Food, cooking, eating, and me

A week or so ago, somebody in the letters section of a Salon article linked to a post in this blog. I spent most of a day reading it from (raw vegan) start to finish in order to get the background for the technical posts on the China Study, something I had actually never heard of, due to the fact that I have zero interest in pseudo-scientific fad diets. Being raised by a mother who was religious about crazy nutritional theories, I had had enough of it. I also no longer consume foods that taste like medicine, nor foods which would not be considered edible were it not for magical supposedly medicinal properties.

I don’t even take vitamins anymore. In fact, scientific evidence is mounting that the concept of “vitamins as harmless insurance” is incorrect. There are indeed harmful side-effects from dosing yourself with them. If there’s something wrong with your diet, you need to fix it, not take pills.

I do not see foods from the perspective that they are “good” or “evil”. I do not believe in the concept of “superfoods”. I do not believe that there really is all that much difference between whole grains and refined grains. White rice and brown rice are primarily both rice.

So when my mother looked in my cupboard and saw that I had both brown and white rice, she was mortified, as though somehow the evil white rice was going to suck all the goodness out of the brown rice, just by occupying the same shelf.

I have always had an academic interest in raw veganism after reading about it on Barry Groves’ website. Unfortunately the section I read no longer seems to exist, though there is quite a good section on vegetarianism. (Hint: he’s opposed.)

Getting back to the blog, The China Study is a book written based on data gathered in a broad nutritional and health survey in China. Since different regions have different traditional diets, and a person born in a region would likely eat the same sort of diet his whole life, the data could be used to compare diet and health in different regions. The book seeks to prove that vegan diets are good and animal protein is bad, though actually the data suggests nothing of the sort. However, not having done the research, a great many gullible readers have been impressed by the book.

Anyway, that’s as far as I want to describe it. Read the China Study articles to get the scoop on what correlates, what has been misinterpreted, and what you might want to know.

Since you’re reading this, you are probably interested in a gluten-free diet. In fact, you are likely already on such a diet, and you have found it helpful. The data from the China Project suggests that eating wheat is bad not only for your heart, but it makes you fat, as does polyunsaturated fat. So there. And eat your green vegetables while you are at it.

Is wheat MURDER?

Is love of wheat the root of all evil?

Back in February I told about how, after a few sleepless nights with heartburn (common to those with gluten intolerance), I swore off eating at night altogether. Added to my habit of not eating until noon (I often sleep late), this meant I only eat between the hours of noon and 6:00 or 7:00 PM.

The heartburn went away immediately. I have never been able to stick to a diet to lose weight, but getting rid of the heartburn was a powerful incentive.

The update is that with essentially no dieting, I have lost 20 pounds in the past 3 months. I have done very little to restrict my diet outside of the eating hours thing. If I’m hungry, I tell myself that I can eat as much as I want for the next meal. And I do.

I had one of those old cheap spring bathroom scales, the kind that looks sort of official but gives a different reading each time. It was impossible to get anything more than a general idea of my weight in comparison with other days, and no way to be sure it was anywhere near correct. So I finally broke down and bought a new bathroom scale.

This baby is cool, it is easy, and the readings are reproducible. It calibrates itself. There is no need to adjust, not even any need to turn it on. If you step on it 10 times, it reads exactly the same all 10 times.

The numbers are really big and the display lights up nicely.

Okay, so the old scale was off by a lot. But I still think it’s a pretty good estimate that I have lost 20 pounds.

It would be okay with me if I continued to lose weight at this rate. I’ve gotten my waist back now with no effort. What more could I ask?

Many of those of you who are gluten-intolerant or celiac have suffered with heartburn. I know I have. I used to be able to eat anything at any time, and nothing ever bothered me. But more and more, I have been troubled by heartburn for extended periods of time while trying to sleep.

Judging by the number of heartburn remedies I see for sale, I would think that it’s pretty common in the general population, though probably nobody has attempted to follow up on heartburn sufferers to see how many of them have dietary intolerances.

After one sleepless night following an evening of snacking, I just said, “No more!” The solution is so simple.

First of all, I often get up rather late and eat my first meal at noon. I decided to keep doing that, but I also decided to cut out food after 6:00 pm. So I eat at noon, and I also try to eat before 6:00. If I’m really busy and preparation runs late but supper is healthy, I’ll eat some anyway. But no more 8:00 pm or later meals or snacks. The only thing I drink at night is distilled spirits on the rocks or mixed with sparkling water.

I have not had heartburn once since I started this, and I’ve lost some weight, too, which I needed to do. Give it a try. You have nothing to lose but your heartburn.

I’ll keep posting on the weight thing if I keep losing weight.