As my husband says about great pop music mixes, this blog is gonna be "killer with no filler." But as a filler preface to the main content of this post, I need to start by saying that this post is by request, and I'm not trying to proselytize. These are just my experiments that others have taught me. People have been seeing me and wanting to know "what are you doing? you look great!" By the way, this is exactly how Brian and I came to get onto the nutritionist's band wagon. He saw an old friend of his who had lost 45 lbs and was glowing from the inside. Brian immediately asked him what he did to achieve that, and down the rabbit hole we went. Since the visit to the nutritionist, Brian and I have been feeling so much better. I have had a few friends, who I hadn't seen in a while, spontaneously remark on how I'm "glowing" and "fresh and pink" and "looking great" and "your skin looks beautiful." My skin? Who are they talking about? I think that's an exaggeration, but I'm feeling 100% better. Brian has lost 5 lbs- that's huge for him. Mr. Kit Kat Bar himself.
We love our nutritionist, but she's a pain-in-the-ass Sargent of Non-GMO veggies and very demanding; this is not an easy program... But on the bright side, we did learn the hard way that she's onto something. On Friday night, we went to The Tower Bar at Sunset Tower. As you may know, we probably spent the cost of a television set on dinner (TV dinner!). It's considered some of the best food in Los Angeles and it made us ill. Yup--ill. Not because the food wasn't delicious (I'm not bashing Tower Bar- we like it there). We thought we would be fine. Instead, we woke up the next morning feeling like total CRAP. We couldn't believe it. We weren't excessive-- we ate fish and veggies, only a touch of bread and light dessert. Not excessive by any standards. Brian said that he felt like he had a hangover; a "food hangover." A large boulder took over my body and I felt so sluggish. I had reverted back to my broken out, ruddy skin, puffy face, and just ill from the inside out. Brian reverted to junk food cravings. After that, we were believers. Two days later, I'm starting to feel a bit better, but not back to where I was Friday morning.
Since I've done all the dirty work research, I'm just gonna lay it out for you here, quick and dirty....
THE QUICKY OVERVIEW:
is basically this: ALL ORGANIC raw, or only lightly cooked vegetables and some fruit, NO-GMOs, Healthy Fats/Oils* (organic, extra virgin, cold expeller pressed ONLY), Low Carbohydrate, No breads (incl. no wheat-based or oat products... cellulose is not so good for the human...hello insulin intolerance and a fat ass), NO refined sugars (replace with raw honey and unrefined Grade B maple Syrup, unrefined maple sugar, coconut palm sugar, date sugar and green raw powdered stevia-- no cane sugar, agave, refined stevia, artificial sweetners, etc... bleh!), No processed foods, Lots of animal protein at every meal from ONLY Grass fed and finished, organic, pastured/range free, happy healthy animals, raw milk, fertile eggs, raw cheese, raw butter and uncured bacon, lots of bacon if you want (from rare suppliers). Lastly, some grains are allowed, in serious moderation, as these too can quickly become the dreaded carbohydrate. Approved complex carbohydrate grains include only organic: barley, brown rice, whole grain buckwheat, buckwheat groats (kasha), bulgur (tabouli), crude corn bran, corn grits, couscous farina, millet, oats, polenta, popcorn (popped), quinoa, rye, whole grain dry semolina, tapioca, triticale, whole grain wheat, crude wheat bran, wheat germ and wild rice.
*There are only a few "healthy fats" and I will get to that in a moment.
As for food ratios, a low carbohydrate diet is 25% carbs, 40% protein and 35% healthy fat. A very low carbohydrate, ketogenic, diet is 10% carbohydrate, 45% protein and 45% fat. Our plan from the nutritionist is a balance between these two, with one "free day off" per week.
A daily carbohydrate-protein-fat ratio for a 2000 calorie, with 5 meals per day looks like this:
| CARBOHYDRATE | PROTEIN | FAT | |
| GRAMS PER DAY | 125g | 200g | 77g |
| GRAMS PER MEAL | 25g | 40g | 15.4g |
| CALORIES PER DAY | 500 cals | 800 cals | 700 cals |
| CALORIES PER MEAL | 100 cals | 160 cals | 140 cals |
PRODUCE
These products can be
difficult to find in some parts of the U.S., but I have found realistically affordable online suppliers of organic non-GMO produce and products. And if you are in the hinterlands, there is a strong likelihood you are not too far from one of the numerous organic farms in the U.S.. In Los Angeles, go to a Farmer's Market. From just about anywhere in the U.S., you can find a community supported agriculture program (find a CSA). I've been getting CSA boxes from South Central Farmers Co-Op, and made a yummy, fresh mustard green salad from my box tonight. If you're lazy, have Farm Fresh deliver to you for a slightly higher cost than South Central.BEEF
For folks in Los Angeles East Side Silver Lake Los Feliz, you can buy grass finished beef at McCalls Meat on Hillhurst. You have to request it. Also, in general Whole Foods has it, but double check that it is grass finished. Cows have four stomachs so that they can digest cellulose (grass based plants). They are unable to properly metabolize corn and other feed (even if it's "organic"). Eating these other feeds, they get sick, and our ranches turn into wastelands, and we all get sick. Cows need grass and only grass! Don't settle for less than a cow who had a happy life in a field of grass. They started feeding cows corn in the 50s when there was a surplus of corn in the agriculture industry; then consumers got hooked on the marbled meat of the sick, fat cow, and we all started turning into sick, fat cows ourselves.
As for other meats, chicken, pork, lamb etc... I need more research, so to be safe stick with ordering online from U.S. Wellness (which is really the only place to buy healthy, yes, I said HEALTHY bacon. Applegate Farms at Whole Foods is also a good "uncured" nitrite free bacon.) Once I get more research done, I'll keep you posted.
FISH
See my other blog post about fish.
DAIRY
I will need more time to post on my initial reluctance and the benefits of raw dairy products, however now I'm a big fan, and advocate. As you may know, I am lactose intolerant. A discovery that became clear when I was hanging out of a colleague's car window puking after drinking a small carton of milk (not quite as sexy as a night out on the town with champagne- the milk hangover- yuck.). That experience was actually a miracle, as I had been having undiagnosed, terrible gastrointestinal problems that my doctor had no solution for. I rarely drank straight-up milk, and I just LOVED cheese, which only caused vague, terrible gastrointestinal problems. I overshared all that, to really emphasize the beauty of raw milk... because I can now drink straight raw milk, and love it! Organic Pastures is one of the few farms that has it in the country. In Eastside Los Angeles Los Feliz/Silver Lake, they sell it at Nature Mart. You can also get cheese, cream etc. from there. For cheese, butter etc. if you are in other areas, also check out Miller's Organic Farm. Go on your own hunt to find "Real Milk." The USDA is obsessed with leaching out the nutrients and enzymes in our foods through refining and pasteurizing. It's bad news, and we're convinced it's a good idea, because we went from germ conscious to germ-o-phobes. But hey, if you are elderly, or very ill, please consult with your nutritionist and doctor, don't take my blog as any type of medical knowledge-- it's not.
FATS and OILS
Oh, sheesh. Where do I begin? We are so fat obsessed in this culture, that we project our disgust with our own body fat onto anything that's labeled "fat." We need a lot of healthy, whole food fat in our diet. Fat is so important to our well being that we must consume a large percentage of it everyday or we become ill. There is a lot of misunderstanding about fat. I'm not going to get into it, I'm just going to tell you what I've learned from research and from the nutritionist. Butter is awesome! Eat whole fat butter, importantly raw butter, but if you cannot find raw use real butter and Ghee Butter. Margarine, butter spreads, etc, will damage your cells, and make you fatter- truly. As for oils, there is an overwhelming choice at the market, and overwhelming misinformation. Any oil that is refined is not good for you, processed with chemicals like hexane, nutritionally worthless and leaches nutrients from the foods you cook it in. Most oils go immediately rancid in heat, and therefore contaminate your beautiful grass fed steak and your cells (my gourmet favorite, Olive Oil, goes rancid in heat). I don't have time to write about the genetically modified quality of most vegetable oils, so please do some research of your own at the Non-GMO Project. Avoid mainstream commercial canola, corn, vegetable, cotton seed, hemp, soy and grapeseed oils at all costs. "Partially hydrogenated" are the worst... avoid, avoid, avoid.
Here is the short list of "acceptable oils" but there are more:
Coconut Oil- unrefined, expeller pressed, extra virgin... it's the elixir of the Gods...
Lard
Extra virgin, organic, cold pressed, unfiltered olive oil (salad dressings- not to be used for cooking with heat)
Omega Nutrition Sesame Oil
Organic Mayonnaise
GRAINS
Always buy grains in their natural state. Avoid processed grains, including those that are genetically modified. Never eat packaged grains that include additives. Approved grains are listed below. The following "real carbohydrate" selections contain approximately 15 grams of carbohydrate per listed serving size:
organic, barley, 1/2 cup
brown rice, 1/2 cup
whole grain buckwheat, 1/2 cup
buckwheat groats (kasha), 1/2 cup
bulgur (tabouli), 1/3 cup
crude corn bran, 1/4 cup
corn grits, 1/2 cup
couscous farina, 1/2 cup
millet, 1/2 cup
oats, 2/3 cup
polenta, 1/2 cup
popcorn (popped), 2-1/2 cups
quinoa, 1/2 cup
rye, 1/4
whole grain dry semolina, 2 tablespoons
tapioca, 1/4 cup
triticale, 2-1/2 tablespoons
whole grain wheat, 1-1/2 tablespoons
crude wheat bran, 1/2 cup
wheat germ, 1/2 cup
wild rice, 1/2 cup
Additional shopping guides:
The Non GMO Project PDF Shopping Guide
Contact Weston Price Foundation via telephone to order a hard copy of their very comprehensive shopping guide
Seafood Watch PDF Shopping Guide
More Information for the economically minded.
The text below is quoted from Organic Farming Research:
Why does organic cost more?
The cost of organic food is higher than that of conventional food because the organic price tag more closely reflects the true cost of growing the food: substituting labor and intensive management for chemicals, the health and environmental costs of which are borne by society. These costs include cleanup of polluted water and remediation of pesticide contamination. Prices for organic foods include costs of growing, harvesting, transportation and storage. In the case of processed foods, processing and packaging costs are also included. Organically produced foods must meet stricter regulations governing all these steps than conventional foods. The intensive management and labor used in organic production are frequently (though not always) more expensive than the chemicals routinely used on conventional farms. There is mounting evidence that if all the indirect costs of conventional food production were factored into the price of food, organic foods would cost the same, or, more likely, be cheaper than conventional food. Cost, however, is very dependent upon market venue and consumer product choice. It is possible to consume a moderately priced diet of organic foods by purchasing directly from farmers at venues such as farmers markets, and by choosing unprocessed organically grown foods at the grocery store.
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