Fatphobia

Many are plagued by this "disease," which grew strong in the late-20th century and has led to a full-blown fat-free hysteria.  We've seen it everywhere from the general media to school lunchrooms and nutrition classes.  It is perpetuated by the Mayo Clinic, American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, and most influentially by the USDA.  How can something so inGRAINed in our health knowledge be so wrong?

Contrary to Popular Belief


Despite promoting a reduced-fat and fat-free lifestyle over the last 20 years, Americans have been getting fatter.  Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke are all at all-time highs.  One large study summarized here started back in 1993 and tracked nearly 50,000 women for eight years.  Close to 20,000 followed a low-fat diet, while the rest continued their usual diet.  Here are the results:

The results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed no benefits for a low-fat diet. Women assigned to this eating strategy did not appear to gain protection against breast cancer, colorectal cancer, or cardiovascular disease. And after eight years, their weights were generally the same as those of women following their usual diets. [see article for citations]

and

The findings from the Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial came as a surprise to many Americans who have been hearing for years that reducing fat is important for long-term health. Yet long-term follow-up studies such as the Nurses Health Study have consistently found little relation between the percentage of calories from fat and risks of breast cancer, colon cancer, or coronary heart disease. Such studies are one reason why major reviews of diet and health during the last five years, including those conducted by the U.S. Institute of Medicine and the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Committee, have moved away from advocating low fat intake to an emphasis on the type of fat.

Another large study found that the Atkins diet trumped the food pyramid standard diet, Zone Diet (40 carbs:30 protein:30 fat), and Ornish (high carb) at producing weight loss and decreasing risk of heart disease.  What makes Atkins so different?  It is the only very low-carb diet that was tested.  Sure, eating bun-less cheese burgers and bacon might not be very healthy, but compared to low-fat diets and moderate- to high-carbohydrate diets, Atkins won.  Looks to me like carbohydrates may be the real issue, not fat.  If anything, the higher fat diets did better!

Here is a (LONG) presentation from the Stanford lecture series on the findings of that study given by the lead researcher, a vegetarian.  It is fun and filled with visuals, so it's worth the time and effort to watch.  A good summary of it is here.

So why aren't our healthcare sources catching up with the current research?  Their tenacity to desperately hold on to out-dated policy calling for the reduction of fat IS NOT making us thin or protecting us from disease.  It is perpetuating a myth.  Just look at the general public consensus: we all know that fat makes us fat, right?  From my school lunch post, we know this is still being taught in schools and infiltrates school menus.

Bottom line: The low-fat and fat-free diet recommendation is NOT supported by current science.      

Why Fat-Free is Health-Free


Fat is not some boogeyman of the macronutrients.  Fat is essential, hence the essential fatty acids.  Essential is a nifty term given to substances your body CANNOT make and HAS TO ingest through your diet.  The essential fatty acids are alpha-linoleic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid, and linoleic acid (LA), an omega-6 fatty acid.  Two other omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are best consumed from dietary sources because although your body can synthesize them from ALA, the conversion is inefficient.  The omega-6 fatty acids are prevalent in nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils.  Omega-3s are rich in fish oil, fatty fish, chickens (and their eggs) fed flax and pastured, and grass-fed livestock.  The increase in our use of vegetable oils and decreased consumption of fish and grass-fed livestock has lead to an overbalance of omega-6 to omega-3s in the typical American diet.  While omega-6 fatty acids are still essential, too much leads to problems, while more omega-3s is protective of many diseases.  Basically, the bottom line is ditch the veggie oils, supplement with fish oil, and eat pastured chickens and their eggs, wild fish, and grass-fed beef.  You'll still get plenty of omega-6s.

Okay, so now we know the dangers of giving up fat entirely.  You can't live without essential fatty acids.  But, fat-freers will still get plenty of omega-6 in their diets due to the prevalence of veggie oils in everything processed, despite the "fat free" labels ("fat free" can really just mean very little fat, not entirely without fat--same goes for "trans fat free").  However, where will fat-freers get their omega-3?

Fat is required in your body for many jobs.  One is storage of energy.  A woman too low in body fat can't menstruate.  There just isn't enough fuel to support her body and certainly not any excess to support a child.  Without enough body fat, you start to eat away at yourself, self-cannibalizing your tissues to fuel essential functions.  There is no excess.  That tells us something about resources--your body NEEDS fat to support its function.  It can't function without it.  Excess calories whether from protein, fat, or carbohydrate are stored as fat.  If anything, carbohydrate is the Big Bad.  Your body can produce glucose internally without consuming it, so in reality, you don't need to consume carbohydrates for their energy.  According to Dr. Eades in Protein Power,

the actual amount of carbohydrates required by humans for health is zero.

OMG--read that again, it's life changing!  It totally overturns the dominant paradigm which places carbohydrates at the base of our beloved food pyramid (or as the dominant sliver nowadays).  You don't need carbohydrates.  There are no essential carbohydrates like there are essential fatty acids or essential amino acids.  You might want to consume carbohydrates for their vitamins and minerals, but without fat, that is a losing battle.  Here's why:

Another job of fat is dissolving fat-soluable vitamins like vitamins A, D, E, and K.  Fat-soluble vitamins are water-proof, meaning water can't break them down and you can only capture them and use them if you have fat to bind to them and take them where we need them to go.  If you want to find out more about what each fat-soluable vitamin does for our body and how vital they are, read up on them here.  So guess what happens to all the precious vitamin D and A fortified in our dairy when we drink skim milk?  Flush!  It is our fatphobia that has lead to this fortification because the typical American eats so little fatty natural sources of these vitamins (fatty fish, nuts, eggs, grass-fed meat, and oils).  And with our busy lives we definitely do not get enough vitamin D synthesis from the sun, even those living in Florida, the Sunshine State!

How about the health-conscious salad eater with fat-free dressing and dip for his/her veggies?  Where do all those precious vitamins go?  Flush, flush!  Vitamins E, K, and A (precursors) are prevalent in leafy greens and carotenoids (for vitamin A).  Without fat consumed along with veggies (also sources of these vitamins, itself), there is no absorption of these vitamins.  Thus, the fat-free craze necessitated supplementation of essential fatty acids into our already highly processed foods because we were no longer eating natural sources of fat-soluble vitamins and couldn't absorb them from veggies alone.  But this doesn't solve the problem if we still aren't eating any fat with the fortified foods!

(Don't worry, there's a recipe coming--keep reading!)

Replacing The Fat

What replaces the fat in naturally fatty products like oils and butters?  Give you a hint.  It is a big C.  In baking, a standard to reduce fat is to increase the sugar or use shortening or margarine instead of butter (more sugar to spike your blood sugar or hydrogenated oils and trans fat--which is the lesser evil?).

Check out the carbohydrate in uber-popular Kraft Ranch Dressing and Kraft Fat Free Ranch Dressing.  The fat free version has 11g of carbohydrate, compared to 3g for the regular ranch.  Granted it only has one more gram per serving of sugar, but what the hell are the other unnamed carbohydrates in there?  Remember, aside from the fiber, no matter the source: carbohydrate breaks down into sugar in your body.  And without fat to slow down digestion and keep you feeling full longer, your blood is quickly flooded with glucose, insulin mobilizes to get it out and store excess as fat, gets too much out since so much insulin was required, and leaves you with a blood sugar crash, which brings irritability and hunger, again.

Let's go to the video-tape per se, and dissect these two frankenfoods to see the real cost of fat free:

Kraft Ranch Dressing

Ingredients: WATER, SOYBEAN OIL, SUGAR, GARLIC JUICE, BUTTERMILK, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF SALT, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, WHEY, PHOSPHORIC ACID, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, EGG WHITES, VINEGAR, XANTHAN GUM, CITRIC ACID, POLYSORBATE 60, SPICE, NATURAL FLAVOR, ENZYMES, WITH SODIUM LACTATE, NATAMYCIN, AND CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA AS PRESERVATIVES. CONTAINS: MILK, EGG.

Kraft Fat Free Ranch Dressing

Ingredients: WATER, CORN SYRUP, VINEGAR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, WHEY (FROM MILK), SALT, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF GARLIC JUICE, ONION JUICE, SOYBEAN OIL, XANTHAN GUM, POTASSIUM SORBATE AND CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA AS PRESERVATIVES, ARTIFICIAL COLOR, PHOSPHORIC ACID, PROPYLENE GLYCOL ALGINATE, NATURAL FLAVOR, DRIED PARSLEY, DRIED GREEN ONIONS, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, DISODIUM INOSINATE, SPICE, CARAMEL COLOR, SULFITING AGENTS, YELLOW 5.

I highlighted those ingredients that differ.  At first glance, you can tell that the fat free version is making up for its reduction of fat with a plethora of pinatas--sorry, I mean ingredients, but since they carry within them a host of sugary treats, the slip is fitting.  Both are unacceptable because I can't pronounce half of their ingredients or identify most of them as actual foods, besides the fact that there are just too damn many of them.  But all that is besides the point.  This is a case study of the average American, a ranch-dressing aficionado, told by the health community to choose fat free ranch over regular ranch dressing.

The regular ranch gets its fat (at least it has some?) from soybean oil (a vegetable oil rich in omega-6 fatty acids we are trying to avoid) and sugar is up there as its #3 ingredient.  Fat-free has sugar in the form of corn syrup AND high fructose corn syrup as its #2 and #4 ingredients.  You already know my argument against high fructose corn syrup and the processing to create these frankensugars nauseates me.  Do you really need sugar in your salad dressing?

Despite the snooze-factor, let's take a closer look at some of the ingredients that differ.  This is IMPORTANT because I bet you've partaken in processed foods with naivety just like me.  Let's look at the dark underbelly of those most common:

Monosodium Glutamate is MSG, which has a spotty history and may be responsible for symptoms like headaches, nausea, heart palpitations, and chest pain after eating MSG-laden foods.  Disodium Gyanylate and Inosinate are a pair that take the place of MSG in the fat-free dressing.  They provide saltiness and are derived from fish or yeast.  Recommendations against asthmatics, those with gout, or babies using products with this couplet make me a little nervous.

Citric Acid is a flavoring and preservative extracted from mould that eat sugar, mostly derived from corn sources.  Like yeast-fed sugar, I would think that citric acid is a little outside the paleo diet.  To note: Xanthum Gum is also usually corn-derived (it's also produced by bacteria fed corn-derived sugar).  Most chemically processed additives are derived from grains, so be wary of them if not for their highly processed nature (ex. Modified Food Starch), but also for their hidden gluten and anti-nutrients.

It would be nice to know the source of the "Sugar" and what the hell a generalization like "Enzymes" really means, "Spice" too while we're at it.  What are they specifically and where do they come from???  I am also concerned about the milk source of the buttermilk and the egg whites.  Without any guarantee that the animals were pastured and organic, I have no doubt they are animal products from brutal, inhumane factory farms.  Doesn't matter how little we rely upon products from that industry--any use is complacency and keeps them in business.

Let's keep free-falling down this rabbit hole, it only gets more horrifying:

In both dressings there is something mysteriously called "Natural Flavor," but if it was actually natural flavor, why is it an additive?  Hello contradiction!  Basically, natural flavor is anything from plant or animal used to flavor food.  Good luck tracking down that one to find out what you are actually eating.  The fat-free dressing also has sinister-sounding "Artificial Color" with Caramel Color and Yellow #5 to boot.  All this to get white dressing?  Caramel color comes from sugar, usually derived from corn, which amongst other concerns begs the GMO question: what exactly are we eating?  Sulfiting agents can be really bad for asthmatics and those sensitive to sulfur, and the fact that the FDA thought them dangerous enough to ban their use on foods eaten raw makes me nervous about their use in food products.  Guess who Yellow #5 is also dangerous for?  That's right!  Asthmatics!

Can you see a trend here?  Those with the most compromised and sensitive digestive tracts are falling ill when consuming these artificially produced chemicals added to our foods.  This might be a chicken and the egg question begging more research, but I see a connection here between a damaged digestive tract and asthma.  What damages the digestive tract?  Gluten (for one)!  Hmm, does that mean asthmatics might be more inclined to have gluten-intolerance and seriously adverse reactions to gluten a la celiac disease?  Not surprisingly, the answer is yes.  Giving up gluten reduces asthma.  That is a big home-run right there.

Bottom line: Look before you eat.

(And yes, we are almost there!)

The Downward Spiral

So let me connect the dots (la, la, la for those of you who remember PeeWee's Playhouse): the food industry replaces fat with carbohydrate (which breaks down into sugar) and derives most of its chemically processed additives from grains.  The sugar puts our blood sugar regulation on over-drive leading to a host of problems, especially since we don't have any fat to mediate digestion and produce satiety.  We lose valuable vitamins because we don't have the fat to absorb them.  That is a runaway train of metabolic sickness on its own.

But it gets better:

Meanwhile, gluten, lectin, and anti-nutrients from grains in the typical American diet destroy a person's digestive tract.  The inflammation, permeability problems, and inefficient, broken digestion that results is further exacerbated by those chemically produced food additives that are, no surprise: allergens!  Asthmatics and celiacs are at greatest risk because they are hypersensitive, but when you look at the scientific evidence about what grains do to your body, aren't we all celiacs by varying degrees?

Conclusion: The trade-off of fat for sugar, more carbohydrate, and more additives just isn't worth it.

The True Skinny

So it looks like fat isn't really all that bad for us after all.  Whew!  And I didn't even touch on the cholesterol myth or go into the nitty gritty of metabolism!  We'll save those for another day.  If you haven't read my saturated fat rant, please do.  I know that is crazy controversial, but 'the truth is out there' if we are brave enough to digest it.

I think our society has made great sacrifices in our health by throwing out the fat in our diets and replacing it with more processed frankenfoods at worse, sugar and more carbohydrates at best.  And that isn't saying much if carbohydrate is really to blame for our obesity epidemic and the modern Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and stroke.  But then, this challenges a paradigm backed by national commodities like wheat, corn, rice, and beans.  Their production is subsidized and their use is required in public schools.  This is where money and power diverge with nutrition.

Bottom line: Fat is healthy.  Seriously.  Obviously, you should choose natural sources with as little processing as possible, but that goes for everything.  Duh.  Healthy sources are olive oil, coconut oil, nut oils in moderation, animal fat, fish oil, avocados, and if you partake in dairy: butter, whole milk, and cream from raw, grass-fed sources.  For more information, see Mark's Daily Apple's Definitive Guide to Oils and a Primal Primer: Animal Fats.  Ditch the fat-free frankenfoods.  Don't be afraid to give yourself a little "indulgence" and enjoy healthy fat!  Make sure you have some at EVERY SINGLE MEAL!

Nut 'N Butter Crunch
The crisp, buttery crunch of this mix make for divine snacking!
Cooking/Prep time: 1/2 hour or less

Ingredients:
3C raw pecans (or roasted--just skip the roasting step)
1C raw coconut flakes/slices (see above)
2T raw, grass-fed butter (yes, it's worth the price, and no, don't even bother without it)
1/2t to 1t kosher salt to taste
(feel free to play around with the ingredients as desired)

Method:
Roast your pecans and coconut on sheet pans in a 350 degree oven (no need to preheat--you can just use the preheat as a timer for checking done-ness) or one batch at a time in a large skillet over medium heat.  Watch them carefully, because one minute they are browning, the next burnt to a crisp.  Seriously--my record is about even with burning versus success.  Remember, their bottoms will brown and burn, so toss them to keep checking.  You'll smell their fragrant roasty toasty-ness when they're done and the color will be a dark, golden brown.  This should take less than 15 minutes.

While your nuts and coconut are roasting in the oven or cooling, start a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the butter and brown the butter--which means stirring intermittently while it foams, loses its bubbles, and begins to brown.  Doesn't it smell like cheese?  Isn't that incredible?  REAL butter actually has a taste and smell!  Now you understand why I said raw, grassfed butter!

Back to the cooking: Watch the butter carefully for a change in color from yellow, to amber, to deep golden brown.  It won't take too long--say within 10 minutes.  Pull the plug once you've hit GB&D (golden brown and delicious--but, of course, singeing your tongue isn't necessary--smell and color will suffice).  Immediately remove from heat and throw in your roasted coconut and pecans.  Toss well and salt.  Remove to a covered container (try not to use plastic as the fat likes to bind with plastic and it makes cleaning really tough).  Whack 'er in the refrigerator to cool and for storage (I know it is torture to wait, but it tastes better once cooled, believe me--also, burning your fingers and mouth to snack on molten nuts isn't really fun).

Once cooled, enjoy crunching on this AMAZING mix!  It's very satisfying and decadently delicious!

Make a Date with Delicious

Dates.  To me, they conjure up images of Arabian royalty dining upon these delicacies in their opulent palaces.  I also hear the Aladdin merchant yelling, "Sugar dates and figs!  Sugar dates and pistachios!"  Yes, I watched that movie way too many times in my youth.  The dates on the table in Raiders of the Lost Ark piqued my interest, although it saddened me when poisoned dates were responsible for the death of the cute little monkey spy...  Anyway, dates have always been foreign to me, not something to which I was exposed as a child outside of television and movies.

Bottom line: I was missing out!

Dried dates are candy, plain and simple.  They are an excellent substitute for sugar and retain its caramelization and candy-sweet properties.  However, we can assume that with that sugary taste comes a nasty blood sugar spike.  Or does it?  The glycemic index value of dates is 103, higher than glucose set at 100.  But that number has puzzled researchers due to dates having a high fiber content, which would lower their GI.  Their glycemic load, which takes into account grams of carbohydrate minus water weight, was very high, too, at over 40, which makes sense given they are dried.  But what does this mean?  Well, to calculate these values, 50g of this carbohydrate were tested, which is actually about the quantity used in my recipe.  Of course if you eat all 12 yourself in one sitting, your blood sugar will be higher than a kite!  Duh!  Another study tested other varieties of dates and found them to be low glycemic, so there is definitely some dispute going on.  There is even some contention about whether or not the glycemic index is more important than dietary fiber quantity in food or if it is relevant to real life eating situations since the values were obtained 2 hours after eating the food and on a fasted stomach.  Bottom line: it seems that dried fruit in moderation is fine and can be reaped for its nutritional benefits.

Medjool Dates used in my recipe are Moroccan in origin and were almost wiped out there due to a disease in the 1920s.  Luckily, a portion of the healthy plants were transferred to the US and have been successfully cultivated here.  Dates are perhaps the first cultivated tree crop dating back more than 5000 years.  They have been a royal delicacy for much of their history.  Dates are also nutritious.  They have a good percentage of dietary fiber and have three times the potassium of bananas!  Potassium is integral for maintaining blood pressure, healthy kidneys, and cellular functions.  It is lost through perspiration and regained through your diet.  They also have a variety of B-complex vitamins and are a good source of magnesium (used for bone development and metabolism).

Pecans, our second major ingredient, are native to the Americas.  Pee cans or puh-cahns?  As Emeril would say, pee cans are for truckers.  They are chocked full of antioxidants--more than any other nut!  One antioxidant in pecans, Vitamin E, is responsible for reducing the oxidation of blood lipids and, thus, helping to prevent coronary heart disease.   Their antioxidants may also protect against cancer and Alzheimer's disease.  More details can be found here and here.  They are also rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, which are heart healthy fat.  They also have loads of vitamins and minerals.

So, here is a delicious, tasty, EASY treat to blast your taste buds.  I was inspired by this recipe from Girl Gone Primal--love her site!  Such brilliance to try something so simple!  I made hers with the apricot and walnuts and wasn't overly impressed with the taste (even with roasted walnuts)--perhaps it was the different varieties of apricots or nuts across the continents or just my own weird taste buds.  I knew the idea had potential and I know that so many people like hers, so I am just weird, but I tinkered with it to find the perfect combination of flavors at least for myself.  I think I found it!

Pecan Fudge Truffles
Fudge, plain and simple and sugar-free (aside from those delicious-as-candy dates).  
Makes: 12 bite-sized balls


Cooking Time: 30 minutes of preparation, tops, even accounting for cooling before assembly PLUS as long as your heart desires for freezing to get an ideal consistency.  I like mine really frozen (a few hours), but they are certainly edible and just as tasty sooner.


Zone Blockage: You can be my guest to figure this one out.  Exactly what size/variety is the "2 dates per block"?  Can you even find pecans on the list?  I would rather just enjoy them as a paleo-style treat!

ingredients:
1/2c pecans
1t vanilla extract
6-8 small Medjool dates or 4 jumbo/large, pitted and torn in half (2-3 ounces)
unsweetened shredded coconut (1/2c at least)
unsweetened cocoa powder (1/4c at least)

This is pretty darn simple.  Toast your shredded coconut in a naked skilled over medium heat.  It'll take a few minutes to get going, but once you start to see browning, stir often and keep an eye on it until you reach desired GB&D level (Golden Brown and Delicious, courtesy Alton Brown's Good Eats).  Meanwhile, set your pecans on a sheet pan in a 350 degree oven (I suggest toasting more than you need for inevitable future batches).  Keep an eye on these as well since they love to burn and are already golden brown in color at the start.  Even mild burning leaves this dessert with that burned nut flavor, so err on the side of caution!  Let your toasted coconut and pecans cool before beginning the assembly process.  Place the cocoa and toasted coconut in separate regular-sized or shallow bowls.

Assembly: (this is almost so easy, it is laughable) get out your food processor.  Dump in the pecans, vanilla, and halved dates.  Pulse to chop up the dates then let 'er whirl until the mixture begins to clump.  This only takes a minute or so.  Make sure your nuts are ground into tiny bits, and then remove the clumpy mixture from the processor onto a parchment paper-lined sheet pan.  Create little teaspoon-sized balls with your hands (roll in your palm) then plop 4 or so into your bowl of cocoa powder.  Here is the magic method: instead of gunking up your sticky hands, swirl the bowl so that the balls roll around and coat themselves!  Brilliant!  Of course I figured this one out after many, many batches of club-hands.  Then, remove the balls into the coconut bowl and repeat the process.  You may want to get your hands involved to press on some coconut if it isn't sticking well.  Remove from the coconut bowl and place on the sheet pan.  Repeat the process with the remaining balls and leave room between them on the sheet pan.  Whack 'em in the freezer until you cannot stand waiting any longer.  Enjoy feasting upon their awesome fudgy deliciousness!


How can such a simple process create such amazing chocolately, coconuty fudge?!?  And the best part: NO SUGAR (besides the dates, of course).  How awesome is that?  Are these worthy of your unenlightened brethren who might think your diet is insane?  I think so!


Dates

Apple Crumble Crisp

Can't you just smell the baked apples and cinnamon and taste that delicious, crunchy crumble?


UPDATE 1/28/10: Check out Mark's Daily Apple for his Definitive Guide to Dairy.  I briefly mention dairy at the end of this post, but I agree with Mark on individual preference through trial and error and only consume raw 100% grass-fed dairy if you do go down the dairy path.  


Sugar-slave to Sugar-free

I have been on a sugar-free kick for the past month since my self-intervention.  I had grown lax and with my baking trial and error I was eating more sweetened baked goods than I should.  It came to the point of "needing" chocolate every single night and rushing through dinner sometimes just to get to dessert.  I would buy a new bar at the store nearly every trip just in case I ever ran out.  When the day came that I bought two and started to eat them faster--more than just a couple rows a night, I began to notice a problem.  I also realized that I was on a sugar high that left my heart playing "la kookaracha."  I was having trouble sleeping and felt entirely too obsessed with sugar.  Too much of anything is never a good thing.  


So out with the chocolate.  I threw away the remainder of my snacking chocolate and started a new quest.  Trying to steer clear of even "natural" artificial sweeteners like honey and agave, I am experimenting with sweet fruits and veggies instead.  The results have been surprising and have changed my perception of sweetness from one that needs superfluous amounts of sugar to be deemed sweet, to one that can appreciate the inherent sweetness even in romaine leaves, which I now eat as a snack!  I think we would all be better off reclaiming our perceptions of the subtle natural sweetness of fruit and vegetables instead of relying upon sugar-concentrated sweeteners, even those as seemingly benign as honey and agave.  


What does this mean for my recipes?  I am using the sweetest natural products I can devise to substitute for sweeteners, and the results have surprised all of my taste testers (my husband and fellow CrossFitters).  But taste-test yourself and if you feel the pre-cooked product is not sweet enough, feel free to add a sweetener of your choice.  


Method to My Madness


Apple Crisp is a mountain of adversity to the paleo cook.  Traditionally, it consists of apples, butter, sugar, and flour.  When three of the four main ingredients need paleo substituting, this is a challenge.  For me, I first tackled the apples.  Instead of tart Granny Smiths, let's use a sweet variety to cut out some additional sweetener.  Makes sense.  Then, we need a fat substitute for butter to give it richness (why no butter? see the NOTE below the recipe).  I tried coconut oil, but the outcome was very coconut-y.  Instead, why not use a delicious nut oil, say walnut oil?  Sugar can be found in fruit, and since apples are our main ingredient, let's use apple juice, which is hellasweet on its own (I can't even drink undiluted juices anymore, they are just too sweet!).  Lastly, we have flour.  I tried almond flour, but the graininess of the crumble didn't do it for me.  Coconut flour is textured more like regular flour, so it is a great substitute, but it could use a little more texture, so I used pecan flour (made from roasting pecans and food processing them into flour--see recipe).  Pecans are a naturally sweet nut, so they can dual-task as a sweetener.  Finally, we need a crunchiness that brown sugar clusters usually deliver in the traditional recipes.  What are crunchy and hold up to baking?  Nuts!  Walnuts seemed a great choice to compliment the walnut oil (pecans tend to get a little soft anyway).  


So here is my take on apple crisp, finally, and my recommendations for tweaks to fit your taste!  Don't be afraid to experiment and explore cooking and baking.  Yes, baking is a science, but paleo baking is a virtually undiscovered country just waiting for us to explore!  And, usually, even our failures are damn tasty.  Take this recipe: it took me six scrumptious versions and left me with a delicious breakfast accompaniment to eggs and sausage for many mornings, as well as unfortunately two peeler injuries and a burn.  My husband jokes that I should wear a helmet when I am in the kitchen :)

Apple Crumble Crisp

This is quintessential autumn for me and the best result of apple picking!
Cooking Time: 1/2 hour or less to prepare, 45min baking time
Zone Blockage: let's just say this is a carb and fat dessert dish and leave it at that!  It probably isn't outrageous, though, just look at the ingredients!

1/2 c apple juice (make sure it is 100% juice!)
2 c roasted, chopped walnuts
1/2 c coconut flour
1 c pecan flour (roast raw pecans just like walnuts spread out on a baking sheet while you preheat the oven (watch carefully!  check often for golden browning!), then cool and food process into flour, but be careful not to over-process or you get pecan nut butter!)

1/4 t salt

4 t Ceylon cinnamon (use 2 teaspoons on the cut apples and 2 in the crumble)

about 1/2 nutmeg nut, grated fresh with a microplane

1 T vanilla
1/4 c walnut oil

Sweet apples, like Jonagold or Fuji, peeled, cored, and sliced about 1/4 in thick then cut in half, enough to fill a 9.5 x 13.5 pyrex baking dish most of the way up the sides 

Preheat the oven to 350.  Roast your nuts if you don't already have them from other cooking escapades.  Prepare the apples by peeling, coring, and slicing them.  Toss them into your baking dish and sprinkle on 2t of cinnamon.  Toss the apples slices in cinnamon to coat evenly.  At this point, you need to prepare your nuts by chopping the roasted walnuts (if you haven't already) and food processing your roasted pecans into nut flour (if you haven't already).  


Next, start on the crumble.  Add the 2t cinnamon, nutmeg, pecan flour, walnuts, and salt to a large bowl.  Mix well.  Then, add the wet ingredients: apple juice, vanilla, and walnut oil.  Mix well.  Now, we are going to get fancy and sift on the coconut flour.  If you don't have  sifter, try your best to sprinkle it on without allowing coconut flour balls to form.  Coconut flour is really resilient to mixing evenly--which you probably found out if you made my banana walnut muffins!  Mix well as you sift/sprinkle on the coconut flour to incorporate it evenly--despite its intentions.  At this point, you should have a crumbly, sticky "batter."  


Grab your baking dish filled with cinnamon apples and plop crumble batter over the top, getting even coverage.  Cover in tin foil and whack it in the oven until you see liquid at the bottom bubbling and the apples are a bit soft when pierced with a fork--about 30 minutes, but check at 20-25 minutes to be careful.  One of my batches was mush at 40min in, so check carefully and remember they are going to cook uncovered for a bit, so you don't want really soft apples yet.   Once bubbling, uncover and place back in the oven to allow the crumble to brown (read: NOT burn).  I looked for hardening and a more golden brown since it was all brown to begin with from the cinnamon and nuts.  It should take 10-15 minutes.  Check for browning and fork-tender apples.  


Once done, eat it while hot or reheat (microwave for 30 seconds to a minute depending upon glutinous quantity) to enjoy that warm, apple-y goodness!  And go ahead, indulge and brag to all your friends that this apple crisp is sans butter, sugar, and flour and sweetened only with apples and their juice!


NOTE: Why no butter?  Why no dairy?  Butter is a dairy product, which is a concentrated source of what cows eat plus all the other nourishment meant to help their babies grow.  Since most cows are eating grains like corn, dairy products from these cows are just concentrated grains and antibiotics, which are necessary to keep these cows alive since they are fed toxic grains (and we already know why we avoid grain).  If you can actually find 100% grass fed (NOT grain finished!), raw (the problems with pasteurization is a whole 'nother post) dairy products, then by all means enjoy them if you can tolerate them digestively and as long as you want to get big and strong like a cow.  Cow milk is meant for calves and goat milk is meant for kids, but NOT yours--theirs! (Baby goats are called kids).  Dairy products have growth hormones because they are baby food meant to nourish and help those babies grow big and strong.  Unless you want to grow big and strong and desire those concentrated grains to muck up your digestive system, you might want to avoid factory-farmed dairy products in your day to day meals.  Best bet?  Try going without dairy for at least a couple of weeks and then reintroduce it slowly.  Are you suddenly lactose intolerant?  Can you take some forms and not others?  Give it a try!  Your body is the best evidence for your nutritional journey.