I am going to try to start a new segment called “Paleo in Seattle” featuring restaurants, grocery stores, and other relavent places in the city. They’ll be listed in the pages to your right with a more in depth discussion and hopefully pictures as a blog post.
As always, feel free to submit any places to check out.
When it comes to nutrition, there are often many people who go by a philosophy of “it is ok to eat this in small amounts” or “in moderation, it doesn’t really matter what I eat,” and finally “I don’t eat this all the time.”
While there is definitely truth to this belief, it is not an exclusive rule that applies to all things. I hear this all the time with trans fat and that people think it is fine to eat some junk as long as it isn’t a typical thing. Here are some things to consider:
1. Eating a little bit each day is not proper moderation. If you are trying to moderate a food because you think its unhealthy, it needs to be done on a minimum of a weekly basis. By the end of the week, having a little bit of junk everyday adds up into a week of poor nutrition. Additionally, to feel what it is like to be on a pure diet, your diet needs to be completely pure most days. When you have those weekly cheats, you’ll be able to feel the difference.
2. Unless you are personally cooking your 3 meals a day 7 days a week and reading every single ingredient list you come across, you are eating more than you think. Anytime you eat someone else’s food whether it be at a friends house or restaurant, you are likely consuming more of something than you think. With trans fat, since so many places may secretly use it, the only way to safely and effectively moderate it, is to when you are in control, have zero to leave a little bit of slack for the unknown. For this same reason, moderating by making sure your product contains below a certain number of grams is also ineffective.
3. Again in specific regards to trans-fat, replace the bold words with “chemicals” or “lead.”
It’s ok to eat trans fat occasionally. As long as I don’t eat trans fat everyday, it can’t be that bad. Trans fats are fine in moderation.
See how ridiculous this sounds? You hopefully wouldn’t want to consume ANY chemicals and by eating trans fat, you are!
Are you a victim of a faulty moderation system? It’s time to rethink it!
Many local citizens of Seattle have likely seen, shopped, or at least heard of the Rising Sun Farms produce market located on 65th and 15th Ave. N.E.
From the design of the place, it very much resembles that of a farmers market which also implies that it has the same quality as such. Another thing you may notice is the ridiculously cheap prices. How is this possible? I asked an employee.
It turns out Rising Sun Farms has absolutely zero quality standards and their only focus is providing produce as cheap as possible. The employee said they stock hardly any organic items and would bet that most of the products are sprayed with pesticides and likely are genetically modified.
If your concern is cheap fruits and vegetables, this may be a place for you. If you are looking for local, sustainable, organic, pure produce, I would suggest looking elsewhere (the place is located 2 blocks away from Whole Foods and 5 minutes from the Saturday University Farmer’s Market).
The default layout was just not doing it for me, so I have begun to change it up with a new look that more closely represents what this blog is about.
It is still under construction as I customize it more over the next few days. As always comments, suggestions, and complaints about the layout are welcome.
Do you know what’s in what you eat?
Two years ago Gil brought to you the first installment of “Simplistic Destruction” on the topic of trans fat and how it is hurting your health.
In this segment, whole new topics are covered including the problems with the typical western diet and how eating like your ancestors did may be the ultimate solution.
Come watch as Simplistic Destruction continues…
Simplistic Destruction 2 from Gil Butler on Vimeo.
Now that it is 2009, chain restaurants with 15 or more locations have to post calories, saturated fat, carbohydrates, and sodium on their menus.
In this post (rant) I will tell you why this is a bad idea and not what should be happening!
Let’s start with calories. As some know a calorie is the amount of energy required to heat 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius. Calories are energy and we need them.
Saturated fat is another thing we need.
In addition to being two things we need, there is another characteristic they both share. THEY AREN’T MAKING EVERYONE FAT!!!
Obesity is caused by:
-Trans Fat
-High fructose corn syrup
-Monosodium Glutamate
-Sugar
-Complex carbohydrates
-Fatty and processed meats
-Lack of adequate exercise
Our bodies are designed to handle calories and saturated fat. They are NOT designed to handle the other things on the list.
All the time people try to lose weight by following these low calorie and low fat diets. They typically don’t work, and are very miserable.
A processed frozen pot pie loaded with artificial ingredients but that only has a few grams of fat and is low in calories is not healthy!
An avocado has about 325 calories in it, and is also quite high in fat. Does this mean it is less healthful than a 100 calorie snack pack? Absolutely not!
This new labeling law leaves out the most important piece of nutritional information available. The ingredients list. If everything in there is real, then the amount of calories doesn’t matter because you are eating real food.
McDonald’s is not an unhealthy dangerous “food” establishment because their food is high in calories. It is a horrible and dangerous place because all their food has tons of trans fat and other artificial ingredients in it. If McDonald’s kept the amount of calories but changed all their food to 100% organic, people would stop dying from it!
Who goes to McDonald’s and doesn’t order something because it is too high in calories anyways? When people start to count calories, it greatly increases the risk of an eating disorder. Knowing that the salad you are about to eat still has quite a few calories might very well scare people off from eating it. They may even go order some french fries instead after seeing it is near the same amount of calories. Calories also sets an automatic signal of disapproval and makes eating less enjoyable.
When you are eating the world’s healthiest foods (lean grass-fed meats, all natural free ranged chicken, fish, fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts) the amount of calories is completely not important.
King County, if you are going to do something, please let it be telling us what is in what we are eating, not how much energy is packed in it! Unfortunately that is not what they are doing, so this site will hopefully help people.
Today browsing the isles of Metropolitan Market I found some Microwave Kettle Corn made by Pop Secret.
Curious as always, I checked to see if and how much trans fat was in it.
One serving of this particular item contained 6 grams of trans fat. As ridiculous as that seems, it only gets worse.
In each bag, there are 3 servings, making a total of 18 grams of trans fat in a single bag.
Each box had 12 bags which means by the time the whole box is empty, whoever ate this has consumed 216 grams of trans fat.
0.5 grams is already too much, I was and still am shocked to think that a product that bad is on the shelf.
According to Amazon.com however, it is not bad at all:
“Excellent source whole grain. Good source fiber. 0 grams sugar.”
It may be whole grain, it may have fiber, and no sugar, but it at this point holds the record for the highest amount of trans fat that I have ever seen. If you find something with more, please leave a comment.
http://shop.safeway.com/dnet/RichProductInformation.aspx?promo_window=1&bpn=109300619
Today, the ban of trans fats in New York city expanded to all items served in restaurants. Previously, only oil and spreads were limited.
Any item served within the city limits must have 0.5 grams or less per serving of trans fat.
While it is not truly trans fat free, it is still less than before.
Source: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2008/pr041-08.shtml
This new section is in response to the many foods that people eat thinking they are healthful for lunch. Right now, just basic common foods are in there, but more will be added in the coming weeks.
If you learned something from it, please leave a comment here!
I spoke with an employee at Whole Foods in Roosevelt Square today and he said he knew for a fact the beef served in their salad bar, deli, etc was not grass fed.
He did not know what it was fed, only that it was not grass (likely corn or grain).
I was quite surprised at this and because of it, I would suggest to seriously moderate your intake.
Edit: To clarify, it is just the prepared foods section I am talking about. Whole Foods still sells 100% organic grass-fed meat in their raw section and is some of the finest beef available. Additionally, the beef in the prepared foods area, while not 100% grass-fed is still fed grass up to 2/3rds of the animal’s life and then finished on grains. It is still completely hormone and antibiotic free and is in no way “cheap” beef. Also, the poultry and other items in the Whole Foods prepared foods section is extremely high quality and does not have any negative attributes.
Whole Foods still holds my vote for the highest quality grocery store in the country.