I have become, as I like to say, Carnibbleous. What's that mean? Well, it's low carb with a vengeance. I am eating nothing but meat and eggs, with adequate spices of course. In sticking to my philosophy of food should be fun I do use garlic, onion, lemon juice, spices, herbs and even continue to eat the occasional egg custard with non-caloric sweetener.
Why? Well, after the holidays my weight went up a couple of pounds but it seemed like I was much fatter than my weight. It wasn't coming down by my usual techniques so knowing there's a growing trend on the low carb forum I frequent towards eating meat-only, I figured I would give it a try. I've done it before, for about a week. It was ok, I lost a quick 5 pounds, but that was before my metabolism seemed to utterly derail about a year ago.
So I started again this time, thinking it would maybe be a week or two and I could shed some quick weight. Ha! I knew I was kidding myself. Nothing is ever quick about weight loss for me. I have the metabolism of a anesthetized tree-sloth. I can reduce my calories drastically and maintain my weight. I'm looking into possible hormonal reasons, especially involving leptin resistance or perhaps thyroid resistance, for this but for now just know that I'm a very disciplined dieter and things just don't work for me that should.
So I'm a couple weeks into this all-meat thing, I started before my monthly cycle. I seem to have about 7-10 days of a weight loss window because after that, hormonal changes happen and it all just stops. So my first 10 days of being a carnivore was just pretty much nothing happened. Now that the monthly cycle is over, I've managed to drop a few pounds. About 4 or so.
But the interesting thing with carnivory is how one feels about food. You would think, wow eating nothing but meat has got to be boring. But with a few cooking skills meat is utterly wonderful. So wonderful we usually make it the centerpiece of our meals, right? Or at least, that was what we did traditionally. When I'm carnivorous I do get hungry and very interested in eating. So I have my meat or eggs and then my interest in eating shuts off entirely and doesn't come back for a very long time, depending on how much meat I had and what type.
So a typical day of eating for me might be:
Morning: A nice sized Italian sausage with nose-searing mustard.
Lunch: A large pork chop with duck reduction sauce.
Late Dinner: Another sausage -- maybe a small bowl of custard.
At lunch I get so full I don't eat again until 8pm or later. And dinner is quite small, as is breakfast.
Now why am I not bored? Good grief, I have 2 meals that are nearly identical? Well, maybe this me or perhaps it has something to do with eating nothing but meat but I just don't get tired of it. When hunger comes it comes on pretty strong and the saying "appetite is the best sauce" is very, very true. Everything tastes extremely good when you're really hungry. I experimented with Intermittent Fasting for awhile and found that food never tasted so good as when you are really and truly hungry and have been so for awhile. Well, it seems my all-meat experience does the same thing.
Simplicity
One thing I think makes a diet successful is simplicity and nothing is more simple than eating nothing but meat and eggs. You don't get hung up on rules or counting anything. Also the meal preparation for me is usually extremely easy. I have my sous vide setup which I use daily, then just sear my meat. One time I had some lamb stew which was lamb meat, egg, lemon, spices. Wonderful stuff. I made the mustard crusted chicken, and have another batch ready to go.
With Sous Vide I can do things like prepackage the pork chops with a pat of compound butter (made with fresh thyme and roasted garlic) and drop it in the bath in the morning. At lunch I remove it and sear it. Warm my duck sauce in the microwave and serve it with that. I bought a bunch of super thick pork chops at Costco for a great price. When I run out of meat, I think I'll go for the lamb stew again.
Anyway, that is carnivory as I practice it, in a nut-shell. I feel fine. In fact, my IBS issues are non-existent when I do this so it leads me to believe there's something in the plant kingdom my gut really doesn't like that I haven't figured out yet. My energy levels are fine, for me, and my arthritis seems better. In some ways it makes me a little sad, I love eating plants, but if one feels better NOT eating them, it seems obvious doesn't it?
Well lets see how this goes, it is still early in the process.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Celebrating Saturated Fat
Anyone familiar with me knows I have no fear of saturated fat, what scares me is the crazy engineered "factory" fats that people eat.
Anyway, two important reports came out recently about the non-danger of saturated fats and were roundly ignored by the press. I'm not sure why the press ignores these, you'd think people would want to know?
But I'm going to collect and publish everything I find on the topic right here in this article and I'll update it periodically.
An excellent article from Men's health quoting lipid research Dr. Ronald Krauss (who used to be a lipophobe I believe).
Dr. Briffa blogs about 2 recent studies that exonerate saturated fat: Saturated fat does not cause heart disease
"Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease" -- The conclusion is that saturated fat does not contribute to heart disease. This is Dr. Ronald Krauss again, who Dr. Steven Guyenet describes as "one of the most prominent lipid researchers in the world".
Strange how quickly the popular press will jump on any schlocky science as long as it vilifies meat and fat but they pretty much ignore anything shedding light on the contrary. However, we have an growing independent media now amongst the people who blog and post on forums and such. There are many, many doctors doing this too and it is refreshing to have all these wonderful sources of truly independent thinkers available.
Update 1/20/2010 -- Later same day
Another article from Dr. Krauss, that Dr. Steven Guyenet blogs about showing that replacing saturated fat with refined carbohydrates is a bad idea. What's a refined carbohydrate? My definition is anything that's been processed in a factory. That would include so-called "healthy whole grains". They're full of lectins and phytates that actually prevent you from being able to absorb minerals and vitamins. Oddly enough, white rice might be a little better than brown rice, in that the bran contains a lot of the bad stuff.
Anyway, two important reports came out recently about the non-danger of saturated fats and were roundly ignored by the press. I'm not sure why the press ignores these, you'd think people would want to know?
But I'm going to collect and publish everything I find on the topic right here in this article and I'll update it periodically.
An excellent article from Men's health quoting lipid research Dr. Ronald Krauss (who used to be a lipophobe I believe).
Dr. Briffa blogs about 2 recent studies that exonerate saturated fat: Saturated fat does not cause heart disease
"Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease" -- The conclusion is that saturated fat does not contribute to heart disease. This is Dr. Ronald Krauss again, who Dr. Steven Guyenet describes as "one of the most prominent lipid researchers in the world".
Strange how quickly the popular press will jump on any schlocky science as long as it vilifies meat and fat but they pretty much ignore anything shedding light on the contrary. However, we have an growing independent media now amongst the people who blog and post on forums and such. There are many, many doctors doing this too and it is refreshing to have all these wonderful sources of truly independent thinkers available.
Update 1/20/2010 -- Later same day
Another article from Dr. Krauss, that Dr. Steven Guyenet blogs about showing that replacing saturated fat with refined carbohydrates is a bad idea. What's a refined carbohydrate? My definition is anything that's been processed in a factory. That would include so-called "healthy whole grains". They're full of lectins and phytates that actually prevent you from being able to absorb minerals and vitamins. Oddly enough, white rice might be a little better than brown rice, in that the bran contains a lot of the bad stuff.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Lemony, Meaty Stew
This stew is so fabulous! I got the original recipe from a book with 300 stew recipes but I've made a few changes. The original calls for lamb but you could really use any meat one would roast with or stew.
2 pounds of meat, cut into large chunks (they'll shrink).
Juice of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks
salt & pepper
Fresh herbs (optional) -- I think thyme, rosemary, marjoram might all be good choices.
1/2 cup of wine (I used red, but white is what the original recipe calls for)
1-2 large cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
3 Tbl of onion minced (I used half of a largish onion, and only sliced it, didn't mince)
1/4 cup of oil
In a nice stewpot cook the meat in the oil until browned. About 10 minutes or so. Throw in the onion and the garlic and cook until those are softened. Dump in the wine and reduce over high heat for about 10 minutes. This is the point I would throw in those fresh herbs. I used thyme this last time (heh!).
Cover and cook at a simmer over lowish heat until the meat is fork tender, which will be at least an hour, maybe longer. If it starts looking dry in the pot add water as needed. Mine never got dry.
When the meat is nice and tender, mix together the egg and lemon juice and beat well with a fork. Take the simmering stew off the fire.
Now take a tablespoon or so of the hot broth from the stew and add it to the egg mixture. And beat it in well. Keep doing that until you've slowly raised the temperature of the eggs. Then lastly pour the egg mixture into the stew and stir well. If you do it right you'll get an amazingly thick broth that's creamy and ever so satisfying. If you heat up the eggs too fast, you'll get bits of scrambled eggs in the broth.
Salt & Pepper to taste.
2 pounds of meat, cut into large chunks (they'll shrink).
Juice of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks
salt & pepper
Fresh herbs (optional) -- I think thyme, rosemary, marjoram might all be good choices.
1/2 cup of wine (I used red, but white is what the original recipe calls for)
1-2 large cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
3 Tbl of onion minced (I used half of a largish onion, and only sliced it, didn't mince)
1/4 cup of oil
In a nice stewpot cook the meat in the oil until browned. About 10 minutes or so. Throw in the onion and the garlic and cook until those are softened. Dump in the wine and reduce over high heat for about 10 minutes. This is the point I would throw in those fresh herbs. I used thyme this last time (heh!).
Cover and cook at a simmer over lowish heat until the meat is fork tender, which will be at least an hour, maybe longer. If it starts looking dry in the pot add water as needed. Mine never got dry.
When the meat is nice and tender, mix together the egg and lemon juice and beat well with a fork. Take the simmering stew off the fire.
Now take a tablespoon or so of the hot broth from the stew and add it to the egg mixture. And beat it in well. Keep doing that until you've slowly raised the temperature of the eggs. Then lastly pour the egg mixture into the stew and stir well. If you do it right you'll get an amazingly thick broth that's creamy and ever so satisfying. If you heat up the eggs too fast, you'll get bits of scrambled eggs in the broth.
Salt & Pepper to taste.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tomatoes in December
My tomato vine is doing better this winter than it did all summer, but it was too cold to ripen the tomatoes. So, I decided to try to just cut it way down, nearly to the ground and I took all the unblemished, unripened fruit off.
Monday, December 28, 2009
More about binge eating
Just ran across this article today: Why some continue to eat when full. It basically describes how ghrelin, a hormone connected to eating and appetite, works to keep us eating.
Scientists previously have linked increased levels of ghrelin to intensifying the rewarding or pleasurable feelings one gets from cocaine or alcohol. Dr. Zigman said his team speculated that ghrelin might also increase specific rewarding aspects of eating.
Are we helpless in the face of all this biology working against us? No, we should be able to outwit Mr. Lizard Brain, as I discussed in that posting.
Dr. Mario Perello, postdoctoral researcher in internal medicine and lead author of the current study, said the idea was to determine "why someone who is stuffed from lunch still eats -- and wants to eat -- that high-calorie dessert."
Any over-eater worth their salt already knew about the "dessert box". That's the portion of your stomach that never gets full when presented with delicious things you want to eat. Dinner food is great and all, but I can get full on meat and veggies and not want to eat more. However, the "dessert box" is always empty (or almost always).
Scientists previously have linked increased levels of ghrelin to intensifying the rewarding or pleasurable feelings one gets from cocaine or alcohol. Dr. Zigman said his team speculated that ghrelin might also increase specific rewarding aspects of eating.
Are we helpless in the face of all this biology working against us? No, we should be able to outwit Mr. Lizard Brain, as I discussed in that posting.
Dr. Mario Perello, postdoctoral researcher in internal medicine and lead author of the current study, said the idea was to determine "why someone who is stuffed from lunch still eats -- and wants to eat -- that high-calorie dessert."
Any over-eater worth their salt already knew about the "dessert box". That's the portion of your stomach that never gets full when presented with delicious things you want to eat. Dinner food is great and all, but I can get full on meat and veggies and not want to eat more. However, the "dessert box" is always empty (or almost always).
Friday, December 18, 2009
Simple Chicken Wings
I am enjoying the heck out of my new range.
Anyway, yesterday I found some frozen chicken wings (raw) in the freezer and defrosted them. Actually, I wasn't sure what the heck part of the chicken they were, they were frozen into a solid block. So I defrosted them and saw one of my favorite parts of the chicken, the wing!
Here is a super easy recipe. 3 ingredient...
Chicken wings
Butter
Louisiana Style Hot Sauce (or whatever your favorite brand is).
Melt some butter, pour in some hot sauce. Coat the wings. Broil them a bit far from the heat source, I use the 2nd from the top rack spot and that worked fine. About 5 minutes, paint on more sauce and flip, another 5 minutes. Paint and flip once more. They should be crispy and browned.
Oh yes, cover your pan with foil for easy clean up!
I like to dip these guys in mayonnaise.
Anyway, yesterday I found some frozen chicken wings (raw) in the freezer and defrosted them. Actually, I wasn't sure what the heck part of the chicken they were, they were frozen into a solid block. So I defrosted them and saw one of my favorite parts of the chicken, the wing!
Here is a super easy recipe. 3 ingredient...
Chicken wings
Butter
Louisiana Style Hot Sauce (or whatever your favorite brand is).
Melt some butter, pour in some hot sauce. Coat the wings. Broil them a bit far from the heat source, I use the 2nd from the top rack spot and that worked fine. About 5 minutes, paint on more sauce and flip, another 5 minutes. Paint and flip once more. They should be crispy and browned.
Oh yes, cover your pan with foil for easy clean up!
I like to dip these guys in mayonnaise.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
More Sous Vide Shortcuts
Since I made a batch of nose-searing mustard I decided it was time to eat a bunch of sausages. I bought some Italian sausages and packaged them up with my food saver. Threw some in the freezer and some in the Sous Vide at 165'. Then they're all cooked and ready to be popped into the microwave for a fast reheat and doused in my lovely mustard. So easy!
Another shortcut to mention is in fermenting things. I keep the house around 68 degrees in the winter which is kind of cool if you're trying to make a batch of Creme Fraiche or kefir. So I put whatever I'm cultivating into a jar and set it in the Sous Vide at 80-86 degrees and it goes much faster than letting it happen at 68 degrees.
Right now I'm trying to resurrect some kefir grains I had dried from several years ago. I'm not sure it's going to work but I got a quart of milk and I'm going to give it a try. My hope is to use it to make some sour dough starter using coconut flour. This is a project I only give a small chance of success, on many levels.
If I were eating yogurt then the SV would be absolutely awesome. Heating the milk to 85c (185f) according to this article about yogurt observed under an electron microscope puts more nubbies (lack of scientific term entirely my fault) on casein molecules which means your yogurt will be thicker and nicer. So, if you're doing Sous Vide, give it a shot! The recommended temperature is 185-194 degrees for 10 minutes. Let it cool, of course, before adding in your starter. Then you could stick it back in the SV for 12 hours or however long you like to culture it, but at 80 degrees or thereabouts.
How to Make Creme Fraiche
I suppose it's cruel of me to mention making creme fraiche and not tell you how I do it. I don't know exactly how authentic this method is but it is what I do, or did rather, I don't use dairy products much any longer. I take about a cup or two of heavy cream and add about 1 Tbl of sour cream, or cultured buttermilk, per cup of cream. Mix well and let it sit until it becomes very thick. This ordinarily takes a few days but in the SV at 80-86 degrees it doesn't take so long. Maybe 24 hours. Refrigerate after it thickens up. It gets even thicker.
Another shortcut to mention is in fermenting things. I keep the house around 68 degrees in the winter which is kind of cool if you're trying to make a batch of Creme Fraiche or kefir. So I put whatever I'm cultivating into a jar and set it in the Sous Vide at 80-86 degrees and it goes much faster than letting it happen at 68 degrees.
Right now I'm trying to resurrect some kefir grains I had dried from several years ago. I'm not sure it's going to work but I got a quart of milk and I'm going to give it a try. My hope is to use it to make some sour dough starter using coconut flour. This is a project I only give a small chance of success, on many levels.
If I were eating yogurt then the SV would be absolutely awesome. Heating the milk to 85c (185f) according to this article about yogurt observed under an electron microscope puts more nubbies (lack of scientific term entirely my fault) on casein molecules which means your yogurt will be thicker and nicer. So, if you're doing Sous Vide, give it a shot! The recommended temperature is 185-194 degrees for 10 minutes. Let it cool, of course, before adding in your starter. Then you could stick it back in the SV for 12 hours or however long you like to culture it, but at 80 degrees or thereabouts.
How to Make Creme Fraiche
I suppose it's cruel of me to mention making creme fraiche and not tell you how I do it. I don't know exactly how authentic this method is but it is what I do, or did rather, I don't use dairy products much any longer. I take about a cup or two of heavy cream and add about 1 Tbl of sour cream, or cultured buttermilk, per cup of cream. Mix well and let it sit until it becomes very thick. This ordinarily takes a few days but in the SV at 80-86 degrees it doesn't take so long. Maybe 24 hours. Refrigerate after it thickens up. It gets even thicker.
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