What to eat

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So, just what DO you eat?

OystersInShells

2014 Meals Aboard

Everyone we talk to about our LCHF way of living inevitably asks, “So, just what DO you eat?” Most people simply cannot conceive of not eating grains or legumes or giving up sugar (including most fruits). And all that fat! Horrors! The mire of false beliefs and misinformation surrounding how to eat for good health is deep. Of course, folks usually want to understand just what eating this way would look like. Thus, many have asked us to put together an LCHF cookbook. This will not happen. We are, however, very happy to recommend several essential guide books–even a few cookbooks!

Notwithstanding our lack of interest in publishing recipes, we do have a camera. Presented on our personal website is a small assortment of meals we enjoyed aboard Rikki-tikki-tavi during five months in British Columbia. I photographed the plates, dinners for the most part, as they were delivered to the table–no time for food styling! The food is simple, quickly prepared, and very satisfying. The ingredients you will see all store fairly well on the boat. It’s not 5-star, but the fare suits us just fine.

Breakfast is nearly always three eggs with bacon. Sometimes Clark will use sliced sausage and/or cheese. We snack lightly on almonds and macadamia nuts, cheeses and a good salami (if we can find one). We make pemmican with grassed beef and suet during the winter. It gets doled out judiciously. IF we eat lunch, which we often do not, it will likely be canned Cole’s sardines in olive oil or Bar Harbor Herring with Cracked Black Pepper. Usually we eat right out of the can, but you will see other ways of using these extremely health-giving little cold-water fish.

Dinner is a serving of animal protein, cooked in natural fats (butter, lard, suet, coconut oil), along with a serving of vegetables that are low in carbohydrate. Cauliflower and cabbage store especially well in the “bilge” under the floorboards, as do red peppers and onions. You will see these simple ingredients are a recurring theme, but we pick up other fresh vegetables along the way when possible. We buy local eggs and we catch a fish on occasion. We eat to live and we live well on what we eat.

So, let’s go to the photographs! Enjoy.

May all your meals be scrumptiously nutritious!
9ah & Clark

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LCHF Cookbook!

In the weeks leading up to the holidays, Costco always brings in a wide selection of cookbooks. This past October, we saw the usual plethora of gorgeous cookbooks that focused on baking, desserts, regional cuisines, and techniques. It was heartening to note that several Paleo cookbooks had joined the collection. The Paleo movement is several steps in the right direction–no processed foods, no grains, no legumes. It has made remarkable inroads into the general discussion about diet and we heartily support many of its tenets. However, it is important to remember that the Paleo diet is not necessarily low in carbohydrate. In Paleo recipes, we see far too much emphasis placed on recreating familiar favorites, especially sweet things. This is usually accomplished by replacing processed white sugar and HFCS with dried fruit, honey, or maple syrup–all still concentrated sugars. This is truly unfortunate because, as we see it, the root of our metabolic disorder is our habit of ignoring our basic paleolithic physiology. Humans are designed to use fat as their primary fuel.

Three times a day, plus several snacks, people around the world stoke with carbohydrate. This chronic consumption of carbohydrate interferes with the proper use of fats by “locking the door” to their access, so to speak. Glucose itself is not benign. This molecule is highly damaging to our tissues and so the body must use it immediately by burning it for fuel (getting out of our bloodstream) or storing it away for the future in glycogen, which only amounts to about 120g, and in unlimited amounts as fat in adipose tissue. Keep in mind that the latter cannot be utilized as fuel as long as we keep eating carbohydrate.

Fructose is unique in that our cells are unable to burn it for energy. Fructose, which is the sugar in fruit and the other half of table sugar (sucrose) and corn syrup (HFCS), must go to the liver to be processed, where it is turned into triglycerides–fat–and transported to the adipose tissue. Nor can we burn protein for fuel directly. These amino acids may be converted by the liver, when necessary, into glucose. This process is called gluconeogenesis. Essentially, there are only two sources of fuel for our cells–fats and glucose. Fats are the most efficient, the most stable. As Dr Ron Rosedale says, “If you are a fat burner, you will be healthy. If you’re a sugar burner, you’re not. It’s as simple as that.”

While I examined the glossy covers displayed atop the stacks of cookbooks that day in Costco, I suddenly stopped in my tracks. My eyes zeroed in on a title whose cover was buried beneath a pile of yet another Paleo cookbook. The Low Carb High Fat Cookbook. ♥ Wow ♥ Imagine my shock, surprise, and LCHF Cookbookdelight at discovering this gem! Written by Sten Stur Skaldeman, a Swede who adopted LCHF a dozen years ago and lost a great deal of weight, this is an eye-popping collection of 100 beautifully photographed recipes that are sure to convince you that this lifestyle is filled with a scrumptious variety of foods. If you happen to believe that a low-carb lifestyle is in any way boring or that a person cannot possibly hope to stick with it for any significant period of time, this book may inspire you to change your mind. The stylish presentation of each recipe is gorgeous and mouthwatering. Even though we are longtime practitioners of LCHF, a copy went home with us that day. Before leaving, I moved the remaining copies of this cookbook to the top so they could be seen! Hopefully, many more were sold. We have been recommending Sten’s book ever since.

May all your meals be deliciously LCHF,
9ah & Clark

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Healthier Food Choices

My husband, Clark, was surfing the craigslist “free stuff” section recently one afternoon when he came upon a listing for free glucometers. The address in the post (no phone number) was less than a mile from our winter home in Sacramento. We looked it up on Google Maps and discovered it belonged to a doctor’s office. We hustled right on down! We were happily supplied with two units and a nurse gave instruction on how to use them. I was the “stickee”. Before we left the office, they handed us a couple of copies of the American Dietetic/American Diabetes Associations joint publication booklet/poster titled “Healthy Food Choices”.

As I read the ADA/ADA guidelines on the way back to the house, I became more than a little irked with its bad advice. I calculated that if a person ate to this “healthy” plan, that individual would be consuming about 300 grams of carbohydrates each day! This plan, which is directed toward newly diagnosed diabetics, would guarantee a person remain diabetic and continue to suffer for decades with its complications, until they died. It is basically an insurance policy for keeping that diabetic firmly entrenched in the medical industry– and keep the money rolling in on the suffering of its freshly recruited victim. Of course, the consumption of the SAD (Standard American Diet) as mandated by our benevolent USDA likely was a major factor in the development of diabetes in the first place.

I was already well aware of the misguided American Diabetes Association advice but I couldn’t sit still after seeing this. Doctors were handing this booklet out to their patients! I felt compelled to do something. I couldn’t sit still for how this would keep people ill-informed, sick and getting sicker.

I know about being in this position. I became insulin resistant as I developed metabolic syndrome. I thought we were eating healthy! (Read my story.) Next step: diabetes. I refused to go there! Instead, I sought to learn how to reclaim my health. What I discovered literally saved my life. I did NOT follow my doctors’ advice, nor the advice of the ADA, and I am glad I didn’t. I followed the advice of Dr. Wolfgang Lutz’ “Life Without Bread: How a Low-Carbohydrate Diet Can Save Your Life”. Miracles happened. They can happen for you too. I just wish I had known the truth decades earlier!

It’s really not difficult for any of you to accomplish the same thing, especially if you have recently received a diagnosis of diabetes, or hypertension, or heart disease, or a lot of other things. Gout comes to mind and NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease). The list of diet-induced conditions is very lengthy.

Back to the revised food guide…

Using the same design format, I rewrote all the advice to conform to a low-carbohydrate, higher fat, adequate protein plan. For instance, where the ADA/ADA guide says, “Eat less fat.” I changed that to read, “Eat more fat”, listing “wholesome natural fats like butter, lard, coconut oil, and ghee.” I reworked the layout so it could be printed out on 8.5″ x 11″ paper. It “mimics” the original publication in appearance, but the information will actually lead you down the road to better health, not keep you “slip-sliding away”, as Paul Simon sang.

I have titled this new guide to eating “Healthier Food Choices”. It’s available as a free PDF download. Feel free to print it out. Please send copies to your friends and family. I want to get helpful information into the hands of folks who need it. I want to help disseminate the truth as we who live a healthy low-carb, higher fat, adequate protein life know it. A real food diet supports the body’s natural ability to maintain itself, build new cells, and repair damage. Your body has the ability to heal. It wants you to be well. It’s never too late, truly.

To your wellness, vitality and longevity!
Nina

Click the image
or on this link
Healthier Food Choices
to access the PDF.