20 Tips for Optimal Health & Fitness

No excerpts cuz it’s all spot on.. although I don’t think it’s in any particular order but #10 would be the place to start..

I haven’t checked out the book yet did also listen to an interview with Dr. William Davis on Robb Wolf’s (excellent) podcast.

I tried out a “paleo” diet 6-7 years ago and it’s been something that makes a lot of sense to me. Tweaks recently to lean more towards what is captured pretty well in The Perfect Health Diet, focusing mostly on limiting PUFAs, fructose, and wheat.

UPDATE
Some good critiques of this book have come out that underscore the importance of properly articulating why wheat is bad, but don’t so much dispute the premise:
Slam-dunked and Wheat Belly
One Size Does Not Fit All

Breville BCG450XL Barista Control Conical Burr Coffee Grinder.

Scooped it at Electronics for Less (Canada) for under 100 bucks (sale I think).

(and I know this grinder sucks relative to the real goods out there.. maybe someone can buy me a Rancilio Rocky grinder…)

Cruciferous Vegetables

(bulb and stem) kohlrabi

(green/leafy) arugula (rocket) brussels sprout cabbage Chinese cabbage (bok choy) collard greens kale mustard (greens and seeds) rapini turnip (greens) watercress

(root and tuber) daikon radish turnip (root) rutabaga

(fruiting/flowering) broccoli cauliflower

Non-Cruciferous, non-root vegetables

(bulb and stem) asparagus celeriac garlic leek onion anise fennel

(fruiting/flowering) artichoke celery cucumber eggplant* peppers* pumpkin squashes tomato* zucchini

(green/leafy) beet greens chard dandelion greens endive lettuces radicchio spinach

(sea vegetables) dulse kombu laver wakame

Root and tuber vegetables

carrot beetroot ginger parsnip sweet potato water chestnut yam

—————————

* = nightshade

This is a continuation from Part I introducing Lorette Luzajic as a part-time food journalist with some interesting commentary on shopping for and using spices & herbs, and her recent experiences writing under headlines like “ I’m A Natural Born Killer ” and “ Life After Bread “.In this second part of the interview the subject moves to cover social stigmas from a female perspective, the real effects diet changes have had in her life and how lessons learned have impacted her future writing projects.

Is it socially acceptable to pile meat and fat on a plate? And do you feel you are you treated differently in this respect as a female?

I’ve always been adamant about real cream in my coffee, but now I’m not guilty about what one unsympathetic date called ‘fat bombs.’ I don’t care if people do look at me funny, quite frankly. It is quite obvious that I’m considerably overweight. But I’ve been eating this way for less than a year, and gained all of my weight mysteriously over the years on low-fat, whole grain based diets with lean meats or no meats at all. It’s clear that my thyroid and metabolism are damaged, and it’s likely I had thyroid problems since kindergarten, and depriving it of the fats and proteins necessary to work properly have injured my furnace. I may always be fat. Meat doesn’t make you fat, however. Look how lean cats are, until you add grain to their diet- the domestic cats. Hippopotomus, elephants, cows- hmm, the vegetarians.

It is grain and sugar that makes you fat. The damage for me may be done. I will not be embarrassed about getting my nutrients, and meat and animal fat are the most concentrated sources of nutrients. I also eat tons of vegetables. I try to avoid all sugar, as I can’t afford ANY with my weight. Without sugar, I feel better, sleeker, more confident and more focused. But just like the next guy, sometimes I feel like a dozen black current wine gums or tonic with my gin. I’m fine with that- it is impossible for me to ever eat any fast food ever again, because all of it contains gluten. So I’m not going to obsess over my monthly bowl of chocolate ice cream. Most days, however, the feast is meat, fish, eggs, spinach, asparagus, apples, berries, carrots, celery, artichokes, zucchini, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, beets, cauliflower, chard, dandelion greens, bean sprouts, chile peppers, fresh basil, mint, cilantro, mushrooms, arugula, romaine, you get the picture. My sin is not bacon- it’s alcohol. I’m trying to drink less wine, knowing I can’t afford the carbs. But I believe we have to enjoy life, you know? I can’t obsess over perfection. I’m feeling amazing and healthy today, drinking less and eating better than ever before.

Can you summarize, if any, some of the benefits you have felt since eliminating refined carbs from your diet? How strict are you about “cheating”?

There is no cheating at all in terms of gluten, though sometimes I have eaten it without knowing. I don’t freak out, but I can tell because I’m tired again for days on end. It didn’t take long after giving up wheat to notice I felt EVEN better lowering all other starches, to the point that a potato or rice is a very small part of my plate, if it’s even included. I’m not religious about it. I just take only a few bites of rice and a lot of the other stuff. In day to day life, sugar is outlawed. If there’s no honey, I’ll take some in my coffee, not much. It’s hard to cheat, because even chocolate bars are all made with soy and I won’t eat that. There’s one I found that does not have soy lecithin, and the sugar is organic (still has its B vitamins that help you process sugar) so that’s nice for a treat. I don’t consider it ‘cheating’ if it’s real food.

The benefits? Hard to believe. Here’s the long list of ailments I’ve had since childhood, gathering more as I went along in life: recurrent bladder infections, as in HUNDREDS over my lifetime. Interstitial cystitis, having to pee about 40 times a day, chronic infections, low immune system, low blood pressure, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, skin pain, skin rashes, chronic feeling that skin is burning, especially in the winter, cold intolerance, always freezing, low metabolism, inability to tolerate heat, chronic fatigue syndrome, pain in knees and hip joints, headaches, addictions, bipolar mood disorder, constant nausea, hair loss, nails falling off or weak, carpal tunnel pain, blurry vision, diarrhoea, nightmares, throat and lung infections, adrenal problems, chronic general pain, low energy, obesity.

There are hundreds of symptoms of grain intolerance that I did not have, or was just starting to develop, but anyone with mystery ailments needs to look at this. From multiple sclerosis to all arthritis forms to any of the mystery syndromes like fibromyalgia, and so on, which I was just developing- try going grain free. All arthritis is inflammatory, and exasperated by malnutrition, both caused by grains. Many psychiatric problems can be linked to low B12- even among meat eaters because grains damage the intestinal wall and you can’t get it into you properly. Grain contributes in other ways to mental health problems as well.

It’s hard to believe I’m not tired anymore, because that was the worst one. I would be exhausted, working a few hours was deadly, my distress was so bad. I never dreamed of this one going away. It got a bit better on thyroid meds, but not much. I thought I had to live with it. Within days of going gluten free, it lifted, and has not returned so far! I haven’t had any bladder infections, which is the most consistent ailment I’ve had since age five. I still have to go 12 times at night, though- I think the damage has been done to the organ. My blood pressure has magically gone to normal. I was pretty comatose, which explained the fatigue, the metabolism, the vein issues. I haven’t had a cold yet or any other infections. My nails and hair are less brittle, though not perfect yet. Even the carpal tunnel is greatly improved- a bonus as I spend most of my time typing! I’m still freezing all the time but not down to the bone like before. No nausea. That’s nice, because always feeling like I’m on the verge of throwing up wasn’t exactly pleasant. Every single one of these symptoms has improved or disappeared. What’s left with, I can live with, but I suspect they continue improving over time!

You mentioned in an article being in the middle of writing a book called The Girl Can Eat, when you realized a lot of the conventional “health food” wisdom was wrong. Are you still writing the book and how has your approach changed?

Well, all the gluten had to come out of it, and what I had so far was largely based on whole grain eating and limited meat. I was still very ill when I was working on this, but thought the longer I stay with whole foods and limit protein, the better I would get. I had no idea that I’ve been allergic to wheat my whole life and that this was the basis of so many of my ‘hypochondriac problems.’ A wheat allergy causes malnutrition, but no one ever looked for it because I’m fat. This is a misconception- you don’t have to be emaciated to be malnourished. The body obsessively tries to hold on to the weight. The fact that all my teeth are falling out should have tipped somebody off to the malnutrition. It’s not like I have poor hygiene. I was convinced a long time ago that I have ‘leaky gut syndrome’ and that all my skin and bladder and thyroid disorders were from malnutrition. But given my weight, this was laughable. Malnourished? And my diet was so healthy- wheat germ, plain fat free yogurt, lean meat, raw 15-vegetable salads with olive oils, bla bla bla.

I look through my old notes and see things like “be sparing with the butter in this soup unless you want a heart attack.” “Substitute as many meals per week as you can with whole grains and rice instead of meat.”

It’s not just about celiac or gluten free now. I’ve done the math. Look up the nutritional content of whole grains and then the amount of those vitamins in meat or vegetables. Grains are nutritional lightweights. Meat and fat are loaded with nutrition. We were scared of them before because we thought the nourishment came with a price- saturated fat. Now I know what every generation and culture has known from the beginning- meat and fat are extremely good for you. It is grains, especially refined grains and sugars, plus new foods like unfermented or isolated soy products, vegetable oils, and plastic foods that cause disease, not meat and fat. Grains are the new kids on the block- and today’s unfoods, even more alien. Disease starts showing up in the skeletons of civilizations that began using grains.

So my cookbook now will be a series of what I hope are funny anecdotes or blurbs to help people adjust to the emotional switch, back to ‘old wisdom eating.’ Anecdotes about the many problems grains and sugars cause. And helpful hints on surviving the circus of naysayers out there. You might need to give up grains and sugars for your health (and I think everyone does, though I can’t tell the world what to do, because for many people, the first symptom of gluten intolerance is cancer. I’m lucky that I’ve been sick for so long and got to figure it out.) So if you’re that person in transition, you might not have a clue what to eat. My recipes have become so inventive and amazing and I’ll be sharing them.

There are many gluten free cookbooks. Mine will be different because it’s partly journal, and it’s not about substituting. Yes, there are tapioca flour pancakes, because sometimes I want pancakes. But I did not buy a bread machine to make my own. I go without, and I’m not suffering. I don’t bake gluten free goodies. I will have a bit of ice cream if I really need a treat, but there’s no need to substitute other grains for wheat. Nor do I really like the term ‘low carb.’ I don’t think like that. I think about meat, fish, and vegetables, at each and every meal or snack. You would not believe how good some of my soups are. But you’ll have a chance to find out, likely about a year from now.

For more info on Lorette you can visit her website, The Girl Can Write. She does freelance writing, has written several books, and does a quite a bit of blogging. You can also check out her food articles on Gremolata.

Lorette Luzajic is a contributer to a great Canadian win and food website called Gremolata. But she’s not just any food writer.  Her last headline, “ I’m A Natural Born Killer “, caught my attention along with the undoubtedly significant vegetarian readership.  “ Life After Bread ” was equally compelling.  She’s earned the handle “resident spice girl”, having written some great spice profiles backed up at home with over 70 spice jars.  I thought it would be great if I could bring her perspective here for some insights on food journalism and being a female eating gluten-free.

Something any tight budget foodie surely wonders is which spices/herbs are worth spending extra dough on to ensure good quality? What has your experience been?

We’re very lucky, because spices don’t cost much at all. Don’t shop at your supermarket, but buy in bulk for pennies. Shop where you see a lot of spices moving, so you know they aren’t sitting there for years. If the colours are vibrant and the smells in the bins are strong, they’re fresh. Nothing’s really expensive, because you don’t need much. But I would always insist on unrefined sea salt, and like to have several types on hand! I don’t care if it’s pricey. Salt has hundreds of minerals in it. Refined salt has only sodium. The taste is superior in real sea salt, plus it’s a multivitamin every time you sprinkle it on.

Are there any spices/herbs you have gravitated towards when you moved to lower carb eating (or has it just meant more of them all)?

I’ve just gotten more creative and adventurous since other food groups have disappeared. I’ve been more inclined to try some complicated ethnic recipes and seek out the weird spices and give it a whirl. Right now I’m totally rocking with coconut milk-Thai curry blends, simmering fish and chicken and veggies in variations of these. It’s easy after all! I’ve been grilling vegetables with random trios of spices to see how they turn out, instead of dumping everything on at once for my standard hodgepodge. This way, I get more mileage out of my grilled veggie classic.

You get 5 spices to use exclusively for the rest of your life? Which ones would you take (and why, if you want)?

That’s cruel, no way. I can’t imagine the days when you had to cross the world to get some cloves. If that’s how it was, I’d die. But I could work with nothing but sea salt, course black pepper, and paprika for a little while!

Gremolata is a great local publication for foodies. How did you get them to let you write under controversial headlines such as “I’m A Natural Born Killer” and take on bread consumption in “Life After Bread”?

I always aim for a clever title, and often use film titles or book titles out of context or slightly twisted as part of my larger word play. Originally I called the piece “Natural Born Killers: Reclaiming the Heritage Diet Nature Gave Us”. “Life After Bread” was supposed to be a play on ‘life after death’ because that’s how it felt at first to give up French stick drizzled with balsamic vinegar!

Malcolm Jolley doesn’t have one particular agenda. He lets us discover new ways of gathering around the table, and enjoy the old ones, too. His genius is the opposite of the niche market- he knows that if you have a dinner party- or even a family dinner- well, there will be all kinds of people. Vegetarians, vegans, shellfish allergies, gourmet snobs and those who prefer soul food, people who don’t drink alcohol, people with different health concerns, people who don’t like most foods and people who are adventurous enough to eat anything. Gremolata invites the whole lot over for dinner and lets them talk amongst themselves.

Interestingly, it was my story “Spilling the Beans,” about the soy deception, that was hard to pitch to anyone. I didn’t know soygriculture was such a big bully but when I was turned down because magazines feared losing their soy ads, I was even more determined to get to the bottom of this issue. I’ve been so programmed to see the meat industry as the big evil, or Papa Sugar, that it never dawned on me that the healthy happy hippie stuff is one of the dirtiest liars in the playing field. I am not alone in thinking that many modern diseases, especially the hormone ones, have entered the scene since we started eating soy. We all eat soy, even if we think we don’t. Most ‘vegetable oil’ is soy oil, a potent hormone disrupter and a fast track to illness.

While I like to think it’s just that I’m such a darn good writer that Malcolm gave me those stories, I know it’s because some of his readers might benefit from that information. I hope my expansive creativity helps my readers at Gremolata embrace their restrictions instead of thinking they can’t enjoy food anymore. I enjoy life more than ever.

Aren’t you afraid of offending vegans and vegetarians?

I’m not. I don’t set out to offend, but ultimately, if you’ve been fooled by the soy agenda and the faulty science that linked, oh, say eggs, to disease, you need to hear the truth again. We’ve lost touch with what our ancestors ate. I used to be one of those vegetarian people who would always bring up the ‘cow pus’ and ‘rotting corpse’ to make my family and friends miserable and guilty. Now that’s offensive! It’s a very volatile issue, and when you are a vegetarian, you feel that people are murderers and that your ethics are higher and your nutrition is purer.

Now I know that denying our heritage diet, cruel or not, is a denial of what it means to be human. Our most valuable nutrients are inside of meat and fat, regardless of the propaganda I used to believe. We have always eaten animal foods, and I want to be thankful for the gift of nourishment. A cat will not have a moral dilemma with killing a bird. No culture has ever lived without animal foods, even vegetarian cultures. All of this hogwash about our bodies designed for vegetarian eating is wishful thinking. I used to wish the same thing, and I made myself sick. If the truth offends vegetarians, I am sorry. I honour anyone’s choice to eat what they will, but most vegetarians, including me when I took that diet on, believe they are choosing health. We are led to believe we can get all the nutrients we need from plants, and that animal foods contain poisons that hurt us, like saturated fat and cholesterol. Now I know it’s the other way around.

If my natural heritage diet offends a vegetarian, then they have a real problem with most of the human race. Almost all of us are omnivores, throughout all of history, except some religious groups. Veganism in particular is an experiment that I feel is almost arrogant in a sense, as if we should outsmart nature instead of receiving its gifts. It also feels like an extreme denial, as if the person doesn’t deserve the essence of life. Of course, I respect an individual’s right to choose not to be cruel, but it comes with a sacrifice. The sacrifice may be more than just nutrition- but social as well. The majority of us will eat instinctively, and so the vegan may always feel isolated unless he or she hangs out in specialized communities. Unfortunately, the information that floats through these communities may be harmful, especially information on vegan baby raising. I can’t imagine a cat would decide to raise its litter vegan to avoid being cruel. Babies need what babies are born to eat, regardless of a parent’s ethics. I find this offensive. I find it offensive when vegetarians continually bring up the death on my plate. It is this death that gives us life, the oldest cycle in the book.

That said, I didn’t set out to make vegetarians angry. My journey to truth has nothing to do with them. It has to do with my lifelong health concerns, which led me to try everything, including vegetarianism. It took a great deal of emotional struggle for me to realize I had been wrong the whole time and that my beloved whole grains were poisoning me. Buying organic free range meats whenever possible, using mom’s farm eggs when I can, help with the guilt. Our factories today are disgusting, no doubt about it, but it’s our responsibility to start demanding real and peaceful food, not denying out bodies what they need.

It took a long time to make myself start drinking whole milk or using butter without terror. To get over my fear of eggs, and to eat the skin with my chicken. To put down things I thought were health foods, including supplements, soy, grains, and so on. But my body began responding right away. I don’t need any other proof about life in the food chain.

Do you think speaking out against bread and high carb diets limits your opportunities as someone interested in publishing on food and cooking? Do you have any first hand experiences with this?

It may very well limit my future in food writing, as trends change. But trends won’t change my health concerns, and gluten makes me very, very sick. I am free to write sandwich stories if so assigned- I just can’t eat them! I believe that ultimately, any restriction forces you to be more creative. I’m just starting out in food writing- most of my writing has been in profiles or arts and literary writing. I think I may have a niche market in the future as well as a general one- wheat free eating doesn’t have to be limited to allergy folks. When I go home, mom makes pancakes with tapioca flour and extra eggs, and the whole family prefers it this way. I am outspoken about my 360 from vegetarian thinking to militant paleo. There’s still debate over whether paleo was low fat or not. I’ll take the food with the fat it comes with naturally- there’s no way our early eaters made skim milk or boneless skinless, for example. I follow the Weston Price foundation. I haven’t been able to disprove a single premise they stand on, and their diet is healing me from the inside out.

I can still entertain vegetarians because I have hundreds of ideas for vegetable foods, have always loved veggies most people never use. I hope my spirit and creativity will be welcome in any publisher’s kitchen, but if some are offended by my lack of wheat or love of meat, I can only say that my health comes first. I had to be open-minded to return to a diet that included meat. I hope people with other diets can be open-minded, and see that the journey I’m on could benefit all of us. It’s hard to argue with millions of years of eating patterns. Yes, we have added all kinds of new things, but the wisdom of our heritage diet will always be relevant to any faction.

Any tips/suggestions for people out there interested in food writing; whether part-time, full-time, or just a few one-off articles? Is there any money to be made or is it mostly just fun?

Didn’t your mother tell you not to be writer when you grow up? Sure, Anne Rice and Danielle Steel are rich. Look how hard they had to work. I don’t recommend that anyone become a writer unless they cannot be happy in any other way. Writing is hard work, lonely work, and you have to be very strong to stand up to embarrassing things you said once that now you disagree with. To deal with the mail- often not so nice, like how I should be caged and tortured to see how the chickens feel. Sure, often I get mail thanking me for my truth or for some inspiring poem. But it’s a roller coaster. I’m just getting involved more in food writing, so if anyone has any tips or assignments, please send them my way! Is there money to be made? Well, yes, and I intend one day to make it. So far I still worry about whether or not I’ll have cat food to last the week. It’s crazy for anyone to try to make a living from writing. When you think about it, there are thousands of new journalism grads each year, and thousands of poetry hopefuls who study English instead. There are magazines that pay a thousand bucks for a story. Let’s say there are 50 of them. You do the math. Even if you are very, very, very good, it’s still kind of a lottery to get an assignment there. You often write for minimum wage, or for free. But I have no choice. I was five years old and writing up cookbooks already, stapling them together. Writing poems about seahorses. Spending all day Saturday at the library, reading stuff that was way over my head just to feel like a writer. I tried to do other things. I should have studied a trade. I dreamed of becoming a topless plumber. It would be wild, wonderful, funny, and I’d have a useful skill that would always be necessary. But I’m chained to the compulsion to write. So, that’s my advice. Do what you have to.

Stay tuned for Part II of this interview covering social stigmas from a female perspective, the real effects diet changes have had in her life and how lessons learned have impacted her future writing projects.

For more info on Lorette you can visit her website, The Girl Can Write. She does freelance writing, has written several books, and does a quite a bit of blogging. You can also check out her food articles on Gremolata.

It was several years ago that I reviewed a store called The Spice Trader for BlogTO. I have yet to find another store with spices of comparable quality, in spite of hopes that a there would be some sort of cheaper ethnic jewel of a source somewhere in the city.

I’m willing to pay a premium for quality, but what gets me is that the store does not offer any sort of volume discount. With prices ranging from $5-10 for small tins, whether you buy 1 or 10 at a time there is no mercy as you shell out quite a bit of cash. And so despite the dominance of Spice Trader tins on our spice shelf, most of them have been restocked with cheaper versions from various sources.

While I have a few favorites that I might keep buying from Spice Trader (roasted paprika!), I’m still holding out hope that I’ll stumble upon a great store or someone will tip me off. I am excited to see the new Top Chef Canada stumbling around some places in Toronto like Ethiopian Spice Store and
Perola’s in Kensington market.

I’ve pretty much accomplished this for some of my favorite diet/nutrition bloggers using this pipe feed. Yahoo Pipes is an awesome tool, since most RSS readers don’t offer any advanced/filtering functionality.

These authors post some really interesting comments (for some I don’t even subscribe to their blogs, just read their comments):
Art Ayers
Brad Pilon
Kurt Harris
Mark Sisson
Martin Berkhan
Mike Eades
Petro Dobromylskyj
Robb Wolf
William Davis

I have a few others set up for other topics that use some other neat functionality.. but I’m sure there are more technical people that can do a lot more than I with this stuff.

Celery, peaches coated with the most pesticides: group – CTV News

Dirty Dozen Buy these organic	Clean 15 Lowest in pesticides
1. Celery	1. Onions
2. Peaches	2. Avocados
3. Strawberries	3. Sweet corn
4. Apples	4. Pineapples
5. U.S.-grown blueberries	5. Mango
6. Nectarines	6. Sweet peas
7. Sweet bell peppers	7. Asparagus
8. Spinach, kale and collard greens	8. Kiwi fruit
9. Cherries	9. Cabbage
10. Potatoes	10. Eggplant
11. Imported grapes	11. Cantaloupe
12. Lettuce	12. Watermelon
	13. Grapefruit
	14. Sweet potatoes
	15. Sweet onions