Synthetic Vs. Real

In the Experience Life magazine I leisurely browsed through a discussion on advantages of vegan and paleo diets (Paleo Vs. Vegan). Frankly, both diets seem a bit extreme to me. When you live long enough you eventually see many fads disappoint and their enthusiasts impacted in regretful way. 

However one remark caught my attention. It was by Mark Hyman, MD, a family physician, the author of four New York Times bestsellers, and chairman of the Institute for Functional Medicine,

‘I think the Paleo argument of no grains is interesting and has some merit. If you go with traditional grains, such as buckwheat, quinoa and millet, which have been around for 10,000 years, you’re better off. But gluten-containing refined grains, and modern dwarf wheat full of super-starch and super-gluten, can be problematic.’

Mentioning of dwarf wheat and its properties struck me in correlation with gluten-intolerance epidemic that I hear about all too often lately. My parents (and grandparents) had no such concept. There is another new and mysterious diagnosis out there – the Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). This one becomes popular in cases when a digestion problem is not exactly understood.

Though we are fairly informed on the controversy of genetically modified (GM) grain, no one seems connecting the dots:

We are sensitive (allergic, intolerant…) not to wheat per se, but to its genetic mutants that bring havoc into our bodies.

I say ‘we’ because stats indicate 30% of gluten-related diagnoses, and they are on the rise; also because, we still recognize very few effects of GM foods besides the most immediate.

Meanwhile mainstream media is comfortably dwelling on the absence of clear evidence against GM grains – i.e., they are safe.

‘A scientist examines a GM crop’ (this is the original comment from a pro-GM article)

My first afterthought was: well, I try to protect my family by buying mostly organic wheat products. How safe are we?

To assess the level of our vulnerability, I started researching the issue and here are my findings:

First of all the impact of mutated wheat is not limited to compromised digestion. As Dr. Mark Hyman said in ‘Three Hidden Ways Wheat Makes You Fat’:

…The first major difference of this dwarf wheat is that it contains very high levels of a super starch called amylopectin A…

… We know that foods with a high glycemic index make people store belly fat, trigger hidden fires of inflammation in the body, and give you a fatty liver leading the whole cascade of obesity, pre-diabetes and diabetes.

…Not only does this dwarf, FrankenWheat, contain the super starch, but it also contains super gluten which is much more likely to create inflammation in the body…

… wheat products, not just gluten (along with sugar in all its forms) is the major contributor to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, depression and so many other modern ills.

http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/02/13/three-hidden-ways-wheat-makes-you-fat/

And did you know that GM wheat already ousted the real one IN MOST PARTS OF THE WORLD?

Frankly, I didn’t.

For the vast expansion of GM wheat we have to thank, in particular, Norman Ernest Borlaug, an American agronomist, humanitarian, and Nobel laureate.

Borlaug received his Ph.D. in plant pathology and genetics from the University of Minnesota in 1942. He took up an agricultural research position in Mexico, where he developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties. Borlaug led the introduction of these high-yielding varieties combined with modern agricultural production techniques to Mexico, Pakistan, and India.

As a result, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and India.  Later in his life, he helped apply these methods of increasing food production to Asia and Africa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug

The scientist had great intentions to feed the starving world. It worked short-term but also contaminated farming lands making them barren; destroyed traditional agricultural communities and made people sick. 

As a result the old-fashioned –i.e. real wheat became an exotic rarity. And therefore today, many nutritionists recommend to exclude gluten-containing products altogether without even explaining to their patients  that the problem is not with the food staple but with its industrial imposter. 

This simplification agrees perfectly with GM seed producers: they are not afraid to lose customers because not too many people are capable of rejecting wheat entirely.

I looked through several discussions on going gluten-free. Among a steam of enthusiastic confessions I noticed quite a few laments on difficulty adjusting to such a diet. The reasons are objective:

The modern dwarf mutant variant of Triticum aestivum (that our USDA urges us to eat more of) contains greater proportions of gluten proteins compared to wheat pre-1970.

Glutens are the source of wheat-derived exorphins. Beyond removing an exceptionally digestible carbohydrate that yields blood sugar rises higher than nearly any other known food (due to the unique amylopectin structure of wheat-derived carbohydrate), wheat withdrawal is a form of opiate withdrawal, somewhat like stopping heroin, Oxycontin, and other opiates. Stop eating whole wheat toast for breakfast, whole grain sandwiches for lunch, or whole grain pasta for dinner, and the flow of exorphins, i.e., exogenous morphine-like compounds, stops. You experience dysphoria (sadness, unhappiness), mental "fog," inability to concentrate, fatigue, and decreased capacity to exercise.

‘Heroin, Oxycontin, and a whole wheat bagel’ By Dr. William Davis:

http://www.medpedia.com/news_analysis/68-The-Heart-Scan-Blog/entries/62642-Heroin-Oxycontin-and-a-whole-wheat-bagel

So, mutant wheat makes us specifically addictive to it, which justifies the title of the above article 100%. 

The information regarding genetic status of organic wheat that is now available on the market is quite confusing as well. Some experts say that often wheat is called organic, but it is the same mutant (because old-fashioned grain is hard to find), just grown without pesticides.

The only reassurance I found on the following site:

http://www.worc.org/userfiles/OrganicWheatProduction8-04.pdf 

They say:

In order to advertise their crops as (USDA) certified organic, farmers must show that their crops are free of chemicals and genetically modified material.

My relief was unfortunately short-lived, because they also say:

Complete segregation of GM crops from conventional and organic crops cannot be guaranteed, so the introduction of a new GM crop could contaminate the organic food supply.

So, here we are:

•     Organic farmers straggle to give us wholesome food
•     Industrial giants make it difficult in ways more than one. Even if you plant organic, your crop can be contaminated by neighboring  ‘conventional’ fields.

The entire situation reminds me of science fiction stories I read in my youth (Ray Bradbury? Isaac Asimov?) : An elite group of world rulers have captured all the real food and keep it away from the rest of the population. These less fortunate are fed artificially created synthetic products. To avoid unrest the rulers convince people that synthetic food was totally superior to the dirty, rotting and stinking natural produce.

By the way, Norman Borlaug’s contribution to the world food supply was called ‘Green Revolution’.

I wish it was fiction.

Indian Food

With people I know it is like this: one either likes Indian food right away or hates it forever!

Heading for India we were set on trying new things. It made us easy to go from ‘Oh, this is so... different’ to ‘We definitely like it’, and then - to ‘We like it a lot!’

I mean traditional Indian food, full of flavors, spicy and completely vegetarian.

My first introduction to it happened in the middle of the night in the Delhi airport, while waiting 6 long hours for our flight to Chennai.

At a pretty ordinary food stand I bought a cup of coffee with a pretty ordinary-looking pastry named ‘Samosa’. The first bite surprised me though.

‘Why is this stuff so hot? It seems unsuitable with sweet coffee’   

But after a while I forgot about spiciness and started enjoying the yummy factor. Strangely enough through all those exotic flavors I recognized bold and earthy taste of my grandma’s beef-and-potato stew. Was it caramelized onion, or beans in this pastry? I could not tell. My grandma’s stew was never vegetarian, and yet…

Learned that we liked Indian food our hosts In Chennai, where we provided seminars, started enthusiastically introducing us to it.  In the morning they offered us a really strong coffee or black tea with milk and some fragrant seeds. At first we stuck to our habits and asked for these drinks to be straight. But often we forgot to make the requests and then we just had it Indian way.

There is something special about Indian milk and cheese. Those skin-and-bones extraordinary peaceful cows that walk and lay freely in the middle of any mad urban traffic (and all the traffic in India is mad!) apparently do a very good job.

 Maybe it is a trade-off:

‘You do not eat me, and I give you a really good milk of a free-roaming, naturally fit and content creature’.  

Every lunch in India was a feast of great variety. Because the rule was followed in so many different places, not only in hotels and restaurants, but also in small offices and at huge manufacturing plants, I dare to assume that hospitality was only part of the equation; another part of it was table tradition. Lunch in India is important and good variety of dishes is expected.

Another pleasant surprise of the vegetarian - Indian style, was the feeling of satiety that usually came pretty quickly and then lasted for hours without fail. It was quite sudden, like ‘yes, I had enough’, but without a brick feeling in your stomach that is almost an eminent companion at our ‘western’ parties. Where this signal of ‘enough’ comes from at Indian meals I do not know, but it always seemed to be more of emotional rather than of physical nature.  

Every meal in India includes sweets. They do not make any break between non-sweet and sweet food, just follow one with another. Indians believe that sweets aid digestion and I shared this belief with enthusiasm.  Desserts are usually small and often honey-based.

One sweet thing called Jalebi felt like kids’ ultimate dream and had been confirmed as such by our partner in Delhi – the burly man with thick mustache. We tried it in a street eatery at the Delhi bazar.

It was a nice, breezy evening. Amazingly bright fabrics in garland-illuminated stores, and crowds of people around proved of perpetual festival.

The lace-like Jalebi came straight from iron grill; it was sizzling hot, crisp on the outside with honey liquid inside.

And yes, I could not resist another one.

Indians seem to give digestion a very thorough attention. For this purpose they like to end every meal with plain yogurt. I also often saw the sets of small boxes with various seeds in them, which people would approach after breakfast or lunch and partake liberally. These seeds were to assist digestion and to make breathe fragrant. One of the seeds I recognized – it was fennel.

Another interesting digestion/breathe remedy was a minty leaf smeared with honey and spices,  and some seeds wrapped in it. You were supposed to chew it like a gum for about 30 min. rather than eat it right away. They also clean your teeth. 

Raw food was present on many occasions but I dared not to try it particularly warned against anything uncooked in India. Even locals did not encourage us to eat raw.

 ‘You have different immune system’ they said.

It looked very good though. I gazed with envy at the sprouted beans and cabbage salad, which my husband tried without hesitation. He said it was spicy (and he was completely OK afterwards).

In the very nice hotel in Bangalore I tried passion fruit and Indian melon.

To the end of our trip I was ready to go back to our usual food and was glad when on Delta flight Amsterdam – Detroit dinner came completely ‘European’. 

But in 2 weeks afterwards I started missing Indian and looking on the Internet for a restaurant in the area.    

Some More WWM

For those who did not read my previous posting – WWM (What Works for Me) - are little arrangements that help me against food cravings. 

Here are some more WWM as promised:

Healthy snack: You would probably have it anyway, so a little extra effort to have a healthy one could actually increase guilt-free enjoyment.

Once or twice a day I like to munch on something plant-based, crunchy and long-lasting (to stretch the pleasure). Some people prefer carrots or trail mix, my snack of choice is radish.

I do not remember liking it much in my childhood. In fact, traditionally we snacked on apples, maybe due to their availability. I had radishes only in season and in salads, because on their own I found them quite bitter.

After we stopped eating meat I developed a real addiction to radishes. When I crunch them, you can show me chocolate cake or melting triple Sundae – not tempted! And they are never bitter for me anymore – just slightly poignant.

Wait after dinner: There is another rule I try to follow – waiting half an hour after a meal for the feeling of satiety. Nutritionists say that when your portions are more or less reasonable, you can expect to be satisfied in a while even if you did not feel it right after dinner.

I noticed however, that cravings might last more than half an hour, so I give myself a whole hour before making any decisions. If I still feel like eating after that I would not hesitate grabbing something – I am not a saint!

And another observation: whether I snacked after dinner or not, when it is finally bed time, my stomach calms down anyway. I guess, you either want to eat or to sleep - never both.

Being an early bird I am fully aware that this trick may not be working for the night owls who feel most hungry late in the evening. This difference in human dynamics is totally mysterious for me and I would not dare suggesting that those who tend to wake up late must simply change their habits.

There should be a  reason for such a strong distinction between these two categories.

Some alterations, though, are doable and advisable as many of us need to start early on a working day anyway. And based on the experiences of the owls I personally know regular breakfast makes such shift much easier.

No cooking shows in the evening: This is a little-bit outdated restriction, because I am rarely inspired by cooking shows nowadays. I see all tricks of the trade used by  TV chefs  – excessive list of ingredients  which they mix in surprising combinations, oil and butter casually thrown in one pan, charcoaled garlic “just for flavor”, fistfuls of salt sparingly added and far from healthy appearance of the cooking gurus themselves.  

But there was a time when I was much excited to see these shows. Well aware of the effect they had on me I used to bargain with myself: “I will only check who is there”, “This is a healthy food show”, “I need inspirations to expand my menu”.

But no matter what smart reason I would come with, the results were always the same – I felt like eating what I saw, or… just, anything.

Being seduced by cooking shows many times I decided to never watch them unless armed with a bowl of radishes (see above). And after a while it became clear to me that in most of the cases those recipes were not wholesome!

Have a nice alternative: I also share the common opinion that you should not eat after 7 p.m. or at least three hours before going to bed. Sometimes, though, it can make you anxious: “No food until tomorrow - this is too long!”

For such a case I like to have something pleasant to look forward to, for example, a delightful book on my bedside table, so instead of feeling bad I can anticipate happy reading.

Strategy of diverting activities: Another trick of mine – diverting physical and other activities strategically placed along the day that keep your appetite down and mind – occupied.

Physical activities like yoga class or dancing lesson have two additional benefits: they protect you from overeating before (you really do not want to do yoga on a full stomach!), and right after the activity  - it usually takes at least 30 min. to bring the appetite back. These sober minutes may be used for planning a sensible meal.

And finally -  remember that you will probably fail now and then. It is just better to be prepared than to feel powerless and disappointed. For situations like this specialists in nutrition (or maybe in psychology?) suggest to sincerely forgive yourself and start tomorrow from scratch.

What Works for Me

Or WWM, as I call them - are little arrangements that help me keep eating habits within reason. I have tested them and proven them working for at least one person – me.  

This is, of course, not a big deal, and my WWM may be not all suitable for people with different life dynamics or metabolism. However, taking into consideration universality of the craving problem I decided to share them.

So, here they are:

Plan for a week and plan for a day: It is easier for me to eat healthy, when I have a general meal plan for a week and a more specific – for a day.

For example, Monday is usually our vegetarian day (sometimes strictly raw and sometimes – not). Tuesday – is a former fasting (Paul Bragg’s inspired) day. Currently it is more like “no dinner” day, when instead we might just have tea with a wrapping (for example, whole spelt tortilla, scoop of soft goat cheese, two tomato slices and a bunch of greens).

On Wednesday we like to have grains or beans with vegetables, or fish and salad; Thursday is usually a big salad day with seeds or nuts for protein. Friday is my sunny-side-ups for dinner day. I like it with tomatoes and celery thrown in a pan together with eggs. My husband is a no-nonsense “just eggs, vegetables uncooked and on a separate plate” eater.  

On Saturday we usually do grocery shopping and, therefore, have a freshest-possible salad. Sometimes (about once a month) we skip dinner and instead go for lunch to our beloved sushi place. That is, of course, if we are not engaged elsewhere (then we skip sushi).

We also skip sushi: when we are invited to a party on Sunday (then we “shift” home-made Sunday dinner to Saturday) or, sometimes, for financial reasons. And, depending on the experiences of the previous day, Sunday is either fish/salad, or vegetarian.

Green smoothies: We started incorporating green smoothies into our diet three times a week, mostly on non-raw days, to balance (and reduce consumption of) less healthy foods. Very soon we felt like having them almost every day with different combinations of fruits and greens.  

No lunch: Because the concept of lunch has no equivalent in Russian tradition we ended up skipping it altogether most of the time.

In Russia the traditional meal  in the middle of the day is called dinner. It can be a classic three-course, if you wish. In the evening people usually have supper, and tea is very popular and can be taken at any break, at the end of dinner, or supper (or instead). 

So, after trying for a while to incorporate lunch into our daily routine, I returned my household “to our traditions”. We just have breakfast, early dinner, and then I drink my evening tea. 

This way I freed my mind from constant evaluation of our second important meal of the day (is this enough or too much?) and from pressure of making something different for dinner.

In fact I often prepare traditional lunch dish and just call it dinner. It is much easier to maintain variety this way.  

Cut and share eating out: As we noticed in our first years in America, eating out inevitably gave us extra pounds. I am not sure, what is the major culprit here: large portions, excessive fat or salt. Anyway, for the sake of our health and wallets we restricted eating out. 

It is difficult to avoid, though, on a business trip where things are complicated by the necessity of eating in new places. 

Maybe it is just me, but it is much harder for me to overcome temptations when trying new things. I may order one entry; then reluctantly agree to couple of "sides" and a "house salad" that goes with it; and then, after having an intense working day (which is usually the case on business trips) I feel myself entitled to a single dessert. Then the plates start coming… and it all ends in overeating.

But, again, maybe it is just poor me who sometimes does not fully understand waiters, or not aware of certain traditions.

So now, when we go to a restaurant, we usually order one salad and one entry or two different appetizers from lunch menu and share.  There is always plenty for two.

Some more WWM - next time.  

It Is Not About Hunger

A good friend of mine who is straggling with her weight told me the following story:

"When I turn on TV during a commercial of, let’s say, blueberry pancakes I immediately want them. It may be straight after dinner, a moment ago I felt totally full, but the picture of golden streaks of honey over warm puffy cakes makes me salivate.

Ten minutes later, in the next commercial I would see a stack of crackers and start wondering if we had anything similar in the pantry. Inspired by these visuals I might crave pizza after candy and then a fried chicken wing. Eventually I would end up opening the fridge and eating something… unplanned."  

Frankly, I do not have a problem with TV commercials, because most of them look very unhealthy to me. But when I do grocery shopping I try every sample in the store. It may be a processed product that I would never buy to eat at home, but a small bite of it, as a harmless little indulgence… why not?  

So, what is it: a bad habit, lack of self-control or poor judgment?

Some people believe that if they limited their food consumption they will be constantly hungry. To avoid it nutritionists suggest having more fiber, or even - to reduce stomach surgically. That will make us satisfied earlier, so we will easily get slim and, consequently, healthy.  

This approach puzzles me a lot, because most of us hardly ever experienced hunger. To be really hungry food must be chronically scarce.

In one documentary made somewhere in Ceylon a famous American traveler was invited to a village feast. A stick-thin old woman in traditional dress offered him something looking like a handful of rice on banana leaf. Taking into consideration the circumstance this was no doubt a generous “guest” portion. 

Around us food is abundant, easily available, in our faces more often than not, and sometimes even free (yes, samples!)

The truth is – we often eat not to satisfy hunger but because the process makes us feel good. While having a morning coffee, dinner, ice cream, or a bucket of popcorn, we experience pleasure and comfort. Worries and anxieties fade or step aside. Studies say that food alleviates depression and (this I checked myself) calms down moderate pain such as head- or toothache.

Naturally, anyone would like to prolong such a feeling and induce it as often as possible.

"Drinking tea", by V. Nesterenko
This is how we like it! And, by the way, every object in this picture is real

Of course, when we were young, we had other sources of joy, much more powerful and noble: the intense array of romantic emotions, the thrill of intellectual or physical achievement. Who cared for food then? I could skip dinner for days, or grab something instead, just to keep myself on the go.

But let’s be honest, after 40 for the most of us these are sweet memories. Gradually and quietly, food becomes our closest buddy, our most reliable (hopefully, not the only one) source of gratification.

Another peculiarity of human digestion is actually formed by evolution: it is the ability to eat as often as you can get it. Predators in their natural habitat eat once in a while after they chased and killed their prey. Then they lay satisfied and rest for days.

Humans, on the other hand, may consume food anytime, just in case there would be no such opportunity later. Therefore, we can be pretty full, and yet a mere sight of food might trigger cravings again. This human weakness is very well known to producers of billboards and TV commercials. 

So to get control over food we must first admit that by the laws of nature we are not supposed to be in control here.

It has nothing to do with certain individuals having more willpower than others.  Some overweight people hesitate starting healthy diet because they believe themselves morally weaker than their slim friends.

No, we are all in this together.

Therefore, we need all help we can get to fight unreasonable food cravings. This is important not just to control portions but in making healthier choices.

Over the years I have collected an arsenal of little arrangements to help myself on a bad day. Some of them I figured out on my own, and others - found in related publications. Not all the recommendations out there worked for me. But those that do may be as well useful for somebody else.

Next time I will share them in this blog.