Niman's fighting back.

Look what's on the cover of Time Magazine this week!

Beef. Mmmm...
While browsing the magazines today, this pile of meat caught my eye. I assumed that the article wouldn't present me with any new information, but I was happy that such a major magazine was hopefully going to hit mainsteam Americans over the head with information about what's really in their cheap meats.

Surprised was I to find (along with some lovely charts and graphs) that the article was mostly about Bill Niman and his new business ventures! Bill and Nicolette Hahn Niman are part of a movement to raise happy cows that roam freely on happy grass that 1% of happy, healthy and (possibly) wealthy Americans eat.

How lovely of them. And I'll surely seek our their meats. But that might not be as easy as one may think, if one is a newcomer to organic meat purchasing.

Many apologies, I don't want to be negative. I just have a concern about the article.

The Time Magazine article is not referring to the Niman Ranch animals and meats that you can buy (somewhat) cheaply and in bulk from your local Costco. This is Bill and Nicolette's new venture since leaving Niman Ranch in 2007. Niman Ranch products are better choices than most suppliers as they support small farmers are "natural," but they are not organic. Niman Ranch isn't trying to trick you, they say so right here.

Please, read the whole article... I'm all for educating the general public about how to better take care of themselves, our animals, and the land, but please take the initiative and do some research for yourself. Because isn't that the point? Don't just blindly buy what's being sold to you!

lady (butchers) who lunch

I've been on Project: Weight Gain for a while now. It really isn't going that well, but in the last few weeks, I've been asked by my nutritionist to keep track of my eating and calories. In beginning, it was novel, but I'm getting bored with it. And possibly obsessive.

Maybe I should combine Project: Weight Gain with Project: Food Stylist!

Here's what the project would look like in regards to today's lunch:

-organic boneless skinless chicken breast (180 calories) sauteed in 1/2 tablespoon olive oil (60 calories), lemon juice, basil, oregano, and one clove of garlic (20 calories)

-1/4 red bell pepper (10 calories)

-organic green leaf lettuce with onion and white wine vinegar (20 calories)

-organic brown rice cake* (70 calories)

-1/3 cup organic frozen strawberries and blackberries with fresh mint from my windowsill mint plant that I've somehow managed to keep alive (25 calories)

Total: 385 calories (I've been trying to eat every three hours, so that's about what I can handle per "meal.")

Totally boring? Probably. But maybe I can improve my food photography and my diet simultaneously?

*I am lazy and don't often have the patience to cook a pot of brown rice, so I've become quite dependant on Lundberg brown rice cakes. Excellent and super convenient for you gluten-free people out there.

they had me at "slab of steak"

I think I've found my new favorite site. From health and wellness magazine writers comes the lovely new blog Svelte Gourmand. Their philosophy is "Eat Well. Live Well" and the posts focus on healthy living (obviously) and enjoying good food (no diet crap) but in reasonable amounts. Very inspired site with pretty, pretty photography, much of which of wine, steak, strawberries, and coffee. Perfect. Perhaps they need a contributing writer! Ha.

Check out Slashfood's interview with the founders here.

meat fact of the day:

So, I'm watching Iron Chef America: Battle Hamburger and learned a fun new meat fact from Alton Brown. I've never given much thought to Salisbury Steak. The only association I have with it is from hot lunches in elementary school. My mom always packed my lunch (thanks, mom!), so I never partook in this, but I remember the stinky, gray discs of meat with lumpy sauce in those individual cardboard containers with the holey plastic wrap over the top... I had no idea that this was perhaps a public school lunch staple because it was thought to be a health food!

James Salisbury apparently was one of the first health food advocates. He suggested eating lean ground meat and coffee three times a day, with fruits, vegetables, and starches only making up 1/3 of one's diet. According to my sources, he thought that fruits, veggies, and starches were "poisonous" to the digestive system and caused countless diseases.

Here's his recipe--

Eat the muscle pulp of lean beef made into cakes and broiled. This pulp should be as free as possible from connective or glue tissue, fat and cartilage.....The pulp should not be pressed too firmly together before broiling, or it will taste livery. Simply press it sufficiently to hold it together. Make the cakes from half an inch to an inch thick. Broil slowly and moderately well over a fire free from blaze and smoke. When cooked, put it on a hot plate and season to taste with butter, pepper, salt; also use either Worcestershire or Halford sauce, mustard, horseradish or lemon juice on the meat if desired.

And, he lived to be 85.

Maybe I'll have a different outlook next time I see one of these:


Maybe.

on my soapbox again: the nytimes and red meat bashing.

(source)


The New York Times ran an article yesterday regarding red and processed meat consumption and death rates among Americans. I am pretty sensitive to inflammatory articles such as this. I wish that the approach could have been focused on being a responsible and informed consumer; taking the time to learn about what one puts into their body. Here are the two snippets that make sense to me, though logic should kick in at some point:

To prevent premature deaths related to red and processed meats, Dr. Popkin suggested in an interview that people should eat a hamburger only once or twice a week instead of every day, a small steak once a week instead of every other day, and a hot dog every month and a half instead of once a week.

A question that arises from observational studies like this one is whether meat is in fact a hazard or whether other factors associated with meat-eating are the real culprits in raising death rates. The subjects in the study who ate the most red meat had other less-than-healthful habits. They were more likely to smoke, weigh more for their height, and consume more calories and more total fat and saturated fat. They also ate less fruits, vegetables and fiber; took fewer vitamin supplements; and were less physically active.

Healthful eating should not be a luxury; it is an important part of taking care of one's self, like getting moderate exercise, regular physical exams, or brushing your teeth! If this article assumes that the average red meat-eater blindly sucks down a cheeseburger a day, isn't there a good chance that he will see a headline stating that this routine is not the healthiest choice and switch to the fettuccine alfredo? This switch will reduce red meat consumption but increase his fat and calorie intake and remove any possibility of lettuce, tomato, or onion- perhaps the only vegetable he'll eat that day. Needless to say, this article also did not address the issue of meat quality (i.e. the health benefits of grass fed meats vs. corn fed, hormone and antibiotic-laden vs. natural) or red meat options other than beef (game meats like buffalo, venison, or elk), which play heavily into the cholesterol factor.

If we've learned anything by observing global diets, Europeans are far thinner and have less problems with chronic illness than Americans-- and they eat plenty of the good stuff. The solution does not always have to be to run away from sausage, bacon, or even cured deli-sliced meats. Sure, pre-packaged discount meat products usually contain nitrates, excessive saturated fats, and unbelievable sodium levels, but really, those facts are right on the label! Take the time to learn which brands produce additive-free products and watch for sales and coupons to make them fit your budget-- and then eat them in moderation, a concept that is foreign to many.

carnivore! the talk is all meat at LA weekend.

Whew! There sure were a lot of happenings in LA this weekend. There was the annual Festival of Books at UCLA, the Grilled Cheese Invitational, and LA Weekly's LA Weekend. I chose the underdog-- LA Weekend-- for the Jonathon Gold-moderated panel Carnivore! Perhaps the Weekly's event picked up later in the day, but attendance was slim for this excellent discussion. All of you lovers of books and bread missed out though- the range of panelists and opinons they shared were quite impressive.

The advertised participants were Jonathan Gold, LA Weekly's restaurant critic, Mark Peel of Campanile, Octavio Becerra of Palate Food & Wine, and Susan Feniger of Street. As most events do, it started about 40 minutes late, which left me curious about why there were five chairs on stage for quite some time. A surprise guest? Yes! Worth the wait. Happily, the last guest was Vinny Dotolo, co-founder of Animal and winner (along with Jon Shook) of Food & Wine's Best New Chef award.

First of all, I thought the selection of panelists was pretty exquisite. Mark Peel is legendary, having worked with Wolfgang Puck for years. He was very intelligent and well-spoken, coming from a background of agricultural economics and history. Octavio Becerra is an chef who knows the importance of butchering skills. For years, he has been an advocate of using all parts of an animal in cooking and is a food detective, seeking out the best in all of his meats and produce. Susan Feniger spoke from a health- and environmentally-conscious perspective. Her latest restaurant venture uses meat as a "condiment" instead of in the forefront of dishes. Dotolo filled the place of the young, edgy chef who brings a refreshing passion to his work, really believing that food and cooking is art, reflected on his menu in the phrase "changes and modifications politely declined."

Many apologies for the poor photo quality.


Gold, Peel, and Becerra


Feniger and Dotolo

One of the major conclusions was that the panelists and the attendants are not representative of our country (or the world, obviously), so even if we believe that animals deserve respect and that we deserve to eat the tastiest foods we can, not everyone shares these ideals, either because it is not a personal priority or because they simply cannot afford to invest in better quality products. Can the majority pay $16 for a humanely-raised, grass-fed, local, organic cheeseburger when the fast food joint across the street sells a moderately tasty (though heart-attack inducing, environment-destroying, and cut from an animal that has never seen the light of day) burger for 99-cents? Opinions and solutions differed between the panelists. The idealists stuck to the supply-and-demand principle, that if we spend money on higher quality products now, more will have to be produced, eventually bringing costs down. The others saw the reality that most people will never pay for higher quality meats and concluded that government regulation is the only option.

Needless to say, each panelist was on top of the current dynamics in the food world, so there was one point that left me confused. Gold's opening question hit on Padma Lakshmi's Carl's Jr. ad. I get it. She's sexy. She was raised as a vegetarian Hindu but now eats beef. She's a pop-culture foodie icon but devours fast food. Even though I was trying not to roll my eyes that this was the first point, I was excited because I thought the issue of women in the food/meat/butchering industry would be brought to the forefront. Unfortunately, it was kind of brushed over. When the floor opened for audience questions, the first question related to feminism and meat. What a let-down it was when there was an immediate and unanimous conclusion that sexuality and carnivousness were completely seperate. Why, then, are there twice as many female vegetarians than male? Why, when dining out, do women more often dine on salad or pasta while the man orders the big, juicy steak? Why, in most households, does the only time men cook involve a grill while the women make the casseroles, desserts, salads, and baked goods?

I don't want to dwell on the negative as I really enjoyed the discussion. It was totally a celebration of meat and the way that it should be consumed-- coming from animals that were well-fed and lived a healthy, low-stress life and savored in moderation in an environment that compliments the food. It should be an experience that is intentional and respected on every level. Taking an animal's life in order to sustain our own is never something that should be taken lightly. As Peel said, it is something that is "sacred and profound, flesh to flesh."

So, are we willing to be conscious omnivores, paying more for quality meats in hopes of improving our food experience and our country's sad agricultural state? If it can be as easy as lunching on grass-fed beef and family-raised pork hot dogs from the Let's Be Frank truck parked on Vine today, I should think so!

more on ladies and meat

this really sums it up, yes?

not meat related.

i came across an article on msn this morning that, in my half-asleep state, almost made me choke on my banana.

title of said article: want to lose weight? just eat less, study suggests.

am i the only one who finds it hilarious that a study needed to be done to arrive at the conclusion that eating less calories will make you lose weight?
i mean, gosh! who knew?
check it out here! thanks, smarties at the new england journal of medicine and harvard school of public health. soon, you'll be telling us that exercise burns calories... or that babies don't come from storks!

techie tangent.

first, watch this video from the techie-geek convention TED.
then, think about the food potential in the sixth sense device.
pattie maes from MIT speaks of using this super neat device at the grocery store; but only addresses it in terms of personal care items - specifically paper towels.
why not use it for food?
can it tell us the quality of the meat we're purchasing? it would be super easy to do so with name brand meats (i.e. oscar meyer, jennie-o) and let consumers know tidbits about their products-- simple details like expiration dates and recipe tips. but could it eventually tell us specific nutritional information and facts about how the animal was raised?

so, my question was, when will i be able to go into a steakhouse, scan my steak, and project a picture of the cow for all to see? or go into mcdonalds and scan a mcnugget and project a picture of a....???

apparently, i am a geek. i am inspired.

healing powers of the chicken.

so, i'm feeling a bit under the weather today and spent the night last night chugging large amounts of broth (yes, i burnt my tongue. hmmph.) i got to thinking about whether chicken soup really is a miracle cure for what ails you and whether the chicken is special (why are turkeys left out of this?)
i thought maybe it was psychological-- a comfort food that mom made when you were sick it was cold outside, but it does seem to have some real healing benefits. not surprisingly, many of them come from the veggies and not just from the chicken.

chicken:
chicken contains an amino acid called cysteine, a substance released when boiled. this amino acid is similar to the drug acetylcysteine, which is prescribed by doctors to patients with bronchitis. it thins the mucus in the lungs and hot chicken vapors have been proven more effective than hot water vapors in clearing out your nose.

carrots:
carrots are the best natural source of beta-carotene, which body converts to vitamin a. vitamin a helps prevent and fight off infections by enhancing the actions of white blood cells that destroy harmful bacteria and viruses.

garlic:
garlic has powerful antibiotic, antiviral and antifungal properties . it is used to boost the immune system, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and assists in treatment of heart disease and cancer.

onions:
contain protein, calcium, vitamin a, b complex, c and e. they also contain sulfur compounds and have anti-inflammatory effects. like garlic, onions contain the antibiotic oil allicin, which gives them their pungent flavor.

celery:
celery is a carminative, diuretic, tonic, and nervine. used to promote restfulness and sleep, celery is also excellent for relieving rheumatism and gout. its high magnesium and iron content is invaluable as a food for blood cells and because of its anitspasmodic properties, celery is good for all lung conditions, including asthma and bronchitis.

parsley:
parsley contains two components that provide unique health benefits-- volatile oils including myristicin, limonene, eugenol, and alpha-thujene and flavonoids including apiin, apigenin, crisoeriol, and luteolin. the activity of parsley's volatile oils qualifies it as a "chemoprotective" food- a food that can neutralize particular types of carcinogens like benzopyrenes from cigarette and charcoal grill smoke.

sea salt:
sea salt in particular contains a natural balance of sodium, magnesium and potassium, which helps to lower blood pressure and promote good health. mineral salts create electrolytes that carry electrical currents to cells throughout the body. electrolytes are necessary for enzyme production and enzymes are responsible for breaking down food, absorbing nutrients, muscle function, hormone production, etc. electrolytes and enzymes are linked to healthy immune function, proper regulation of bodily fluids, and adrenal health.

black pepper:
black pepper contains volatile oils, alkaloids, proteins and minerals. it aids in healing by acting as a circulatory stimulant, diuretic, cerebral stimulant, infection-reducer, diaphoretic (induces sweating), astringent (tightens mucous membranes) and stimulates sinus drainage.

so and if you choose to use turkey instead, i think you can still feel like you're getting good healing powers from the veggies as well as from the turkey because turkey is naturally low in fat without the skin, containing only 1 gram of fat per ounce of flesh. a 5-ounce serving provides almost half of the recommended daily allowance of folic acid, and is a good source of vitamins B, B1,B6, zinc and potassium. these nutrients have been found to keep blood cholesterol down, protect against birth defects, cancer and heart disease, aid in nerve function and growth, boost the immune system, regulate blood pressure, and assist in healing processes.

sources:
http://www.naturalnews.com/021260.html
http://homecooking.about.com/od/foodhealthinformation/a/turkeyhealth.htm