Paleo, Paleo, Schmaleo…

It seems like every health, nutrition, vitamin, food, doctor and diet website has something to say about the pop culture diet, the Paleo diet, short for Paleolithic, so I thought I would add my two cents worth as well.  From what I have read and been told first hand by Paleo diet followers, the diet limits foods to those that would have been eaten by Paleolithic (cave) men, and that eating like a caveman promotes wellness, provides the body with high energy and prevents the common age related diseases currently on the rise.  These are noble goals and shared by proponents of other diets as well, including the one that I strongly support and advocate and refer to as the name of my blog suggests, anti-aging gastronomy. 

Eating like a caveman does not refer to using your hands and tearing meat from the raw and bloody bone.  But rather, it refers to the type of food, whole, natural, the way God intended, before man decided that it could use improvement.  As if God didn’t get it quite right!  That means, eating foods in natural form before the agricultural revolution when man went from being a hunter gatherer exclusively to sowing and harvesting such foods as grains and legumes like wheat, barley, chick peas and flax, followed by animal husbandry and raising animals for human consumption, animals that were fed by  man instead of nature. 

When proponents make their claims regarding the benefits of the Paleo diet to our modern day human bodies, they are making claims based on unspoken assumptions that may or may not be true.  First, that cavemen were in better health than more modern man, those who followed after the agricultural revolution, and second, that the human body of today is the same as those of our ancestors, the caveman, in order to benefit from the same foods.  Skeptics, on the other hand, claim that our bodies have evolved through the process of natural selection and therefore, do not process nor benefit from these foods like a caveman did.  Then there is the life span issue.  Paleolithic skeletal remains suggest 33 years was the average age for a caveman and skeptics compare that to our average age now which of course, far exceeds that, but who knows for how long at our current dependency on added sugar and refined grains.  But to reach this conclusion, skeptics assume that diet is the only factor that determines life span.  And, of course, it is not.

There is something to be said for consuming raw vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, roots and tubers.  They are almost, with just a few exceptions, alkaline producing and therefore highly beneficial to modern man as we know and study him today.  Excluding grains which are highly acid forming may not be such a bad thing.  But, in small enough portions, and in whole grain form, grains offer some essential nutrients and longer sustaining energy, more even levels of glucose.  But meat and fish, both with extremely high acid producing qualities, are foods which should be avoided or moderately consumed along with whole grains, because as we now know, acid producing means inflammatory. 

Here’s my two cents worth.  I have witnessed and experienced profound measurable improvement in my body, my husband’s and in those around me who stick to the 60/40 alkaline to acid producing diet, eliminating added sugar and refined grains, a diet to which I refer to as anti-aging.  Some would call it anti-inflammatory, a diet which includes moderate amounts of protein and whole grains, and dairy only occasionally and only of the goat variety.  I believe any diet which completely eliminates an entire food group, to me is eliminating some important nutritional elements as well.       I believe in moderation and in the notion that inflammatory foods have proven to be the downfall of American health, apparent in the chronic diseases of modern man.  If the Paleo diet consists of meat, fish and plant based food only, it is in fact eliminating an entire food group, the one that is responsible for endurance.  And, unless the diet puts a limit on the portion size of meat and fish, it leans far to the acid producing side which is highly inflammatory.  I say use common sense.  Leave the Paleo way of eating to the cavemen.  I am sure there are a lot of people out there who think there are still some around. 

This week I launched a funding campaign for a cafe and kitchen co-op.  The kitchen co-op will be a hub for the SC upstate community, a fully equipped commercially licensed kitchen for rent for the sole purpose of promoting food makers of anti aging gastronomy---artisans, caterers, entrepreneurs with ideas of starting a business and home cooks who just want to can their garden vegetables.  The café will be a full service restaurant for the purpose of providing the community with fresh local menu items and a showcase for the co-op members.  No refined grains, no added sugar, and 60% alkaline producing will be the standard for both.  Please go to www.getfunded.com and search CHOP CHOP KITCHEN CO-OP.  Pledge as little as $ 1.  Every dollar counts. 

EAT SMART, America!

Buon Appetito e Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB

EAT SMART, AMERICA, AN ANTI-AGING DIET PRIMER  $ 2.99 is available now for Kindle on Amazon  and for Nook at Barnes & Noble 

The Cocktail Course

Many years ago, before I discovered the benefits of eating an anti-aging diet, I jumped on the juicing diet fad bandwagon in one of many attempts to lose the extra pounds that I was carrying around.  I was reminded of it recently when my husband and I decided to join the annual going back to school neighborhood multi family yard sale last weekend.  Going through box after box of stored memorabilia, collectibles, and household goods, was like watching an old home movie, or turning the pages of a scrapbook of our lives.

  Like hundreds of thousands of other forty somethings in the 80s, I plunked down $ 200 more or less and bought a popular state of the art juicer, hawked by a well known sports octogenarian who swore into the camera that drinking a concoction of carrots, celery and parsley, freshly juice every day was the key to his longevity and good health.  For one whole week, I juiced every vegetable and fruit I could get my hands on to try out the machine.  After weeks of juicing, I was no closer to a normal weight than before I had started and generally felt no different, although I did notice a tinge of permanent orange on the fingers of my left hand, no doubt from all of the carrots.  A decade later and 3000 miles away from where I had first used it, here it was again, it’s shiny stainless steel blade none the worse for wear.  So out to the yard it went with all the other boxes that had crossed the continent more than once and still remained unopened through the last two moves.  As the day wore on, it became apparent that no one was interested in a $ 200 juicer, not even for $ 30 bucks.  I took that as a sign. 

At the end of a long day of powerful deal making and highly impressive negotiations,  there I was at my kitchen counter pondering what to do with my  $ 200 juicer when suddenly it came to me.  I am always looking for more ways to prepare and consume vegetables that could then be served to offset small amounts of acid producing foods like protein and grains.  With experience I have been able to come up with enough interesting ways to prepare alkaline producing vegetables, condiments, soups, salads, and such for every meal except for one.  The one course that is particularly difficult with which to accomplish this balance is the cocktail course.  Yes, you heard me.  That’s right.  In my family the first course to every evening meal is the cocktail.  Now, staring at the juicer I knew I had a way to convert that course to a 60/40 (alkaline to acid producing) ratio as well.

All alcoholic beverages are acid forming, whether it is vodka from potatoes, gin from juniper berries or tequila from the blue agave.  Now, I have tried to rationalize my participation in the cocktail course by thinking of the juniper berries, and blue agave, and potatoes as vegetables, of plant origin and therefore, alkaline producing, right?  Wrong!   Sugar, fermentation and distillation yield an acidic forming product.  But, here’s the good news.  A contemporary cocktail such as an appletini or cosmopolitan, is made of anywhere from 1 to 2 oz of alcohol and the rest of the glass is filled with a mixer.  Sooooo, as I eyeball my juicer staring me in the face, I realize it is the key to rendering the cocktail course from one that is acid producing to an oh-so-good alkaline forming first course.  By juicing fresh whole parsley, celery, lemon, lime, cucumbers, avocado, tomatoes, apples, carrots, beets, lettuces, chili peppers and any other vegetable of your liking (not all together, of course) and adding good spices and herbs like cinnamon, mint, basil and red pepper flakes, you can turn an acid forming classical martini of gin and dry vermouth (fortified wines are even higher in acid forming qualities), or a contemporary one like a cosmopolitan into a powerhouse of alkalinity.  Just leave out the vermouth and bottled mixers and fill to the brim with liquid vegetables, freshly juiced including the fiber.  And there-in lies the reason why no one bought my juicer.  I do believe in serendipity. 

Eat Smart Mexican Martini (my favorite cocktail thus far)---Juice celery stalks with leaves, cucumbers and lime zest.  Add the juice of one lime.  Chill a martini glass and pour in 1 1/4 ounce of Tequila.  Fill to brim with juice.  If you like a salted rim, coarse ground sea salt will do the trick.

EAT SMART, America!

Buon Appetito e Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB

EAT SMART, AMERICA, AN ANTI-AGING DIET PRIMER  $ 2.99 is available now for Kindle on Amazon  and for Nook at Barnes & Noble