Time to get Back to the Garden

We’ve Got To Get Ourselves Back to the Garden
On countless levels a universal awakening has begun; the foreseen, eagerly anticipated age of enlightenment, peace and understanding. The slumbering beast has awakened; experiencing a burning-bush moment. Success ensues when we get out of the way. Enlightening your green food mentality simply indicates you’re learning and growing; the reason of being on this earthly plane. Americans have been undernourished for 100 years. Disease rates have grown exponentially in parallel with increased human consumption of dead machine cuisine. Post Industrial Revolution food processing practices are at the root of the health care catastrophe; not us. To apply blame to this lunacy we only need to face Capitol Hill’s good-ole-boys and their obedient Agribusiness lap-dogs. You didn’t cause disease rates to soar; they did. It was their inexpert RDA’s. Our only blunder; we trusted. Poor, substandard food, seasoned with colorfully decorated deception, raw greed and smart-bomb misinformation is enthusiastically endorsed by the deadened FDA. Plus, our ‘leaders’ pat themselves on the back, seek photo-ops and constituent approval for sending low-grade food to distressed third world countries, however, the ‘foods’ they dispatch are inferior to what ‘s ingeniously available to these downtrodden. White rice, AP flour, sugar, succulent military MRE’s, valueless canned food with BPA and canned Spam are all nutritional insolvent and exacerbate disease, providing little or no substantial nutrition, just unoccupied calories and self aggrandizement. Why not hold a gun to their heads?

Time’s ripe for ‘green’ free-thinkers to confront America’s current food Zeitgeist of industrial-strength, almost, but not quite edible food-like substances and then to return to a more preordained, lucid, wholesomely Locavore approach of eating and living designed by the great creator. The current limelight on health indicates an admission we’ve been wrong, however, no one is held culpable. Shopping with the grand kids one afternoon, they noticed one section dedicated to ‘Health Foods’. Their astute observation, “Grandpa, if this is the healthy section, does it mean all the other food is unhealthy?”
….And a child will lead them.

Corny Mc Lunacy

Over time, humans have evolved in such marvelous ways; capable of crafting lyrical, joyous music, timeless literature and everlasting works of art. Any self respecting Pollyanna would expect by this point in human fruition, man might also have established a steadfast moral inner voice, an unselfish conscience like the good book teaches. We’ve gone to the moon for crying out loud, but we’ve failed at maintaining something as basic as a pure heart.

Other than prematurely dying from viral heart disease at the tender age of 40, the reason I became a vegetarian was a healthy distrust of modern food processing techniques, falsehearted agribusiness and a constellation of unholy additives dumped into the food system. Humans have difficulty placing food in the same context with disease, so you might rethink your child’s Happy Meal after discovering what Micky-D’s inflicts upon your colorfully marketed box of Mc Nastiness. MSN recently profiled Mc Nuggets and discovered numerous ingredients other than chicken, water, dextrose, sodium phosphates, wheat starch, safflower oil and autolyzed yeast extract. Many more ingredients lurk, however, in the breading and deep fryer grease.

This may anesthetized your medulla oblongata, but Chicken’s not the main ingredient. According to Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a Mc Nugget is made of 38 ingredients, mostly chemicals and GMO corn. The crispy critters are 56% corn; so much for truth in advertising. But 0.02% is tertiarybutylhydroquinone, a petroleum byproduct used as a preservative. The FDA allows food processors to use TBHQ sparingly, wink, wink, in our food. The antioxidant is sprayed directly onto the golden nuggets and the inside of the box to help preserve freshness. The Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives says TBHQ is a relative of lighter fluid and can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a single nugget, which, Pollan says is just as well, considering ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse. Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.” Who eats a single nugget in a more-is-better society? Big Food banks big bucks on your naiveté.

Read this passage from Pollan’s NY Times Best seller, "The ingredients listed suggest a lot of thought goes into a nugget, that and a lot of corn. Of the thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a Mc Nugget, I counted thirteen derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out); yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative. Celiacs beware! There's some wheat in the batter, and on any given day the hydrogenated oil could come from GMO soybeans, canola, or cotton rather than corn, depending on price and availability. The 2004 documentary Super Size Me alleged Chicken Mc Nuggets composition was at one point in time, made from sick and old chickens unable to lay eggs and included, Dimethylpolysiloxane, which reduces deep fryer grease "foam up".

If you routinely consume and serve your kin some of the 4.8 billion Chicken Mc Nuggets sold annually, consider there are 48 calories per nugget; 57% from fat, 22% from empty carbs and only 21% from protein.
When religious leaders of every ilk pontificate from the pulpit we are required by the universe to be good stewards of the Holy Temple it seems a bit anomalous to dive head first into chicken Mc Nuggets after church service.

When I was a kid, it was fried chicken cooked in pork fat that clogged our collective arteries, but we didn’t know better. Now we do. It just goes to show how un-aware the general public is about what they eat and it’s affects on our most sacred gift; the temple. We can and will do better. Man is basically good, just a bit off course.

Are You Nutritionally Self-Destructive?

Do You Get It: I Sincerely Hope So

With the crashing thud of incredulity, my jaw hit the floor of the Cardio Cath lab last week.
Due to an artificial heart valve, I occasionally need to be electronically jolted out of atrial fib into normal rhythm. It was successful I’m pleased to proclaim. However, there was this guy in the next bay being comforted by his wife whilst receiving his instructions prior to a stent procedure to unblock his clogged arteries. The nurse asked what prescriptions he was taking (12) and then what he desired to eat after surgery. He paused, hummed and hawed then landed on Biscuits and Gravy, bacon, hash browns and coffee with cream. “What the…”, I stammered under my breath. In 1988 after I kissed the dark scepter of death on the lips and lived to tell of it, I was abundantly motivated to educate myself and then to change my diet perceptions, but everyone is different. I quickly discovered when you change your diet; you change your life, which is what http://www.chefwendell.com/ is all about.
Then, as if that wasn’t sufficient to reboot my heart, I gazed up and witnessed an attractive elderly gal shuffling in for cardiac rehab toting a bag of burgers, fries and milk shake. Holy crap, they just don’t get it; make the connection between food and disease. My dear sweet Lord, don’t they notice they’re eating the same foods that got them into poor health? I was stunned but hardly speechless, and if you knew me, you’d appreciate the significance of that statement.
In the age of uber-information, it’s heart breaking to watch decent, good-hearted folks continue ladling into the savory stew of ill health and then grumble how much they spend on pharmaceuticals and heart surgery. Not to mention how this all elevates the cost of healthcare for everyone.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly a quarter of all Americans between 20 and 75 have hypertension while roughly 70 percent of those over 75 have it. Hypertension is caused by little or no exercise, poor diet, obesity, older age but rarely genetics. Food which set us up for heart disease are butter, animal renderings, bacon, bologna, hot dogs, gravy, cream sauce, non-dairy creamers, sugar, hydrogenated margarine, shortening , cocoa butter found in chocolate, cottonseed and palm-kernel oils; all ingredients your find lurking in chain restaurants pantries. You know why they call it shortening, right? It shortens your life.
Yes, I’m an unabashed zealot, so when I’m driving down US 31 and see the endless assortment of chain restaurants brimming with gaggles of rotund folks, or when I enter a Steak and Shake for tea and watch an elderly gal with a tripod walker and oxygen tank struggle to get to a booth then orders Chili Fries, I naturally cringe in sadness and bewilderment. Either they don’t read or they’ve simply given up because they believe they cannot succeed. One would assume the proposition of death would be ample motivation, but apparently not. Science has proven these ‘bad’ foods temporarily make us feel groovy and of course, everyone wants to feel good. The question we must ask ourselves; is a moment of instant gratification worth a $60,000 ICU rendezvous or worse?
It’s up to us to fend off the temptation of harmful foods we’ve been encouraged to eat all our lives. Disease takes years to manifest itself, so making small changes now can be the best preventive measure. Is it time for you to wean yourself off particular foods scientifically reputed to cause disease and death? Are you motivated into embracing our innate, preordained diet set forth by a generous, loving creator? It would seem the tasty solution to this challenge is to get out of our own way. I know you can do it!

Bison vs. Hamburger

‘Herd’ of Bison Burgers?
Flower bearing Laugh-In star Henry Gibson waxed poetic, ‘But what about the buffalo?’, and peals of canned laughter ensued. If only he knew Bison has become one of the fastest growing segments of American Agriculture, and for a very good reason.

Were you aware Bison and Buffalo are distinctly different animals? True buffalo's are native only to Africa and Asia. An estimated 30 to 75 million buffalo, or bison crossed over a land bridge that once connected the Asian and North American continents. By the time America’s earliest peoples had established villages about 20,000 years ago, the bison dominated the rolling grasslands and forested hillsides that stretched west from the Mississippi River west to the Rocky Mountains. . "The moving multitude...darkened the whole plains," wrote Lewis and Clark, who encountered a herd at South Dakota's White River in 1806, then killed them.

Ruminant, 2000 pound Bison obtain their food from grazing on grass, herbs, shrubs and twigs the way the Universe intended. They are not fed, God-awful tidbits like corn, chicken droppings or other dead cattle scraps as in Factory Farm grocery versions. Nor are they injected with questionable drugs, antibiotics or growth hormones. Genetically altered, cannibal, chicken-poop eating cows bears resemblance to a B-Horror Movie, but that’s your contemporary choices.

Our four-footed, furry friends have a clear-cut advantage in our 'heart healthy’ search for meat alternatives that do not cause heart disease. Did you know grass-fed Bison tastes like beef, has similar protein content, but is lower in fat and cholesterol? They are much healthier than other meats yet contain very high levels of protein. Bison has 35% more protein than beef so you can eat 1/3 less volume and still come away satisfied. A 3.5 ounce serving of cooked bison, my friends, contains 2.42 g. of fat, 28.44 g protein, 143 calories, 82 mg of cholesterol, 3.42 mg of iron and 2.86 mcg B-12. The same portion of choice beef contains 18.54 g. of artery obstructing saturated fats, 29 g protein, 201 calories, 86 mg of cholesterol, 2.99 mg iron, and 2.64 mcg B-12.
Now we know why Native American Indians affixed such value to the magnificent large hoofed mammal.

Other than for clothing and warmth, Bison was the main diet of the Plains Indians who never had cancer, never had heart disease or heart attacks and lived to be 85-90. It tastes similar to the best beast you ever eaten; hearty, sweet and rich with no gamey after-taste. Enlightened carnivores are also attracted to the information that Bison are raised with no growth stimulants, hormones or antibiotics. Bison has more iron as well as some of the essential fatty acids necessary for human well being. Readers' Digest magazine has even listed bison as one of the five foods women should eat because of the lofty iron content.

Because it has so little fat, bison needs to be cooked differently. Do not overcook; the meat dry out. It can be successfully used interchangeably with beef in most recipes, so enjoy all your favorite dishes made healthier - buffalo chili, buffalo lasagna, buffalo stew - the list is endless.
With ground bison, what you see raw is what you get; there’s precious little shrinkage. No matter what you call it, join the herd. Bison, Buffalo, tomato, tomaato; please don’t call the whole thing off.

Give the noble beast the green light. Your family’s health will be at home, home on the range, stove, or grill. Don’t forget to support your local, sustainable Bison growers. It may cost a bit more, but considering the $60,000 expense of a trip to ICU, open-heart surgery or worse, Bison is a wise investment into your family’s collective health equity.
Ask your grocer to start carrying it or explore Indiana’s Wild Winds Buffalo Preserve http://www.wildwindsbuffalo.com/ or Brad at Miller Bison Farms. www.millerbisonfarms@yahoo.com

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Celebration: A Nutritional Paradox

“Hey, it’s Uncle Miltie’s birthday. Let’s party with a super-sized, double-cheese, pepperoni and sausage Pizza; one with gooey cheese in the crust. Oh, yeah, and on the way to KFC, (where the one thing missing is ‘U’), stop by the grocery and score a gooey, psychedelically painted sheet cake with tons of icing and a bottle of Chardonnay?” Why not plunge a corkscrew into the ole’ boys heart.
We’re a creative, kind and fun-loving species. We’re also gullible and adore taking chances like bungee jumping, driving without seat belts, smoking, texting and drive, cheating on taxes, sending money to Jim and Tammy or reclining buck-naked in one of those gen-u-ine, imitation sun-tan chambers. When we get stressed, depressed or feel the need to celebrate, we find comfort and oral entertainment from food and beverage; our best buddies.
As long as I can recall, birthdays, holidays and life’s romantic mile markers green-light human’s penchant for over-indulging in America’s beloved party foods; traditional no-so-healthy social-gathering-icons which suck health out of the temple leaving one spread eagle to chronic disease. Without thinking we devour disease-incubating dead foods that weaken immune response plus the temples glorious ability to repair, sustain, reproduce and protect. Science explains this irresistible lust is hard-wired into our DNA via a lifetime of watching TV, repetitive reinforcement through advertising, peer pressure and catastrophic federal dietary guidelines.
A gander at the miles of grocery aisles plus the American food and hospitality industry, indicates we’re encouraged to forgo our future family health equity for a moment of instant gratification. “Oh, one day of eating these yummy foods won’t kill me.” Aha! What you must know is it’s accumulative. The ‘funkified’ compounds lurking in these seductive food-like substances accumulate over time, making your inner ecology toxic, bloated, anemic, flatulent and brain dead. These succulent industrial toxins are stored in your fatty tissue. Cholesterol, over time, builds up in your hardening arteries. Balancing with 7-9 portions of fresh fibrous sun dappled produce daily goes a long way in defusing damage, but it’s best not to poke the beast. The reality is our humanness weakens resolve.
Next time add a variety of taste, texture, excitement and color by encouraging everyone to experiment with new foods and combinations; an old fashioned pitch-in. For goodness sakes return to the joyous act of cooking. Assemble an aesthetically composed veggie platter from scratch. Try a zesty bean dip rather than the predictable sour cream and onion. Prepare a pizza pie from scratch with whole wheat flour. It’s a delightful activity for the entire family. You’ll never buy store-bought again and the camaraderie is bonding. Bake a tasty batch of nachos with homemade salsa, lean ground turkey breast of soy crumbles, low-fat cheddar or Jack and creamy guacamole. Pop ‘real’ popcorn in olive oil with the kids. Make a cake from scratch where you control the ingredients, not an insincere ‘scientist’ playing chef. When baking a cake, substitute lard or shortening with Smart Balance, for example. You could add fibrous wheat germ and no one would know. Place bowls of nuts around the house. Bake white meat chicken strips dredged in taco spice or teriyaki rather than breaded and deep fried in grease. Get creative.
We live in a nerve-racking, teetering world. Everyone wants, needs and deserves to feel good, but you needn’t capitulate. Grasp the reality of your intentions. Is your intention to celebrate life’s meaningful moments by consuming bogus foods that shorten it? All it takes is a plan. Your wallet will dig it as family medical bills decline and everyone starts feeling each morning like they could conquer the world.

Nutrition when done correctly should be center plate. You can do it.

Celiac Disease

If your earthly existence depended on it, could you stop eating one particular food if it just about instantly reinstated your health entitlement? Wouldn’t it blow your medulla oblongata if the guilty foodstuff, wheat of all things, was the source of your illness?
“I’m inexplicably depressed. My rumbling gastrointestinal tribulations, asthma, iron deficiency anemia, heart burn, low energy and early osteoporosis bring me down”. Unable to connect the dots, for decades, Ima suffered. The darling 65 year old, bless her heart, couldn’t understand why she was constantly bloated and cramping, flatulent and couldn’t summon the gumption to socialize. She already conceded her familial genes were responsible for her uncharacteristic early-life osteoarthritis.
After carpet bombing her innards with pharmaceutical drugs, her doctor tested for Celiac Disease (CD). Gluten intolerance appeared. One week into a wheat-free diet, she’d never felt better; human, joyful, eager to socialize by hanging with her silver-haired homeys; free. It’s startling how many seniors have undiagnosed CD because of wheat; one of the world's most important food crops. Her blessed relief lay right before her eyes.
Until the mid-1990’s people didn’t believe CD could develop in older people because it was considered a disease of childhood; ‘failing to thrive’. Foods made from wheat and certain grains contain a protein called gluten. If you have CD, every time you eat gluten an immune reaction aggressively attacks your vila destroying healthy tissues of the small intestine where nutrients are absorbed. This leads to a cascade of health tribulations. Even teeny amounts of gluten trigger the response.
In her mind she ate what she sincerely perceive as healthy cuisine; Raisin Bran with berries and walnuts for breakfast, whole wheat bread and lean turkey breast sandwich at lunch and in between some whole grain crackers and carrot sticks. At night, Ima ate brown rice, a breaded chicken breast with a dark green leafy salad with blue cheese dressing. Her absolutely favorite restaurant meal was a garden salad with croutons, Pasta Bolognese dusted with Parma and ‘more gooey garlic bread please’ washed down with a mug-o-beer. Sounds benign, however, most of these foods and beer contain various forms of gluten.
Ima Bovit, which she apparently wasn’t, is 1 in 10 Americans who needlessly suffer from the ancient malady; frightening allowing for the high death rate when undiagnosed. Mayo Clinic research teams studied data from the 45 year of follow-up of Air Force subjects showed those with undiagnosed celiac disease have a 400% higher risk of death than non-Celiacs. Two physicians I quizzed admit the medical fraternity has been sluggish to diagnose the ubiquitous disease which shortens life expectancy-- are you ready for this--- by a whopping 4.5 times. Its curious contemporary doctors can’t diagnose CD because as far back as 250 AD, Aretaeus of Cappadocia included detailed descriptions of a disease. He referred to his patients as kolliakos, meaning, ‘suffering in the bowels,’ later translated it to Celiacs.
Naturopathic PhD DR. Chuck Landon of Indianapolis shares “When CD symptoms should be the first condition that comes to mind, it’s often misdiagnosed. Modern medicine does not consider CD first because I believe they don’t have a drug for it. Celiacs get diagnosed as having irritable bowel syndrome, which in my opinion is a symptom, not a disease.”
It takes two to four weeks of a strict gluten-free diet before you start to feel groovy again, though some people get their mojo back within days. However, don't challenge your inner ecology by eating a large amount of wheat to see what happens. This is serious biz, so don’t loaf around. You could end up sicklier than before and cost you some serious bread. Gluten-free products abound at your community grocers. Not only is gluten found in grains like wheat, barley, rye, oats, malt and rye. It’s also added to countless foods. For example, some ice creams and ketchups contain gluten as a thickening agent. The simple answer: read labels to avoid wheat products and foods prepared with wheat. Be conscious and put food and disease in the same context; it may save your life. For excellent information and list of foods with gluten: http://customchoicecereal.com/blog/
Read recently published books and then turn to websites / support blogs run by Celiac organizations, noted celiac research centers and trusted Integrative Nutritionists. Dr. Landon suggests, “If you have any of the symptoms mentioned, simply eliminate all gluten bearing foods for a month. If things clear up continue on. Consult with an Integrative Physician and nutritionist who specialize in celiac disease before you embark on your quest for a return to wholeness. Sun dappled vegetables, fruits, beans, seeds and meats are gluten free foods”.
Ima thought her diet was above reproach and accepted age. Get checked for CD and free yourself.
The simple act of transcending just one pleasurable food can be life transforming.

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Stevia Not Truvia-Corporate

Hail Stevia!
Savvy Americans are awakening from a slumber of blind-trust after discovering the white sugar they’ve been eating is a proven human toxin; not the least compatible with the needs of the holy temple’s biochemistry. Ergo plagues of diabetes, hypoglycemia, hypertension, elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, increased arterial plaque, immune suppression, insulin resistance, obesity, H1N1 and heart disease freely loiter about a once-healthy citizenry. Bluntly, sugar sucks.

Subsequently, enlightened Americans seek rational alternatives to sugar and trustingly reach for the omnipresent pink, blue, and yellow packages of sweet death. When shopping, strut by the Sweet and Low, made from succulent coal tar, skip the tasty neurotoxin Nutra-Sweet, then waltz past deceitful Splenda; another abomination of a loving cosmos’ creations. Jim Turner, Chairman of the Board of the Health Advocacy Group Citizens for Health describes varying degrees of gastro-intestinal problems resulting from Splenda use. "... from irritation all the way up to serious bleeding ulcers requiring surgery," says Turner. Other health professionals report cases of cardiac problems, various allergic reactions. Instead, grasp a friendly green box of Sweet Leaf Stevia. All others fall short, since they are chemically altered.

Stevia was discovered by 16th century by Spanish Conquistadors who learned about stevia from the local Guarani and Mato Grosso Indians who used stevia leaves to sweeten their medicines and teas. Unfortunately, it’s only recently become available to Americans. Think of stevia like oregano or basil; however it leaves a sweet taste. No need for processing.
Modern scientific interests in the Stevia plant dates to the early 1900’s, however sugar lobbyists fought hard to keep their addictive, Diabesity-inducing, immune-suppressing crystal crap on the shelves in a mind-numbing constellation of processed food sludge. White sugar is irrefutably addictive, wielding its insidious power over the brain similar to opiate drugs of abuse.

The average portly, diabetic and constantly-sick American eats nearly 150 pounds a year. (Visualize 15 ten-pound bags). Overindulgence; sugar be thy name.
Caveat Emptor; we won’t get fooled again! Truvia is not the real thing baby. Truvia is another monstrous contrivance from the nutritional terrorists at Cargill whose total indifference regarding the wellbeing of their fellow countrymen borders treason. ‘Truvia’, also known as rebiana, is made by taking the best leaves of the stevia plant, drying and soaking them then isolating the active compound. In a moment of false hubris, the damaged bullies at Cargill Corporation felt God-like and altered Stevia’s original molecular structure, marking its turf like a dog to own it outright; God weeps at such selfish superiority. Why can’t man leave God’s work alone? Sweet Leaf’s founder, Jim May told me Stevia is made with only two ingredients; inulin, a natural vegetable fiber and Stevia leaf extract. Inulin is beneficial to good digestive health as it stimulates the growth of good intestinal flora supporting immune function. Sugar, the pink, blue and yellow death offers no health recompense.

Unlike sugar, no health issues have been reported, that is, unless you eat 4 pounds a day and rub it all over your body then snort it. Indigenous Japanese, where Stevia’s very common, accepted sweetener, have safely used stevia for generations. Alternatively, sugar trashes our immune system. Do you smell what I’m cookin’?

With diabetes and obesity a huge financially-depleting national health problem, none of you dear readers deserve to innocently put anything into the temple that comprises health. Health is about food, not synthesized doo-doo. Yes, it’s getting creepy out there. More and more we’re reading newspaper and TV reports revealing yet another product we trusted is, alas, seasoned generously with immoral corporate greed. Knowledge is power.