I found two really great bits of health/food information lately that I recommend catching and wanted to share
First up: The Splendid Table had a bit on willpower. Not willpower, the fuzzy metaphysical concept; no, willpower the expenditure of mental energy to delay gratification, make good decisions, or otherwise act in a responsible manner. And even the phrase “mental energy” doesn’t really belong. We’re not talking about “energy” the way newage hippies talk about energy. We’re talking about physically burning glucose to power your brain. It’s a physical explanation for what isn’t typically thought of as a physical trait. This has bearing for all facets of life, not just food.
Then, the BBC has some show called “The Truth About Food,” which is the kind of thing I wish were on the Food Network, instead of some horror show like Fat Chef, but is also the kind of thing that would never fly in the States. There was an episode about slimming down that I think anybody thinking about their weight will find useful. My wife had been doing the South Beach thing for a while, and (aside from the first two weeks), most of that seemed to me like good solid advice, rather than funky fad dieting. And, a lot of the BBC show squared well with that. But it had more information than the South Beach stuff, and I think clears up a lot of the bullcrap surrounding the discussion of healthy eating these days.
So I’m taking away a few things from this. First, I (and probably lots of people) need to eat more protein. Also, westerners typically relegate soup to a side dish, which is a shame. And third, creating an environment encouraging good decisions is the best way to make them.
There are a number of reasons why you might not want solve the protein problem by just eating more meat, but doing so is slightly less intuitive. But I have been recently reconnecting with my Mennonite homeboys, and their More With Less cookbook is stupefyingly prescient. Not only is it about 35 years ahead of its time in terms of buzzwords like “sustainability” or even “Meatless Mondays” (see page 30, for example), but it also has some neato tips for increasing the protein in your cooking without adding meat. You can make a dish with a milk-based sauce, or put hard boiled eggs on your salad. Yogurt, for goodness sake. Think Greek food, Tzatziki sauce. Nuts, if you’re into that sort of thing. It turns out that soybeans are an even better source of protein than an equivalent number of calories of sirloin steak. And if you think eating fast food is cheaper than real food, just start getting your protein from split peas ($0.49 / 100 grams), lentils ($0.56 / 100 grams), other beans, peanut butter ($1.47 / 100 grams), or chicken legs ($1.52 / 100 grams – cheaper than eggs, even). Oh, and an adult male only needs something like two-thirds that amount daily. Of course, there’s more to a diet the protein, surely, but a lot of those other needs are addressed by the cookbook as well. Consider this an endorsement. It’s probably the most comprehensive discussion on how to live and be healthy on either a severely reduced budget or a substantial ecological conscience I’ve seen anywhere.
