What's for dinner?

Welcome back to Trutrition Facts!

I trust you have all had as great a holiday season as I have. I am now back at Appalachian and classes are in full swing. This semester is going to be quite a busy one, but I am really looking forward to it. I'll be working with Dr. Martin Root and a group of ASU students on a semester long study that hopes to show the effects of omega-3 supplementation in conjunction with exercise on women over 55. I'll be keeping you updated as progress is made.

Now, I'd like to get on with the post. Today, I'm giving you a recipe for tuna steak I tried the other night that turned out fantastic.

Sesame & Tamari Tuna

2 6oz. tuna steaks
2 tblsp. tamari (or soy sauce)
2 tblsp. avocado oil
1 pinch of dried ground ginger
1 pinch of garlic powder
juice from 1/2 a lime
2 tblsp. sesame seeds

Marinate tuna in tamari, oil, ginger, garlic, and lime juice for 30 minutes. Pour sesame seeds onto a clean plate and begin to heat a non-stick skillet to about medium-high heat. Place tuna steaks in sesame seeds to coat one side. Place in the dry pan, sesame seed side down, for about 3 minutes and then flip. Allow an additional 3 or 4 minutes on the opposite side for rare tuna and about 6 or 7 minutes for a more well done fish.

That's it! I had mine with some stir fried vegetables (zuchini, mushrooms, and yellow onion). Don't forget that you can click the thumbnail picture for a better view.

Enjoy the recipe. I'm looking forward to a great year and sharing what I learn with you.

All about gluten

Just recently, I've been asked a lot of questions about gluten. What is it? Why is it bad? What does it do? This made me realize that I've never actually explained it on my blog and that many of you may have the same exact questions.

First of all, the main problem with wheat flours, rice, and other grains is the high-sugar/low-nutrient content compared to other sources of carbohydrates, and not gluten. Let's make that clear. However, gluten isn't something to shrug off. It is estimated that 1 in 30 Americans have intolerances to gluten without ever knowing it, not to mention the many suffering from celiac disease and other vitamin malabsorbtion diseases. One study even shows that 1 in 3 may have issues digesting it. The "gluten free" market is the fastest growing market in the food industry today with pastries at Starbucks and cake mixes from Betty Crocker boasting their lack of our friend gluten.

So what is gluten? Gluten is a protein formed when water is added to flours from wheat, rye, barley, etc. Glutenin and gliadin are proteins in these flours that combine when they become wet and help form pastey dough for breads and give structure to cakes and muffins.

Why is it bad and what does it do? Well, it binds to vitamins in your intestines and prevents them from being absorbed. Most notably, it does this to vitamin D and calcium... Remember I said if you don't eat a high sugar diet (and in effect, a high gluten diet), then you don't need quite as much vitamin D and calcium in your diet? Gluten has the potential to lead to all sorts of vitamin deficiency diseases if one isn't careful.

Eating Seasonally

Though it may be nice to have tomatoes, peaches, and pineapple available in the middle of December, it isn't exactly the greatest thing to be doing for our environment or the cost of food. As Americans, we want what we want and we want it right now. This mentality has certainly helped earn us a place as the most powerful nation in the world, but it has also caused a few problems.

What is eating seasonally? It is choosing to purchase fruits and vegetables based on their natural growing and harvesting times (read: when they are the freshest). Why is this important? There's an awful lot of labor, money, and oil required to ship a bunch of asparagus from Peru to your dinner table in February. That money is largely going to overseas farmers and is more often than not much more than you would pay in May to a farmer in your own state. The oil to get that vegetable here on that plane or that ship was also quite expensive to say the least and doesn't do much good for the quality of the air we breathe. Again, this reduces the demand for food (and the certain waste created by shipping food 5,000 miles across the world). Reducing the demand for food ultimately lowers the cost. Eating seasonally also pretty much directly coincides with eating locally. This keeps your dollars in your city and state and also allows you to come face to face with the hand that feeds you at your local farmer's market. I can also guarantee that it will taste better.

So how can you do it? Well... Instead of buying peaches, cantaloupe, and eggplant during the winter months, try apples, sweet potatoes, and broccoli. Take a look at the lists below that I've compiled for you to help next time you are at the market. As you can see, there is some overlap, and plenty of other options that I didn't list here.

Eating seasonally isn't always convenient. I'll admit that it is certainly nice to be able to enjoy a strawberry today as if it were late May and I certainly can't live without bell peppers year round. However, I would just encourage you to make an effort to make it a priority. Seasons eatings!

Winter: Apples, Brussel Sprouts, Carrots, Cabbage, Collards, Kale, Pumpkin, Radishes, Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Spinach, Onion

Spring: Asparagus, Celery, Kale, Spinach, Strawberries, Bell Peppers

Summer: Artichokes, Apples, Blueberries, Blackberries, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cucumber, Eggplant, Kale, Okra, Melons, Onions, Peppers, Peaches, Squash, Tomatoes, Zucchini, Strawberries, Spinach, Raspberries, Lettuce

Fall: Apples, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Kale, Lettuce, Melons, Onions, Peppers, Pears, Pumpkin, Zucchini

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On another note, I told you a few weeks ago that I would keep you updated on the feedback I received from my letter. In addition to a very personal response from Rep. Virginia Foxx, I recently received a phone call from a woman in D.C. representing Senator Richard Burr. She left a very nice voicemail message for me with a lot of political nonsense, but at least it's getting read, right?

The Best Of TF

In the last few months, you've gotten to know me and my cynical attitude towards current conventional nutrition wisdom. I must admit, I quite enjoy having a soapbox to preach the word on. I'm coming up on 3,000 visitors in five months, which is something I'm quite proud of and was not expecting at the birth of this humble little blog.

Today, I'd like to compile a list of some of my more informative posts or ones that I am particularly fond of to get newer visitors caught up on some of my crazy ideas.

So... What Am I Doing Wrong? - Why the American diet is the way it is

Eat Food? - What you should be eating

What Not To Eat - I can't believe they actually call this food

Exercise Won't Help? Seriously? - Why exercise is only one piece of the puzzle

Silly Studies - The food industry at its worst

Now it's your turn - Like my ideas? Take action and write your Congressmen.

My Humble Endorsement of Crossfit - How you should be working out

Disproportionately Affected - How the high cost of food is actually affecting us all

Wise Beyond His Years... - The father of this whole dang movement

Enjoy them and come back soon!

At least it's natural...

Can you tell me what all of the following products or ads have in common?

Splenda Artificial Sweetener w/ Fiber

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal w/ Whole Grains

Cherry 7UP Soda w/ Antioxidants

American Spirit Cigarettes w/ Natural, Additive Free Tobacco

All of these products are harmful to your health, no matter what has or hasn't been added to them. In short: if it has a marketing team, avoid it like the plague.

Waste

My ideas on removing government subsidies for grain crops and finding ways of lowering the cost of vegetable crops are not surprisingly quite radical and unrealistic. There seems to be so much power (read: money) in the food technology and food processing industries that the day broccoli is cheaper than a Big Mac will likely never come. Up until now, I wasn't even sure the best way to go about approaching the situation.

I stumbled across a brand new book written by Tristram Stuart called Waste: Unocovering The Global Food Scandal. The book is an alarming study on the terrible problem of food waste throughout the world. Stuart brings to light the pathetic lack of information available on food waste produced by the industry. Disfigured and blemished vegetables are left to rot in the fields. Slightly damaged packaging from shipping is cause for a frozen dinner to go straight to the trash can. Food that is close to expiration is not sent to shelters, but simply tossed for fear of being responsible for food poisoning the homeless (even though the law protects them from this). It is often cheaper for a company to throw away unsold food than to lose a sale because they've run out. Millions of tons of food are wasted every year at all levels of the farm to wholesale to retail to consumer chain. This is an issue.

Stuart also poses another point later in his book. Why are we not donating that food to shelters or composting it or just simply making less? All these solutions seem to be viable options in solving our problems. They all keep America fed and keep garbage out of our landfills. It also decreases the demand for food and lowers the price because we aren't throwing away perfectly good food. It also decreases the demand for farm land if we don't have to grow as much food to keep up with demand. This allows us to grow the lower calorie (but higher nutrient) vegetables and fruits that we should be eating more of in the first place.

It seems so easy. Just stop wasting food. I'm sure the food industry will soon find a way of keeping this problem quiet, too.

If you are interested in environmental issues, sustainability, and food, you'll find Waste quite interesting. The research, photo documentation, presentation of the fact, and funny English spelling does an incredible job of convincing you to maybe just go ahead and eat that bruised banana.

But what about fructose??

Here's how it usually goes:

"Oh. So you don't eat carbs."

No. I eat plenty. I am not a "carbophobe."

"Ok. So you eat fruit. What makes the sugar in fruit so different from others?"

Well, this one takes a little more explanation...

The word carbohydrate is the scientific term for sugar. Sugars come in various shapes and sizes. There's the small monosaccharides (like glucose and fructose), the medium sized disaccharides (like lactose and sucrose), and the really big chains of these smaller sugars that compose polysaccharides. Fruit sugars are predominately fructose. In the end, the body converts all of this sugar to the most basic and efficient form, which is glucose. Take a look at this graph:

When glucose (in the form of sugar, flour, etc.) enters the body, it is immediately sent to the bloodstream to make it available for our cells to use. This is incredibly efficient, but this also causes insulin to surge (giving glucose a high glycemic index), which is something our body just isn't designed to handle. When fructose enters our body, it must be converted to glucose in the liver. The conversion process, along with the fiber in the fruit, slows the stream of glucose sent to the bloodstream making for a much more gentle and natural rise and fall of insulin (a low glycemic index).

Don't let me mislead you though. There is certainly glucose molecules in fruit and vegetables. After all, it is the primary source of energy that life needs to survive. It is the byproduct of photosynthesis in these plants. These fruits just aren't loaded with glucose. What is wheat flour? It is a pile of polysaccharides (read: large sugars) each composed of extremely long strands of glucose molecules. That's it. Straight glucose (and largely insignificant amounts of protein, oil, and fiber...).

Calorie for calorie, fruits also have an abundance of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals that grains just can't match. Fruit was designed to be eaten. It is in the plant's best interest to be eaten so you will spread its seeds. I won't even begin to explain my thoughts of the lectins and antinutrients in grain products that are there to dissuade you from consuming them. (That was already done quite well for me here.) They do fine spreading their seeds by the wind, water, and unforunately the hand of the modern American farmer.

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On a slightly different note, I am happy to report that I received a very personal response to my letter on healthcare reform and food subsidies from U.S. House Representative Virginia Foxx. I will keep you updated on any other responses that I get in the future. If you'd like to read the letter, and maybe send a few yourself, see my post here.