Why Was I Not Told About This Sooner?!

Apparently, today, February 9th, is Pancake Day, celebrated every year on the Tuesday before the start of Lent. Also known as Shrove Tuesday, pancakes are traditionally eaten to use up foods like eggs and milk before the 40-day fasting period of Lent begins.

Ol' Blue Eyes? He knew about it!

How is it possible I never heard of this holiday before?? Pancakes are right up there with popcorn for me in the favorite food department. Not to be eaten with as clean a conscience as popcorn, I know, but, darn it--pancakes!

It must be carb loading day at The Rock's house!

Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, is not to be confused with IHOP National Pancake Day, which is coming up on March 8th, 2016. So today, let's use up those eggs and milk, and celebrate!

Grass-Fed Omaha Steaks!

We've talked before about the benefits of grass-fed cattle for our environment, and our health.

We've also talked about our favorite purveyor of meat-through-the-mails, Omaha Steaks. Last year in March we blogged about their introduction of vegetable meal options--a laudable effort (and hopefully a successful one for them). In that post, we also said this:

"… I'd also like to see (Omaha Steaks) offer organic, grass-fed beef and cage-free chicken, etc., choices, too, but maybe we'll get there eventually."

I was only mildly hopeful, given this statement on their website:

"For nearly 100 years, Omaha Steaks has sold grain-fed beef. Simply put, we wouldn't still be successful today if it were not the best way to consistently produce the highest quality and best-tasting steaks on earth."

We all know what that means: factory-farmed meat gives them the best bang for their buck, while meeting the expectations of the beef-buying public on what a steak should look like and taste like.

I should back up a bit. If you've ever ordered anything from Omaha Steaks in your life, you know that that is a high-maintenance relationship. If you gave them your e-mail, they WILL be updating you several times a week with new and tempting bargains. Of course, they'll have your mailing address, so expect packets of full-color and extremely glossy special offers arriving frequently, with pictures so succulent you seriously contemplate eating the paper they're printed on. What you NEVER want to do, fyi, is give them your telephone number. They pestered my 80-something father so badly he stopped answering his phone all together, and has informed my sisters and I that if we are expecting any more styrofoam boxes of meaty goodness from him in the future, we are out of luck. Thanks a lot, Omaha Steaks Pester Department.

I bring this up because recently we received one of those luscious picture packets in the mail, and what did my wondering eyes behold?

Hah! I admit to a slight feeling of satisfaction, as well as being impressed that Omaha Steaks continues to be so responsive to food trends. 

So that's the good news. As with anything else, quality does not come cheap. Click on this image to take a gander at those prices!

click to enlarge

According to The Google, pasture grazed, grass-fed beef is currently going for between $6.50 to $6.75 a pound on average. So by that score, Omaha Steaks' burgers (the fourth selection on the page above) is on sale for $24.99 for four six ounce burgers. That's a total of 24 ounces. There's 16 ounces in a pound, so that's a pound and half, making these burgers cost $16 a pound--quite a mark up over the going rate, and that doesn't even include shipping. Not to mention, if one fails to take advantage of the "bargain" and orders them at the regular price of $59.99, that would make your price per pound rise to, what, $36 a pound? My math skills are punking out on me here, but you get the idea.

Now if you're a bargain shopper, or, if you're a "green" shopper, you're probably not an Omaha Steaks customer anyway, so you aren't feeling my pain.

But you do have to wonder: why does it cost more to let cows eat what they find on the ground than go through the planting, harvesting, milling, and feeding of corn and grain to them?

This article, written by a grass-fed beef farmer, explains it in detail (not for the faint of heart, I might add) but I thought these statements were the most relevant (emphasis mine):

The key to profit in the grain/corn fed beef industry, which operates on extremely low individual margins is volume and speed. 

The sooner an animal can be brought to slaughter weight . . . the higher the volume and hence the greater the profit in the grocery store beef industry. Once placed in a feedlot, hyped up on growth hormones and grain/corn . . . the animal can be pushed to gains of of 3.5 to 5 lbs/day.

Animals finished on our grass pastures gain a natural 1.5 to 2 lbs/day.  While our cattle are still being fed and treated the way God intended, the grain/corn fed cows have already gone to market and the large producers are developing their next group of cattle.

Long story short, grass-fed takes longer, and, as we all know, time is money.

Some people, like Patrick Martins, founder of Heritage Foods USA and Heritage Radio Network, and the co-author of "The Carnivore's Manifesto: Eating Well, Eating Responsibly, and Eating Meat", believe that meat should be expensive, and that if the price were high enough, we would be getting a higher quality, healthier product, with far less negative impacts on the planet. As far as where that leaves those with less ability to pay, he reasons they would just have to eat less meat--not the worst thing in the world for their health, anyway. I understand what he's saying, and I don't even necessarily disagree, but it does sound an awful lot like "let them eat carrots," doesn't it?

Exorbitant prices aside, I think that Omaha Steaks move shows hope for the future. As Americans weaned on Capitalism, we know that supply follows demand. Omaha Steaks is throwing their hat in the grass-fed ring--many more venues have, as well. The demand is going up, and, inevitably, the price will come down (though even when it does, we probably shouldn't be eating all that much meat, anyhow).

Meanwhile, Dad has his own solutions to the price of grass-fed meat:

So stop calling him, Omaha Steaks.

Fear of the New

Starting new things is hard, and it can be scary. Whether it's a diet, an exercise program, a new school, a new job, or a new year, fear of the new and unknown is a completely natural response.

But what if that natural reticence is so overwhelming that it becomes a problem? Well, there's a word for that: neophobia.

You knew I was going to do that, right?

You may have seen the ABC News report a few years back on a little girl who was so opposed to trying new foods she would not deviate from her standard fare of french toast and pancakes. Now, as any parent knows, there's nothing ground-breaking about having a kid who's a picky eater. In this girl's case, however, she had such a fear of different foods, probably caused by stomach problems she'd experienced as a baby, that her doctors labeled it "food neophobia." The report follows the girl and her family as they seek help from a therapist to help her lead a more normal life.

Neophobia can also affect businesses and the marketplace. There, it's known as "disruptive innovation."

This could also be called "why we can't have nice things." Business, it seems, is a bit allergic to innovation, no matter how much you will hear that word tossed around. Sure, any business likes to offer new products before the competition can, just as long as it's not too new, or causes them to have to change much (or spend much) in their already established way of doing business. 

Tom Fishburne, marketer and award-winning cartoonist, explains it nicely:

https://marketoonist.com/2011/05/innovation-that-lays-the-golden-eggs.html

For myself, my neophobic moment came a few years ago, and its name was ALDI.

I had been told it was a bargain food market, but that logo certainly looked like a paint store. Or maybe hardware. But food?

Come on, Photoshop! Let's give 'em a hand!

Not perfect, but at least looks more like food!

Anyway, I had never even heard of ALDI before, obviously. But I'm usually up for new things--or so I thought. 

First off, you have to deposit a quarter to use a shopping cart. That was new, alright. A small, gas station-like food mart, but stocked like a regular grocery store, sort of, greeted me, beyond the shopping cart lock-up. I felt like maybe I was hallucinating, because none of the brands were anything I recognized, and yet, somehow familiar …

The whole appearance of the store--bare walls and cement floor, lack of muzak, narrow aisles, and limited choices on the shelves made me feel like maybe this whole thing was a clearing house for surplus grocery supply. Still, the prices were terribly low, so I chose some items and headed for check out. There, the new new information was that a) my items would not be bagged and b) if I wanted to bag them myself I would HAVE TO BUY A BAG or use an emptied cardboard box. The feeling of irritation was becoming immense (it had been a long time since I had been so challenged by a grocery store) but the coup de grâce came when I faced the checker, who told me that I couldn't use my bank card as "credit"--they only accepted debit or cash transactions. 

That was it, I was out.

First world problems? Definitely. A little too much "new" all at once? Absolutely. However, I had plenty of other options so I figured ALDI would just be a blip in my grocery store tail lights.

Flash forward three or so years. A few months ago, they put one in less than a mile from me, making it one of the closest grocery stores around. Hm. Was I going to have give up my anti-ALDI prejudice after all? I started reading about the store, taking into account that perhaps it was my lack of preparation that had lead to my less-than-satisfactory experience. I discovered that ALDI is a German-based company that also owns Trader Joe's. Interesting--I had often been to Trader Joe's and liked it. I kept reading.

It turns out, the things that had so put me off were the very things that attracted others. Enthusiastic consumer bloggers were writing that the small size, and lack of selection were actually selling points to them. That ALDI was a "boutique" experience, less Big Box American and more grab-a-bagette-on-my-way-home European. I had to admit, my usual grocery store offers a head-spinning array of choices that can make a person in hurry (me) long for the no-choice-but-one selection of ALDI. Another thing I learned was that the baggage issue, as well as the cash/debit-only tactic, weren't there just to throw a monkey wrench--they were cost saving measures, and, with a little pre-planning, easily dealt with. And the quarter shopping cart deposit? Is so you'll have an incentive to return your cart yourself, and they don't have to pay someone to do that--again, keeping costs down.

I was also impressed by the way ALDI treats it's workers. 

Pay starts at well above minimum wage, and all employees receive full benefits--dental and vision care as well as medical, 401(k) retirement plans, vacation time and paid holidays. Also, the cashiers are allowed to sit while they check you out. That, in my opinion, is pretty awesome.

Needless, to say, I realized I needed to put aside both my fear of the unknown AND the known, and give this ALDI paint store food market another try. I'm glad I did, because its prices are incredibly low compared to my regular market, even on the organic offerings, which they have quite a lot of. Also, everything I've bought there has been really tasty, despite its weird-looking knock-off packaging. Can I do all my shopping at Aldi's? No, more's the pity. They only carry one flavor of herbal tea--'nuff said! And the experience is a lot closer to Soviet Russia than baguette-grabbing Euro boutique. Example: once they run out of something, it's GONE. A while back, they ran a special on this great chicken apple sausage, and I happily bought it every week. 

A side note: this sausage was part of their "Never Any!" line, which includes products made without any antibiotics, preservatives or artificial flavors. These delicious chicken apple sausages contained: chicken, dried apples, water, honey, salt, spices, and parsley, period. No nitrates, no carrageenan, no long chemical concoctions or three different ways of saying "sugar." I've noticed this to be the case with many of their items, even things that aren't under the "Never Any!" banner.

Now, back to our story: I did notice that the packages disappeared as I bought them, and were not replaced. Then the day came when there were no more, and something else had appeared in its place. Dasvidanya, Comrade.

However, for great prices on staples, like cooking and baking needs, bread and meat, pre-made salads and fruits and veggies, as well as my own peculiarities: almond milk or lactose-free milk, ALDI, not a paint store, is a nice addition to the neighborhood.

What are you afraid of?

Happy New Year!

Food, Glorious Food

If you're anything like me and my family, chances are you're going to be slumped in front of the TV at some point during this holiday season, watching some version or other of Charles Dickens' classic, "A Christmas Carol." Whether it's the 1970 musical "Scrooge" starring Albert Finney, or the creepy black and white one with Alastair Sim, or any of the dozens that have been made through the years, they all tell the same story: one miser, three ghosts, 'nuff said.

First published in 1843, it, like most of Dickens' work, paints a picture of, we've come to assume, the typical mid-Victorian life, filled with squalor, disease, hunger, and untimely death. Indeed, one of the most recognizable features of the Victorian period (named for Britain's Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837 until 1901) was the incredible pomp of their burial rites, and seemingly endless appetite for the trappings of grief.

Going in style, courtesy The Victorian Mourning Blog.

So it came as a surprise to me when I read this article. Its authors claim that, based on a study they conducted in 2008 for the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, there was a period in Britain from 1850 and 1872 where even the poor lived as long as we do, and were, overall, healthier than we are, because of their diet.

Really? Oliver and I would like some more information on this, please.

From the article:

Our study … shows that the majority of the Victorian urban poor consumed diets which were limited, but contained extremely high nutrient density. Bread could be expensive but onions, watercress, cabbage, and fruit like apples and cherries were all cheap and did not need to be carefully budgeted for. Beetroot was eaten all year round; Jerusalem artichokes were often home-grown. Fish such as herrings and meat in some form (scraps, chops and even joints) were common too. All in all, a reversion to mid-Victorian nutritional values would significantly improve health expectancy today.

They go on to say that:

Charting public health from the mid-Victorian era, our worldview changes dramatically. Mid-Victorians lived without modern diagnostics, drugs, surgery or contraception. Despite that, and because of the high nutrient density of their diet, their life spans were as good as ours and their health spans significantly longer. The dietary advantages of the mid-Victorian period have been lost to us because of our more sedentary lifestyles and over-consumption of processed and nutrient-depleted foods and beverages.

Earlier in the article, a word is used that I had never read or heard before: dysnutrition. I suspect it won't be the last.

It becomes clear that, with the exception of family planning, the vast edifice of post-1948 healthcare has not so much enabled us to live longer but has merely supplied methods of controlling the symptoms of non-communicable degenerative diseases, which have become prevalent due to our failure to maintain mid-Victorian nutritional standards. Dysnutrition is arguably the largest cause of ill-health today.

I had to do a little bit of Googling, but I was able to find out what "dysnutrition" means: 

For years, we have used "malnutrition" to describe a situation where someone does not receive sufficient vitamins and nutrients. In the past, however, that lack came from a lack of something else: sufficient calories. While a lack of calories still creates malnutrition in many Third World countries, the Western hemisphere and most definitely the United States face another problem.

 Many people now eat foods so devoid of nutritional value and loaded with sugar and processed flour that they can lack sufficient vitamins and minerals despite ingesting enough calories to become overweight. Hence, the need for a new term, dysnutrition.

The prefix "dys-" means bad, impaired, or abnormal, so you can see the logic behind the new word. Dysnutrition occurs because people make poor food choices and because food manufacturers make a conscious decision to "devolve" foods, [a] term for when food manufacturers make foods nutritionally worse to make them look more appealing, last longer, or taste better simply to increase profit margin.

"Increase profit margin"--at the expense of people's health? Big mistake!

Merry Christmas!

The work of the  incomparable Haddon Sundblom.

Top Five Books for Eaters of Food

'Tis the season for list making. The "best" of this, the "worst" of that. Usually about events, products, and personages pertaining to the year that's on its way out; in this case, 2015.

This is not one of those.

My list is for all of you who are in the midst of holiday shopping, and maybe you've got someone in your life that has an interest in health and nutrition, weight loss, or just weight management. Now buying diet books as gifts is tricky; you don't want to be like, "Here, I thought you could use this to HELP YOU LOOSE WEIGHT!" That would go over like a lead reindeer, wouldn't it? The cool thing about my list is that these books are tools for learning about more than just dieting. For instance, you won't find a single "21-Day Diet!" type thing here--and there's just one cook book (sorry!). Instead, your friend or relative or co-worker (or, let's be honest, you--you're going to get at least one Barnes and Noble gift card, you know you will) will get a lot more than that.

From each of these five books, you'll learn something new about food, its history, its incredible diversity, and its ever-changing role in culture and health.  And a thing or two about how to eat the right stuff, for you, your family, and your budget.

I didn't pick these books because they are the very best books of their type on the market (though I think they'd easily make that list). I picked them because they are the best books I've read on the subject of food (so far). They influenced me to start this blog, and to be "tuned in" about what I think is the main problem with food today--that it has become "product", and whatever gets that "product" to market looking the best, at the lowest cost, with the highest rate of return, regardless of whether it is even "food" anymore.  I have listed them in the order that I read them, so it's not a case of one being necessarily better than the other in ranking. 

Sick of the preamble? Let's get to the list!

1. COOK THIS, NOT THAT!
by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding
Why I like it: This is part of a very popular series that I'm sure everyone is familiar with, being, as they are, so ubiquitous that they are for sale in my local Kinkos (??). I like this one in particular because of the simple, easy-to-follow recipes that break down not just the calories, but compare the home made version to what you'd be consuming by having the same meal in a restaurant.

Who it would make a good gift for: A young person, maybe just starting college, or moving out on their own, or anyone who needs a little jump start to stop eating out and learn the benefits of kicking' it in the kitchen. It can guide a beginner through the process of cooking, give tips on how to prepare all the meals of the day including snacks, as well as the aforementioned calorie comparison--a kind of "scared-straight" of calorie counting!
Click here for details.

2. FOOD RULES
by Michael Pollan
Why I like it: This book can fit in your pocket, for one thing. It's a handy-dandy little guide, a "commonplace book," if you will, for the eaters among us. Author Michael Pollan is much more famous for writing probably the seminal work in the world of food and health, "An Omnivore's Dilemma," but I haven't read that yet, so I can't recommend it personally. I can recommend this, though, as a great introduction to healthy eating habits, broken down into quick, bite-sized morsels (natch!). 

Who it would make a good gift for: Someone who is just getting interested in how diet affects health, and wants tips to eating (and feeling!) better.
Click here for more details.

3. FAT CHANCE
by Robert H. Lustig, M.D.
Why I like it: I first learned Dr. Lustig's name watching the documentary "Fed Up!". He impressed me as the person talking who was making the most sense, and who seemed the most knowledgeable about the topic of obesity, its causes, and its dangers. This book follows his experiences as a pediatric endocrinologist and how that led him to, unexpectedly, to become a healthy diet champion. It is a very readable book, written in a warm, self-deprecating yet serious tone. I highly recommend it.

Who it would make a good gift for: If there is someone in your life who has an interest in learning about how food affects health and chronic diseases, this would be a great choice for its in-depth, and possibly life-changing, information.
Click here for more details.

4. EATING ON THE WILD SIDE
by Jo Robinson
Why I like it: This book has it all. Explanations of the origins of the plants we eat, why some plants are better for us than others, and, most helpfully, how to select the best quality fruits and vegetables in the market and how to store them for maximum freshness at home. And, for you gardeners out there, Ms. Robinson supplies lots of info on what seeds to buy and how to cultivate them. This is probably my favorite book on this list.

Who it would make a good gift for: Someone who is ready to dive into the deep end of food, serious about wanting to shop smarter and eat healthier. Also, as mentioned, a good choice for the gardeners in your life.
Click here for more details.

5. THE DORITO EFFECT
by Mark Schatzker
Why I like it: This book is like a culmination of all the others on this list and then some, though it has most in common with "Fat Chance," in that it is focused on the science behind food today (and why that can be a bad thing). It is a great, easy to read examination of that stuff on our grocery shelves, how it got that way, and why we as consumers should be running in the opposite direction.

Who it would make a good gift for: The person who has had enough of commercialized food "product", who no longer accepts that a calorie is a calorie, or who thinks that meals should never come in through the window of a car. With this book, this person is about to achieve a black belt in consumer wisdom.
Click here for more details. 

That list again:

Cook This, Not That!
by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding

Food Rules, An Eater's Manual
by Michael Pollan

Fat Chance
by Robert H. Lustig, M.D.

Eating on the Wild Side
by Jo Robinson

The Dorito Effect
by Mark Schatzker

That's it! I hope this has been helpful--happy shopping!