RICE AND RESISTANT STARCH

Rice, Rice, Baby! Oh, that isn’t how the song goes? As a person with prediabetes, rice rarely makes it onto my menu. Chinese and Spanish dishes are some of my favorite meals, so I really miss them. Rice is a dietary staple for over half the world’s population, so changing the way we cook it could help tackle obesity and other diet-related health problems.

 Unfortunately, our usual choice of white rice has a high glycemic index, which means it raises the blood sugar readings two hours after eating and also can cause a swift dip soon after. This is because the way we usually cook rice and eat it prevents us from getting the benefit of resistant starch.

Glycemic Index of Rice Types: wild and brown rice are the lowest. White, instant, and sticky are the highest.
https://glycemic-index.net/glycemic-index-of-rice/

Resistant starch (RS) behaves more like dietary fibre than carbohydrate, as it is not broken down into simple sugars in the small intestine. There are several health benefits associated with resistant starch.

Resistant Starch is the starch which reaches the large intestine and then is fermented by bacteria. Therefore, RS is a type of fermentable fiber and could be considered one type of prebiotic, since it provides “food” for bacteria living in the large intestine. Fermentation of RS results in production of Short Chain Fatty Acids and a reduction in pH in the proximal large intestine.

Researchers using the traditional Sri Lankan cooking process as a starting point (40 minutes of simmering followed by oven drying for 2.5 hours), tested the effects of three other processing steps: adding coconut oil to the boiling water, refrigerating the rice for 12 hours before oven drying, and heating it up in a microwave after oven drying.

The results were interesting:

1. Adding oil to the water created ‘type 5’ Resistant Starch. The oil complexes with the amylose to form amylose-lipid complexes…this prevents the starch granules being attacked by enzymes,’ says Sudhair James, from the College of Chemical Sciences in Sri Lanka.
2. Chilling the rice after boiling increases ‘retrograded starch’ or ‘Type 3’ Resistant Starch when hydrogen bonds re-form within the starch, making some components less soluble.
3. The team found that both these processes led to an increase in Resistant Starch, which reheating the rice after oven drying did not appear to reverse.
4. In fact, the greatest effect, a 15-fold increase in Resistant Starch, was seen when all three treatments were used together. This translates to a calorie reduction of 10-12% in this particular variety, which James says could be ‘perhaps as high as 50 or 60%’ if the treatments were applied other varieties.

What we need to remember from this study is the metabolic response to food isn’t always predictable to what you get from an in vitro analysis.  “We as humans are remarkable at protecting our food intake and will compensate,” says Diane Robertson from the University of Surrey, UK, who has carried out similar studies investigating the resistant starch content of pasta.

She also points out global cooking practices are variable. While some cultures may boil rice for a long time and then dry it, as in this study, many only cook it for 10-15 minutes, which might lead to a more modest result in increasing Resistant Starch and reducing calories.

Some claim only Coconut Oil added to white rice is the “secret magical ingredient” needed to reduce your blood sugar by increasing the resistant starch in cooked, cooled, and reheated rice. Any healthy oil or butter will do the same thing, but keeping the amount to a tablespoon or less is important. More than that will just add too many calories.

Digestive System: from the mouth to the small intestine.

Resistant Starch acts like fiber because it’s digested in the lower colon, not in the small intestine. Consumption of resistant starch is associated with reduced abdominal fat and improved insulin sensitivity. Increased serum glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) likely plays a role in promoting these health benefits. In a recent study, participants typically received 10–60 grams of resistant starch per day. Health benefits were observed with a daily intake of at least 20 grams, but an intake as high as 45 grams per day was also considered safe.

We Americans typically get only about 5 grams of resistant starch each day, while some Europeans may get 3–6 grams, and the daily intake for Australians ranges from 3–9 grams. On the other hand, the average daily intake for Chinese people is almost 15 grams. Some rural South Africans may get 38 grams of resistant starch per day, according to a small study.

Nutrition Label: Prunes, note dietary fiber amounts as an equivalent for resistant starches.

Resistant Starch is defined as the amount of starch that reaches the large intestine. Since the FDA does not allow the term “resistant starch” on food labels, another a purified RS product (Ingredion), Hi-maize 260, is assayed instead for fiber content. This amount can be placed on the food label as the fiber content. Therefore, keeping track of your daily fiber intake is a good equivalent for Resistant Starch. For adults up to age 50, women should get 25 grams of fiber daily and men should aim for 38 grams. Women and men older than 50 should have 21 and 30 daily grams of daily fiber respectively, since they usually have reduced caloric needs due to reduced activity. You can find this nutritional information on the food package or on the internet.

Fibrous vegetables, whole grain breads and pastas, old fashioned oats, nuts, beans, legumes, and potatoes that have been cooked, cooled, and reheated are all good sources of resistant starches. We only need to remember to keep our “dressings light” and not to “eat twice as much, since we’re being so healthy.”

Various types of rice add color and visual interest to your plate and palette.

I enjoy black, red, wild, and brown rice. Long grain or Jasmine rice is better than short grain or parboiled rice. I cook my white rice with a tablespoon of butter added to one cup rice and two cups rice with just a pinch of salt added. I use a small pot with a tight-fitting lid and turn the heat on high. When the pot begins to boil, I turn the heat to lowest possible. I give the rice a stir, replace the lid, and set a timer for 30 minutes. Somewhere near the 30 minutes, I can smell the fragrance of the rice. I check the doneness of the rice by lifting up the rice grains, not stirring. Depending on the humidity, the rice may take longer than 30 minutes to fully cook. Likewise, if it’s dry outside, it could cook faster.

Whole grain, wild, and colored rices also take longer time and need a tad more water to fully cook. All rices increase in resistant starch if they are cooled for at least 12 hours and reheated in the microwave. Let’s get more resistant starch in our diets by consuming foods high in the nutrient or by cooking other starchy foods and letting them cool before eating them. We can do this, for it will bring a good food back onto our menu.

A few important tips as you increase your fiber:

1. Do so gradually to give your gastrointestinal tract time to adapt.
2. Increase your water intake as you increase fiber.
3. If you have any digestive problems, such as constipation, check with your physician before dramatically increasing your fiber consumption.
4. Also, remember, going whole hog into a new lifestyle isn’t advisable for anyone. Couch to 5K programs begin with short walks and gradually add distance and speed. Changing eating habits should follow suit. Add a new fiber source in place of a low fiber food for a week. Next week, take out another low fiber food and add a higher fiber food.

And share your Chocolate Cupcakes…

In my youth, I would wash down a dozen Twinkie’s with a Diet Coke in the dark, while standing on one leg, for I was certain this magic trick eliminated all calories from those billowy sugar pills. Like most heavily processed food snacks, a single Twinkie contains about 140 calories and 23 grams of carbohydrates, contributing to 8% of our daily calorie allowance. This includes 16 grams of sugars and less than 1 gram of dietary fiber.

Now I’m not good at higher mathematics, but 12 of these sweet treats are an overdose if consumed at one sitting. If we were to eat these cake treats, we’d make sure to close both eyes because if we can’t see it, it obviously never happened!! (Magical thinking is an eight year old child trait.)

When I gave up caffeine for Lent one year, I suffered bad headaches from caffeine withdrawal. This was when I was younger and was given to the “all or nothing” approach to life. Now I’ve learned the hard way the body doesn’t appreciate such insults. Only the mad or reckless treat their bodies with disrespect or dishonor. We should honor our bodies, for we are temples of the Holy Spirit and images of the living God.

My occasional offerings are with very dark chocolate

May you enjoy your food and know what you put into your body for better health and life.

Joy and peace,

Cornie

 

Simple cooking changes make healthier rice | Research | Chemistry World

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/simple-cooking-changes-make-healthier-rice/8386.article?adre

Role of Resistant Starch in Improving Gut Health, Adiposity, and Insulin Resistance – Advances in Nutrition

https://advances.nutrition.org/article/S2161-8313(22)00641-X/fulltext

9 Foods That Are High in Resistant Starch: Oats, Rice & More

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/9-foods-high-in-resistant-starch

The Glycemic Potential of White and Red Rice Affected by Oil Type and Time of Addition, by Bhupinder Kaur, Viren Ranawana, Ai-Ling Teh, and C Jeya.K Henry

Click to access glycaemic-potential-of-white-and-red-rice-affected-by-oil-type-and-time-of-addition.pdf

Should I be eating more fiber? – Harvard Health

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/should-i-be-eating-more-fiber-2019022115927

Glycemic Index of Rice Types:
https://glycemic-index.net/glycemic-index-of-rice/

Ever Prevalent Diet Culture

Dieting is an abnormal way to eat. It may lead to temporary weight loss, but for most people, the weight comes back and then some. This leads to yo-yo weight cycling, and a person’s loss of self esteem. As the years go by, they either give up and gain weight year after year, or put their body through the feast and famine cycle of fad diets. This can lead to disordered eating if the person didn’t have a disorder to begin. In years past, smoking tobacco was a “cure” as was “amphetamines.” No reasonable person today recommends these for weight loss anymore due to adverse effects.

If soap could wash away body fat, I’d stay in the shower till it turned cold.

Diet culture is so pervasive today the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reports 46% of 9-11 year-olds are “sometimes” or “very often” on diets. Back in the dinosaur age, I never heard the word “diet” when I was on the swim team or going to camp. Today 35-57% of adolescent girls engage in crash dieting, fasting, self-induced vomiting, diet pills, or laxatives.

Giacometti: Multiple Sculptures

I’ll admit I often skipped breakfast in high school and cut lunch periods to drive around with my friends. I chose a soda pop and Hostess Frosted Donuts for lunch. I wasn’t crash dieting, but I wasn’t eating properly either. By mid year, I paid for this disordered eating with anemia. My Dad wrote me a prescription for three square meals a day and eight hours of sleep per night. It wasn’t a punishment, but a lesson in discipline for what’s good for my body. I needed to learn this before I went off to college on my own.

The vitamin B1 doesn’t cancel out the fat and sugar. This is called “health-washing.”

While only 9% of the U.S. population will have an eating disorder in their lifetime, this still represents 28.8 million Americans. Eating disorders are among the deadliest mental illnesses, second only to opioid overdoses. 10,200 deaths each year are the direct result of an eating disorder—that’s one death every 52 minutes. The economic cost of eating disorders is $64.7 billion every year. Another sad statistic is about 26% of people with eating disorders attempt suicide annually. Athletes of both sexes and LBTQIA+ persons are likely to present with disordered eating patterns, either to be underweight or to “bulk up.”

Approximately 98% of patients with eating disorders have functional GI (gastrointestinal) disorders. In most cases, the eating disorder comes first, but for a few disease states, where people are either afraid to eat or restrict their food intake because they blame food for their symptoms, maladaptive eating can be triggered.

Botero: The Dancers

We need to change our goal from “losing weight” to “developing healthy habits.” This way we can focus on not only the foods we choose, but also the reasons why we eat, our activity patterns, and our sleep habits. How we manage stress also plays a part in our overall health, as do our friendships and social connections. Finally, our spiritual health needs to be in a positive connection with our “higher power,” and we might find a spiritual guide or certified counselor helpful to keep that positive attitude from month to month. We don’t have to be sick to see a counselor, but a counselor can help us keep our heads tied on straight.

Unless we have a confirmed allergy to a particular food, demonizing certain foods or food groups only plays into the diet culture. Many people are unaware of the advancements in the food allergy space and don’t know they may be able to take measures through a process called oral immunotherapy, or OIT, to minimize their risk for severe, life-threatening reactions. For the rest of us, eating from all the major food groups during the week allows us to get our micronutrients. Eating consistently sized portions of vegetables, grains, meats, fish, and fats in our meals allows our bodies to absorb the foods and not overwork to digest a huge meal.

Everyone’s body is different. Even though I have prediabetes, my pancreas still produces insulin, although I have “insulin resistance.” I can still have ice cream treats on occasions. I choose the best ice cream, since it has fat, carbs, and protein. I find it stays around longer than the sugar free type, which drops my blood sugar quickly. I have a friend who takes insulin injections, and he never touches the stuff. At least not when he’s with me.

Wayne Thiebaud, Dessert Circle, 1992-1994, Art © Wayne Thiebaud

It’s the portion that matters. When my mother was being treated for pancreatic cancer, I was at the hospital in my hometown all week long and back at my church on the weekends. I ate cheesecake every day during that traumatic experience. After she died, I grieved hard, but finally came around to taking care of myself. It was difficult, because I put others first.

It’s been a long journey, but I’ve lost 50 pounds slowly. If I keep to the plan I’ve made, I’ll be slimmer and healthier year by year. Making a lifestyle change is a long term commitment and investment in your overall health and wellbeing. Now if I want to eat ice cream, I have two scoops, every couple of months, knowing it isn’t going to kill me. I just have to remember not to add an entire take out pizza along with the ice cream.

Surely, we can reorder our thinking about how we eat and why we eat. If we change our attitude, we can change our behavior, and if our behavior changes, then we’ll get different consequences. As always, food for thought…

Joy and peace,

Cornie

Eating Disorder Statistics | General & Diversity Stats | ANAD
https://anad.org/eating-disorders-statistics/

Q&A: ‘Fatness’ as a measure of health perpetuates negligent medicine, weight stigma
https://www.healio.com/news/gastroenterology/20230202/qa-fatness-as-a-measure-of-health-perpetuates-negligent-medicine-weight-stigma

‘More than just a positive test’: Psychosocial aspects of food allergies
https://www.healio.com/news/allergy-asthma/20230206/more-than-just-a-positive-test-psychosocial-aspects-of-food-allergies

Homemade Soup Day

Today is Homemade Soup Day, but I can eat this simple soup any day of the week! I often vary the taste by changing the spices. Today I’ve chosen to emphasize basil and Italian spices. Other times I’ll use a chili base or a rosemary garlic base. It just depends on the weather and my mood. I find having a basic form I can “riff upon” allows me to exercise my creative gifts in the kitchen. Also, I’m easily bored, so exact measurements are out. Experiment with “a touch of this” and a “little more of that,”

Simple Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Basic recipe for 4 servings:
Sauté 1/2 chopped onion and 1 clove chopped garlic in 1 Tbs olive oil
Add 1 package of frozen mixed vegetables (4 servings)
Add 12 ounces chopped breast meat (I use deli roasted chicken)
Add 12 ounces grape tomatoes sliced in half (I used multi colored tomatoes) Add enough water to cover the ingredients
Add 1 cube chicken bouillon crushed
Cook until vegetables are sufficiently done to family taste. (I don’t overcook mine, but I still have all my teeth.)

Each serving is about 1 1/2 cups, plus I add 1 ounce of cheddar cheese to each bowl, and the whole is under 350 calories. Sometimes I vary the cheese, but I limit it to 1 ounce.

This recipe has 17 grams of carbs, 4 grams of fiber, plus about 38 grams of protein, not counting the cheese. A carb serving is 15 grams, so this recipe fits into a common diabetic meal plan. It has twice as much protein, so those who want more protein should enjoy this recipe. Protein keeps us satisfied, as do complex carbohydrates.

Simple, over processed carbohydrates, such as crystalline sugar, white flour, and juices will spike our blood sugar and lead to dips also. Those of us with glucose issues try to keep our levels as even as possible, neither high or low. Next time you get the “hangrys,” think about what you consumed two hours ago.

While some avoid all dairy, I keep the cheese for staving off hunger, since I try not to graze in between meals. A little bit of fat also helps keep a youthful skin as well as being necessary to dissolve certain vitamins.

On days when I’m busy, I’m glad Mr. Stove can reheat my meal quickly. Mr. Microwave gave up the ghost right before Christmas. I have his replacement in a box on my kitchen table, but my contractor has been busy with frozen pipe damage and hasn’t been by to install it. We’ve had yet another reminder of winter’s brutality here at the first of February, so I may be bereft until springtime. These are minor difficulties, however, since I live in a protected valley where nature’s underground hot springs seem to send all that dangerous weather around us.

The cold came instead, and I was glad Mr. Coffee kept perking and Mr. Stove and Mr. Oven were on duty. I even lost three pounds, but that might have been from shivering whenever I went outside! Try the soup, keep a positive attitude, and believe always God loves you and so do I.

Joy, peace, and hearty soups for all,

Cornie

Rabbit! Rabbit!

Welcome to August 2022

This bunny will be close to the fan until the frost is on the pumpkin.

When I attended seminary, I quickly memorized the phone number for the campus heat and air guys—all the prefixes were 768 and the extension for the environmental control center was DAMN, as in “Damn, it’s hot or damn, it’s cold!” Who says the phone company doesn’t have a sense of humor?

Here in Arkansas we rabbits have just experienced a July with multiple consecutive days of 100+ F high temperatures and evening lows never never touching the 70’s. We can’t even go to the beach to swim out into the deep water because SHARKS! They’re not just on Discovery channel, but in the water beyond our waistline. And what is it with those jellyfish blooms off Israel’s beaches? We can be thankful we weren’t living in 1934, when the record high temperature in Hot Springs hit 109 F. I imagine our famous hot springs were even hotter back in the day!

Jellyfish bloom swarms off the coast of Israel, summer 2022.

The weather gurus say the omega block system currently affecting the central states and another one affecting Europe is the current cause of our record heat. An omega block is an upper-level pressure pattern. It gets its name because it looks like the Greek letter Omega. Omega blocks are two cut-off low-pressure systems and a blocking high pressure system in the middle. The west-to east flow has a difficult time going around the high pressure because of the strength and size of the high. Omega blocks lead to stagnant weather patterns for a matter of days or weeks. The area under the ridge with the high-pressure system typically experiences dry, warm temperatures, and calm winds. The areas on either side, or the “feet of the omega,” have the low-pressure systems, which tend to experience rain and cooler temperatures.

The typical Omega Block in action

This is why we hear about “fires and floods” on the evening news at the same time. It’s not the Apocalypse, even if our air conditioning bill makes us wish the Lord was coming to take us away from all this. This is Summer, my rabbit buddies, not the Second Coming of the Lord. We’re merely living “hell-adjacent,” but not quite ready for the weeping and gnashing of teeth place yet. August should be a few degrees cooler, as in “my oven is cooler than a blast furnace.”

The year 1934 was much closer to the Apocalypse for many reasons. Not only was it smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression, but it was also a very hot year in the United States, ranking fourth behind 2012, 2006, and 1998. In 1934, there were forty days over 100 degrees, with some going as high as 118 degrees. Then again, we rabbits today could live in Texas, with their notoriously quirky independent electrical grid, which “isn’t suited for extreme cold,” but also has an “on and off relationship issue” with extreme heat also. Melting butter on countertops is not my favorite kitchen flavor. I’m keeping my cond at 74F for the summer, but I’ll be glad to go back to 68F this winter.

Tree Rings show the Mega Drought in southwest USA is the longest in 1200 years, with wildfires increasing because of human induced climate change.

Despite the U.S. heat in 1934, that year wasn’t as hot over the rest of the planet, and it barely holds onto a place in the hottest 50 years in the global rankings (today it ranks 49th). Growth rings of a tree in Nebraska showed 20 droughts in the 748 years before the 1930s. In 1931, the middle of the nation was in the midst of the first of four major drought episodes that would occur over the course of the next decade. Still, the 1930’s drought and heat aren’t an argument against global warming, for global warming takes into account temperatures over the entire planet and the U.S.’s land area accounts for only 2% of the earth’s total surface area. Most areas of the country didn’t return to near-normal rainfalls until nearly a decade later in 1941. The outbreak of World War II also helped to improve the nation’s economic situation.

Steam shovels load rocks blasted away onto twin tracks that remove the earth from the Panama Canal bed, 1908

Most of us rabbits today remember 1934 for the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, when so little rain fell, the sky turned black with the dust from the Great Plains. April 14, 1935, was Black Sunday, a day when twice as much dirt blew away as was dug out of the Panama Canal, a great project which took 7 years to dig. More than 300,000 tons of topsoil blew away.

Panama Canal excavation, 1913

In 1933 there are 39 dust storms. The the color of the dust told where the storm came from: black soil came from Kansas, red soil came from Oklahoma, and gray soil came from Colorado and New Mexico. 350 million tons of soil left Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma and was deposited in eastern states. One night, Chicago alone got 12 million tons, or 4 pounds of grit for each person in the city. In New York and Boston. The dust darkened the sky so much, the street lamps were lit in the daytime.

Black Sunday Dust Storm of the Dust Bowl Depression Era

Robert E. Geiger, a reporter for the Associated Press, gets credit for naming the Dust Bowl. After a dust storm delayed his journey, he wrote an article for the next day’s Lubbock Evening Journal, which began: “Residents of the southwestern dust bowl marked up another black duster today…” Another article, also attributed to “an Associated Press reporter” and published the next day, included the following: “Three little words… rule life in the dust bowl of the continent – ‘if it rains’.” These instances are considered the first-ever uses of the phrase by which the events of the 1930s have been known to history ever since: The Dust Bowl. Dust from these storms would travel as far as the nation’s Capitol and even into the Atlantic Ocean, when ships would get covered up by topsoil brought by the offshore winds.

Dorothea Lange: Migrant farm worker’s family in Nipomo California, 1936

2.5 million people left their farms in 1935. Some just went to nearby town, but 300,000 traveled to California. This was the largest single migration in U.S. history. Grape pickers in California worked 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, for $4. Children were paid less. The WPA paid 18¢ an hour and the CCC paid 20¢ an hour in Edwards County. Horses made $1.00 per day or nearly twice what an adult made. In January 1937, gas was 22 cents per gallon. It took a full day’s work on a government road job to fill a tank. A 1930 Model A held 11 gallons and cost $2.42 for a fill up.

For reference, $1 in 1935 would be about $18.55 today. The $4 weekly wage, or $8 if both adults worked, didn’t go far, just as today some are taking a second job to afford the gas to get to their day job. For instance: Milk was 47¢ per gallon, Eggs sold at 36¢ per dozen, and Ground beef was 25¢ for two pounds.

We recognize August 14, 1935, as the birthday of Social Security. Although by 1934, 30 States had responded by providing pensions for the needy aged, total expenditures for State programs for the aged that year were $31 million—an average of $19.74 a month per aged person. As the Depression worsened, benefits to individuals were cut further to enable States to spread available funds among as many people as possible.

A Depression-era “Hooverville” in the old Central Park reservoir in New York City. Undated photograph. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

Homelessness was a big problem also. Many lost fortunes in the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929, while others lost homes and farmsteads due to the shrinking economy or the drought and poor farming techniques, which destroyed their crops. The unemployment rate was 25%, which was bad, but those with jobs were often working only part time, with reduced pay. This led to labor unrest.

October 1929 was rough on the stock market and American economy. This man represents the millions of Americans who were directly affected by the economic issues at the time and ended up out of work for months to come.

Up to two million able bodied men roamed the country looking for part time work, often by hitching a ride on train boxcars. As the United States emerged from the Great Depression and the country entered World War II, the nation needed every able-bodied young man it could get to help the war effort. Hobos could give up their transient lifestyle and trade their economic instability for a military career or full-time factory job. Although some hobos refused to give up their carefree lifestyle, most did, and the number of homeless, unemployed men drastically decreased.

Feeling Bad: Attitude Affects Behavior and Results in Consequences.

Today all the nattering rabbits on my television screen are worried if we’re in a recession or not. Like the Field of Dreams movie, the mantra, “If you build it, they will come” rings true here. If we feel good about the future, Americans go about their business spending like there’s no tomorrow. If we begin to worry, we start cutting back, and then the dollars don’t flow. The next thing you know, we’ve jumped on the recession train like hobos of old.

My old daddy rabbit often said, “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job.” We tend not to worry about the things which don’t directly affect us. This is why we complain so much about the weather—it affects everyone!

People do worry about the cost of gasoline. We can do something about this cost if we combine our errands into fewer trips, instead of joy riding about town like gasoline only cost 22 cents a gallon. If we have work commutes or if we’re driving our kids to school, we might look into a carpool. As a young rabbit, our city block had several girls of the same age, so our mothers shared carpool duty. One single mom took two mornings and my mom took two afternoons, since my friend’s mom was still at work. We made it happen.

Those were also the years my daddy cried at night because people paid their doctor’s bill last. We had a brand new 1957 Ford station wagon we couldn’t fill with gas except for Sundays, so we walked to the grocery store every single day. We had our meals daily, and didn’t worry about the morrow.

Of course now I’m an old rabbit and don’t buy processed or prepared foods because they have too much salt and often too many carbs for my health. I learned long ago a can of mushroom soup, a bag of noodles, a pound of ground beef, a half onion chopped, some garlic, Italian spices, a little cheese, and some fresh mushrooms made a far tastier dinner than a macaroni helper in a box. It also made more food, something I always like! It won’t be less expensive, but it also won’t give you half your daily intake of sodium in one meal to raise your blood pressure. If you spend your money on healthier food, you have a better chance of having a healthier body. (P.S. I’m not a real doctor, just a bunny doctor.)

There’s a Bugs Bunny Doctor in the Kitchen

1.79 hamburger helper
6.99 Simple Truth Organic™ 85% Lean Grass Fed Ground Beef—sale
$8.78 Total cost—claims to make #15 1/2 cup servings—most folks eat 1 cup, making this a package of #4 adult servings

1.50 sale Campbell mushroom soup 12 oz
0.50 medium onion
1.38 Manischewitz Fine Egg Noodles—12 oz 2.08 —8 oz only (4 oz left over)
6.99 Simple Truth Organic™ 85% Lean Grass Fed Ground Beef—sale
0.83 Kroger Italian Seasonings (1.99/3 )
2.99 whole Portobello Mushrooms—8 oz—2 oz per serving
$14.19 Total cost—4 servings—$11.20 if you omit the fresh mushrooms

As we rabbit families prepare for school, let’s set a budget for the clothes for the older bunnies in our groups. They’re old enough to share in the choices for this new normal. If they pick out one outfit for the whole amount, you can ask, “Do you plan on wearing this every day between now and Christmas?” That will turn the bunny wheels in their brains and they’ll reconsider their choices. That way we aren’t the “bad bunny” for imposing difficult choices. I never liked being the harsh bunny, but sometimes I had to draw the line.

Sic Transit Gloria Choco Taco 2022

When it gets hot in August, a recipe I recommend on the 4th, National Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookie Day, is a frozen chocolate chip cookie sandwich with your choice of ice cream inside. Mine would be chocolate, of course, but peanut butter, vanilla, or banana would also be good. It won’t be a Choco Taco, but it’s hard to beat chocolate chips and ice cream.

The full moon in August, called the Sturgeon Moon, will rise on August 11, 2022 and will be the last full supermoon of the year. This full Moon is traditionally called the Sturgeon Moon because the giant sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were caught easily during this part of summer, but now due to overfishing, are a rare catch. Native American peoples gave this moon different names such as Corn Moon, Ricing Moon, and Chokeberry Moon, all related to natural harvest cycles.

August 12 is Middle Child Day. Many middle children feel overlooked or unappreciated, since parents often seem to focus on the first and the last child. This is a day you can acknowledge your sibling and affirm their sacred worth.

May 4, 1912—Suffragette parade, New York City

Speaking of worth, August 26 is Women’s Equality Day in the United States, a day to commemorate the 19th amendment of the Constitution which, in 1920, gave women the right to vote. Before the Civil War, only white men with land could vote. The 14th Amendment gave all men born in the USA the right to vote, and the 15th of 1870 ensured no man could be denied this right due to prior slave status. Although the fight for women’s rights in the United States had begun on July 19, 1848, with the Seneca Falls Convention, the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote wasn’t passed by Congress and the States until 1920. This bunny hopes we don’t slide back to those dark old days when women were without a voice or agency.

The best way we can do this is to make sure our children attend school. Send your bunnies with food in their tummies, and please apply for free breakfast if food is short at home. When we work, we pay taxes into the great pot, so when we fall on hard times, we’ve already paid for the help we need. We’ll be paying taxes again once we get back on our feet. This will fill the “need bucket” once more for others. There’s no shame in this. Our little bunny babies learn better when they aren’t hungry. Every bunny deserves the best chance at a good education, for it’s the meal ticket to a better life.

Sharks aren’t in the shallow water

Until September, stay cool, stay hydrated, and watch out for SHARKS!

Cornie

1934 is the hottest year on record – Antarctica Journal
https://www.antarcticajournal.com/1934-is-the-hottest-year-on-record/

The Black Sunday Dust Storm of April 14, 1935
https://www.weather.gov/oun/events-19350414

Handy Dandy Dust Bowl Facts
https://kinsleylibrary.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Handi-facts.pdf

We Found Grocery Prices for the Year You Were Born | Taste of Home
https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/this-is-what-groceries-cost-the-year-you-were-born/

Hitting the Rails: Hobo Life | History Daily
https://historydaily.org/hitting-the-rails-hobo-life

Anna Answers: What is an Omega Block? | WETM – MyTwinTiers.com
https://www.mytwintiers.com/weather/weather-wisdom/anna-answers-what-is-an-omega-block/

The Dust Bowl | National Drought Mitigation Center
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
https://drought.unl.edu/dustbowl/

NASA Goddard Scientists: Megadroughts Predicted for the Southwest
https://youtu.be/ToY4eeWsdLc

Social Security History
https://www.ssa.gov/history/50mm2.html

Women’s Equality Day | U.S. Department of the Interior
http://www.doi.gov/pmb/eeo/womens-equality-day

Sturgeon Supermoon: Full Moon in August 2022 | The Old Farmer’s Almanac
https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-august

Research Spotlight: Climate-Driven Megadrought | Drought.gov
https://www.drought.gov/research-spotlight-climate-driven-megadrought

Spinach Tomato Quiche

It’s summertime and nobody wants to cook when the weather gets both humid and hot. I visited Arizona one summer and nearly died from the heat. Everyone kept telling me, “But it’s a dry heat!”

I replied, “So’s my oven!”

Spinach Tomato Quiche with Whole Wheat and Almond Flour Crust

There’s no way anyone can talk me into thinking any temperature over 95F is comfortable. Actually, temperatures over 85F are beyond my comfort zone ever since I had my brush with heat exhaustion while teaching art in an unaircondirioned shotgun shack back in Louisiana. I grew up before the days of air conditioning, so I remember puddling in my own sweat as I moseyed slowly from place to place. In the vacation months, we planned our excursions according to the amount of shade available, even if it meant a longer journey. And we always started out early in the cool of the morning. When I was in high school, pep squad, band, and football all finished practicing before 8 AM. By 10 AM we were barely moving, having found a shady spot for the quieter games requiring less action. As a child, cloud spotting and naming their images was one of my favorite pastimes of summer. Playing in the sprinkler was a close second. In fact, my good memories of childhood outweigh any bad ones I may have had.

Original Broccoli Cheese Quote

This quiche is a variation on the broccoli cheese quiche I’ve posted before. As in my art studio, I like to be creative. I reason if the ingredients are similar in form, then they’re replaceable in a recipe. If one is more liquid than another, the cook time may need increasing, but that’s not a problem, just another consideration. We can overcome these variations with a little creative thought. There are no insurmountable hurdles.

Spinach and Asparagus Quiche

I made this spinach and tomato quiche earlier in the week, in anticipation of high heat factors coming down the pike. I like to cook when I’m stressed, since it’s a form of meditation and self care at the same time. I also like to cook comfort foods but make them healthier at the same time. I used to self medicate with food, but I’ve pretty much broken that habit. I have stashes of chocolate that can go untouched for months. My ice cream purchases now are pints, not half gallons, plus I have to scrape off ice crystals to get to the good stuff when I consume my treat.

Serving Size 1/8 Pie

My guess is retirement has something to do with this! During my active years, I was never sure when I would be home to eat on a proper schedule. I also was expected to attend multiple potlucks at which I had no control over the food preparation or offerings. Clergy are the only professionals who get fed nearly every time there’s a meeting. Your dentist, physician, barber, beautician, or lawyer doesn’t snack you up when you have an encounter with them. Now that I prepare my own food, I have healthier metabolic readings.

I still feel a calling to share what I’ve learned over these years of pursuing a healthier lifestyle. There’s no swift fix to a problem we’ve practiced over a lifetime. That’s magical thinking, as if a special potion could give us special powers or a desired outcome. We also engage in magical thinking when we attribute the woes and benefits of our economy to just one individual, the president in power, even though many and varied are the individuals and sources of input to the health of our economy.

Twinkie Dust isn’t going to make the widgets fly off the shelf.

Of course, magical thinking is supposed to be a characteristic of childhood, which should fade by the time logic and reason take over, around the age of 13. Maybe this explains the $75 Billion Americans are projected to spend in 2022 to get rid of their pandemic pounds. They buy special foods, or invest in pills of unknown provenance. Of course, $75 Billion would buy lots of fresh foods ($226 per person or $902 for a family of 4). Or it could buy some help in the kitchen, but lots of people are looking at recipes with 25 ingredients and hours of chopping. This recipe has 10 ingredients, but you could omit the Muenster cheese and add another ¼ cup of ricotta. It takes an hour, but 30 to 40 minutes of this time is waiting for the quiche to bake. I call this family time, or relaxing time. Don’t nap time, however, or you could overcook dinner!

Processed food is the source of most of our salt intake

Another reason to cook is we can control the ingredients for our own health and taste. I had leftovers several days in a row, so my salt sensitive body showed some swelling. If you have trouble with that, omit the extra salt or use less ricotta. I chose to eat mine as cooked and have a week to clear it out of my system before I see my doctor for a checkup.

I also cook to have a connection with my food. I shop for it, making my recipes seasonal to take advantage of foods which are on special price due to their abundance. Shopping also connects me to my community, for when I’m present in the aisles of my local grocery, I can assist the very short grandmother get her coffee from the upper shelf. God always provides a taller helper in our time of need. Someone is always around to help me when I need a longer arm.

Who could say NO to these eyes?

Cooking slows us down. We need to do this more often, even if only on a special day in the week. We hurry far too much, thereby treating our bodies as machines, which are disposable. We use them up and throw them away. No wonder we often treat others as means to an end, for they’re mere tools to be used for our benefit. If we treated them with love and care, taking time to feed and nourish them, we’d respect them more.

The homemade pie crust takes about 20 minutes total, including the pre baking. You prepare the quiche while the crust is in the oven. Then you cook for another 30 minutes or until the egg and cheese mix is set. The whole takes an hour. I suggest having an iced tea or other beverage with conversation while you wait for the meal to bake. Once you get this crust down, you have the makings for a healthier cheesecake.

Healthier Cheesecake, still has yum factor.

I eat ¼ of pie for a fully satisfied meal, or you could have 1/8 and a large salad. It depends on whether you want a high protein meal or a balanced carbohydrates and protein meal. The best way to reheat leftovers, if you have any, is to cut into individual servings, place them on parchment paper in a cold oven, and turn oven to 350F. Set your timer for 30 minutes. They will be gently heated and not toughened. Don’t microwave.

Joy, peace, and quiche,

Cornie

SPINACH TOMATO QUICHE WITH
WHOLE WHEAT AND ALMOND FLOUR CRUST
Preheat your oven to 350 F while you make the crust.

Sift together the dry ingredients:
Bob’s Whole wheat flour ½ cup 280 calories
Bob’s Almond flour ¼ cup (4 Tbs) 160 calories
Sea salt 1/8 tsp 211 mg sodium

Cut into slices the cold fat and work with a knife or fork into the flours until the mix has the texture of a coarse corn meal.
Land O Lakes Unsalted Butter 4 Tablespoons 400 calories

Next add the ICE water. Not tap water! Amount depends on how much it takes to get dough to adhere into a ball.
Water 4 to 6 Tablespoons of ice water

Roll out on a lightly floured parchment paper to a round disk slightly larger than the pie pan. Set pan upside down on the pastry. Grab the edges of the paper and turn. Slowly release the paper and push pastry into dish. Trim edges. Use scraps to mend tears, if any. Cook for 10 minutes in preheated 350F oven while you assemble the following quiche mixture.

Beat together Large eggs 6 well beaten (420 calories) with spices of your choice. I used rosemary garlic blend.
Add 2 servings = ½ cup simple truth organic ricotta cheese to eggs and mix well (180 calories)
Layer pre washed Baby Spinach 6 oz in pre baked pie crust (42 calories)
Pour the beaten egg and cheese mixture over it
Cut 6 oz grape tomatoes and arrange cut side up around the outer edge of the pie in two rows (60 calories)
Add 2 slices of Muenster cheese in the center 2 oz (206 calories)

Put pie into 350 F preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the egg mix is set. Check at 30 minutes, and if the crust or spinach is browning, tent a piece of foil over the whole, but don’t seal up the quiche.

Take out and let sit for about 10 minutes before serving. ENJOY.

What is magical thinking and do we grow out of it?
https://theconversation.com/what-is-magical-thinking-and-do-we-grow-out-of-it-35384

U.S. Weight Loss Market Shrinks by 25% in 2020 with Pandemic, but Rebounds in 2021
https://blog.marketresearch.com/u.s.-weight-loss-market-shrinks-by-25-in-2020-with-pandemic-but-rebounds-in-2021

Say Goodbye to the Intermittent Fasting Fad

The intent of the different intermittent-fasting regimes is to trick ourselves into lowering our calorie intake. Because we live in an obesogenic food environment where we can find affordable food 24/7 in forms we can consume almost instantly, no longer do we have to schlep out to the backyard shed, hack through the cobwebs, rescue the shovel from the pile of garden tools snoozing in the corner, and dig a potato out of the ground, much less find the axe to chop wood, make a fire and roast that spud before we can scarf it down.

One salad does not change your life or your body.

Obesegenic diets are SAD—Standard American Diets. Unfortunately, one third of Americans eat some type of fast food every single day. The average American individually spends $1,200 a year on fast food alone, which equals to around 10% of the income of the average American household.. That adds up to $110 billion dollars a year, an amount which could end world hunger for up to three years.

Mario E. Figueroa, Jr., aka GONZO247. He is the force behind some of Houston’s largest graffiti installations, including this one in EaDo at 1538 St. Emanuel as part of a mural brought about by McDonald’s Houston.

No wonder intermittent fasting became a craze, for it gave people a reason not to slide through the drive throughs and make obesience at the altars of grease. This diet program kept people from buying the giant bags of chips and tubs of dip, which they used to consume nightly before the television set. Intermittent fasting didn’t ever teach a wholistic view of nutrition or the pleasures of eating. It mostly focused only on restricting consumption of food.

As with other fad diets, the approach of intermittent fasting is dependent on long-term adherence, rather than short-term commitments. The Kitchen wags among us might say Intermittent Fasting is more like hooking up with food, rather than making a healthy, long term relationship with our eating behaviors. Oh, wait, I’m not even past the first page and I’ve already gone to meddling! My bad.

Perhaps we need to get a cup of your favorite brew and sit at the kitchen table for a while, so we can talk about the latest news. Science changes. This might be a new concept for some of you, but as we get more information, we sometimes have to change our conclusions. In math, 1 + 1 may always equal 2, but if we make a long term study with more diverse participants, we might get different data than a short term study that has only a limited group for a short term. One problem short term studies often have is a lack of women and persons of color. Since these two groups often have different hormones or food preferences than white men of a certain age (college students), the data might not be applicable to everyone.

It’s time to say “Sic transit gloria” to everything we’ve known to date about intermittent fasting. Forget what your fav celeb says about lemons or cucumbers in water or anything else that detoxes your liver in a fast. Your liver naturally detoxes itself unless you’re the victim of a Putin Poisioning. However, most of us aren’t coming into contact with dread dictators who send goons with poison pens to attack us for our food choices. Pass the hummus, please.

Treating one’s body badly, as if it were a prisoner of war.

The theory behind intermittent fasting is limiting calories by restricting the time in which a person consumes food. Most intermittent fasting diets don’t restrict the type or amount of food, but only the time in which it’s eaten. A common schedule is to skip breakfast, eat lunch and supper, and close the snacking off by 8 pm. This 8 hour window for eating “should” limit your calories, since you’d consume enough to be satiated and you’d sleep at least 6 to 8 hours of the possible 16 hours of fasting. That leaves only half the hours for actual fasting, during which you can drink any amount of noncaloric beverage of choice.

With intermittent Fasting, if you go to bed before 8 pm, you COULD eat cookies in bed. If you went to bed at 9 pm, the answer is NO! Early to bed means cookies, so you might get rewarded for catching up on your sleep.

When time restricted eating was studied in mice, the principle seemed to work. However in a large study among men and women, among patients with obesity, a regimen of time-restricted eating was not more beneficial with regard to reduction in body weight, body fat, or metabolic risk factors than daily calorie restriction. In short, even though the men were limited to 1,800 calories per day and the women 1,500 calories, restricting their eating to certain hours didn’t increase their weight loss, nor did it improve any other health factors.

Dreaming of Food

The bottom line, said Dr. Ethan Weiss, a diet researcher at the University of California, San Francisco: “There is no benefit to eating in a narrow window.” He didn’t want to accept this difficult conclusion, for he’d always been a proponent of time restricted eating and practiced it in his own life by skipping breakfast. He ate lunch and supper. He even asked the researchers to check their work four different times because he didn’t believe their conclusions. Finally, after getting the same answer time and again, he had to become a believer. He now eats three smaller meals per day, plus his family says he’s “nicer” to be with these days.

This emotion is known as HANGRY. It’s resolved by food.

The only reason I can see for anyone doing intermittent fasting is if you’re so distracted and discombobulated that you won’t spend any time on self care. In other words, you’re on the first stage of your journey to health and wholeness. You might be so busy caring for others, you’re not caring for yourself. If food is fuel and nourishment for your body, you’ll need good nourishment if you expect to have the strength for this journey.

With that said, being “too busy to eat” is a self defeating practice. If you think this activity gets you a reward for “strength or commitment to a cause,” you risk working until you’re so rundown you aren’t any good to anyone. If you think no one else can replace you, your loyalty likely won’t be rewarded. Business goes on and someone will need to take your place.

Carrying too many burdens on our journey

People who should not use intermittent fasting are those with an eating disorder or a metabolic condition. Restrictive eating isn’t healthy for anoxeria, bullemia, or persons with body dysmorphic disorders. Learning to see food as healthy, necessary, and appropriate, rather than forbidden is important for recovery from these distorted views of the self. Those of us with any form of insulin resistance—prediabetes, diabetes, PCOS—need to pay attention to how our bodies use carbohydrates. Exercise, stress, illness, and the types of foods we eat all affect our blood sugar. I have friends who manage their blood sugar with candy and sugared soda pops. I have others who won’t take their medication on a regular basis, and wonder why they have adverse symptoms.

I keep my food diary on my Fitbit app, but Nutritionix Track is another app that will separate your food choices into grams of carbs, proteins, and fats, as well as count your calories. They both have a great data base, plus you can manually enter a food and save it. This takes me all of five minutes at most, or about one television commercial, to do my daily entry.

Whole grains, lean meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, Greek yogurt, olive oil, and wine in limited amounts.

I have a small bite with coffee in the morning while I have coffee. Then I eat oatmeal for breakfast. I have lunch between noon and two o’clock. I eat a light dinner of Greek yogurt and fruit about 5:30 pm. Rarely do I need to snack before bed, but I check my blood sugar to make sure it’s above 100. If not, I have a snack bag of popcorn. In general, a diet which is rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and low in processed foods, saturated fats and red meat is beneficial for most people over the long term.

Joy, peace, and good health,

Cornie

The Flaw in Intermittent Fasting
.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/opinion/letters/intermittent-fasting.html?referringSource=articleShare

Scientists Find No Benefit to Time-Restricted Eating
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/health/time-restricted-diets.html

Calorie Restriction with or without Time-Restricted Eating in Weight Loss | NEJM
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2114833

Fast Food Statistics | March 2022 | The Barbecue Lab
https://thebarbecuelab.com/fast-food/

Scientists Find No Benefit to Time-Restricted Eating – The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/health/time-restricted-diets.html

Spicy Cold Weather Soup

This spicy sweet potato soup is made from Leftovers. Prep time is all due to slicing and dicing the veggies and chicken. I had a oven pan bake of chicken, tomatoes, and onions in olive oil from the day before. Dice these and add them to the water in a large sauce pan on high heat. Bring to a boil.

Cornie’s KITCHEN Sweet Potato Soup

I’d also microwaved the sweet potatoes yesterday. These I sliced fine, added hot water to the mix, and mashed well with a fork. You could dirty up another appliance to get these smooth, but if it’s chilly, you could just warm yourself up with exercise! I’ve turned my heating unit on and am wearing a sweater. My condo ceiling fans aren’t circulating either. Unless we get a warm spell, these will get a well deserved rest.

Add mashed potatoes to liquid and stir. Add the half bouillon cube. Slice the asparagus into bite sized pieces and add to the pot. I had these from yesterday also.

Test for flavor. I added nothing new, since all my food had been previously seasoned. The spices listed are appropriate for cooking from scratch, not using leftovers. It’s a good cold weather soup.

It makes three hearty servings, which is not so much you’ll get tired of it, and not so little, that it’s too much bother to make. Cooking for one or two is a skill we have to learn, when all the recipes are made for eight or more. When we’re hungry, not just for food, but for companionship, our brains don’t want to do mathematics. Even simple division becomes difficult when we struggle with emotional loss, grief, or separation.

Edward Hopper: Nighthawks, 1942

As we enter this second holiday season of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of us, vaccinated and unvaccinated, have lost loved ones to this plague. I hope we can share thankful thoughts for what and whom we have in our lives, and find ways to be more kind to all around us. Just as a good soup is made of many disparate flavors, our lives are made up of the great melting pot of ingredients we call humanity. Even if we were all tomatoes, our soup wouldn’t taste very good unless we had a few good spices and a tangy onion and a few garlic cloves among us. Thank goodness for the spicy ones!

You can make this soup in any variety of ways, but the nutrition value will depend on your ingredients.

Ingredient List for 3 Servings

. 75 large onion diced

2 Tbs olive oil

3 clove garlic diced fine

8 oz chicken diced

9 oz grape tomatoes

6 cups of water

8 asparagus spears cut in bite sized pieces

10 oz baked sweet potatoes, mashed into purée

.5 cube chicken bouillon

1 Tbs parsley

1 Tbs rosemary garlic mix

1 Tbs fajita spice

Oops—recipe addendum—I added 3 ounces of carrots to the main recipe, which adds 1 ounce carrots to each serving. This adds 12 calories, 22 mg sodium, 3 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 2 g sugars, and 40% of vitamin A, 3% of vitamin C, plus 1% of calcium and 12% of iron.

Nutrition Label

Speaking of “net carbohydrates,” this is a marketing scheme designed by food manufacturers to sell their products in the diet market. At Cornie’s Kitchen, we don’t diet, we choose reasonable foods for our health and nourishment of body and spirit. Some people think carbohydrates are forbidden if they need to lose weight to help resolve health problems like diabetes or heart conditions, but carbs are our best source of energy. We may need to limit them, but taking them all out only leads to yo-yo weight loss and gain.

As my doctor once told me, “Your body isn’t smart enough to to tell one carb from another. It’s going to use some carbs faster than others, of course, like white bread, but if the label has more than 20 total grams of carbs per serving, you might want to rethink your choices.”

I no longer get a whole bagel, but just a half. The large apples are passed over for the lunchbox size. I no longer eat like a 20 year old, but I’m too many Thanksgiving dinners past that era! The old school teacher in me says, “Monitor, adjust, and move on.” My old golf coach said, “You play the ball where it lies. You don’t get to choose winter rules in the middle of summer.”

If you don’t have these exact ingredients on hand, just make soup with what you have. And be thankful you have a pot to cook in, a stove to cook on, and shelter from the storm. Enjoy this Soup Weather, and keep in your hearts

Joy and Peace,

Cornie

Free App to track food and Recipe Nutrition https://www.nutritionix.com/app

Net Carbs Marketing Ploy https://drjohnrusin.com/the-truth-about-net-carbohydrates/

NOTES FROM THE COVID KITCHEN

Tower of Doughnuts

Are you among the heavy Americans who’ve comforted themselves by eating one too many donuts during this pandemic, but now are frantically trying to slim down as you return to the office? Some of us have tried on our work pants and discovered they aren’t as forgiving as our sweatpants.

Yes, gym memberships are up, personal trainers are booked and Weight Watchers subscriptions have spiked. Around 42% of the population has gained weight, averaging 29 pounds, according to the American Psychological Association’s annual stress survey. Stress eating can strike at any time, but so can bored eating. Also, mindless eating.

The United States of Obesity

What’s a good cure for all of these? First, admit you have a problem and want to make a long term change. Next, set attainable small goals, such as a 5 pound weight loss over a month or exercising for 3 days a week. For some of us, 5 pounds per year may be an attainable goal. Large goals, also known as “all or nothing” desires, often just lead to failures. Most of us live two steps forward and one step back in life, so why do we expect everything to be constant progress? We can learn from our failures to do better next time. This is a skill known a resilience.

Three ingredients Original Triscuit.

Another help is to rid our pantry of nutrition scarce foods, aka “junk foods.” If they aren’t easily available, we won’t eat them. I found some stale whole grain crackers on the top shelf from the pandemic’s dark days. They went into the waste basket, not onto my waist. Yes, as a snack they were better than average. Still, I could only eat 6 at a time, so they weren’t very filling. I was always tempted to eat two servings at a sitting. They were a better choice than my old go to self medication of choice, the saltine cracker. I would eat a whole sleeve at one sitting, for the salt and carbs of that low fiber white wheat melted on my tongue and soothed my anxieties.

We also lose muscle mass as we age. Since muscle burns more calories than fat, we can lose more weight when we have more muscle. Do some weight bearing exercises along with lifting weights for optimal calorie burn. When we sit around all day on the couch or at a work station, we don’t use our body’s muscles much. At my advanced age, it’s “use it or lose it!” And I don’t mean just the pounds, but mental health and cognitive skills also.

My art studio has good light

I’m painting the trim in my condo now. Many people begin to hire out these homeowner chores once they’re in their 50’s, but continuing to do these light “honey do tasks” around your home place will use muscles long neglected. At my advanced age, I now paint every other day, and do lighter tasks on the alternate days.

Aspirational and Heroic Inspiration Meme

One of the skills I learned in my various occupations was the use of a calendar/planner. Some call this an appointment book, day-keeper, or lesson planner. I always blocked off classes, meetings, appointments, research time, exercise time, and me-time. It helped me say NO to excessive demands on my time, or negotiate an alternate date so I could help. Of course, in ministry, my best laid plans often fell apart when someone died or had an emergency hospital visit. Yet, that wasn’t every day, and my calendar helped me to put oil on the churning waters of many a stressful day. I knew when I would I would work, unless God interrupted me with a different plan.

Keeping a food diary is one of the best accountability skills for adhering to a food plan, whether it’s to lose weight or to manage blood sugar or any health condition. There’s many apps for smart phones or computers to do this quickly, or you can keep it on paper. I once kept mine on an erasable magnetic board back in the Stone Age. Measure out your food with the same cups you cook with, or weigh them on a digital scale. Cooking with fewer processed ingredients will help achieve your goals. Eating out less will also help since resturant food is designed to hit a high satiety point of fat-salt-carbohydrates that causes you to come back for more.

If this seems impossible, all I can say is add more vegetables, fiber, olive oil, fish, chicken, and more whole grains to your diet, along with some exercise. Drink your water, not alcohol or sugared drinks. Limit breads, unless you have to really chew to get them down. That’s a sign of “less processing,” and your gut will thank you for it. Eat three meals a day and plan for a snack in the afternoon if you have blood sugar drops. Make your carbohydrate choices be the complex ones, not the simple sweets of sugars and honey. Just because it’s “natural” doesn’t mean it’s good for your overall health. (Lead is natural, but no one suggests ingesting it, since it causes brain damage.)

Oh, yes, and I lost 20.1 pounds last year during the pandemic. So, maybe I’ve finally learned the truth of this wonderful word from 1 Corinthians 6:19-20—

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

Joy and peace, and blessings on your journey to health,

Cornie

U.S. Workers Try to Lose Weight Before Returning to the Office
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-13/trapped-in-a-shirt-u-s-workers-confront-pandemic-poundage

CDC OBESITY MAPS
https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html

Michael Moss: Salt, Sugar, Fats: How the Food Giants Hooked Us https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Sugar-Fat-Giants-Hooked-ebook/dp/B00985E3UG

Fiber isn’t Just for Clothing

Kimono Fabric Art

As an artist, when I hear the word FIBER, I first think of weaving, rugs, quilting, or clothing, which are often thought of as the homemaking arts. While these are often done by women, men also find some claim to fame also. The late artist Christo and Jean-Claude’s “The Gates,” in New York’s Central Park, is an example his visionary use of fabric to wrap buildings and to define natural spaces.

The Gates, New York, Central Park.

Likewise when we talk about diets, some keep close to the utilitarian needs of the body and food, while others stretch an idea to its most fanciful extreme. This leads us to ask: “What’s a Real Live Paleo People’s Diet?”

The food plan we know today as Paleo focuses on “foods our hunter-gather ancestors would have eaten, with an emphasis on meat.” It eschews grains, sugars, and modern vegetable oils in favor of high-quality meat, fish, eggs, and vegetables. Some folks want you to believe it’s an “All The Bacon You Can Eat Diet,” but they missed the message on high quality. Perhaps they they heard “high quantity “ instead.

Bacon Diet: Very Low Fiber

We modern people don’t have access to the same foods as those who live in nature all the time and get all their food by foraging or hunting. Our modern chickens are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations, in crowded buildings, and fed a scientific diet meant to fatten them up in the shortest possible time. This is why modern chickens are almost all white meat, since the birds rarely use their muscles any more. Our grains are designed for maximum yield and insect resistance. Many of our crops are also resistant to weed killers. Of course, we can buy organic products, but their costs are higher due to the greater labor used to bring in a crop equal to those using chemicals.

We also live in communities, rather than in small groups, so we have access to supermarkets, restaurants, and fast food joints. The more processed our food, the fewer and less diverse our gut biome will be. For instance, if all we eat is biscuits and gravy or burgers and fries at our local window of death, our lives are going to be shorter and less healthy. We know this by studying stool samples. Yep, there are scientists who look at poop. They’ve discovered evidence that our intestinal microbes are profoundly influenced by the foods we eat — or don’t: The gut ecosystems of members of a small group of hunter-gatherers inhabiting Tanzania’s Rift Valley show a strong cyclicality consistent with the population’s seasonally changing diet. The average diet of a western person produces a much less diverse gut biome, primarily due to our low intake of fiber.

Hunter-gatherers of Tanzania experience
seasonal variation in gut-microbe diversity

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine were the first to look at seasonal variations in the gut-microbial composition, or microbiota, of the Hadza, one of the world’s few remaining traditional hunter-gatherer populations. The research confirms that the Hadza microbiota is more diverse than, and substantially different from, that of industrialized countries’ urban-dwelling denizens.

The study was also the first to show that the microbiota of the Hadza population varied seasonally, and that this variation corresponded to their seasonally fluctuating dietary intake.

For more than 15 million years, human beings have co-evolved with thousands of microbial species that take up residence in the lowermost part of the intestine. They earn their keep by helping us:

1. digest food components we’re unable to break down by ourselves, chiefly dietary fiber;

2. manufacturing vitamins and other health-enhancing molecules;

3. training our immune system and fostering the maturation of cells in our gut; and

4. guarding our intestinal turf against the intrusion of all-too-eager competing microbial species, including pathogens.

The advent of agriculture about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago has radically altered our diet. In the past century alone, the typical person’s lifestyle has undergone further vast alterations: labor-saving devices’ encourages a sedentary existence, the introduction of antibiotics and cesarean section births, and the gradual supplanting of fiber-filled whole grains, fruits and vegetables by increasingly processed and fiber-free foods.  

These environmental changes have brought corresponding shifts in our microbial exposures, and in our intestines’ ability to serve as hospitable hosts for these symbionts, which are organisms living cooperatively within one another. But it’s been hard to apportion the relative contributions of technological and societal innovations to the loss of microbial diversity in modern populations. The Hadza study adds evidence that our diet is a major factor in our gut biome population and constitution.

The Hadza number just over 1,000 people, but only fewer than 200 of whom adhere to the traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle, which includes a diet composed mainly of five items: meat, berries, baobab (a fruit), tubers and honey. While Western diets are pretty much the same throughout the year, the Hadza lifestyle doesn’t include refrigerators and supermarkets. So the population’s diet fluctuates according to the season, of which there are two in the Rift Valley: dry—when meat, baobab and tuber consumption play a relatively larger role; and wet—during which berries, tubers, honey and baobabs prevail. (Tubers and baobab are available year-around.)

“The 100 to 200 Hadza sticking to this routine will possibly lose it in a decade or two, maybe sooner. Some are using cell phones now,” says Justin Sonnenburg, a microbiologist at Stanford University. “We wanted to take advantage of this rapidly closing window to explore our vanishing microbiota.”

The investigators collected 350 stool samples from 188 separate Hadza individuals over a roughly one-year period encompassing a bit more than one full seasonal cycle. A thorough analysis of the samples’ microbial contents revealed that the gut microbiota varied seasonally, in harmony with the Hadza dietary intake. In particular, a subset of microbial species’ populations diminished in the wet season, when honey accounted for a significant portion of caloric intake, and rebounded in the dry season, when consumption of fiber-rich tubers peaked.

What Americans Eat

The further away people’s diets are from a Western diet, the greater the variety of microbes they tend to have in their guts. And that includes bacteria that are missing from American guts.

“So whether it’s people in Africa, Papua New Guinea or South America, communities that live a traditional lifestyle have common gut microbes — ones that we all lack in the industrialized world,” Sonnenburg said.

In a way, the Western diet — low in fiber and high in refined sugars — is basically wiping out species of bacteria from our intestines. That’s the conclusion Sonnenburg and his team reached after analyzing the Hadza microbiome at one stage of the yearlong study.

But when they checked several months later, they uncovered a surprising twist: The composition of the microbiome fluctuated over time, depending on the season and what people were eating. And at one point, the composition started to look surprisingly similar to that of Westerners’ microbiome.

During the dry season, Hadza eat a lot more meat, as most Westerners do. When their diet changed, their microbiome shifted as well. Some of the bacterial species that had been prevalent disappeared to undetectable levels, similar to what’s been observed in Westerners’ guts.

But then in wet season — when Hadza eat more berries and honey — these missing microbes returned, although the researchers aren’t really sure what’s in these foods that bring the microbes back.

“We’re beginning to realize that people who eat more dietary fiber are actually feeding their gut microbiome,” Sonnenburg says.

Hadza consume a huge amount of fiber because throughout the year, they eat fiber-rich tubers and fruit from baobab trees. These staples give them about 100 to 150 grams of fiber each day. That’s equivalent to the fiber in 50 bowls of Cheerios — and 10 times more than many Americans eat. “Over the past few years, we’ve come to realize how important this gut community is for our health, and yet we’re eating a low-fiber diet that totally neglects them,” he says. “So we’re essentially starving our microbial selves.”

“I think this finding is really exciting,” says Lawrence David, who studies the microbiome at Duke University. “It suggests the shifts in the microbiome seen in industrialized nations might not be permanent — that they might be reversible by changes in people’s diets.

In closing, while we can’t all move to Tanzania and give up our day jobs, we all could incorporate more whole grains and less processed food. If we make a plan to try one new food each week, we can train our palettes to accept novel tastes and textures. We don’t need to buy 10 pounds of a new food! One pound would do, and we can learn a new recipe. This way we stretch our minds and learn a new trick. I remember learning to appreciate liver on one of these “try something new days.” I held out till I was hungry and then my dinner tasted ever so good! Search the outer aisles and look for foods in their simple state, rather than boxed in a mix.

The average adult person in the USA only gets about 15 grams of fiber daily, despite national health goals to increase intake. The message isn’t getting out. You can use the nutrition information on your package to check for the amount of fiber. For fruits and vegetables, a quick Google search will bring up the answer. I look for at least 3 grams of fiber in any item I purchase. This rules out “white” rice, bread, and most pasta products, but brown rice, whole wheat, and whole whole grain pasta and some bean product pastas can freely substitute for the other. The good news is these fill you up more because of the fiber, so hunger between meals isn’t as much of a problem. They also keep your blood sugar from spiking and crashing, which is another problem many with prediabetes and diabetes have.

High Fiber Veggies

Aim for 25 to 30 grams of fiber daily from your food sources. My morning old fashioned oatmeal contains 4 grams of fiber, the nuts add 2 grams, and the tablespoon of cocoa an additional 2 grams for a total of 8 grams of fiber. I’m already a third of the way there, and I’ve even had a chocolate fix! I usually add a 1/3 cup of instant nonfat milk and a pat of butter to my oatmeal with some vanilla and Splenda. If I can’t enjoy life, especially food, I won’t keep to my food plan.

My “hunting and gathering” is mostly done at my local grocery store, but I have four servings of lentil soup I made yesterday in the old crockpot from the rotisserie chicken and a frozen soup veggie package, to which I added garlic and Italian spices, plus an onion. Today it’s pouring down rain and I feel like doing nothing at all, except maybe a little laundry. Or maybe more coffee! I can always get excited for coffee!

Joy and Peace,

Cornie

Hadza Hunter Gathers Seasonal Gut Microbe Diversity Study

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/08/hunter-gatherers-seasonal-gut-microbe-diversity-loss.html

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/08/24/545631521/is-the-secret-to-a-healthier-microbiome-hidden-in-the-hadza-diet

King DE, Mainous AG 3rd, Lambourne CA. Trends in dietary fiber intake in the United States, 1999-2008. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012 May;112(5):642-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2012.01.019. Epub 2012 Apr 25. PMID: 22709768.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22709768/

Healthy Beans and Legumes

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/healthiest-beans-legumes

The Standard American Diet

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/food-junkie/201308/the-american-diet

Time is a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Every good cook knows a grilled cheese sandwich can’t be hurried. Some say if you pick a particular type of cheese, your sandwich will be ready more quickly because the cheese has a superior melting quality. These folks speak of the quasi food like concoction known as American Cheese Food Product or Cheese Spread. We know it by the brand names of Kraft American Singles and Velveeta. This is a whole ‘nother entity, which differs from actual American Cheese, which is a food, not a “food product.”

The sculptor Cosimo Cavallaro draped Twiggy in Cheese Whiz
as a comment on the ephemeral nature of fashion
(Credit: Cosimo Cavallaro)

What distinguishes a food product from a food? One is processed and the other is food made the traditional way. For instance, the Velveeta block of cheese from my childhood was an invention to use up the odds and ends of old cheeses. It was invented right before World War I by J.L. Kraft, who was trying to get rid of some of his older cheeses, so he mixed it with some of his newer cheeses. He ground them up and added an emulsifier so that it held together, and then processed it in a way so it melted easily.This is how we got Kraft American Cheese. I’ll bet you didn’t know those individually wrapped cellophane slices were the leftover bits and pieces folks used to feed the hogs.

K-Ration from WWII (The Chowline)

Cheeses are made with pasteurized milk and starter cultures of good bacterias to cause lactic acid to form, much like making sour dough bread. After the starter culture, a few other ingredients are added including rennet and, depending on the type of cheese, coloring, which is why Cheddar can be various shades of color from pale yellow to bright orange. Rennet causes the milk to gel, similar to yogurt, before the solid curds separate from the liquid whey. After it gels, the cheesemakers cut it, which allows the whey to come out. Drier cheeses are often cut more to form smaller curds, so more of the moisture comes out, while the curds which are cut less are larger and moister. Once the curds are cut, they’re stirred and heated to release even more whey. At this point, the curds separate from the whey, and the cheese is on the way to look more like cheese.

Little Miss Muffet ate her Curds and Whey

Depending on the type of cheese, this next step happens one of two ways:

• The curd is salted, and then it’s pressed in a form. This is the case for Cheddar and Colby cheeses.
• The curd is pressed into a hoop, which is brined. This occurs with mozzarella and Swiss cheeses.
  While the cheese is pressed, more whey comes out, so it eventually becomes the shape and consistency of cheeses we know. Once the cheese is shaped, it may be aged a while before its ready to eat.

Stacked Cheese Wheels

How did this ubiquitous cheese product become a household staple? It was a comfort food for soldiers during the First World War. By the end of 1916, the Kraft company was selling the processed cheese in 4-ounce cans, principally to the U.S. military for use in the war effort. As is often the case with food products introduced to the military, the soldiers, having grown used to the processed cheese during the war, returned home and became processed cheese customers, helping to popularize the product. It was not until much later, however, that American processed cheese came in individual slices.

The quintessential Kraft product, individual slices of processed cheese that could be plunked down on a sandwich with no mess or fuss, was introduced in 1950. They were called Kraft Deluxe Process Slices or just Kraft Deluxe Slices. We see these even today on deli trays around the holidays or during the bowl season or in the summer cookout time for those of us Americans of a certain age. Our children, however, won’t touch them with a ten foot pole, preferring instead a “real cheese.” I don’t blame them, for I prefer a sharper tasting cheese, as well as a more substantial bread for my grilled cheese sandwich.

For a gourmet sandwich, place herbs, lemon zest, and any other seasonings as desired directly on the cheese. This will ensure that those ingredients stick!

Younger, high-moisture cheeses like mozzarella, Taleggio, brie, Gruyère, Emmental, and Jack are such reliable melters, while drier grating cheeses like Parmesan or Pecorino-Romano which have already lost much of their moisture to evaporation, often separate into clumps or even break if used in a grilled cheese sandwich. Those aged cheeses have a further disadvantage, for as a cheese ages, its proteins tend to form tighter and tighter clumps, making them less effective at binding fat and water together in a smooth matrix. That’s why even some cheeses aged in a water-tight barrier (like gouda that’s aged in a wax shell or some types of waxed aged cheddar) will have a tough time melting smoothly, despite their high moisture content.

OMG: Melting Cheese Fountain

What determines a good melting cheese from a bad one has a lot to do with how well it can maintain its emulsion when that protein network begins to collapse, which in turn has to do with the ratio of water to fat, as well as the strength of that protein network. First and foremost, the balance of water and fat has to be more or less maintained—otherwise the fat molecules will slip free and draw together. Technically speaking, cheese is an emulsion of dairy fat and water, held together by a network of proteins. In cooler temperatures, that dairy fat remains a solid; let it warm to around 90°F and the fat reaches a liquid state and the cheese becomes more pliable. Perhaps you’ve noticed some cheeses get “sweat beads” if they’re left out at room temperature for too long. Raise the temperature by another 40 to 90 degrees and all the bonds that joined your caseins together start to break, allowing the entire protein structure to sag and stretch into an ooey-gooey, lava-like puddle.

A watched pot never boils means you can’t hurry anything to its appointed conclusion. I was a week overdue with my child when I painted her bedroom. My husband was sure I’d have her right in the middle of the floor. When I was two weeks overdue, I dug up the front yard to level it out, so the garden would look nice up against the wall of our old Victorian duplex. I thought he’d have a cow there in the middle of our front yard. She finally came with the doctor’s help, as if she were in no hurry to arrive in this world.

Bacon in Cast Iron Skillet

Too often we rush our activities and end up ruining them. I remember too many mornings my mother burned the bacon because she was trying to do everything for everyone and get us all a good breakfast before we left for school. Milk and cereal would have been good enough, or even a hard boiled egg, but mother only had so many eyes and hands, while we children raced about madly most mornings. I think “screaming hellions” were our best descriptions until the signs of Christmas began to appear. If she felt inadequate, my daddy would kiss her, look her in the eye, and remind her, “You’re the best mama in the whole world and the prettiest gal I’ve ever known.”

When I say time is a grilled cheese sandwich, I mean we are meant to experience some events in slow motion, while others are meant to fade away into the fog of memory. Every recipe for grilled cheese sandwich calls for a heavy skillet on the stove top at medium low heat. This is also the setting at which I cook my bacon. I use soft butter on the outside of each bread slice and cover the bottom slice with about one and a half ounces of cheese. Other people swear by mayonnaise on the outside, but I’ve never used it. This takes six to eight minutes all total for the bread to brown and the cheese to melt.

Grilled Cheese in a Skillet

If you remember the earlier science lesson, we keep the heat low and let the time pass slow so we don’t damage the emulsion and protein network that bonds the cheese molecules together. We want them to melt, but not get stringy and tough. This is why we don’t hurry the sandwich either with heat or time. Just as too high a heat will burn the bacon and make the grease smoke, so too high a heat will ruin your tender grilled cheese sandwich. The same goes for the eggs you cook in that same pan. Lower the heat and take some more time. Some things aren’t meant to be rushed. Love and forgiveness are two which come to mind.

Salvador Dalí was inspired by an unctuous Camembert to create the clocks in Persistence of Memory

If I were to live 80 years, I would live 42,075,936 minutes. Forty two million minutes and then some. Yet some days waiting in the checkout line at Kroger seems forever! If I were home, I probably couldn’t get a grilled cheese sandwich prepared, much less cooked, before I checked out and walked to my car. Every time I cooked a grilled cheese sandwich, these eight minutes would be a very tiny fraction of my entire life span. Of all the precious moments in life, I could stop for a mere eight minutes per day to be amazed at the various animals which produce cheese, the many recipes around the world which use cheese, and the humbleness of this food which I’m about to eat.

In the eight minutes I’ve waited for my tasty treat, I also realize the average working person spends less than 2 minutes per day in meaningful communication with their spouse or “significant other.” Moreover, the average working person spends less than 30 seconds a day in meaningful communication with their children. As the experts say, “Time Management is not doing the wrong things quicker. That just gets us nowhere faster. Time Management is doing the right things.”

Bread and cheese are minimally processed foods, while fruits and nuts are whole foods

In Cornie’s Kitchen, I encourage people to eat fewer processed foods and more whole or less manufactured foods. While my parents were sold on Wonder Bread because it “built strong bodies 12 ways,” and the processed food cheese slices because they were the modern foods of my childhood, my mother still made her own pimento cheese spread from scratch. If you have a choice, buy the food that has the fewest ingredients, especially the ones you can’t pronounce. These are usually found around the outer perimeter of the grocery store. Actual food has less added salt and sugars, two ingredients most of us don’t need anyway. We can get these from fruits and veggies with fibers.

If you were to take the eight minutes of waiting for the sandwich to be ready to share your “one good thing about today,” with the people in your household, perhaps one good word would lead to another. Then the dinner time could be a conversation instead of a media moment. If the hopes and dreams of our future are to come true, then the time we spend waiting in anticipation for the pleasure of a dripping, hot, grilled cheese sandwich becomes timelessness instead of a time that never ends.

Oh, and I included a link for sheet pan grilled cheese sandwiches, so if you have many hungry mouths or hollow legs to fill, you can get the job done. We made these in seminary to feed our student body. I can attest they were quite popular, especially on rainy and cold days.

I hope your holiday, however you celebrate it, is a season of peace and joy,

Love, Cornie

How Is Cheese Made?
https://www.usdairy.com/news-articles/how-is-cheese-made

When Were Kraft Singles Introduced?
https://culinarylore.com/food-history:when-were-kraft-singles-introduced/

Dairy Good: Watch Cheese Being Made
https://youtu.be/uQZk8J1Q9bc

The Science of Melting Cheese
https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/08/the-science-of-melting-cheese.html

Time Management Facts and Figures
By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
https://www.balancetime.com/2018/12/time-management-facts-and-figures/

The Cheese that Inspired Dali
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170503-why-cheese-is-arts-greatest-muse

The Chowline—this master’s candidate collects vintage military food containers as well as makes reproductions for museum displays. https://m.facebook.com/TheChowLine/

Sheet Pan Grilled Cheese for the Hollow Legs in Your Family https://unsophisticook.com/grilled-cheese-in-the-oven/