Results of The Cantabrian Reversal

Well, today is Tuesday, and as such marks the end of my two-week moratorium of meaty products. No doubt you are wondering how exactly I got on, much less wondering how I actually survived the two weeks without meat.

In truth, there was no real drastic change in my body and health. Of course, two weeks is too short a time span in terms of effecting any real, noticeable changes. However, I did notice a few subtle things happening here and there, of which I will share with you. These were, to be honest, quite unexpected...but very welcome.

Lack of Halitosis - This was one of the changes I did actually expect, and my expectations were met in spades. For those of you who have never encountered the word, 'Halitosis' is a medical reference to bad breath, particularly if it is chronic. In my case, though I do not have medical halitosis, I have to be blunt: For two weeks, it was brilliant not having breath that smelled like a rotting carcass! Or a bitter, carcass aftertaste for that matter. Over these past two weeks, my breath has been notably improved.

Lack of Gluginess of the Bloodstream - This one needs explanation. Prior to my not having meat for two weeks, one of my main meals that would be consumed between grocery shops would be good ol' hearty nachos (with mince as the main meat). However, in cooking up the mince, it would not be uncommon for me to drain a sizable quantity of fat from the mince (and not the good kind of fat either). I would, of course, have no guarantee that all fat would be drained from the meat. As good as the nachos were, it would - after ingestion - leave me with a feeling of "gluginess"; of feeling that my energy levels were falling, and lethargy were increasing. Since I have not had any of this stuff in my body, I have as a consequence had a lot less glugier bloodstream, which means less clog in the arteries, which means better blood flow, which means better health. Oh, and no lethargic feelings either!
As a final result here, nachos are off the menu for me.

More Energy Overall - I have found that in any given day, I have had an increase in energy to get me through the day. As such, I can do more in a day than I would otherwise have been able to.

As a side issue, when I shared my decision to cut meat out for two weeks, I was retorted with the question of where I would get my Protein intake from. The answer is simple: Eggs. Eggs provide your body with protein volumes that are unrivalled when compared to supermarket-bought and/or factory farmed meats. And the darker the egg yolk, the greater health punch your body receives (and protein is not the only thing you get from eggs; eggs contain a whole smattering of vitamins and minerals that are too many to list here. But needless to say, eggs are prime to add to your diet, barring allergies of course).

As tonight is grocery night, I ask the question to myself: What will I buy in the way of meat products, if any? And of course, what impact will all this have on our average menu in the home? I guess, after tonight, I will find out. But for now, time to log off and write a shopping list.

Juicing For Health

If you own a juicer, then give yourself a major pat on the back. If you do not own a juicer (and I rank among those, so I'll be saving up some cash), then invest in one. A decent juicer will cost around the $150-$200 mark, with some more high-end juicers costing a bit more.

A proper juicer takes your fruit and vegetables, and simply extracts from them the juice, separating that from the rest of the produce (which will be referring to as the "pulp"). For this functional reason, I do not count home blenders as juicers, as most blenders typically do not separate the juice from the pulp.

Drinking fresh fruit and vegetable juice - from your own produce - is one of the easiest, most effective ways to get a solid nutritional intake. While you can just simply eat apples, carrots, bananas and the like, there are advantages to juicing rather than simply eating them:

• Juice takes less time to be worked through your body
• You can gain multiple minerals and vitamins from a single juice comprised of combinations of fruit and vegetables, and is more effective than trying to eat a similar plateload of them.
• Because your body is having to work less in extracting what it needs from juice, the body absorbs more of the minerals than if it were not juice

And here's one of the real perks of juicing: After you've downed your juice combo, the leftover pulp can be used either for baking or for composting. Why? Because - hopefully - fruit and vegetables are being juiced, the pulp still has some nutrients within, which can be reaped by making pulp muffins and cakes. Or you can take the pulp and slap it in your garden as a form of compost, thereby not only giving your garden nutrients from the pulp, but your garden will absorb these nutrients into the soil, making for quite an effective - and easy - fertiliser.

If you do not own or have access to a juicer, I would recommend saving up for one. Preferably, buy a juicer with a motor that runs at least 1000 Watts. In any juicer, the motor is the most important component, and the motor will be performing a lot of work juicing all kinds of fruit and vegetables, and some are definitely harder than others (for example, lettuce versus carrots). A juicer with a low motor output (less than about 800 Watts) will break down quicker over time.

However, if you do have a juicer on hand, feel free to sample this simple recipe. If you feel the need for a healthy energy spike, with a bodily detox on the side, try this on for size...

SUPER ENERGY DETOX BLITZ
1 lemon
2 radish
1 beet
1 slice Spanish onion
2 sweet potato
1 celery
2 Tbs. cider vinegar

Happy juicing, and I will let you know the day I get my hands on one myself :)

Rethinking the Heart Foundation Tick

Before you actually read this post, I want to first make one thing clear. If you've been a regular reader and visitor to my blog, then you will probably be aware that I choose my post titles on purpose. This post is by no means different.

I also want to make clear (and realising that I am hence making two things clear) that I want you to never take your food at face value! This is perhaps the core essence of this post because, all too often, if we were brutally honest, we tend to fill our trolleys without a second thought. We make our grocery list of things we need for the week or two, and then we simply fill up at the supermarket, apathetically.

What I want you to do...before you continue reading...is to open up to the possibility that we need to properly discern that which we buy, that which we put into our trolleys and - consequently - into our homes. And so I invite - no, challenge you - to take a second look, to make a second thought, about what you put in your trolley.

Right...lengthy intro over. Now onto what I was actually going to write (I hope I haven't lost you at this post. Please, keep reading on).

With winter coming up, soup is usually a good way to fortify our bodies with warmth, taste, and goodness. Tonight was definitely a fresh one...and I had no soup. Now, while I prefer to mix together a homemade vegetable soup, I decided to nip out to the supermarket and get some packet soup. In the end, I came home with two Home Brand five-sachet packs, and one Continental two-sachet pack. The Continental packet had the National Heart Foundation approved tick on the box.

But did that tick really mean that I had made a healthy, nutritional choice?

Unfortunately, not really. And I have to spotlight the why. In the list of ingredients is one particular additive - only one - and surprisingly it's not MSG (E-621). It is in fact E-635, with the following list of 'interesting' effects:

"Mixture of sodium salts of guanylic (E626) and inosinic acid (E630). Check imported foods. May be associated with itchy skin rashes up to 30 hours after ingestion; rashes may vary from mild to dramatic; the reaction is dose-related and cumulative, some individuals are more sensitive than others; typical foods include flavoured chips, instant noodles and party pies. Avoid it, especially gout sufferers, asthmatics and aspirin sensitive people. Banned in Australia." [a]

The last part is very interesting. This additive is banned in Australia. Although the reasons why are not listed (although there may be other sites that will highlight this), it does beg two obvious questions:

(1) Why is it not banned here in New Zealand (or other places for that matter)?

(2) Perhaps more importantly, If it is indeed a banned additive - and banned for good reason - then why does it have a National Heart Foundation approved tick on it?

Sadly, I don't have an answer to any of the two questions. But it does bear out one possible course of action for us: The need to be a tad more diligent with our food choices and purchases. Just because a product carries an endorsement of some kind (such as this example), the central point I am trying to make is that such an endorsement does not automatically guarantee any form of health benefit! In other words, always check your labelling.

Final point to take out of all this: Take ownership of your health and wellbeing, because it is, after all your responsibility, not the Heart Foundation's.

References
[a] MBM Food Additives Guide. http://mbm.net.au/health/guide.htm (accessed April 6 2010, 9:24pm)

The Cantabrian Reversal!

I think the image says it all, really. But just to be sure, here's the full story behind what I've called The Cantabrian Reversal.

For the next two weeks, my wife and I are embarking on a culinary journey, wrought with unknowns, as we discover what it would be like to go without meat for a fortnight. Yes that's right: there exists in New Zealand a pure-bred Cantabrian (myself) who is prepared to slash all beef, Pork and Chicken from the household budget. And as far as eating out is concerned -- no excuse! Should we find ourselves out for dinner, the whole "no meat thing" still applies. If I have latched on to your attention, then please read on.

There are two reasons why we are eschewing meat products from our diet. The first reason is that we want to, well, save a bit of money off of our grocery bill. As a matter of interest, we both sat down one night and worked out how much money we spend on meat per grocery shop (as any good student of math would do). In the end, we calculated that, based on a grocery shop of X dollars, about one quarter (yes, one quarter of X) of our grocery bill is spent on meat. You don't need to be an accountant to realise that a quarter of a grocery bill is a lot of money to be spending. On the basis of economics, this is the first of two reasons.

The second, however, is for health reasons. To invoke common sense, there is nothing to lose by having a crack at a meat-free fortnight. Secondly, as I am quite sceptical over the health quality of our meat industry (for various personal reasons, of which I won't go into here), I genuinely believe that, over the course of this fortnight, we both will see and feel changes to our health and wellbeing -- for the better. I think that meat is actually an inhibitor, rather than a promoter, of good health. And like any good student of science (of which I am), I wish to empirically test this by proposing myself and my wife as test cases of this.

However, I wish to leave a word with my meat-loving pals. I assure you I haven't lost my mind! Rather, I am keenly interested in how a fortnight without meat intake will affect my health and wellbeing. And let's be honest: there is really only one way to find that out. I actually have to live it. I actually have to scrap meat from my diet, and see what happens with my body (both internally and externally).

If you have read this far, and are still genuinely interested, then stick around for two weeks. I'll let you all know how this experiment pans out. And hey -- perhaps you'd like to give it a go for yourself. I'll at least leave that decision in your hands.

I Apparently Return

Well, well, well...it sure has been a long time since I last posted to this blog. I guess before I launch back into the blog, I'll outline the reasons as to why I've been away for so long. Coupled with this will be how my healthy intake (or lack thereof) has been going, as the two are hopelessly intertwined.

University: I'll list the most obvious distraction to my blogosphere first. The fact that I am a student at University, studying Physics and Math (still), one doesn't have to stretch the imagination too far to see how a university workload can sideline somebody.

Motivation: If I had to be honest with myself, although I have for the most part been largely OK, I am aware that lately my motivation has been lower than what it has been. To an extent, this lack of motivation has stemmed from my university commitments; more specifically, when I did summer school (which effectively removed any chance of a real break). However, my lack of motivation hasn't stayed within the realm of university. Over the past few months, I have noticed a general lack of any real motivation and energy for most facets of my life. As a consequence, me blogging has been very sparse, as well as my commitment to nutritional awareness, which brings me to my next bulletpoint.

Health Level: When I first established this blog, I started it with the express purpose to get people thinking about what they eat, and also how they eat. I wanted to get people talking about health and nutrition, and ultimately to get people to question most of the foods that are commercially available today. With all the conflicting advise and clever marketing employed by food companies across the nation (and by extension the world), much of what really constitutes healthy and smart eating and real nutritional awareness has largely been crowded out of the general populace, leaving behind whose marketing can out-entice the consumer world.

However, I have not entirely succeeded as of late, as part of the credibility behind the original (and still current) purpose of this blog rests on how I dictate and model my own health and nutritional awareness. I have to -- regrettably -- admit that I have not been at all close to this. I have over these past few months been putting junk and crap and, for lack of a better word, poison into my system. By 'poison', I do not mean things like drugs or smoke or anything of a narcotic nature. On the contrary, I have been putting through my body poisonous materials like MSG, gross levels of processed sugar via fizzy drinks, deep fried food, other sundry fast foods, takeaway curries...I could go on. On the flip side of the coin, I have not been eating an adequate supply of fruits and vegetables, instead opting for more "convenient" replacements.

In short, I have been incredibly lazy, and this is the essence of the photo at the top of this blog. I have not had the motivation, the drive, or the sheer willpower to have what I should be eating. This does not serve my life well. Nor does it serve this blog well.

But all is not lost and of a depressing bent. I do not write this with the intention of ending on a low note. Instead, I write this blog with the intention to reignite the original passion of nutritional awareness and, once again, to reignite and promote the purpose behind this blog: to get people thinking about what they are putting through their bodies, and what they are putting their bodies through.

So please, watch this space. I do intend to be a lot more frequent with posts here. I certainly intend to return.