like high fructose corn syrup, just like table sugar, just like stevia.  They all set things in motion in your body that prepare it for the highly concentrated burst of energy your body knows comes with sweet foods.  It doesn't matter if they are "zero" calorie or low glycemic, sugar and its various forms set the fat storage switch to ON, storing excess carbohydrate as fat.  And unfortunately, fructose isn't like glucose; it doesn't precipitate a surge of insulin that triggers leptin (the hunger hormone) to tell your brain you are full.  From my previous post:

The short story: there is a deadly cycle of fructose leading to fat storage and telling your brain you are still hungry.  For example, fructose has the opposite effect of glucose on the hypothalamus section of the brain controlling feeding behavior.  While blood glucose levels are sensed by the brain and signal a secession to eating, fructose bypasses this metabolic step and actually promotes food intake to continue instead of signaling an end to eating.  

Even the USDA agrees that juice isn't all the "healthy" it's cracked up to be.  In their new guidelines (new and NOT improved, unfortunately) here is their conclusion (page D1-23+) about juice: 

Limited and inconsistent evidence suggests that for most children, intake of 100 percent fruit juice is not associated with increased adiposity, when consumed in amounts that are appropriate for age and energy needs of the child. However, intake of 100 percent juice has been prospectively associated with increased adiposity in children who are overweight or obese. 

Can you say wishy-washy?  But the message stands: juice isn't the best beverage for everyone.  Especially kids.  While their activity levels may be through the roof, it's still not enough to burn those excess calories juice provides.  Keep reading for more on exercise.


But isn't juice made for kids safe?  Isn't it made with their needs in mind?  No.  Check out the worst "kids drink" from The Most Harmful Drinks in America:

Tropicana Tropical Fruit Fury Twister (1 bottle, 20 fl oz)

340 calories

0 g fat

60 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: Two 7-ounce canisters Reddi-wip

Don’t let Tropicana’s reputation for unadulterated OJ lead you to believe that the company is capable of doing no wrong. As a Pepsi subsidiary, it’s inevitable that they’ll occasionally delve into soda-like territory. The Twister line is just that: a drink with 10 percent juice and 90 percent sugar laced with a glut of artificial flavors and coloring. You could actually save 200 calories by choosing a can of Pepsi instead.

Drink This Instead!

Honest Kids Tropical Tango Punch (1 pouch, 6.75 fl oz)

40 calories

0 g fat

10 g sugars

Um, I think I'll go with water instead.  Thanks!  But scroll through that list of Most Harmful Drinks for some eye-opening beverages you probably once enjoyed too!


Here's more on Tropicana Twister:

Product Details:

Flavored Juice Beverage from Concentrate. With Fruit Force energy releasing B Vitamins! Contains 10% juice.

Ingredients:

Filtered Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Apple Juice Concentrate, Grape Juice Concentrate, Citric Acid, Pineapple Juice Concentrate, Natural Flavors, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Pectin, Cherry Juice Concentrate, Sodium Citrate, Red 40, Niacin and Pantothenic Acid.

Not only do you have concentrated natural fructose but added high fructose corn syrup.  Can you say diabetes in a bottle?  Still think juice is healthy?  Okay, you're probably thinking 100% juice is a world away from fruit punches and juice drinks.  Is it really?  Let's look into it. 


Are Fruit and Juice Interchangeable?


No.  But the USDA thinks so.  In their Food Pyramid, one serving of fruit is one cup of fruit OR one cup of fruit juice.  Here is just a few reasons why this is bad:

• The Sugar

We already discussed the sugar content of juice far exceeds that of whole fruit.  Would it surprise you that it also EXCEEDS that of SODA?  According to this chart from Hooked on Juice comparing 100% fruit juice to Coca-cola, apple juice, grape juice, and cherry juice all EXCEED the total teaspoons of sugar, total carbohydrate, and total calories of Coca-cola in the same 12oz serving (and OJ wasn't lagging far behind).  OMG, I have to say it again, it is so shocking: juice has more sugar than soda!

• The Fat

But juice is zero fat, you say?  Once absorbed by your digestive tract, fructose goes to the liver, where it replenishes energy stores.  Any excess energy is converted into fat (don't kid yourself, you are NOT using all that energy).  Conversion of excess fructose into triglycerides elevates the fatty acids circulating in your blood, necessitating fat storage.   And fructose is more readily metabolized into fat than glucose, so it's the bad-est of the bad.  We also know that elevated triglycerides are associated with cardiovascular disease.  And you don't have to be obese to have a heart attack--those pesky triglycerides can accumulate in anyone, thick or thin.  

•  The Metabolic Derangement

Metabolic syndrome leading to diabetes, heart disease, and stroke is associated with insulin resistance and these signs: abdominal obesity, elevated triglycerides, impaired fasting glucose, high blood pressure, low HDL, fatty liver, elevated uric acid, and systemic inflammation (amongst others).  Fructose intake is related to each of those and insulin resistance itself.  While the amount of fructose you ingest needs to be substantial for these problems to surface, do most of us really know how much we are consuming?  Most people on a processed diet are getting fructose from multiple sources since it is the sweetener of choice among manufacturers.  All those sources can DEFINITELY add up.  If you are on a whole foods diet, you are definitely much safer.  But why drink juice then if you can have the whole fruit and get so many more benefits (i.e. fiber, vitamins, minerals) from going to the source?

• The Risk of Cancer  

Inflammation may be a precursor to some cancers, and since we have already established that fructose can lead to inflammation, it follows that high fructose consumption can set the stage for cancer.  For example, this study illustrates the fructose-cancer link and even found that juice intake had a significant association with pancreatic cancer.    

Not only does fructose set up the right conditions, but it also provides the fuel for the fire.  Ever hear the saying "cancer loves sugar"?  According to research like this, cancer cells have a sweet tooth too.  Cancer cells require amino acids and glucose for cell growth.  And fructose is converted into glucose in the liver.  If you starve your body of sugar, cancer cells will still force your body to produce its own sugar, BUT you aren't feeding the cancer, either.  That is why some cancer therapy diets focus on the elimination of all sources of sugar.  In combination with medical treatment, it can be very successful.  So fight cancer with your diet, don't feed it.  Pretty revolutionary!  

• The Hunger

Fructose by-passes the normal metabolic step turning off your hunger; instead, it just makes you hungrier.  It may even break your appetite control mechanism by inducing leptin (the hormone that tells your brain you're full) resistance.   

• The Ease of OD

It is quicker and easier to drink calories than to eat them, so you can easily go overboard on juice. 

• The Processing

Processed juice loses its nutritional value, especially its quantity of vitamin C, with exposure to high temperature, exposure to light (through clear containers), and long shelf life.  

• The Damage to your Teeth

Juice can lead to cavities, just like any other sugar.  For example, "bottle caries" are cavities that result from letting children suck on bottles (of juice or milk) while sleeping. 

• The Waste

It's wasteful.  Think of all the packaging required for an apple or orange or even a container of berries.  Now compare that with a box/can/carton/bottle of juice.  Think of all the oil required to process fruit into juice, create the packaging, package the juice, and transport it.  Which has more environmental impact?

Is a cup of juice still a cup of fruit?

What about Juice for Energy-Refueling after Exercise? 


Short answer: it's not ideal.  There are much better means.  Juice and fructose in general isn't a great post-workout (PWO) energy refuel because, according to Robb Wolf:

Fructose has a nasty habit of up-regulating hepatic GLUCOSE uptake. So not only does the fructose preferentially fill liver glycogen, spuring fat gain, but it partitions glucose into the same fate. Hence my PWO meal of chicken breasts and yams.

and in his Post WO Nutrition post:

Fruit should be used sparingly in this meal if one is focused on optimized glycogen repletion as fructose refills liver glycogen first, and once liver glycogen is full we up-regulate the lipogenic activity of the liver and start down the road towards fat gain and insulin resistance. 

And don't think you could actually burn off that Jamba Juice smoothie or that you are just replenishing your energy after a workout.  Unfortunately, exercise alone is NOT enough to burn the calories you consume.  Science Daily just reported on the EarlyBird Diabetes Study on children in the UK that shows "physical activity had no impact on weight change."  The article suggests that physical activity plays LITTLE IF ANY role in childhood obesity.  If active little kids can't burn off their poor diets with exercise, think us adults have a chance?


TIME magazine ran a piece a year ago called Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin.  Basically, we tend to reward ourselves after working out or feel like we have a free pass to eat poorly the rest of the day.  And exercise may create an energy deficit that makes us hungry, which is counter-productive to weight loss goals.  Their conclusion:

In short, it's what you eat, not how hard you try to work it off, that matters more in losing weight. 

Of course, I totally disagree with the article's attack on exercise, but the message still stands.  Exercise must go hand in hand with NUTRITION to get the results you seek.  Exercise is NECESSARY and leads to a fitter, healthier you, but don't think it alone can determine your health.  And we certainly can't use exercise as an excuse to eat poorly.  Maybe it works for Top Chef host Padma, who can spend her life in the gym and doesn't mind looking skeletal, but it's NOT for most of us.  We need exercise AND a healthy diet.  The base of OUR pyramid is nutrition: 

 Thanks CrossFit Peachtree!

So Why Is Juice Still Being Served in Schools?


Almost NO one sees juice as a problem!  It still has the healthiness glaze about it.  Juice is still thought of as a health food drink.  And with Jamba Juice stepping up to offer its smoothies in school just as sodas are being banned left and right, it's no wonder juice is still the "healthy" alternative.  Unfortunately, as we discussed above, that is NOT the case.  Kids (and adults) are much better off eating the whole fruit, NOT drinking the juice.  Juice should be the last ditch effort to suck down some vitamins when you are in a serious bind--NOT the daily accompaniment to our meals.  


The good news?  Legislation is moving that will limit juice consumption at daycare facilities in California and North Carolina.  At least some people are connecting the dots between childhood obesity and too much sugar, even from a supposedly "benign" source like juice.   And more and more schools are banning sugared drinks, which gets rid of the sugared juices too.  But not the 100% juices.  Why don't we make whole fruits more available and exchange those servings of fruit juice for the real thing?


And for all of our concerns over proper hydration, what is wrong with water?  Why can't kids use the water fountains?  For all the toxicity and contamination fears with tap water, there are just as many with the cultivation and processing of juice.  I'd rather drink the water. 


Why does it really matter in the whole scheme of things?


We are getting fatter as a species.  Childhood obesity is at an all-time high.  If there was nothing to lose from downing a little sugar, then there wouldn't be an issue.  But there is.  There is our future to lose.  If we set our kids up with solid nutrition and nutritional knowledge NOW, we are giving them the best legacy we can provide.  Give them a love and appreciation for real food, whole food, and slow food that doesn't come out of a box, can, carton, or bottle.  


Bottom line: Use water to hydrate and use whole fruit to get your juice!  To start on this process, try weaning yourself off juice by watering it down.  The less you rely on sugar, the better your system and health will be and the more you will appreciate sweetness in moderation.


Keep reading the on-going series for more about the best beverages!


Next up: What's Wrong With Milk?


ANOTHER KEY REFERENCE
Fructose, Insulin Resistance, and Metabolic Dyslipidemia

Sunshine of Your Love Part 3: What is e-D-ible?

This is the third installment in our series about the sun.  For context, please read 
Sunshine of Your Love Part 1: Safely Getting What You Need and 
Sunshine of Your Love Part 2: The D Factor.  

After our last discussion of the inherent problems with getting your vitamin D from the sun alone, we were left with the question: So where can we get the vitamin D we need?  Today, let's talk food.  

Getting Your Vitamin D From Food

The vitamin D humans (and all animals) produce from a chemical reaction in our skin under UVB rays is D3, in the form of cholecalciferol, the most readily usable form by our bodies.  If we eat animals, we get the same form of vitamin D that we make ourselves.  Another form, vitamin D2, is produced by plants and fungi, but you're unlikely to ingest much of it when you eat the plant or fungus.  Special treatment of plants and fungus can extract the vitamin D for use in fortified foods and supplementation.  However,  since plants and animals are vastly different creatures down to the cellular level, their form of vitamin D isn't an equivalent to ours.  That is why if you are outsourcing your vitamin D needs, you must choose vitamin D from animal sources.  We'll discuss this more below under Fortified Foods: The Right Stuff.  Thus, our sources for vitamin D from food are: animals or fortified foods.

Fortified Foods: Frankenfoods

You've seen them before.  Cartons of milk and orange juice, containers of yogurt and margarine, and boxes of breakfast cereal all telling us they are a source of vitamin D.  On the surface, the game plan seems solid.  These are foods built from the ground up, combining numerous distilled ingredients to craft a whole new food novel to any creature in existence.  In theory, you would think the builders have your best interests in mind: they have the power to create super-nutritious super-foods.

For example, Total Cereal tells us they offer "100% Nutrition" by giving us 100% of the Daily Value of 12 vitamins and minerals.  How responsible of them!  One hitch: sugar is their number two ingredient and corn syrup, number three.  In each 3/4 cup serving, I repeat: 3/4 cup serving, there are 5 grams of sugar, or just over one teaspoon or sugar packet.  Exactly how does that contribute to total nutrition?

Unfortunately, the arms race in the processed food industry isn't to create a more nutritious product giving lasting health benefits; it's for profit and convenience (which leads to more profit).  The old saying rings true once more: 'You can have it cheap, you can have it good, or you can have it fast.  Choose two.'  Unfortunately, high quality, nutritional "goodness" has been sacrificed for cheap, fast food.

Just browsing through your average supermarket would make our ancestors weep.  Where the hell is the real food?  Oh yeah, tucked away on the periphery are the meats, fruit, and veggies, outliers of the industrial complex.  Even these aren't immune to commodification as we reconfigure and patent genetic codes creating genetically modified organisms, industrialize even "organic" farming, and feed waste products and surplus into animal "products" through CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, also known as factory farms) producing meat instead of raising animals.  Food is being redefined away from its biological roots and into products that can be produced, refined, and commodified.    

Processed foods, a multitude of refined parts compressed into one whole, are less than ideal for many reasons.  One, they're made to sell.  Profit comes before any altruistic desires for the betterment of human health.  Perhaps this isn't true for every product out there, but certainly most.  Tell me how these products were created to nourish us: pancake batter in an aerosol can, fruit-flavored products without any real fruit, or meat substitutes with ingredient lists longer and more unpronounceable than those of beauty products, just to name a few.  To show just how abhorrent the whole creation of a food marketed as "healthy" really is, take the following passage from The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.  Let's play, What Am I?

...four cents' worth of commodity corn (or some other equally cheap grain) transformed into four dollars' worth of processed food.  What an alchemy!  Yet it is performed straightforwardly enough: by taking several of the output streams issuing from a wet mill (corn meal, corn starch, corn sweetener, as well as a handful of tinier chemical fractions) and then assembling them into an attractively novel form.  Further value is added in the form of color and taste, then branding and packaging.  Oh yes, and vitamins and minerals, which are added to give the product a sheen of healthfulness and to replace the nutrients that are lost whenever whole foods are processed.

So, what am I?  See the answer at the end of this post.  And even if you are okay with the whole frankenfood thing, there are other pitfalls to fortified foods.  Does it even give you what you need?  Is it even worth it?  Let's explore dairy, next.    

Fortified Foods: Does Milk Really Do a Body Good?

What about dairy products?  Although processed, they are closer to the source--their ingredient lists are short.  Can't I get my vitamin D from milk like the ads tell me?  No, because:
1.  Milk and dairy products aren't for everyone.  You can be healthy without them in your diet.
2.  Milk alone doesn't have the amount of vitamin D you need even when it's fortified.
3.  Skim milk doesn't have the fat you need to absorb vitamin D.  
4.  The trans fat in margarine totally gunks up the process of utilizing vitamin D.    

One, dairy may not "do a body good," at least not for every body.  There is definitely some debate about the healthiness of milk.  See Mark's Daily Apple for a good summary.  We'll hit that one another day, but for now, read up on why The Paleo Diet doesn't like dairy.  For more depth, check out founder Dr. Loren Cordain's argument at his website.  For as many opponents, there are just as many proponents of full-fat dairy like PaNu, The Weston A. Price Foundation,  The Heart Scan Blog, and Whole Health Source, to only name a few.  For me, I'll probably continue to partake in high fat dairy like butter and cream and try to mininmize my dairy that isn't full fat, raw, and grassfed.  Although I know dairy has many benefits, it also has some detriments I've seen firsthand in my N=1 experiments: I get plegmy, wake up congested, get a runny nose, and sometimes get a sore throat.  And that is dairy alone--no grains to confound these results.  The severity depends on the quantity, source, and form of dairy.  Definitely something is at work here.  And remember, on a paleo-style diet you are absorbing your calcium from your veggies (because a clean digestive system is an efficient one) and your vitamin D from other sources we'll discuss below.  So no one NEEDS milk to survive, except breastfeeding babies.  Just saying.

Okay, dairy is a personal choice, but as our second problem can it even provide the vitamin D you need?  This discussion of Vitamin D and Milk from a UC Riverside professor that we cited in our first installment is a good resource to answer this question.

Milk from all lactating animals, including humans, contains vitamin D3 that has been produced photochemically from 7-dehydrocholesterol present in the skin. In cow's milk it has been determined that the concentration of vitamin D3 in milk provided by the cow is roughly 35-70 International Units per quart as determined via biological assay and approximately 50-80 International Units as determined by modern chemical mass spectrometric procedures. However these are rather low levels of vitamin D3 from the perspective of providing the 200-400 IU per day as recommended by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine. 

And remember, that 200-400 IU recommendation is way below that suggested by The Vitamin D Council to achieve 50-80 ng/mL blood levels.  They say to take 5k daily and recheck in 2-3 months.  Since milk isn't a great source for vitamin D naturally, it's fortified.  According to the article cited above, every quart is fortified with 400 IU of vitamin D.  So to drink your 5K a day, that would be 12 and a half quarts a day.  Even a more conservative dosage of 1k a day would be two and a half quarts.  Thirsty?  

Another problem, we've been told fat is bad for us, so we switched to heart-healthy skim.  But on this blog we've time and again taken skim milk to task for not containing the healthiest part: the fat!  Fat is where the vitamin D and other vitamins, essential fatty acids, and important constituents reside.  Fat is necessary for absorption of fat soluble vitamins like...say it with me now...Vitamin D!  And other forms of commercial milk aren't off the hook even if they DO contain fat because they are pasteurized and homogenized.  There is a LOT to say about these processes and how they destroy everything sacred about milk, so read the Weston Price Foundation's treatise: Milk: It Does a Body Good?  

Does that mean our precious, fortified, non-butter, saving-us-from-the-evils-of-saturated-fat spread (also known as margarine) is out too?  Um, YES.  Besides being a processed product made from an array of chemicals, margarine is mostly trans fat (trans fatty acids are made from the hydrogenation of vegetable oils and there is little argument about them NOT being the least bit healthy).  And why is trans fat a problem specifically with vitamin D fortification?  It interferes with the conversion of vitamin D into calcidiol in the liver.  Maybe the producers know it screws up the process, so they are just hedging their bets and dumping more vitamin D in there to hopefully balance it all out.  And you would think that with all the effort we put into refining and producing products based on their constituent parts that we could actually craft healthy products.  Silly me, it's a sci-fi pipe dream to think that food production is out to meet our nutritional needs.  Guess I'll have to wait for Asimov's yeast products and Star Trek's replicators.... Sigh.  

Fortified Foods: The Right Stuff

But other foods are fortified besides dairy, you say?  How about heart-healthy OJ fortified with calcium and vitamin D?  Even if everything seems "right" with vitamin D-fortified foods, other problems emerge.  Take that fortified OJ.  According to Minute Maid, it's just juice, calcium sources, and vitamin D3 (good for them!).  What's the problem?  The juice.  What's wrong with juice?  The fact that in 250ml or ONE cup there are 120 calories, 28g of carbohydrate (25 of which is sugar), and NO satiating fiber.  That's three Zone blocks right there and it's certainly NOT a low glycemic food.  One cup of orange juice is over 50 times the calories of an orange.  While it is difficult to overeat fruit because of their fibrous bulk, it's effortless to down a big glass of OJ and feel like you are doing your body good.  And good luck feeling full; without significant protein, any fat, or any fiber, you're just fanning the flames.  The worst part?  That sugar load, calories and all, isn't so different from soda.  In fact, 240ml of Coca-Cola Classic is only 96 calories and 27g of carbohydrate/sugar.  Are those vitamins and minerals in fortified OJ really enough to make it healthier?  For more on why juice is a no-go, please read my article: Just Say No...to Juice?

Another pitfall?  Fortification with vitamin D often involves the form vitamin D2, which comes from plants or fungi.  One catch, plants/fungi are entirely different beings than animals.  Our bodies are wired very differently, down to the cellular level (cell walls in plants and cell membranes in animals are quite different).  Plant vitamin D, D2, is not the same as our vitamin D, D3, so it is much less efficient to use the plant form to get what we need.  This study calls for an end to vitamin D2 fortification and supplementation because it is NOT an equivalent to D3.  The authors state that vitamin D2 is NOT as effective at raising vitamin D levels, has a shorter shelf life, may lead to incorrect circulating vitamin D measurements, and is metabolized differently, thereby it doesn't assume the same functions as vitamin D3.  Dr. Davis from The Heart Scan Blog concurs.  He discusses how D2 is a cheaper supplement than D3, but it pales in comparison to the effectiveness of D3 in the body.  

Insult to injury?  Even if producers fortify foods with the most bioavailable form of vitamin D, D3, the source is up for grabs.  Just because they are fortifying cow's milk, doesn't mean that added D3 is from a cow.  It could be from any animal used to make that source.  There are NO requirements to identify the source of ingredients like vitamin D.  Isn't that a little disturbing?

Animal Sources of Vitamin D

So where can you get natural animal sources of vitamin D?  Fish, for one.  Salmon, sardines, and shrimp are very good to excellent sources according to The World's Healthiest Foods (a nutritional database) and eggs follow close behind (and yes, you have to eat the yolk, which contains all the nutritional goodness like the vitamin D!).  That website also lists vitamin D-fortified cow's milk as a very good source, but we are going for whole foods, not processed, and I already discussed it's detriments above.  

Meat quality matters.  Wild-caught fish has significantly more vitamin D than non-organic farm-raised, which lends more evidence to support our preference for sustainable wild-caught, grass-fed, and pasture-raised sources of meat.  For more information on sustainable fish, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch list.  The Weston Price Foundation article further elaborates that the plankton and other fish in the diets of the fish we eat provide their vitamin D (that they cannot synthesize it from the sun themselves).  Thus, farm-raised fish on a processed (usually grain-based) diet are not getting the dietary vitamin D to become as rich a source as their wild brethren.  Unless, of course, we fortify their grain-based diet, which leads us back around to the argument above: we CANNOT make better foods than those found in nature.  The Weston Price Foundation article also mentions that we aren't even exploiting the real WHOLE foods that contain the most vitamin D, like the organ meats, skin, fat, and insects that are uncommon modern foods. 

Unfortunately, getting the vitamin D you need is NOT as simple as just eating your fill of fish.  The quantity of vitamin D in different foods varies.  It even varies for the SAME foods!  Argh!  For instance, mackerel cooked 3 to 3.5oz is 388 IU here (for 3oz) and 345 IU here (for 3.5oz).  Either way, even the best food sources (one 3-4 oz serving of salmon with up to 794 IU, although most charts have it closer to 400 IU) are a drop in the bucket for what you need.  And if what I have read is right, we do NOT want to listen to the daily recommended values given on those sites (400 IU a day, are you serious?).  Remember, we are shooting for 5000 IU a day according to The Vitamin D Council.  But the real number you need depends entirely upon your own vitamin D level, so get checked!  The Vitamin D Council recommends 50–80 ng/mL (or 125–200 nM/L) year-round.  Taking the average 400IU in 4oz of the best food source (salmon), that would take 12 and half servings a day.  Hungry?

Additionally, there is also a whole can of worms to explore with vitamin D's cofactors (read more about them at the Vitamin D Council): those vitamins and minerals necessary for it to do it's many jobs.  Any deficiencies and you're screwed.  This is more detail than we can handle today, so it suffices to say that you should eat REAL FOOD and make sure your diet is full of variety and rich sources of vitamins and minerals, including sustainable wild-caught fish, pasture-raised poultry and eggs, grass-fed meat, and local and seasonal vegetables, fruit, and nuts.  

And what about getting the vitamin D you need?  Well, that question has not been answered yet.  I guess it's to be continued:

Sunshine of Your Love Part 4: Supplementation

References

General references used extensively (in addition to those cited above):
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

The World's Healthiest Foods: Vitamin D

Weston Price Foundation's article: The Miracle of Vitamin D and Milk: It Does a Body Good?

The Vitamin D Council

Answer to What Am I: breakfast cereal.  Still think it's a healthy start to your day? 

Just Say No...to Juice?

No, you haven't entered the Twilight Zone, but didn't I tell you that we are turning everything we know about health and nutrition on its head?  Nothing is sacred; nothing is safe.  Especially not juice.

52-10 is a health initiative run by Go For Health! of Santa Cruz.  It's campaign is designed to promote a healthier lifestyle and reduce childhood obesity rates.  While you'd have to be crazy not to see the benefit in 5 or more fruits and veggies a day, 2 hours or less of screen time (tv, computer, or video game), 1 hour or more of vigorous exercise, and 0 soda or sugar sweetened beverages, not everyone understands that last prescription.  What exactly are "sugar sweetened beverages"?  Does that just mean artificial sugar or do natural sugars fit in this equation?

My argument is that fruit juice is no different than soda to your body, or your child's body.  Surprising?  Of course it is!  This is a HUGE blow to the fruit juice industry creating "healthy" alternatives to soda and their kin.  This is also a touchy subject for parents who wouldn't dream of letting their kids drink soda and yet fuel them with juice (even 100% juice) at every opportunity.  Just.  As.  Bad.

The Straight Juice

I know this comes as a shock.  Who hasn't chosen 100% juice over those inferior sugar-sweetened ones with the self-satisfaction of being a mindful, informed, better-than-the-masses consumer?  Who hasn't felt better about themselves for choosing Jamba Juice over other fast food?  I know I have. We all know that soda is the devil, energy drinks are its mutated offspring, and fruit juice is natural and full of the "good" stuff.  We ALL know this.  But we are being duped.  They are really no different, especially if you overload on the juice thinking it's the best choice.

Why so bad?  Anything easy comes with a price.  There is a cost to convenience.  Processed foods are easier than home-cooked, but we know they are not on par nutritionally and come with the burden of additives and preservatives.  Drinking juice is so much easier, more convenient, and more instantly gratifying than dirtying ourselves with actually eating a piece of fruit.  But it comes with a price.  Not only does juicing a fruit take away its satiating fiber that keeps you from eating a bushel of apples at one sitting, but it also strips the nutrients found in the original fruit.  According to Mark's Daily Apple, calorie for calorie, juice contains more sugar than the fruit itself.  You can easily drink more sugar than you could ever hope to eat in whole fruit.  Juice's lack of fiber allows its sugars to spike your blood sugar since there is no fiber-mediated regulation of digestion that you get when you eat the whole fruit.  Okay, so more sugar and less nutrition.  "Yeah, yeah," you say.  These are "pretty obvious" said in the most smug Professor Gilderoy Lockhart voice.  But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

That Pesky Juice Stain

Of course we all know that despite the bogus "okay in moderation" campaign of high fructose corn syrup producers, HFCS is the ultimate evil.  But fruit is another source of fructose, and it is not as benign as we may think.  The short story: there is a deadly cycle of fructose leading to fat storage and telling your brain you are still hungry.

For example, fructose has the opposite effect of glucose on the hypothalamus section of the brain controlling feeding behavior.  While blood glucose levels are sensed by the brain and signal a secession to eating, fructose bypasses this metabolic step and actually promotes food intake to continue instead of signaling an end to eating.  That's terrifying!  More dangers to kids from drinking juice are highlighted in this article from ScienceDaily, namely: increased risk of obesity (Note: this is a point of contention with studies citing evidence for and against), heart disease, high blood pressure, cavities, bone fractures, and impeded growth.  Lastly, and I can personally attest to this fact that just like fructose can desensitize your insulin, it can desensitize your taste for sugary foods, requiring more sugary foods to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Interlude: Perhaps we should have taken Ben Franklin's rants more seriously: "Hot things, sharp things, sweet things, cold things All rot the teeth and make them look like old things."

So, how does it fructose metabolism work?  Basically, fructose goes to your liver for processing.  Fructose undergoes enzyme reactions in the liver leading to glycogen synthesis (to replenish liver glycogen storage, its energy source) and triglyceride (fat) synthesis once the glycogen stores are filled up.  Triglycerides are released into the bloodstream and some become incorporated into very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDLs), the precursor to small, dense LDL particles that are the baddest of the bad.   Here is a technical article on fructose metabolism, another that's a little more digestible, and wikipedia's layman summary.

Believe it or not, excessive fruit and fruit juice can lead to higher risk of gout, as this study shows.  Notice, not only soft drink consumption, but fruit and fruit juice consumption lead to this increased risk.  Gout is a painful joint swelling as joint tissues accumulate crystals of uric acid, a by-product of overloaded fructose metabolism in your liver.  Uric acid also promotes insulin resistance, meaning cells become desensitized to insulin and it takes higher and higher levels of insulin to do its job: getting glucose from the blood into the cells.  Too much glucose or insulin in the blood is toxic, and the burden to produce more and more insulin to elicit an effect is taxing on the pancreas.

Now take a deep breath, and continue down the rabbit hole with me.

Not only does high fructose intake increase the risk of gout, but it can more direly lead to a fatty liver, known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disorder (NAFLD), whose long-term effects are not yet known.  We do know that NAFLD can progress into more dangerous liver inflammation, which has been linked to liver cancer and cirrhosis, so they seem to be a possibility here too.  Another complication of NAFLD is insulin resistance (yes, that again).

And don't go thinking that table sugar is much better than fructose because table sugar is fructose bound to glucose in the form of sucrose, and the fructose portion is what leads to problems.  Fructose is a fructose is a fructose, no matter the source: sugar, HFCS, or fruit.



 Fructose, according to Robert Lustig, a pediatric neuroendocrinologist, is a poison.  Above is a great (albeit LONG) presentation on the evils of fructose.  He cites studies that show fruit juice intake leads to increased risk of obesity and type II diabetes.  He argues that fructose leads to hypertension (high blood pressure), myocardial infarction (heart attack), dyslipidemia (elevated fats in the blood), pancreatitis (inflamed or infected pancreas), obsesity, hepatic (liver) disfunction, fetal insulin resistance, and habituation if not addiction.  All of these serious health problems are also associated with alcohol which is metabolized the exact same way by the body, causing Lustig to call fructose "alcohol without the buzz."

This is actually a very fitting analogy because, in my personal experience, overloading on carbohydrates without much protein or fat makes me feel literally drunk.  I get dizzy, giddy, and light-headed just from  sweet BBQ-slathered ribs and side of sweet potato fries and cole slaw.  Seriously.  Lame.  Godforbid I actually consume alcohol!  One drink and I am sloshed.  Can you say cheap date?

Knowledge is Power: What's the Next Step?


Lustig's suggestion:

• Get rid of every sugared liquid in the house. Kids should drink only water and milk.
• Provide carbohydrates associated with fiber.
• Wait 20 minutes before serving second portions.
• Have kids buy their “screen time” minute-for-minute with physical activity.

Robb Wolf's suggestion: ditch some of those high energy carbs and replace them with fat to avoid becoming an Always Hungry Carb Crash Zombie (AHCCZ).  According to his article "42 Ways to Skin the Zone," an AHCCZ is getting too many carbs too often.  While low-carb diets (as long as they are rich in protein and fat) create satiation and reduced hunger, carbohydrate-rich diets (say like the one promoted by the USDA food pyramid???) increase hunger.  The answer?  Reduce high density carbohydrate sources in your diet (i.e. grains (duh), starches, high glycemic fruits, and any fruit juice since they are ALL high glycemic) by replacing some with fat and making less energy dense carbohydrates like veggies your go-to's.    Lean meats, fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and NO sugar, NO grains, NO dairy, and NO legumes actually works.  Believe me.

Finally, read labels.  Don't buy anything with high fructose corn syrup and its guises: isoglucose, maize syrup, glucose-fructose syrup, and glucose/fructose.  Also avoid any added sweeteners like:

sugar, white sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, confectioner’s sugar, corn syrup, crystallized fructose, dextrin, honey, invert sugar, maple syrup, raw sugar, beet sugar, cane sugar, corn sweeteners, evaporated cane juice, glucose-fructose, granulated fructose, high fructose corn syrup, fructose, malt, molasses, and turbinado sugar. 

And guess what?  Sorry to burst the "all natural" sweetener bubble, but agave nectar is essentially high fructose corn syrup.  Even though it sports a low glycemic index and may be all natural, it is still fructose to your body and a nice, high, concentrated source of it.  Sorry.  Here are some arguments against agave as a "natural" sweetener.

In conclusion: make fruit juice a rare treat, if a treat at all.  Instead: eat the whole fruit.  You are unlikely to overeat the real, whole fruit filled with its nutrients and fiber.  Also, just as important: eat plenty of vegetables--DO NOT make fruit your only or major carbohydrate source!

Tea, Earl Grey, Hot

Can't stand cold water this chilly time of year or just hate its plain, wet taste?  Try tea!  Try brewing tea and NOT adding any sugar or milk.  Dare you!  First, try fruity herbal teas (or "infusions" as my husband would correct me since they lack tea leaves).  The dried fruit adds a sweetness that will get you over your sugar hump.  Next, try all different kinds of infusions and teas until you find some you like and can stand without the sweetener.  As with all things processed, the less processing the better, so loose leaf is preferable to tea bag, with regard to taste too.  Always check the labels to avoid soy, corn, wheat, and sugar that wheedle their way into everything.

I found unsweetened tea to be a great way to gain back my sense of sweetness and love of undiluted flavor.  Try it hot or chilled!  In fact, I am going to get a steaming mug right now...

Instead of ending with a recipe, let me feed your mind:

With crimson juice the thirsty southern sky
Sucks from the hills where buried armies lie,
So that the dreamy passion it imparts
Is drawn from heroes' bones and lovers' hearts.

--Oliver Wendell Holmes

Smashing Pumpkins

Pumpkins and all types of squashes abound right now during the fall harvest and in the spirit of  Halloween.  I have tried to tackle squash as a savory dish on multiple occasions, but I have never been crazy about the outcome.  There is just something so sweet about most squash that they beg for sweet applications.  Even wrapping squash cubes in bacon didn't win me over, which is insane because bacon is supposed to make everything better.  Well, I give in.  I'm not trying to fit a round squash into a square hole anymore.  I am going to use it as its sweetness begs: for dessert!

Scrumptious Squash

Squash is very nutritious for obvious reasons: it's a brightly colored vegetable (well, botanically speaking it's a fruit).  Bright color means beta carotene (think carrots), which has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.  As an anti-inflammatory, beta carotene helps reduce the symptoms of asthma and arthritis.  Beta carotene also deters plague formation by keeping cholesterol from oxidizing and building up on the walls of blood vessels; thus, it protects against heart disease.  It also protects us against cancer, especially colon cancer (which is further aided by squash's folate and fiber content).  Furthermore, beta carotene plays a role in blood sugar regulation, thereby protecting against diabetes and insulin resistance.  Squash is also high in fiber, aiding our digestive inner workings.  The Vitamin C, manganese, folate, and potassium content in squash is also quite respectable.  Bottom line, it's nutritious!

Squash is a perfect paleo food for getting sweetness out of your food, not adding it to your food.  According to its single listing on the international table, pumpkin's glycemic index value is 75, which is a little high (higher than 50 is considered high glycemic), but being a watery, fibrous plant, it has a low, low glycemic load of 3 (I have seen various numbers for different winter squash, but all less than 10).  Remember, when we last talked about blood sugar, we defined these terms.  Glycemic index is how fast a food is broken down into glucose, which raises your blood sugar, and since pure glucose is 100, we try to avoid foods higher than 50 on that scale.  However, we can't dismiss glycemic load, which takes into account the percentage of carbohydrate in the food that is responsible for the spike.  In pumpkins, it is low (less than 10 is considered low glycemic load, 20 or more is high).  Squash fall into the same category as watermelons (a relative) that, while sweet, have so much water and/or fiber that their glycemic load is negligible.

This inherent, but not dangerous sweetness is something we can enhance with flavor compliments like apple and banana.  I find it gratifying to add sweeteners that contribute to the flavor, not just add sweetness.  They also add their own host of vitamins and minerals, which trumps honey, agave, and traditional sugars any day.  Period.

Main Reference: The World's Healthiest Foods

Preparation S

First off, you can buy canned pumpkin, but it is really simple to make your own and so much better for you and the environment if you rely less upon processed foods.  When choosing squash, go for the sweetest you can find.  Sweet varieties include the sugar or pie pumpkin (small jack-o-lanturn type), kabocha squash, butternut squash, acorn squash, Hubbard squash, calabaza squash, buttercup squash, or the oddly named sweet potato squash.

Roasting a squash is really easy.  Check out Elana's Pantry's step by step guide for pictures and more details, but here is the gist: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  In the meantime, wash the squash and cut it in half (this is tricky with hard rinds, so be careful and use a big, heavy knife!).  Scoop out the fibrous, seedy innards and try to fish out the seeds to dry and roast, if you are up to the challenge.  Place the cut halves face down in a baking dish with 1/4 inch of water in the bottom.  Roast for 30 minutes and give them a check.  You are looking for fork-tender flesh all the way to the rind.  If you got it, great--allow to cool and then scoop out the roasted squash with a spoon.  Why a spoon?  Because it'll 'urt more.  [sorry, couldn't resist lapsing into my Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves recital :)]

Now you have your roasted squash!  What can you do with it?  Bake muffins!

How about muffins sweetened only by a mere 3 tablespoons of apple juice and 2 bananas?  Is that not awesome?!

Pumpkin Chai Spiced Muffins
Like sipping a steaming, hot mug of chai, these muffins will delight your senses.  
Cooking Time: about 45minutes start to finish
Quantity: more than a dozen, so I have to bake in two batches!

Wet Ingredients:
1 c roasted pumpkin (see above to prepare)
2 over-ripe bananas, break each into 3-4 chunks

1 T vanilla

3 eggs

3 T apple juice

Dry Ingredients:

1.5 c almond flour

1/2 c coconut flour

1 t baking soda
2 t cream of tartar
2 t Ceylon cinnamon
1/2 a nutmeg, grated
3/4 t ground ginger
3/4 t ground cloves
1 t salt

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare your muffin tins/cups.  I have had success with using cut squares of parchment (see pic in my last muffin recipe) in the cups as makeshift (read: cheap) muffin cups, but they are really annoying to keep in place while trying to dish in the batter.  If you are really into baking, you can splurge on silicon muffin cups at $13 for 6, which then need no fussing or even a muffin tin (they can bake on a cookie sheet!).  I just got mine and am so enamored with them!  Or go ahead and trust your nonstick muffin tin one more time.  These things just tend to fail after a few uses, but go ahead and live on the edge if you must.  Just be sure to grease liberally with coconut oil and don't tell me I didn't warn you if they stick.

Okay, now that you have your oven cranking, muffin tins/cups prepped, and ingredients assembled, let's make muffins!  Add the coconut flour and cream of tartar to a sifter (or food processor) and sift into a large bowl (or whirl in your food processor to combine, then add to your bowl).  Sifting the coconut flour and cream of tartar ensures none of those annoying clumps that are so difficult to mix out.  Skip this and you'll be squashing beads of coconut flour and cream of tartar for the next five minutes, seriously.  Next, add the remaining dry ingredients to the bowl and mix throughly.  Then, add all the wet ingredients to a food processor and pulse until you break up the banana and squash.  Scrape down the sides, then, let 'er whirl for a minute to lighten the color a bit and puree everything evenly (you might need another scraping and whirl to accomplish this).  Give your wet ingredients a final whirl to aerate them (you should see bubbles when you lift the lid) and add them to the dry ingredients.  Mix to evenly incorporate.  

Dish your batter into muffin tins/cups and bake for 25 minutes, then check for any wetness on the top, giggliness, or too light a top color--if present, give them 5 more minutes, then retest.  Mine took around 30 minutes and their tops just started to turn a more golden brown with stray spills looking a bit burnt.  After finished, remove and cool on a rack (note: don't try to get muffins out of their cups (parchment or silicone) until after they have cooled).  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator with some paper towels underneath and above them to soak up excess moisture.  They'll last a good few days if you can resist them!