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Saturated Fat *IS* Healthy!

Food Renegade

challenging politically correct nutrition

Archives for 2009

Fats! Desserts! Weight Loss! Backyard Homesteads!

Time for another wrap up of links from around the web. Want the definitive proof that yellow seed oils cause heart disease? How about two new delicious dairy free dessert recipes (one of them without any sweetener at all!)? Or, perhaps I could whet your appetite by inviting you to consider how you can produce almost all your food needs on just a quarter of an acre.

Caveman Chili And The Garden of Eating

Nothing spells delicious, comfort food to me quite like chili. My dad’s venison recipe could have won competitions if he’d bothered to enter. I’d come home from school on a wintry afternoon to the savory aroma of venison chili and couldn’t resist. Us kids didn’t even wait until dinner time. Our dad would ladle his perfect, authentic, bean-less chili into our bowls, sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top, and set us down to enjoy our after school “snack.”

Glycemic Index vs. Glycemic Load

Thanks to the low-carb craze and the rise in adult-onset diabetes, “glycemic index” is swiftly becoming a household phrase. The glycemic index of a food is the measurement of the effects of the carbohydrates in the food on blood glucose levels. But do you really know what it means?

Supposedly, foods that score high on the glycemic index should be avoided because they promote higher insulin levels. Increased insulin in the bloodstream, of course, makes your body stop burning fat as a fuel and store excess food-energy (calories) as fat. Common theory supposes that a low glycemic index makes a food good for you, and a high glycemic index makes a food unhealthy.

Fight Back Fridays — May 29th

Happy Fight Back Friday! Today we are bringing together another collection of recipes, tips, anecdotes, and testimonies from members of the Real Food Revolution.

Who are they? Why, they’re the Food Renegades. You know who you are — lovers of SOLE (Sustainable, Organic, Local, and Ethical) food, traditional food, primal food, REAL food, the list goes on. I believe that by joining together, our influence can grow, and we can change the way America (and the industrialized world) eats!

Top Five Thursdays — Recipes And Controversies

Now you absolutely have to find out what the controversy’s all about, don’t you? Recipes are a great promise, too, as everyone loves to discover a new recipe (and you won’t want to miss out on these).

Meet A Grass-fed Beef And Pastured Pork Farmer

Farmer’s markets are festive places. What’s not to love about artisanal foods, hand-crafted goods, and down-to-earth farmers? My all-time favorite reason for going to farmer’s markets is to meet farmers.

I like to ask them questions. Lots of questions.

Most farmers, contrary to popular stereotype, are an articulate, well-educated group. They have well thought out reasons for why they do what they do (which is why I like picking their brains). In the video below, you’ll get to meet a farming couple who raises grass-fed beef and pastured pork.

Truth And Lies About Fats And Obesity With Gary Taubes

Gary Taubes isn’t a household name (unless you’re a big reader of Science or The New York Times Magazine). But this scientific journalist has done as much for the cause of understanding obesity and fats as the food journalist Michael Pollan has done for understanding our food and where it comes from.

If you want to understand the obesity epidemic, if you want to know why you or a loved one is overweight, if you want to know the truth about healthy fats and what they are, if you want to know the true cause of coronary heart disease, Gary Taubes has the answer.

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved By Sandor Ellix Katz

A great follow-up book to Wild Fermentation (A Food Renegade Must Read), Sandor Ellix Katz’s The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved takes a look at the cutting edge of food activism. While traveling the States leading workshops on the craft of making sauerkraut, Sandor met people participating in what he calls “underground food movements.”

In short, he met Food Renegades. And lots of them. These are the people struggling to keep food traditions alive, the people finding their way out of the corporate/industrial food maze and taking control of their own health and nutrition.

Fight Back Fridays May 22nd

Happy Fight Back Friday, everyone! We are bringing together another collection of recipes, tips, anecdotes, and testimonies — each from a lover of Real Food.

If you haven’t yet checked it out, you should swing by last week’s carnival and read all the great articles & posts from so many of us coming from within different circles of the Real Food Revolution.

Who are the members of the Real Food Revolution? Why, they’re the Food Renegades. You know who you are — lovers of SOLE (Sustainable, Organic, Local, and Ethical) food, traditional food, primal food, the list goes on. I believe that by joining together, our influence can grow, and we can change the way America (and the industrialized world) eats!

So, let’s have some fun.

Freegans Say No To Waste By Dumpster Diving

You don’t have to look far to realize just how much food gets wasted every year. How much do you personally buy, only to watch it wind up in the trash or a compost pile when it’s past its prime? Now add in the waste from supermarkets, restaurants, and unharvested crops. All total, nearly half of the U.S. food supply goes to waste according to Timothy Jones, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona who spent ten years measuring food loss.

Freegans are people who tap into that constant supply of wasted food when it’s still fresh and edible. They rescue the food in order to redistribute it, feed themselves, or even turn it into compost if it’s not safe to eat.

And for your viewing pleasure, I’m serving up TWO videos today. One is a CNN report on freegans, and another is an on-the-scene look at a massive haul some folks had at a single Trader Joe’s dumpster.