A Rude Awakening?

Stanley Coren trumps the CrossFit cult classic Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival with his book called Sleep Thieves. Robustly referenced by a legitimate professional sleep researcher, I would even hazard to call Sleep Thieves a "real" book, by comparison. While it is slightly "old" considering it was written in 1994, this book gives a helluva better explanation of why sleep is important to people and why we do it in the first place.

Sleep Thieves was recommended to me by my faculty advisor who used to work on nuclear subs for the Navy. He was particularly interested in the book because of how it addresses shift work and what that does to sleepy populations, especially when that work requires high attention to detail. The chapters about shift work, including professions like pilots, nuclear plant operators, truck drivers and machinists....these folks, and many others, are all on this type of schedule....are frankly pretty scary. Stealing sleep from these people endangers the entire population and could be considered a public health risk. Think: planes falling out of the sky and mushroom clouds.

If you have sleep issues, wonder why you get tired after lunch, or wonder if it is really safe to drive if you're tired, read this book. If you want to know about dreaming and what happens to your body during sleep, read this book. If you have children growing up and you're wondering why they won't freaking take a nap when you want them too, or aren't doing well in school, read this book. (In fact, I think every new mom and dad and every PTA organization should, and then consider changing the schedule of classes accordingly.) If you think you need 9 hours or more of sleep a day, you could be right....or you could be just fine....unless you're running a sleep debt. Also, you might highly consider staying off the road after daylight savings time in spring, or taking a short siesta in the afternoon, but you'll have to read the book to find out why.

Bottom line: great book, it's not too long and the chapters are easy to digest. Highly, highly recommended, especially if you're into increasing your own lifetime or improving your performance and health.

Sugar Sensitivity and Satiety

This book I actually happily found at my dad's apartment when we were sorting through his things. I had never heard of this book, nor did dad ever mention he was reading it. For Christmas, I bought him Good Calories, Bad Calories, I found that one too...he never finished it. :(

Prior to his death I had been encouraging him to go low-carb to improve his health and immune system - he'd lost a bunch of body fat and had started going back to the gym, which was his goal. (He was battling some very severe, but manageable illnesses - my thanks to Big Pharma for the years they did actually give me with him. Unfortunately knowledge of those does not make the suddenness of his death any better, since he was only 58.) But, this one, he had gone through and marked the pages up. I know how he scored on some of the self-tests. It's reassuring. I'm very proud of him. He was working on himself, and making progress. I knew this because he would tell me about it.

Clearly not recalling that I was in the middle of (at minimum) three other books at the time, I immediately started into this one after the funeral. Like a normal diet book (which it is), Potatoes Not Prozac, reads fairly quickly. Mostly because....well, once you've read one diet book you at least understand the progression of the standard format:

1. Present argument
2. Support argument with scientific studies of relevant and/or potentially questionable nature (bonus: relevant studies included!)
3. Testimonials (bonus: NO testimonials!)
4. Rules of Diet
   
5. More explanatory "scientific studies" for support
   
6. "You Can Do It!" supportive conclusion
   

The title, is, regrettably, not ideal for those of us low-carbers/Paleoliths. Which prods the question, why would I read this at all?

Well, one of the best ways to determine the legitimacy of a book - thank you grad school - is to check the back of the book. How long is the list of references (if it exists), and what articles/books are referenced (if any)? PnP's list was pretty long, and immediately legitimate because it referenced Protein Power by Drs. Eades. My sense of it was that the woman who wrote it was publishing the results of her own graduate studies, personal weight-loss experience and her following medical practice in treatment of addictive behaviors (like alcoholism and drugs, and, as we might also add, sugar, and....CrossFit too!)

This book interestingly portrayed how hormones influence the brain, specifically in reference to addictive behaviors and the hormones involved: serotonin and dopamine to name a few. These particular chemicals moderate mood in complex ways that are baaaaad to mess with, especially through the use of supplemental or hormone-moderating drugs.

Admittedly, the bizarre part of the book - the part that made me initially skeptical about the weight-loss plot - her whole thing with potatoes was that they appeared to be the best of the worst on her "carb spectrum" because they have a very high "satiety index." Satiety index is a metric that ranks the satisfaction level of a certain food that is derived by an eater. It is based on socioscientific surveying principles that measure people's psychological response to certain foods. Potatoes score a 323 as compared to a basic piece of white bread (100). Notice how meat (neither lean nor fatty) was not included in the original study, nor was it in the book.

Morals of the book that are important to digest, if you will:

• Sugar cravings are both a physical and psychological battle, and striking a balance between the two is where success is discovered.
• Regardless of the type of stimulus (sugar, drug, stimulant, depressant), the body has a natural response to it. Much of this is beyond our control, but the reactions can be moderated to some extent.
• Systems can become easily out of balance through additional use of these stimuli. Permanent damage can happen, and so can death. Not many people recognize the symptoms of "overdose" or "overuse" unfortunately, and those who do take part in a life-long struggle to manage something that is hugely difficult to control and overcome.
  

Other tidbits:

I particularly enjoyed the probably unintentional humor built into her simple "Carb Spectrum" (for Dummies could easily be added here). The spectrum ranged from white to brown to yellow to green. Apparently baked potatoes are "brown." Of course, the whitest of the white is pure white sugar, while the greenest and least digestible is "wood." But guess I can't knock on it until I've tried it. ;)

[Editor's note: original date of post was 7/19/09 but I only finished half of it before I got sad and had to put the thoughts down for a while.]

Vegetarian Myths

Gotta Be the Shoes

After 2.5 years of doing this stuff....I figured I'd share some recent PRs.

9/19/09 - Overhead Squat - 74 kg (BW)
9/21/09 - "Helen" - 10:50

Max pullups is hanging on at a solid 27 and Fran is fairly true to form at 5:40 but that was after several weeks not training, which is good.

Just purchased a pair of Jana Star Waffle III cross-country racing shoes by Nike. They are awesome and fluorescent blue just like my hair, with heels no more than 1/2 an inch. After a week of CrossFit, including FGB IV coming up this weekend, I will see how they are holding up and possibly purchase another pair or two.

Spoonable Tomato Moo Floss

If you have ever been annoyed that there are superfluous vegetables in your stew, well here is a recipe you should try out.

Garlic Moo Stoo
1 lb grassfed beef stew meat
1 can (large) organic diced tomatoes (unflavored)
7 medium cloves garlic, chopped in large chunks
5 shakes minced dried onion
2 shakes of dried parsley
2 shakes thyme
2 shakes rosemary
1 bay leaf
2 shakes marjoram
4 tbsp organic red wine vinegar
2 tbsp organic olive oil
2 large pinches sea salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tomato can of water or organic beef broth

Put all that stuff in a Crockpot, on high, for 3-4 hours. Grassfed beef cooks faster than conventional beef (not to mention it tastes better), so you can choose selectively to overcook if you wish (spoonable tomato moo floss) or you can also cook it to rare (still moo stooing) in the center. Do it in a pot: 2 hours, on high. Do it in the day: 8 hours, slow (and easy, yeah baby, yeah).

Editor's Note: I have heard through conventional wisdom that tomato juice helps cure hangovers. I cannot find any reasonable research on the topic to verify or support this claim. Therefore, I recommend a hearty breakfast of Garlic Moo Stoo based on unconventional wisdom. Garlic Moo Stoo:

1. Adds water, protein and fat to offset a clearly insulin-overloaded metabolic process,
2. Includes tomato on superstitious/conventionally wise basis only,
3. Is delicious,
4. Covers up potential vomit-breath with the step up of garlic-breath, and
5. Includes magical vampire-warding-off capabilities (bonus!).

Adventures in Gluten-Free Baking: Episode 1 - The Coconut Flour Experiment

I cannot even remember the last time I baked something other than meat (let alone the last time I baked meat) but for whatever reason today I was inspired to use the kitchen in a non-standard way.

Today I tried coconut flour baking and it was highly amusing. I originally titled this post "Chocolate Salty Balls" but figured that it wasn't quite representative of what actually came out of my first tribulations with gluten-free baking. I found a relatively sugarless recipe for "chocolate cookies" on this site for organic coconut flour baking: http://www.tiana-coconut.com/coconut_flour_recipes.htm. (The recipe is somewhere midway down the page.)


You may, as I did, first note that the chocolate cookies recipe I found was clearly smoking crack and/or otherwise full of lies. Somehow magically, less than 1 cup of material was supposed to make 16 cookies. Maybe they are supposed to be midget cookies, but I doubt it.

Second, I was slightly handicapped in this attempt as I only had one egg. But, since the size of the recipe was suspect in the first place, I decided to have a go at it and make some other small concessions in the recipe at the same time. I also despise white granulated sugar, and while sugar is sugar, the idea of "brown" sugar makes it seem healthier so I used all brown sugar instead of white (I wish I had access to organic/raw turbinado but alas, I did not).

Also another minor snafu (I would never make it on Iron Chef): apparently we don't have a whisk, so I just used one of the hand-mixer spindles. This could have been why the drop "cookies" never even considered the idea of flattening out on the tray while in the oven....the first batch basically wound up looking like chocolate testicles. Trying to avoid another batch of dark chocolate balls, the second batch appeared a bit more promising because I flattened them like you would with peanut butter cookies using a fork. Nothing at all happened in the oven, they just sat there and apparently got warm. No puffing up, no browning or anything. Surreal.

I used only the 1/3 measuring cup for everything that was 1/3 or 1/4 cup on the recipe because I don't like to generate dishes to wash when it is not necessary. Altogether it made 8 cookies (with my single egg). I suggest if you try any of these recipes multiply the amount of butter needed by at least 133%. They came out a little bit dry, but are chewy and soft, which is promising as well. They taste like brownies, not cookies though - I attribute this to the egg and the 1:1 ratio of cocoa to coconut flour. I assume the dryness can be helped with more butter and possibly the addition of two other eggs, though I am afraid that the additional eggs would take away the chewiness and might burn more easily.

Cool nutrition facts: turns out cocoa powder is a rockin' ingredient in the protein and fiber department, and coconut flour is also very high in dietary fiber. Consequently, these are pretty low carb cookies. Here's the dietary breakdown (reminder, with only 1 egg) per 1.25 oz cookie:

9.2 g fat
5.7 g saturated fat
2.6 g unsaturated fat
14 g carbs
3 g dietary fiber
3 g protein (4.5 g with 3 eggs)

Approximately 11g net carbs per serving, which is pretty good for a dessert. One could consider making these with some sort of whey or other protein powder to bump up the protein content from 3g per cookie to something like 7 or 8 to match the carb content, or some lucky folks can add some nuts like almonds to do the same. I'll pass on the nuts though, and maybe just enjoy the cookies with a nice glass of warm milk.

Pollan-ated

In the wake of my dad's passing, I've engaged in quest to return normalcy and stability in my life. A death is a supremely emotionally difficult thing to handle, and it basically completely overshadowed all of the smaller joys and stresses in my life. Honestly, it still does and I don't know when those feelings will go away. There isn't much else to do than deal with it and maybe breathe a bit.

So I've been trying to finish things that I started prior to my loss....one at a time. There are so many of these, it really surprises me to become aware of them. Holy cow, am I a busy woman! All my nine irons in the fire, really, are probably about ninety, and there are still more coming out of the woodwork. One of them, CrossFit, is in its own unique way cathartic, but also I needed something that was just quiet and calm for a little while. Like reading about food or something I enjoy in a different way than the post-workout rush of endorphins after extreme physical stress.

The stress, including the stress from teaching that sustainability class (which ended on the day dad died), must have been pretty overwhelming, and I realized that I'd started four books over the last five months. I'd never really done that before (start things and knowingly stopping the simple things, like reading a book, without finishing them), so it is very much a feeling of accomplishment to announce that I finished two of them in the last few days, and the one that my man and I are reading together is almost halfway finished. (Now, only one left! Normalcy, here I come!) But before I forget, I'll share the reviews.

Today, I finished The Botany of Desire (another one by Michael Pollan). Fortunately, I have a very short review of it.

Two words: "eloquent nannering."

Well, perhaps that short review is undeservingly harsh, since the last chapter certainly helped redeem the rest of the book...to some extent. (Though not to the extent I'd recommend it unless you're a botanist or gardener.) After the Omnivore's Dilemma, for whatever reason I expected this one to be another groundbreaking, paradigm-shifting, eye-opener. Alas, one good book does not always a good writer make.

Aside from the philosophical verbal vomit, which Pollan always seems to manage so artfully, (such that it is actually not just plain verbal vomit, but reading it makes you feel SMARTER, yes!) the book was difficult to get through. It just wasn't that interesting. I do remember I deliberately put this one down a few times just out of plain boredom.

For whatever reason, I think the final chapter was his best written and most thoughtful of the whole book. In about 45 pages, you will probably read more unnerving things about actual Big Agra practices that are just about as unsettling as the Dilemma, also somewhat reminiscent of Fast Food Nation. If you liked those books, go read that chapter in a few sittings at Barnes & Noble over a few cups of coffee.

It wasn't until he started talking potatoes that the writer-reader link had been effectively Pollanized. Why? While he offers an interesting perspective on apples, tulips, and perhaps a little too much perspective on marijuana, the seller was definitely the potato chapter. I should say, the genetically-modified patented NewLeaf potato by Monsanto chapter, was the seller. This potato has been transgenically changed such that it produces its own pesticide, called Bt (bacillus thuringiensis)...which is in the leaves, and the stem, the pollen, the flowers AND THE POTATO. Sounds tasty, doesn't it? What's unnerving....you and I both have very likely eaten this before.

I don't remember reading as much in depth editorial opinion in the Omnivore's Dilemma about GMO, but this particular chapter does a wonderful job of expanding on that can of worms in the context of sustainable agriculture. So wonderful, in fact, I'm going to use it next year in my course reader for my sustainability class, to engage them at the beginning of the quarter. At least some fervent discussion might come from it, and maybe some paradigm shifts with that.