The Paleo Rodeo #097

Welcome to this week's edition of The Paleo Rodeo!

The Paleo Rodeo is a weekly blog carnival featuring the best paleo-related posts by members of the PaleoBloggers e-mail list. The past editions of the Rodeo are collected on this page.

What is "paleo"? As I say in Modern Paleo Principles:

A "paleo" approach to health uses the evolutionary history of homo sapiens, plus the best of modern science, as a broad framework for guiding daily choices about diet, fitness, medicine, and supplementation. The core of paleo is the diet: it eschews grains, sugars, and modern vegetable oils in favor of high-quality meat, fish, eggs, and vegetables.

The purpose of The Paleo Rodeo is to highlight some of the best blogging of the ever-growing paleosphere.

Here is this week's edition:

Eddy presents TIP: Kill Dessert Cravings with Lemon posted at Health Freak Revolution, saying, "Still get sweet cravings sometimes? It has worked for some, could it work for you?"

Tony Federico presents Caveman Cuisine: Spicy Pig and Plantain Soup posted at FED - Fitness in an Evolutionary Direction, saying, "Make soup so good it will make you want to smack your paleolithic ancestors in three easy steps."

Suz Robinson presents Paleo Interventions posted at The Paleo Network, saying, "When you know a stranger would benefit from a Paleo trial - is it right to intervene?"

Ruth Almon presents Even A Stubborn American Can Learn New Tricks . . . posted at Ruth's Real Food, saying, "This is a fascinating guest post from Jen, a blogger at Real Food Freaks who is married to a Fillipino. She writes about how her attitude to the foods of his traditional culture have shifted over the years."

Nell Stephenson presents From Vegan to Paleo? What? posted at Paleoista.

Eddy presents Knowing What to Avoid is More Important Than What to Consume posted at Health Freak Revolution, saying, "Sometimes we forget that half the point of paleo is about AVOIDING certain things; toxins, artificials and processing as much as eating meat and veg. Do you always spot the misleading products when shopping?"

Sean Booth presents Bone Broth Redux! posted at Old Fashioned Upgrades, saying, "A look back at how easy it is to make mineral rich bone broth in only 2885 minutes!"

Nancy Atwell presents Do You Vary Your Eating Routine? posted at Ancestral Crone.

Hadass Eviatar presents Dr. Terry Wahls - A Prophet for Our Time posted at My Coat of Many Colours.

Kris presents Teenagers, Milk and Advanced Prostate Cancer posted at Kris Health Blog, saying, "A study came out recently about the association between milk consumption in adolescent years, and risk of advanced prostate cancer later in life."

Neely Quinn presents How Much Food Should You Eat? posted at Paleo Plan.

Joe Lindley presents Paula Deen Endorses Victoza for Diabetics and Suggests the Wrong Diet posted at Stop Craving Sugar..., saying, "With all the hoopla online and on national TV about Paula Deen's diagnosis as a Type 2 Diabetic (see yesterday's post on Paula Deen and Anthony Bourdain) I found myself puzzled over the "example" she is setting for the public in terms of medication and diet. She has picked Victoza by Novo Nordisk as the Diabetes medication she now endorses.She waited 3 years to announce her diagnosis, which has caused some to criticize her for promoting high carb and high fat recipes during that time - food choices which are bad for most of us, especially diabetics. In her defense, she says she waited in order to study Type 2 Diabetes so she could make an informed decision on her own health and provide a good example for her fans. When I looked deeper into exactly what she is doing for her own treatment I became concerned."

Jedha presents Paleo Diet Beans And Legumes posted at Paleo Diet Blog.

Meghan Little presents Paleo Bang Bang Shrimp, A Thai Sweet, Fried Seafood Dinner Idea posted at Paleo Effect, saying, "This recipe for Bang Bang Shrimp is sweet and sour with a little baby kicker at the end. beautifully crispy and delicious! Find this and more at www.paleoeffect.com or find us on Facebook!"

Ritu Riyat presents Are you SMART? posted at Nutritionize!.

Riki Shore presents Spiced Butternut Squash Soup with Pancetta and Fried Onions posted at Three Squares, saying, "The warming spice blend in this soup contains a smoky chile pepper from Turkey called Urfa Biber - delicious with butternut squash!"

Diana Hsieh presents Snowboard Girl, Powered by Bacon posted at NoodleFood, saying, "On a recent trip to the mountains, I was able to snowboard and ski for five days while sticking to my super-strict elimination diet."

Peggy Emch presents Homeschooling Isn't For Everyone posted at The Primal Parent, saying, "My experience homeschooling over the last three months. It has been both good and bad, but due to work and other difficulties, I think I'm going to have to take a break."

Arsy presents {lavender + clove} posted at Rubies & Radishes, saying, "A quick and healthy recipe for homemade air freshener."

Amy Kubal presents Paleo By Profession - Is it Possible? posted at Robb Wolf, saying, "Yes - you can put paleo into practice in a 'non-paleo' world!!"

Paul Jaminet presents Is It Good to Eat Sugar? posted at Perfect Health Diet, saying, "In this post I address the arguments of the Peat-atarians that orange juice or soda may be good for you."

Melissa "Melicious" Joulwan presents Wonder And Camels posted at theclothesmakethegirl, saying, "Life can be filled with wonder if we remember to take a good look around."

Stacy Toth presents Our 10 Year Renewal - Part 2 of 5 (Giveaways!) posted at Paleo Parents, saying, "From our paleo "wedding" series. We had a vow renewal for our 10th anniversary and somehow made it paleo. Check it out!"

Tara presents Banana-cado Chocolate Pudding posted at The Foodie And The Family, saying, "A big batch banana avocado chocolate pudding that is so good that even the avocado haters will fall in love!"

David Rourke presents Vitamin D and vision posted at Paleodyssey, saying, "Vitamin D seems to be good for a lot of things--protecting the eyes from the effects of age among them."

Julia Campbell presents green curry salmon with kiwi salsa posted at the crankin' kitchen!, saying, "crispy curry salmon topped with a tart, spicy kiwi salsa"

Many thanks to the PaleoBloggers who submitted to this edition of the The Paleo Rodeo! This blog carnival has plenty of room to grow! So if you blog on paleo-related matters and you'd like to submit your posts to the carnival, please subscribe to the PaleoBloggers e-mail list. You'll receive instructions and reminders via that list.

Finally, you can find all of the blogs of the PaleoBloggers on this continuously-updated list:
Enjoy!

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Question of the Week: Liver

The Paleo Question of the Week is:

Do you eat liver? If so, what's your preferred form?

We want to hear your answer in the comments! You're also welcome to post a comment or question on any other paleo-related topic.

If you'd like to submit a question for an upcoming question of the week, please e-mail me at diana@dianahsieh.com.

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Announcement: PaleoFX

This PaleoFX conference looks really interesting! Alas, I have other plans for this weekend -- namely SnowCon 2012 -- but this looks like a great rival to the Ancestral Health Symposium. (Hooray for competition!)

Here's the announcement:

PaleoFX Partners is proud to announce the inaugural PaleoFX Symposium in Austin, TX, March 14-17.

The symposium theme is "Theory to Practice." Speakers include Sarah Fragoso, Jack Kruse, Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, and many, many others -- it will be virtually a "who's who" gathering of the Paleo, Primal, and Physical Culture worlds. The content will be vital and cutting-edge. In addition to fitness and healthcare professionals, nutritionists, and research scientists, there will be top strength and conditioning and natural movement coaches giving hands-on demonstrations. The symposium is intended for laypersons, practitioners, researchers, and everyone in between. Tickets are now on sale. Stay tuned for announcements on ticket giveaways. For full details, visit www.paleofx.com and 'like' our page on Facebook.

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Questions on Menopause and Weight Gain

Earlier this week, I received an e-mail from Audrey asking some good questions on menopause and weight gain. I don't have any answers for her, but I was hoping that some of our readers -- particularly the older women -- might be able to offer some advice and insight. Here's her e-mail:

Thanks for your great website, I just found out about it through my personal trainer. I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction regarding my particular issue.

I have been paleo for a couple of years now with the exception of full fat greek yogurt (the only dairy in my diet). I am 48 and have been engaged in weight training (superslow) for 6 years and recently added kettle bells and sandbag workouts to my exercise routine. My carbs are less than 75/day, my protein intake is about 100 grams a day. All fascinating stuff! I am 5'7" and 140. My "I feel great" weight is 130" (I have a small frame). I was on a course of poison (synthetic progestin) a couple of years ago which threw me into menopause. I was being treated for uterine lining problems. I gained 10 lbs on the progestin and discontinued it after 3 months. I have been menopausal for 6 months.

I have had 8 blood tests in the last year. Thanks to paleo I have wicked, ridiculously good HDL (121--I kid you not), very low LDL and triglycerides. I am postmenopausal, have normal thyroid and cortisol levels. With the use of D3 I have bumped up that number to 70. I am very healthy and take no medications, just a truck load of supplements.

I am taking topical bio identical progesterone. I have varied my caloric intake (paleo, so no grains, legumes, sugar or pasta, just fruit, meat, eggs, and veggies) from 1000 cal/day to 2,000 cal/day, cut out dairy, wine and caffeine all in an attempt to lose this 10 lbs. I can't move it. I have been trying for 2 years and I cannot budge the weight.

Are there any resources you can recommend for paleo women in menopause and their particular issues? I feel like I am 5 months pregnant and have investigated every option I can in a desperate attempt to lose these 10lbs. My doctors (one is an ayurvedic practioner) are not impressed with my complaints and think I am being neurotic for wanting to get rid this tire of fat around my waist.

I simply want to feel like myself again.

I have read every book on the subject of menopause, weight loss and nutrition (the most recent is The Female Brain Gone Insane). I still feel like I am missing something because not only am I not losing weight, it's creeping upwards.

Any thoughts or suggestions you might have will be greatly appreciated.

Thoughts? Post them in the comments!

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Hsieh RCM OpEd: Why is Creating Value Good, Profits Bad?

The 1/17/2012 edition of Real Clear Markets has just published my latest OpEd, "Why Is Creating Value Good, Profits Bad?"

It's not directly related to health care policy, but rather the broader theme of defending the virtue of the profit motive in a free, capitalistic society. (I do use insurance as an example of how value is created). Here is the opening:

"Profit" is a dirty word. Profit-seeking businessmen are stock villains in Hollywood movies. "Occupy Wall Street" protestors demand, "People not profits" (whatever that means). Companies reporting healthy profits are automatically assumed to be exploiting customers and can only atone for this by "giving back" to their communities. "Making a profit" has an unsavory, morally suspect taint.

Yet simultaneously, Americans have a far more positive view of the concept of "creating value." The mainstream press lauds visionary businessmen who "create value," such as the late Steve Jobs of Apple. The business literature routinely emphasizes the importance of "creating value." So many organizations wish to be seen as "creating value" that it has become a business cliche, like "best practices" and "thinking outside the box."

But in a free society, "creating value" and "making a profit" are just two sides of the same coin...

(Read the full text of "Why Is Creating Value Good, Profits Bad?")

Those who earn honest profits by creating value should be proud of this fact.

I'd like to thank attorney-blogger Doug Mataconis for providing the Tweet which I cited later in the OpEd, as well as pointing me towards the Wall Street Journal piece on Bain Capital that I cited.

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Video: Dealing with Temperamental People

In Sunday's Philosophy in Action Webcast, I discussed dealing with temperamental people. The question was:

Should people be willing to "walk on eggshells" around temperamental people? Some people – often very talented – are known to be highly temperamental. They'll explode in anger if others disagree with them, make innocent mistakes, or just act differently than they'd prefer. Is that a moral failing, and if so, what is its source? How should people around them act? When and how much should others try to placate them?

My answer, in brief:

Temperamental people indulge their emotions when they don't get their way because they don't respect and value other people as autonomous individuals. If that irrationality is entrenched, then the best course is likely to refuse to deal with the person.

Here's the video of my full answer:

If you enjoy the video, please "like" it on YouTube and share it with friends in e-mail and social media! You can also throw a bit of extra love in our tip jar.

All posted webcast videos can be found in the Webcast Archives and on my YouTube channel.

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Objectivist Links

As part of Modern Paleo's weekend schedule of blogging on Objectivism on Saturdays and free market politics on Sundays, I like to post a link to The Objectivist Roundup. The Objectivist Roundup is a weekly blog carnival for Objectivists. Contributors must be Objectivists, but posts on any topic are welcome, including posts on food and health.

Try Reason! hosted this week's Objectivist Roundup. If you're interested in seeing the latest and best from Objectivist bloggers, go take a look!

Also, in my live Philosophy in Action Webcast on Sunday morning, I'll answer questions on wrongful convictions of the innocent and the guilty, the morality of the death penalty, alternatives to America, choosing a place to live, and more. As always, it's on Sunday, 22 January 2012 at 8 am PT / 9 am MT / 10 am CT / 11 am ET at www.PhilosophyInAction.com. Please join us for this hour of lively discussion, where we apply rational principles to the challenges of living virtuous, happy, and free lives!

Here are the questions that I'll answer this week:

• Question 1: Wrongful Convictions of the Innocent and the Guilty: Why is punishing an innocent man worse than failing to punish a guilty man? English jurist William Blackstone said that "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer." What does this mean, and is it true? Is some higher ratio of wrongly-punished to wrongly-released acceptable?


• Question 2: The Morality of the Death Penalty: Is the death penalty moral? I understand why people are opposed to the death penalty when there might be genuine doubt as to whether the accused person really committed the crime. Certainly, we've seen cases where DNA evidence has exonerated someone who was convicted several years ago for a crime they didn't actually commit. But if someone confesses to first degree murder and if there's incontrovertible physical evidence to confirm their guilt, is the death penalty then appropriate?


• Question 3: Alternatives to America: What other countries besides America have a relatively healthy sense of life? Suppose America takes a bad turn politically and I need to relocate to another country. What other countries still have a relatively healthy "sense of life" and decent culture – in that they respect reason, accomplishment, and productiveness – even if their politics are left-leaning? Over the past few months, I've heard various people discuss Canada, New Zealand, Costa Rica, China, and India as possible places to relocate to. What do you think of the cultures of those countries?


• Question 4: Choosing a Place to Live: Is it rational to value good weather over good politics when choosing a place to live? I currently live in a state with fairly good politics, with respect to taxes, gun rights, and so on. However, I have friends who live in California who say that the weather there is so good, that it's worth it to them even if the taxes are high, the gun laws are terrible, and the overall political climate is abysmal. Is it rational to value something like good weather over good politics in choosing a place to live?

After that, we'll do a round of totally impromptu "Rapid Fire Questions."

If you can't attend the live webcast, you can listen to these webcasts later as audio-only podcasts by subscribing to the RSS feed. You can also listen to full episodes or just selected questions from any past episode in the Webcast Archive, including questions on paleo, nutrition, and health. Finally, don't forget to submit and vote on the questions that you'd most like me to answer from the ongoing Question Queue.

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The Paleo Rodeo #096

Welcome to this week's edition of The Paleo Rodeo!

The Paleo Rodeo is a weekly blog carnival featuring the best paleo-related posts by members of the PaleoBloggers e-mail list. The past editions of the Rodeo are collected on this page.

What is "paleo"? As I say in Modern Paleo Principles:

A "paleo" approach to health uses the evolutionary history of homo sapiens, plus the best of modern science, as a broad framework for guiding daily choices about diet, fitness, medicine, and supplementation. The core of paleo is the diet: it eschews grains, sugars, and modern vegetable oils in favor of high-quality meat, fish, eggs, and vegetables.

The purpose of The Paleo Rodeo is to highlight some of the best blogging of the ever-growing paleosphere.

Here is this week's edition:

Sean Booth presents Stocking up on fruit! posted at Old Fashioned Upgrades, saying, "Cranberries are cheap right now and here is an easy way to save them and incorporate them into your daily diet."

Tony Federico presents Pulled Pig over Mashed Plantains posted at FED - Fitness in an Evolutionary Direction, saying, "Inspired by foods eaten by the hunter-gatherers of Papua New Guinea, this dish is simple and delicious."

Jeff Callahan presents 6 Things You Never Know about Protein Powders and Supplements posted at How to Die Young, saying, "Read "6 Things You Never Know about Protein Powders and Supplements" to gain insight on protein supplements that 99% of the population doesn't know."

Diana Hsieh presents Cinnamon Hot Cocoa posted at NoodleFood, saying, "While I'm on my elimination diet -- and hence, unable to enjoy my usual cup of tea with cream -- my cinnamon hot cocoa has sustained me!"

Ruth Almon presents Replace Dryer Sheets with a Chemical Free Alternative posted at Ruth's Real Food, saying, "Reducing the chemical is skincare products, haircare products, and household cleaners is a work in progress for me, but here's a change that's easy and economical."

Julia Campbell presents cuban pork roast + mojo and chimichurri posted at the crankin' kitchen!, saying, "this cuban pork is crispy, citrusy and kicks even more butt dipped in mojo and chimichurri."

Holly presents Winter Stew You Should Make This Weekend! posted at Holly Would If She Could.

Meghan Little presents Paleo Steak and Salsa Wrap, A Healthy Lunch Taco for an Outside Meal posted at Paleo Effect, saying, "Our paleo steak and salsa wrap, a healthy lunch for an outside meal, is made with dairy-free and grain-free ingredients. Try this and more at www.paleoeffect.com!"

Tara presents Breakfast Popovers posted at The Foodie And The Family.

Tim Huntley presents Blackened Chicken Salad with Spinach posted at My Athletic Life, saying, "Joey Bowles from Sleep - Love - Eat has a great recipe for Blackened Chicken Salad. Enjoy."

Laurie Donaldson presents About Paleo Challenges... posted at Food for Primal Thought, saying, "Is a paleo challenge the right way to approach paleo?"

Nell Stephenson presents Paleo 'Breaded' Cutlets? Go Nuts! posted at Paleoista.

Arsy presents Rubies & Radishes - {vitamin zzzzzz...} posted at Rubies & Radishes, saying, "Tips on getting quality sleep!"

Eddy presents How Much Difference Does What You Eat Make? posted at Health Freak Revolution, saying, "How important is food in the bigger picture of health? How much attention should you pay what you eat?"

Sean Booth presents New Pet! posted at Old Fashioned Upgrades, saying, "Our new pet, aka the Kombucha Jellyfish! Getting started with it now and looking for more advice on how to go about it!"

Amy Kubal presents The "Weighting" Game posted at Robb Wolf, saying, "Stop playing a 'losing' game. Ditch the scale for good!!"

Stacy Toth presents Primal Kitchen: Getting Buy-In for Real Food Lunches posted at Paleo Parents, saying, "A guest post by Primal Kitchen: A Family Grokumentary on how to get your family on real paleo food and off the sandwich for lunch. A very in depth look and a frequently puzzling topic!"

Primal Kitchen's Family Grokumentarian presents Updates on Crossfitting in 2012 posted at Primal Kitchen: A Family Grokumentary, saying, "I'm now about 3.5 months into Crossfitting, and fairly besotted in its results and overall compatibility with a paleo lifestyle. Not only am I stoked about some 2012 goals, but I'm also doing cartwheels that a family member has joined Crossfit as well."

Joe Lindley presents Paula Deen and Diabetes - Anthony Bourdain Turns Up the Heat posted at Stop Craving Sugar..., saying, "After yesterday's news that Paula Deen, the renowned Southern Cooking TV personality announced that she is a Diabetic, the topic entered a new phase today as Anthony Bourdain, also a celebrity chef, blasted her with his opinion of her actions."

Jedha presents Stevia Sweetener. The Inside Scoop. posted at Paleo Diet Blog.

Angie presents Berry Smoothie/Pudding posted at Angie's Suburban Oasis, saying, "Looking for a new smoothie recipe, or maybe you're looking for a spoon-able dessert. Well, this berry pudding/smoothie recipe will hit the spot."

The Cavegirls presents Eating Paleo Without Breaking the Bank posted at Northwest Cavegirls, saying, "Looking to eat a paleo diet but not spend all of your money doign it? Take a look at our tricks and tips for eating well while not spending a fortune."

Vanessa presents Detoxification Part I : Healing Waters posted at Healthy Living How To, saying, "The capacity of the body's detoxification process is not endless. By encouraging the body to efficiently flush out toxins, we will not only boost our health and well being, but also strengthen our immune system and prevent disease. You can do this in as little as 20 minutes by taking a detox bath."

Paul Jaminet presents Is There a Perfect Human Diet? posted at Perfect Health Diet, saying, "This was our inaugural post at Psychology Today and introduces our diet by discussing why "all healthy people are alike, each unhealthy person is unhealthy in his own way.""

Neely Quinn presents Q&A: Breastfeeding While Starting Paleo posted at Paleo Plan.

Many thanks to the PaleoBloggers who submitted to this edition of the The Paleo Rodeo! This blog carnival has plenty of room to grow! So if you blog on paleo-related matters and you'd like to submit your posts to the carnival, please subscribe to the PaleoBloggers e-mail list. You'll receive instructions and reminders via that list.

Finally, you can find all of the blogs of the PaleoBloggers on this continuously-updated list:
Enjoy!

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Question of the Week: Failure

The Modern Paleo Question of the Week is:

What has been your biggest mistake or failure in eating paleo? Why -- and what did you do about it?

We want to hear your answer in the comments! You're also welcome to post a comment or question on any other paleo-related topic.

If you'd like to submit a question for an upcoming question of the week, please e-mail me at diana@dianahsieh.com.

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fried plantains + avocado salad

I never want to see another Christmas cookie again. Or Christmas cake. Or Christmas pie. Or Christmas giant bowl of whipped cream. But namely the cookies. I baked like a madman and ate like an utter lard. I get to the point where I've stuffed myself so awfully and then I start to feel terrible about myself and then I figure aw fuck it what's another 10 cookies going to do when you've already eaten 23. It's really a pretty dumb mindset. And you'd think after years of reading stupid Shape magazine I'd be a little more rational. I can't decide if coming to terms with my inability to control my Christmas dessert consumption and just swearing them off, until maybe Valentine's Day sugar cookies, is a better way to go, or if I should strive to just be more reasonable when and if I do decide to eat some dessert. I guess I'd like to be able to just eat two cookies, but uh, yeah, probably not going to happen.

Anyway, enough about my lard tendencies. I did cook an amazing amount of food, and really awesome food, for Christmas dinner. And I have an amazing amount of leftovers, too. Joe left for the week, so it's just me trying to make my way through most of a ham, like 4 pounds of roasted potatoes, several pounds of roasted sweet potatoes with a brown butter vinaigrette, and a mountain of my famous brussels sprouts. I'm going to have to make some sort of soup out of the rest of the ham and then freeze it. There's just no way I'm going to be able to eat my way through it all. I was most excited about presenting to my friends on Christmas Day the roasted potatoes. If you've made that recipe I posted, then you know why. If you haven't, then you've been eating crap roasted potatoes and I hope you feel sorry. We were eating at my friends' house and so we carted all the food over there (they made their share of food too... it was a feast) and in a hurried we-gotta-make-it-over-there-in-a-timely-fashion move, I put the fresh out of the oven potato chunks in a big tupperware and drove over there. Piping hot potatoes give off condensation. Condensation makes gorgeous crispy potatoes soggy and disgusting. GAH. I can be excused for drowning my sorrow in Christmas dessert. I made a brown sugar cranberry walnut gingerbread upside down cake. I'm awesome.

Now I'm home alone, left with a fridge full of leftovers that I eat for three meals everyday, and that cake that I wasn't allowed to throw out shoved to the back of the fridge in an attempt to fool me into forgetting about it. I've started watching episode after episode after episode of old Biggest Loser. I do try to do other things while I'm watching it, like cleverly utilizing space on my 13 inch computer monitor and writing this blog post! On one episode, I think in the first season, they're at a restaurant and Jillian applauds some fat when he asks for no avocado on his salad. Avocado! Oh the fat! The calories! Obviously calories matter for the contestants, but that's such a shame to banish avocados. So in honor of that one guy, I decided to shun my leftovers for one meal, and make something with avocados.

I've told you about my obsession with plantains, I'm pretty sure. There was a time when I was eating one for breakfast every day. It got a little hefty. I had to swear them off for a little bit (I see a pattern emerging...) but I've reintroduced them into my life this year and I haven't gone too bonkers at all. I often times have a range of plantains in stages of ripeness on my counter. I like them all. I keep buying them green because I want to make mofongo. But I never get around to it and they just sit there and get black. Which is the case with the ones I used for this recipe.

If you can't get black-skinned plantains at your grocery store, which I usually can't at my normal one, you can either buy the darkest you can find and let them ripen on your counter, or you could just use them. As long as they're not super green, you can still make them the same way, they'll just be starchy. If they're really unripe, they're best for tostones, which maybe I'll post sometime. If you haven't had plantains before, wait until they're black until you use them. You'll thank me.

avocado salad
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 ripe avocados, sliced and scooped out
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and pepper

1. In a small bowl, marinate the red onions in the vinegar for at least 30 minutes.

2. In a larger bowl, place avocados, 1 tablespoon of the marinating vinegar, olive oil, and the drained onions. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and gently toss to mix. Alternatively, if you don't want to bash the avocado, you can place the sliced avocados on a serving plate and top with the reserved tablespoon of vinegar, olive oil, the drained onions, and salt and pepper.

plátanos maduros
2 ripe plantains
coconut oil or bacon grease
fresh lime juice
coarse sea salt

1. To peel the plantains, it's easiest to cut the ends off and then using a sharp knife, make two opposing vertical cuts and peel off the peel. There may be spots that stick, so just slice them off.

2. Use enough oil to be about a 1/4 inch deep in a heavy sauté pan. Heat the oil over medium high heat. Cut the plantains in 1 inch chunks and add them to the pan. Cook them about 3 minutes per side, until they are golden brown.

These sides are a delicious little meal or perfect sides for some pulled pork, or hey some leftover Christmas ham!

Oh look, it's my Linzer sandwich cookies. I hate you.

This was originally posted at my blog, the crankin' kitchen!

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Food Elimination Q/A Part One (Is food elimination for life?)

I'm doing a lot of work on helping people identify and fix food sensitivites, so I often receive questions related to this. If you have a question, please put it in the comments section, and I will try to answer it in a follow up post. Thanks! /Christian

Q: Let’s say that I have discovered a few foods that I react badly too. Will I have to stop eating them for life?

To answer this in an as illuminating way as possible, I’m going to define food sensitivity very broadly:

Let’s consider “food sensitivity” as something that could include everything from abnormal blood sugar levels when eating carbs, to tummy discomfort when eating lactose, to autoimmune flareups from gluten or nightshades, to anaphylactic shock from eating peanuts.

If the food sensitivity is part of your “hard wiring” either because of genetics or because a part of your body has become irreparably damaged, then YES, you need to stay away from that particular food for the rest of your life.

An example of hardwired genetic food sensitivity is genetically based lactose intolerance. In this case, your body just doesn’t have the genetic information that it needs to make the needed digestive enzyme (lactase), and hence you will never be able to digest lactose on your own without ingesting some lactase at the same time. (Strictly speaking this may depend on your gut flora and if you drink raw milk, but let's not complicate things!)

(Note: To put this in the context of "Paleo": Paleo theory essentially holds that we are all genetically hardwired to be more or less sensitive to grains, legumes, dairy and certain other foods.)

The second category of "hardwired" food sensitivity is caused by irreparable damage.

One example of this is problems metabolizing carbohydrate due to the inability of the pancreas to produce insulin (diabetes). Another example is the poor ability to digest fat in people who have had the gall bladder removed.

In addition to these examples of irreparable damage, I would like to add that in a person with auto-immune disease there is the possibility that the immune system has become permanently unable to distinguish between “self” and and “non-self” in such a way that some foods will always be problem triggers. (An example is a person with Celiac disease who will have to stop eating gluten for life.)

Let’s now look at food sensitivity that is not hardwired, but that could be called functional (or “circumstantial”) food sensitivity:

In this case the sensitivity is a result of a degenerative process that has caused a degree of malfunction in some organ or system in the body such as the intestinal mucosa, gut flora, blood sugar regulation, or immune system (all of which can cause the body to react adversely to various foods).

This type of food sensitivity is most often present when people discover problems with typical paleo foods such as meats or seafood or inconspicuous fruits and vegetables.

If this is your situation, your prospects for being able to eat the food again without problems hinges on if you can successfully halt the responsible degenerative processes and restore proper function.

Part of the healing process is to stay away from the reactive foods for a significant time (say, three months), and then do an experiment with re-introduction.

Now, I deliberately said “part of the healing process”, because removing trigger foods may not be enough to to stop and reverse the underlying degenerative process that caused the food sensitivity.

In many cases one needs to do additional repair work in conjunction with eliminating reactive foods to regain full health and the ability to eat the excluded foods again.

Conversely, not doing the repair work can result in a merry-go-round of food sensitivities. The person may develop new sensitivities to whatever foods they are eating for a prolonged period of time. (This is a classic sign of “leaky gut”.)

Details of the repair process are far beyond the scope of this post, but, as a summary, one may have to use restorative nutrients to repair the digestive tract, as well as address other surrounding issues such as hormonal imbalance, gut pathogens, and toxicity issues that can all contribute to poor gut function.

PS. What I have found is that when a person doesn't have optimal health overall (could be anything from acne to obesity to auto-immunity), poor gut health is always part of various viscous cycles in that person's body, and that in order to heal the body, one must heal the gut… But to heal the gut one must also heal the rest of the body! (Helping people navigate this wonderful complexity is part of my daily life!)

PPS. Polemics: There is a widespread myth in the paleo community which is that taking out certain foods will always lead to healing of the body, and that if a person doesn't get better after doing so is is because he/she just didn't do paleo strictly enough or hasn't tried to eliminate enough foods.

This is as simplistic and ignorant regarding the nature of the body as saying that a person with a bullet wound likely needs no further help beyond having the bullet removed.

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