New books

There are a few new books out about food I am hoping to get to soon but thought I'd mention them here now. One is by someone I've written about so much people probably could call it a crush: Michael Pollan. He recently came out with Food Rules: An Eater's Manual (actually came out the end of last year -- check it out on Amazon here). The books is very brief and goes through 64 principles of good eating rather than the style of his more in depth works (like The Omnivore's Dilemma) . Reviews have praised it for providing great guidance on shopping and eating habits. There is just something about Michael Pollan that makes you believe and trust him. It is hard wading through the thick crap of advice and mixed messages we get on food, shopping, general nutrition, etc. Pollan provides some trustworthy guidance from someone who is not himself a scientist of any kind, but just a great researcher, digester of material, finder of truths under many layers of b.s. and a trustworthy conveyor of those messages in a clear format.

Another recent book I'm excited to check out is Jonathon Safran Foer's Eating Animals (this came out in November -- check it out on Amazon here). Safran Foer is the amazing and very young author of Everything is Illuminated (since made into a movie starring Elijiah Wood) and to me the even more impressive Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Eating Animals is his first non-fiction book, and as I understand it is as much a memoir as anything else -- or at least goes through his own personal investigations into the subject. I recently saw a few people reading this poolside in Miami. I have a feeling it will bring the discussion to groups who will read anything by Safran Foer but otherwise might never approach the subject. But we'll see. Guys like Peter Singer may be brilliant and more informed, but it probably takes someone in their 20s or early 30s with a pen perhaps one day worthy of a Pulitzer to get the messages across to our generation and those below. Here's an article he wrote for the NYT Magazine shortly before the book was published: The Fruits of Family Trees.

Dissecting a rat

My favorite philosopher, Alan Watts, once wrote that the moment you begin dissecting a rat it ceases to be a rat. For a rat is not an approximately X ounce creature with Y organs and skin of Z density. It is more then it's parts and it is more then what we understand enough to test, measure and calculate. So goes the carrot, the broccoli, the beef, the salmon and the shiitaki. And, of course, the homo sapiens. We readily admit our lack of understanding of certain complex human processes (how exactly does memory work?) but we are quicker to claim victory over digestion and nutrition. In truth, of course, you cannot put the beneficial elements of a carrot into a pill and digest the healthfulness of a carrot. For like the rat, a carrot is more then X percent water, Y percent vitamins like A and Z percent antioxidents like betacarotine. As time consuming and frustrating as it is to us wealthy Americans in such modern times, you just can't get the same benefits with a pill -- never. Sometimes it's because a pill gives you so much of a good thing it becomes a bad thing (it's hard to overdose on vitamines or antioxidents on carrots because you can only eat so many). Other times it is because we fail to appreciate how everything comes together. Yes, we need vitamin A, but is it also the presence of the fiber or something else (perhaps something we have yet to even discover) that allows us to absorb it properly? As Michael Pollan says in In Defense of Food, this is not a concern to the carrot eater. If there is one thing that is assured, it is that we will continue to realize our failure to appreciate the full complexity of food and digestion and as we continue to correct and alter our news stories, our supplements, our multi-vitamins (do we buy the ones with or without iron now?) we have to wonder -- why not just eat a freaking carrot? That's what the rat was doing before you started dissecting it.

Goat Stew

After eating fully vegetarian meals since going to the farmers market (not all vegan as I enjoyed some of Saxon Homestead Creamery's amazing green fields cheese -- you can taste the grass!) I had to try some of the meat I bought from Mint Creek Farm.  I made some goat stew with Mint Creek's goat kabob meat.  This is a very cheap cut and reminded me that those who complain of grass fed meat's prohibitive cost should consider that those who can't afford a filet from a grass fed steer don't need to buy a filet from a corn fed steer -- they could buy the cheaper cuts which, prepared properly, are in my opinion sometimes better.  The meat was certainly "gamey" and I do believe I could taste the grass.  Michael Pollan meets a farmer who raises cattle, pigs and chickens in the Omnivore's Dilemma who calls himself a grass farmer.  Healthy grass is the key to it all.  Well Mint Creek seems to agree.  What's the first thing they discuss on their website?  Nothing short of the types of grasses on their fields that their sheep and goats are eating.  There's no discussion here of marbeling, tenderness, cheap prices, or other descriptions of the end product (the butchered meat in your fridge or freezer).  Instead Mint Creek discusses the individual types of grasses their animals eat, and mentions what this means: simply healthy animals.  From that the rest follows.

I have to say that my mood and energy levels have been up and I noticed it considerably throughout this holiday weekend.  While there may be other explanations, I am so far convinced that eating some meat is the right move.

I perhaps prematurely defrosted the lamb kidney so I'm going to have to find a good recipe for that and freeze the finished product.

My experiment with grass fed beef

As I indicated in my first post, I have been a vegan of sorts for a few years. I say "of sorts" because I have been eating seafood at least a few times a month for nearly the past year. I have been constantly thinking about nutrition and food, researching on the internet and reading books on related subjects, and talking to like-minded people (like-minded not because they agree with me but because they too struggle to find foods that are healthy and that their bodies respond well to). A few things shifted recently that made me once again consider eating meat. Among those was a long-time friend and vegetarian who began eating meat and found that her energy levels were significantly increased (a problem I have been struggling with for some time), and another friend recently lent me The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, which eloquently discusses the virtues of grass fed animals and animal products (some refer to such products as grass fed beef and dairy, pastured chickens, etc.). I am a firm believer that you need to listen to your body and an equal believer that you must constantly try to improve -- the latter can only occur with change and surely requires some experimentation including trial and error. So I decided to expand my diet and incorporate some animal products on a limited basis. Thus began my experiment with grass fed beef.

This experiment began about 12 hours ago when I ate beef for the first time in years. I purchased about 1 lb of grass fed ground beef from a boutique shop in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago called Provenance. I'll write about the long and absurdly difficult process of finding grass fed beef in Chicago another time. The point of this post is to discuss how I feel. I felt fine eating the burger. I made sort of a half-portion burger and made sure to eat plenty of veggies with it. It tasted good and I never had any adverse reaction. Today I feel pretty great, I have to admit. I woke up this morning an hour early feeling like I must have overslept by hours as I was wide awake (something that NEVER happens). Turns out I woke up an hour early. I had tea this morning because it has become a bit of a ritual lately but I really didn't need it. I probably have more energy today (so far at least -- day's only half over) then I have in a long time. Do I feel completely and uterly rejuvinated? No, but I feel better then I have in a long time and I can't ignore that the meat is probably a huge part of it. So step one in my new experiment with animal products (albiet grass fed pastured animal products) is looking good.