I've Moved

Check out the new blog at www.modernforager.com/blog. See you there!

I'm Back

I'm back from Niagara and making some final changes to the blog. It may be down for a bit. I hope to have it back up today, but if not, stay with me. I'm converting to WordPress.

25 of the World's Most Interesting Animals

I'm off to Niagara Falls for the weekend, so enjoy looking at these cute little devils for a few days. See you on Sunday. Same bat time, same bat channel, same bad jokes.

Life is Fragile

I had a post nearly finished for today, but I'm going to let it wait until tomorrow. I don't much feel like writing right now. On my way home from work, traffic slowed and then about a 1/4 mile up from me, I noticed a silver SUV upside-down in the median of I-64 and then a guy headed west-bound that had stopped and was running back to the SUV. At that point, I was too far away to leave my car in the middle of traffic, so I picked up my phone and called 911. When I got up to the accident, I pulled off to the shoulder and got out. A girl (probably my age) had been taken out of the vehicle by the first guy on the scene and there were I guess 5 of us guys with the SUV and 2 women with the girl on the ground. There was a guy still in the car, obviously not wearing a seatbelt, as he was laying on his head/neck/shoulders with his legs bringing his stomach to his face. He seemed to be moving or twitching and some of the guys were talking to him to let him know help was on the way and to stay with us. Nobody could move him due to his positioning and weight, not that we should have anyway given the injuries he may have had.

I have to give a hand to EMS. In under 5 minutes there were 2 fire engines, a Fire Dept SUV, and an ambulance on the scene, in rush hour traffic. They quickly took control of the situation, securing the SUV so it wouldn't slide down the median onto the girl on the ground. I was thinking "Why didn't I think to tell them to send more than 1 ambulance?" but given that I hadn't arrived at the scene yet, there is no way I could've known how many were involved. They managed to get the guy out of the SUV and it was obvious he had been unable to breathe in the position he was in. His head, neck, and chest were bluish-purple from oxygen deprivation. As they were working on resuscitating him, I decided I was doing nothing there but gawking and since I wasn't a witness to the accident, I bowed out.

In the end, I didn't do anything at the scene, but I feel good knowing that I stopped and was available to help out if needed. The other people there before me had taken care of everything that could be taken care of before EMS arrived. I was quite shaken up during the drive home. The first guy on the scene was very shaken up and crying. I told him that he had done well, although I'm sure he will be wrangling with himself over other things he could've done. I came home and the accident was on the news. The guy that was in the truck died. It's the first time I've ever been so closely involved with a death. Sure, I didn't have anything to do with the accident, but I was likely there when he died.

I am furious at all the people that didn't stop. There was an SUV upside-down and only one guy on the scene. There was a 1/4 mile of traffic between me and the SUV and by the time I got there, only the semi driver, 3 or 4 other people, and the two ladies that were also involved in the accident had stopped. I watched people in the west-bound lanes go around the vehicle rather than stopping. To those people I ask: Is your life that busy that you can't stop to help your fellow man? Do you really have such important things to do? What happened to all of those cars between me and the accident? I guess everyone just thought "Yippee! Open highway!"

Part of me wonders if we should have moved him so that he wasn't laying in such a precarious position. Would it have helped? Might he have lived? There's no way of knowing and it sucks. I feel sorry for the lady that hit the SUV. It was an accident and she has to live the rest of her life knowing that a slip in her attention caused the death of another and caused untold amounts of physical and mental pain to the girl involved.

The only point I can make with this post is that life is fragile. This whole thing makes me think of an article I posted awhile back: Don't Die With Your Music Still In You. You never know what's going to happen, or when. Today it was Carl. Tomorrow it could be me or you. Make sure you're getting everything you want out of life. I hope that the moment before he died, this fellow was able to think, "At least I did the things I wanted to do with my life to this point." Too many of us go through life on auto-pilot and regret it later. If you have to make changes in your life, make them, but make sure you're happy.

I apologize for rambling, but I'm still stunned. And please, please, please fasten your seatbelt. It could just save your life.

Guinness is Good For You

Photo courtesy of Flickr

From the "fun file" comes this delightful tidbit: Guinness is Good For You. We already knew that Guinness was a delicious addition to a meal. And now we discover that it can help reduce heart attack-causing clotting activity in the blood. Note that Guinness, and probably other stouts and porters, but not lagers (drinkers of funky American macrobrews take note) provides this life-saving and important duty to the human race. This is great news for those of us that like good beer.

Here's to your heart!

Eating Together

Science Daily had this article a few days ago titled Eating Together As A Family Creates Better Eating Habits Later In Life.

Eating together as a family during adolescence is associated with lasting positive effects on dietary quality in young adulthood, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota.
....
The researchers found eating family meals together during adolescence resulted in adults who ate more fruit, dark-green and orange vegetables and key nutrients, and drank less soft drinks. Frequency of family meals predicted females would eat breakfast as adults. For both sexes, frequency of family meals as adolescents predicted eating dinner more frequently as adults, placing a higher priority on structured meals and a higher priority on social eating.

My family ate together at least 80% of the time when I was growing up. Either Mom or Jim cooked our delicious, balanced meals and everyone that was home sat and ate. At dinner time, we came home from playing outside, washed up, and ate with the family where we actually conversed (a foreign concept these days). Once dinner was over, us kids were free to go back to running around the neighborhood like hooligans, but only after we washed and dried the dishes. Our family meals were far more healthful than the norm, and while they may not conform to my "fanatical" standards now, all in all, they were a very solid base to a lifetime of proper eating. We always had a protein of some sort: steak, pork chops, roast, etc. A vegetable or two was always, always, always served and everyone of us took a little bit of everything, whether we liked it or not. I recall having to force myself to eat my broccoli and today I eat entire stalks of it willingly. And there was often a starch - potatoes, rice, noodles, bread, etc. Sure, I don't eat the starchy grain products with regularity anymore and there wasn't a bottle of olive oil nearby for dousing everything, but I would call our family dinners nutritious.

My Mom isn't a nutritionist by any means, but somehow she instinctively knew how to put together a nice delicious well-balanced meal. I would surmise that her mother cooked much the same way and unsurprisingly, my Mom and her siblings are all healthy adults. If more families ate like this, and took the time to eat together, we'd probably see fewer health problems in the nation. Just taking the time to slow down and eat, converse, and enjoy the company of others would be a big boon over the cram-a-burger-and-fries-down-your-gullet-while-running-errands eating culture that we have today.

And recall that kids will eat more vegetables if they're homegrown.

101 Things in 1001 Days

This is a cool exercise that I undertook yesterday. It's called "101 Things in 1001 Days" and it has little to do with what I typically talk about here. This is about setting realistic, but stretch, goals with a long, but not too long, timeline of 1001 days to accomplish them. That is about 2.75 years to do the things you want to do with your life. I made my list yesterday and I have until June 2nd, 2010 (today is my start day, so do the math accordingly) to complete all of the items on the list. I'm not going to share all of my things with you because some of the people that I am going to do things for might read them and be anticipating, but I will give you a few examples of things I've chosen as goals.

- Drive cross-country, avoiding Interstates. Eat only at local restaurants.
- Bike more miles than I drive 3 months in a row
- Clean out file cabinet
- Go White Water rafting
- Deadlift 2.5 times bodyweight
- Eat only grass-fed/pastured/wild meats and seafood (except when dining at family/friend's houses)
- Pay off school loan
- Help with Habitat for Humanity
- Read 30 books
- Take a surfing class
- Donate $5 to charity for each item not completed by Day 1001

I divided my goals into categories: Personal, De-clutter, Adventure/Travel/Outdoors, Business/Blog, Health/Fitness, Food-related, Financial, Random Kindness/Charity, and Self-Improvement. You don't necessarily have to come up with 101 things. The purpose is in the setting of and striving for goals, not in the absolute number of them. If you can come up with 25 things to do in the next 1001 days, that is more than most people do. It's really interesting to see the things that you'd like to do laid out on paper, having a solid record of them that you can tick off.

This is an exercise that I'd suggest everyone undertake. That link above has plenty of other people's lists that can be used for motivation, since coming up with 101 things on your own can be pretty difficult without something to spur some thinking. Feel free to post some of your goals for the next 2.75 years to the comments.

New Domain

Hey hey! I've redirected my domain name from http://modernforager.blogspot.com to www.modernforager.com. The old URL will redirect to the new one, but you can update your bookmarks accordingly anyway.

Happy Labor Day!

Enjoy your day off. Go to a cookout, visit family, or just relax. I couldn't find any good, non-political pictures for Labor Day, so enjoy looking at my dog.

Big Mac Turns 40

"The flavors that come together — it's like heaven in your mouth," said April Kohlhaas, a 31-year-old Chicago resident. "It's just tradition, like American comfort food."

Ok, now I had my fair share of Big Macs back in high school. However, "heaven" is far from a descriptor I would have ever used. Regardless, Americans (and others worldwide now) have been consuming the Big Mac for 40 years. There's no turning back now. Of course, you could be like this guy who has eaten nearly 20,000 Big Macs, one everyday for 30 years except for 8 days, and who was featured in Morgan Spurlock's film Super Size Me. At least he does avoid the fries most of the time...they are the real killers.

The Tools of the Trade

I'm always on the lookout for new, healthful sauces to use in my cooking to spice things up a bit. Aside from the list of usual herbs and spices, which I use lots of (not only for their taste, but also for the nutritional benefits), I make use of several premade sauces that make cooking much quicker and much tastier.

One of my favorites is El Pato mexican tomato sauce. This is tomato sauce with a kick and goes well with pretty much everything. It's not overly spicy, assuming you don't have a sensitive tongue. It works well on spaghetti squash for a nice "spaghetti" fill in and can also be added to your regular pasta sauce. Last week, I sauteed some squash and zucchini and then simmered it in El Pato and chowed down. The Duck is good stuff.

Since I'm a big fan of Mexican food, I like to make sure I have some different sauces on hand. I have been using the Ranchero Red and Viva Verde sauces made by Abuelita Villarreal, but at Whole Foods this past weekend, they were out, so I had to seek out something else. I can across these Frontera Mexican sauces and picked up the Chipotle Garlic sauce. I had it a few nights ago and it is awesome; lower price and more quantity than the Abuelita sauces too, although it isn't as flavorful. Eggs, chicken, and any other protein all do well with these sauces.

I use coconut milk pretty religiously, probably 2-3 cans a week. It is a great source of high quality saturated fats and works for cooking pseudo-Indian or Thai dishes (especially when combined with the chili sauce below). Lately I've been eating a lot of berries and melons, so I'll just fill up a bowl with fruit, cover it with coconut milk and top with cinnamon. Chaokoh is a good brand if you can find cans that don't look like they were used for badminton and I've recently made the switch to Whole Foods 365 brand. It's $.10 more, but it's organic and doesn't contain the sodium metabisulfite.

For a good dose of heat, try the Sambal Oelek crushed chili sauce from Huy Fong foods. The chili garlic sauce and Sriracha are also great, although the Sriracha has a small bit of sugar. I like to saute an onion in palm oil, then add some broccoli and cover to steam the broccoli and near the end of cooking add some chili sauce and garlic. This stuff will give your food some serious spice so use sparingly until you figure out your tolerance.

We all have days when vegetables just don't quite zing our tastebuds. For those days, I keep some wheat-free tamari nearby. It's basically soy sauce with no wheat, although I find the flavor to be a touch stronger. Make sure it actually says "wheat-free" on the front of the bottle, because although tamari is technically supposed to be wheat-free, some brands aren't. I also look for reduced sodium.

And then there is Joyva tahini (ground sesame seeds). I only use this for making salad dressings, but it can also be used to make hummus. For a nice salad dressing, try equal parts tahini and olive oil, with some ginger, curry powder, and pepper (hat tip to Robb Wolf). The tahini really makes it stick to the vegetables.

As I said, I'm always on the lookout for new sauces, so if you have any that you enjoy, tell me about them in the comments.

Norcal Strength and Conditioning Blog

Our good buddy Robb Wolf and the lovely Nicki Violetti at Norcal Strength and Conditioning have started (or is it restarted?) their own blog. Be sure to check out Norcal S&C's blog for what I imagine will be tons of good information.

SimpleFit.org Again

I wrote once before about SimpleFit.org by Kevin McKay and wanted to spotlight this site again. Since my first post, Kevin has done a lot of good work to the site. First, the site is much expanded since I last had a good look around. Kevin has added more workouts, improved on the already solid nutrition advice, and provided a list of some excellent reading material, along with a forum. Second, the only complaint I had about the site previously was his use of study abstracts that lay people can't understand. He's taken care of that. SimpleFit is an awesome site for the beginner or the person that just wants to know what to do and when and isn't too concerned with getting overly immersed in the finer points. Following the SimpleFit protocol will certainly get you in excellent shape.

Happy 4th of July

Food Timeline

Here is an interesting Food Timeline. It shows approximately when certain foods were introduced into the human diet. It is necessarily imprecise, but gives some context to the foods we eat. For those wondering, Oreos were introduced in 1912.

Just a Little Sunday Humor

What fits your busy schedule better...

Some Fun Links

Regina Wilshire did it again with this review of the findings of the 15th Annual European Conference on Obesity. Check out those very interesting stats on fat and saturated fat. I can't wait to see the low-fatters scramble to cover their rears again. I bet they'll claim that all of those Eastern Europeans a) drink red wine/beer/creek water/fruit juice/some other common trait that amounts to absolutely jack, b) are genetically predisposed to be obese, or c) some new version of nonsensical ad-hoc hypothesis.

Ross Enamait briefly talks about food additives.

Here is a cool article about The History of Mealtimes that I found a few weeks back. I don't have any profound wisdom to draw from the article. I just found it very interesting.

Even Da Vinci knew how to live well: Da Vinci's Guide to Healthy Living. Pretty well spot on. And he doesn't advise avoiding fat or carbs; just advises using real ingredients.

Trying to Hack the Body Again

...and I have my doubts that this try will be more successful that previous attempts. Animal research raises possibility of end to fat-free diets.

I'll just go ahead and lead off with a comment that logic should have put an end to fat-free and low-fat diets long ago.

A new study in mice raises a tantalizing possibility – that humans may one day be able to eat any kind of fat they want without raising their risk of heart disease.

"We deleted an enzyme in mice and they could eat any type of fat and not get heart disease," said Lawrence Rudel, Ph.D., a professor of comparative medicine. "If you're a mouse, it's great. Of course, we don't know yet if it will be the same in humans."

Yes, you read that correctly. They are wanting to delete enzymes to protect against atherosclerosis. I'm sure plenty of problems will arise from this. For one, enzymes don't usually control only one function. They are usually involved in several bodily processes. You can't just delete them and expect no downstream effects. Unfortunately, too many people are perfectly fine with popping a pill or undergoing weight loss surgery and putting up with the side effects (like cosmic pizza grease), rather than adjusting their lifestyle. Popping a pill is easy. Cutting out sugar and processed carbs isn't easy. Eating more fruits and vegetables isn't easy. Getting up off of the couch and moving around more isn't easy. Oh sure, it's simple, but for the majority, it isn't easy. We're all victims looking for science to save us rather than realizing that humans were lean and healthy for hundreds of thousands of years. Here is a simple solution: stick to the perimeter of the store - produce, meat and eggs. Grab some olive oil and nuts and go home. If a food product is in a bright package with a cartoon character, put it back on the shelf. If it has a celebrity advertiser, put it back.

This is still in animal testing stages and may never come to fruition, but we don't need to tamper with the human body! The body is perfectly capable of maintaining itself if given the proper fuel, rest, and activity.

HFCS Is Everywhere!

Just a short rant/observation from today:
I stopped by the grocery today to pick up a few things for the Kentucky Derby party this weekend. Near the bakery (had to get bread for the wife's spinach dip) is the deli and lots of fresh-made foods. I spied some deviled eggs and out of curiosity, I took a look while waiting for the fella behind the counter. And what should appear in the ingredients list? You guessed it...High Fructose Corn Syrup! In deviled eggs! For pity's sake, is nothing sacred? You take a quite healthful food like an egg in all of its delicious goodness and you add sugar. Why?! I wish I had continued reading beyond that point to see if there were any yummy hydrogenated oils.

As far as I know, deviled eggs need only eggs, mayonnaise, perhaps mustard, salt, pepper, some other spices, and if you're using Kate Welch's recipe, bacon. No trans fats, no added oils, and for Pete's sake, no high fructose corn syrup. I await the day when I pick up a package of chicken breasts and see an ingredient list containing high fructose corn syrup.

Pet Food Yet Again

Y'know, all of this pet food recall news has me thinking about how glad I am that I feed my dog a natural diet of raw meat and produce. I don't have to worry myself with contaminated wheat gluten and, now, rice protein. This whole fiasco just reinforces that I'm doing the right thing for my dog, just as we do for ourselves, in providing natural foods that are matched to her genetic makeup.

And check out this video of how excited she gets when it's eating time. This reaction is every meal, every day.