How Do I Eat?

Here is a lovely article by one of my favorites... Mark Bittman. He answers the seemingly impossible question, How Should I Eat?

Image courtesy of the NY Times 

When Diet Meets Delicious

(Original Source)

The “How do I eat?” thing has become increasingly combative and confusing. Do you give up carbs, or fat, or both? Do you go vegan or paleo? 

No. You eat like a Greek, or like a Greek used to eat: a piece of fish with a lentil salad, some greens and a glass of wine. It’s not onerous. In fact, it’s delicious. 

The value of this kind of diet (“diet” in the original, Latin sense of the word “diaeta,” a way of living) has once again been confirmed in a study from Spain involving thousands of participants and published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine. So compelling were the results that the research was halted early because it was believed that the control group was being unfairly deprived of its benefits. 

Let’s cut to the chase: The diet that seems so valuable is our old friend the “Mediterranean” diet (not that many Mediterraneans actually eat this way). It’s as straightforward as it is un-American: low in red meat, low in sugar and hyperprocessed carbs, low in junk. High in just about everything else — healthful fat (especially olive oil), vegetables, fruits, legumes and what the people who designed the diet determined to be beneficial, or at least less-harmful, animal products; in this case fish, eggs and low-fat dairy. 

This is real food, delicious food, mostly easy-to-make food. You can eat this way without guilt and be happy and healthy. Unless you’re committed to a diet big on junk and red meat, or you don’t like to cook, there is little downside. 

On Monday I spoke by phone with Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, who has been studying the Mediterranean diet for as long as I’ve been writing about food. His take was simple: “We have so many types of evidence that this kind of eating works, but the weight of evidence is important, and this adds a big stone to that weight.” 

As encouraging as the study is, it’s far from perfect, and it would be hyperbolic — ridiculous — to say that it represents The Answer. 

For one thing, the control group was supposedly on a low-fat diet, but didn’t necessarily stick to it; in fact, it wasn’t a low-fat diet at all. And the study did not show reversal of heart disease, as was widely reported; as far as I can tell, it basically showed a decrease in the rate of some cardiovascular diseases in people at risk as compared with people at risk who ate the typically lousy contemporary diet. 

In short, as Dr. Dean Ornish said to me, “It’s clearly better than a horrible diet, which is what most people eat.” Dr. Ornish, who has devised a low-fat diet that has been demonstrated to reverse heart disease, said that “the most responsible conclusion from this study would be, ‘We found a significant reduction in stroke in those consuming a Mediterranean diet high in omega-3 fatty acids, when compared to those who were not making significant changes in their diet.’ ” 

Exactly. And that’s good news, because it might encourage some of the majority of people who are not making significant changes in their diet. Most Americans eat so badly that even a modest change in the direction of this diet is likely to be of benefit. That was the revelation of the Mediterranean style of eating when it came to public notice a generation ago. (Next year is the 20th anniversary of the publication of Nancy Harmon Jenkins’s “Mediterranean Diet Cookbook.”) 

Since we’re being all Med, I could say nihil novi sub sole — there’s nothing new under the sun — but it’s not exactly true. What’s new is all the junk that has been injected into our foods and our diet since the end of World War II. What’s not new is that eating real food is good for you. 

You could say that the Mediterranean diet prohibits nothing that was recognized as food by your great-grandmother. Whole, minimally processed foods of almost any type can be included in a sound diet. Period.

(Original Source) 

Sounds good to me!! 

I love bibb lettuce

Since discovering how much I love bibb lettuce salads with other kinds of lettuce just don't compare. I probably wrote about this before, but the best way to make a salad with bibb lettuce is just add dressing. The second best way is what I'm about to tell you. I discovered it on the menu at my FAVORITE restaurant/bar/nightclub over the summer and I just made it myself.

I'm not exactly sure how they make the apricot vinaigrette so I winged it:

• handful of dried apricots (organic, unsulfured)
• raw apple cider vinegar
• raw olive oil
• water
• bibb lettuce
• Gorgonzola cheese
• walnuts

1. Soak the dried apricots in water overnight (they will take their original shape when done)
2. In food processor, add apricots (including water from soaking), oil and vinegar, blend.
3. Toss lettuce and dressing in bowl.
4. Top with crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (organic) and crushed walnuts.

AMAZEBALLS! While the dressing is not exactly the same, it gives a similar sweet effect. This is definitely one of those things I could eat every day.

One thing about nuts. EAT THEM! (unless you are allergic) They are packed with vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats. There is nothing wrong with eating fat if it comes from the right source! Right source- fruits, vegetables, nuts. Wrong source: hydrogenated oils, fried foods, candy bars, etc. You get the point.  

And I'm eating my second bowl right now. 

How many meals should we be eating a day?

I get asked this question from time to time so I thought I would explain my views on how messed up America's eating habits are.

When I was a kid, we ate 3 meals. Breakfast, lunch, and an early dinner (by 6 pm). If we were hungry at 8pm we had a choice of fruit or to wait until breakfast. Somehow since then it has become fashionable to eat 6 smaller meals a day. Where this came from I am not really sure, but it is definitely an American-made concept.

I have tried this at least a few times and have stopped almost immediately because I felt like the only thing I was doing was eating- all day long! It was like I spent so much time managing when I was going to eat that it was annoying and I felt like I couldn't get anything else done because I was always eating.

Since attending nutrition school, I have come to think that not only is eating 6 times a day a little ridiculous, it is completely unnecessary, and actually detrimental to losing weight (which is the argument that trainers use when they tell you to eat smaller meals more frequently).

In a nutshell, your body will not burn fat if it is constantly getting fed. Fat is stored to be used as energy, but it only burns it if there is no food in sight. So if you can train your body to go longer between meals you actually have a shot at burning your fat stores for energy.

This brings up another aspect of eating 6 meals a day: night eating. Inevitably if you are eating 6 meals a day, you are more than likely eating later than you normally would to get that last meal in. Night eating is the worst thing you can do if you are trying to lose weight. It's ideal to go to bed on an empty stomach (slightly hungry but not starving) because then your body burns it's fat stores all night long. Everyone is different, but the ideal time for me to stop eating is 6pm, and I usually eat a large lunch and smaller dinner. When I do not eat a large lunch I go into the late afternoon starving, ravenous, and capable of eating everything. This is what I have been working on...eating my big meal during the day.

I have been chipping away at this over the past few months, and have seen tremendous results (along with all the juice I drink). I gave up the idea that I need to kill myself at the gym everyday and little by little have changed my eating habits. I have seen more weight loss from changing my eating habits than I ever did from spending hours at the gym. Now, a few times a week I go for a six mile walk (more like stroll most days) and an occasional run if I do not have the time to walk.

Changing one's eating habits is tough stuff, especially if you are addicted to sugar, caffeine, etc., but I promise if you just start where you are and make little baby steps you can see lasting weight loss without killing yourself at the gym.

And the most important thing to remember is: IF YOU ARE NOT HUNGRY DON'T EAT! (regardless of what you think you have to do...you don't have to do anything...you are an adult...eat ONLY when you are hungry!)

"EAT YOUR MEAL...there are starving children in (insert country)"

I have a distinct memory of being guilted into eating my dinners when I was a child by reason of starving children in other remote parts of the world that I would probably never come in contact with. I don't remember who exactly it was that was telling us this (I don't think it was my mother... more possibly my grandmother) but I do remember thinking how absolutely ridiculous that was- how does me not eating my food translate to starving kids in Africa not being starving anymore? I was way ahead of my time even as a 6 year old.

I know now it was probably one of those things that you say to kids to get them to shut up even if it isn't the truth, but I would think it would be a better tactic to say something like "you better eat your meal otherwise YOU will be starving". RIGHT?!


Anyway, the point of this randomness is that I remember sitting at the dinner table when I was a kid and honestly not being hungry. I know for the sake of the sanity of every mother on the planet you have to have your kids eat the same thing all at the same time, but it just doesn't seem right to eat when you aren't hungry. I think we are all born knowing how to eat for what our body needs, and somewhere along the way we get messed up into thinking we need to eat breakfast by a certain time, lunch at noon, and dinner at 6pm.

Eating when you are not hungry equates to gaining weight...which is something us as Americans don't have any problem with right?

I have been trying to listen to my stomach more recently to tell me when I am hungry and not the clock. Sometimes I don't eat until noon or 1pm, but when I eat I am hungry. I have to admit the eat by the clock BS that's been drilled into my head by years of being in school and working in an office is hard to get over. Sometimes I find myself thinking "I should eat now it's noon"...instead of saying "I should eat now I'm hungry". So many of us are out of touch with what our body needs when it needs it because of what we were taught growing up. My goal is to get off the breakfast, lunch, dinner schedule in my head and eat when my body is telling me I'm hungry.

What were you told as a child to get you to eat your dinner?

5 Weeks til Memorial Day Weekend!

So I just realized it's 5 weeks until Memorial Day weekend!!!! This is by far my favorite weekend of the year because it's the start of the summer and you have months of warm weather ahead of you. I wanted to make a point of sharing one of my long-term goals with all of you because I think it's an important one that everyone can relate to.

Being comfortable in your own skin. 

This has been an ongoing struggle for me for years. Growing up I would always compare myself to others and wishing I had what they did. I'm talking specifically about being thin, which looking back I was, but in my mind I was bigger than my friends. This is actually ridiculous because looking at pictures of myself, I was a toothpick.

In high school I ran track and life guarded. I was still a toothpick, and still thought I needed to be thinner, although I do remember at certain points feeling really good about myself and knowing that I was thin. There were always things to improve though. Looking back at pictures, I was COMPLETELY ridiculous feeling this way about myself. I was in the best shape of my life!!!

Enter college, learning to cook, drinking a lot, and becoming "comfortable" in a long term relationship. Looking back I can't believe I let myself go like that. I mean I didn't gain 100 lbs or anything, but I was dealing with some serious chub- for the first time in my life.

I didn't really start to lose it until about 2 years ago when I started changing my diet and working out consistently. Before I would binge workout, lose a few lbs, and then go right back to what had made me gain weight in the first place. It's a vicious cycle. But really I think the working out had much less to do with it  than the food did mainly because the weeks I had great results were the ones that I drastically changed what I ate while keeping my workouts the same.

I feel better about myself than I have in a long time, however those feelings of being uncomfortable still creep in. I still have "problem" areas that just aren't going away fast enough (haha nothing ever happens fast enough for me). But what is different now is I know how ridiculous I was, I know that I have a lot of things going for me, and I know that I am on the right path to making sure my body is healthy and my mind is happy. I want to be comfortable in my own skin.

So why does Memorial Day have to do with any of this?

Because summer is the time to wear little dresses and bathing suits. It's when I've tended to feel down on myself more because I haven't been comfortable in my body and I couldn't cover up in a sweater and jeans. I always felt like I was stuck with the weight and didn't know why it wasn't coming off.

I'm glad to say I don't feel like that anymore and I am actively working on it. And if you feel this way about yourself, there are very simple things you can do to make changes so you feel better about yourself. I think most of us have a comfortable weight we would like to be at. Whether we are there or not depends on a lot of things. But I promise you that being happy in your skin is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your long-term health.

If you feel that you need some help to get back on track in time for summer check out my breakthrough programs.

Love you all!

I am in college. How do I eat when all I am offered is junk?

Ladies in college. My beautiful cousin Erica asked me for advice on what to eat in college. It took me a while to get to this, but here it is. It's very simple. I assume most of you are eating at cafeterias with meal plans so I will go ahead and say that the prepared foods you are eating are most likely garbage. 

This is what you can do:

• eat all the fruit you can find
• eat the salads
• drink water instead of soda or "vitamin" waters
• buy mixed nuts, dried fruit, and apples/oranges/bananas and keep them in your room
• something tasty & healthy you can eat is hummus w/ cut up veggies
• absolutely do not eat late night
• do not eat fried foods or pizza

It may be fun now and you think you won't be one of the girls that blows up, but you aren't an exception to the rule. Speaking from experience, I thought I could keep up with the boys in drinking and eating. I gained a lot of weight in college. And guess what? I'm still working it off. I'm 29. 

Loosing weight sucks. It's much easier to stay slim than lose weight. It is actually quite simple. The more fruits and vegetables and whole foods you eat the better off you will be. What's a whole food? Something that still looks like it came from nature. Nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, brown rice, anything that is still in it's original form.

Here are some other facts:

• muffins are not a healthy option
• cheese is the best tasting thing in the world but if you eat a ton of it you will gain weight
• chips go straight to your hips
• most smoothies are sugar bombs unless it is made strictly with whole fruit
• late night eating is THE WORST THING YOU CAN DO
• the ice cream in the cafeteria is garbage

A few words about drinking. First of all, we all know drinking is an integral part of the college experience. If you are one of those that don't drink that much you are ahead of the curve. Alcohol is empty calories. Which means you are just inhaling calories that make you fat. Alcohol is a double whammy because you tend to eat more crappy food.

Here's the thing. The point isn't to be perfect all the time. The point is to be good most of the time. When you aren't partying make a point to be healthy. One or two pounds aren't that bad to get rid of, but 10-20 lb's will literally take you forever to work off. And you won't be able to do it while you are doing keg stands and eating pizza at 3am.

Women definitely have a disadvantage when it comes to packing on the pounds. But it can be easy to stay slim and healthy if you get in the habit of eating fruits and vegetables.

If you happen to be in college and have questions post a comment below and I'll do my best to get you answers. Stay beautiful ladies!

Purging the Junk

For the past two years I have done a major overhaul to the foods that I eat. Before Nani was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer I gave little thought to what I ate other than what I thought would make me fat- meanwhile I found it impossible to lose weight. Slowly and surely, as I learned the facts about how the food we eat affects to our health, my pantry morphed from a stock pile of cheap and heavily processed foods to a few shelves stocked with whole foods and real foods.

Two years ago I would buy the cheapest food I could find, and it was common for me to buy a bunch of produce just to end up tossing it in the garbage after I found myself not eating it in time for it to rot. I was heavily addicted to salty carbs and hardly a day passed that I didn't eat potato chips. I suffered from fatigue quite often and was stuck in the "I can't lose weight" cycle. My periods were AWFUL, and have been since I first got it in my early teens. I was dealing with acne which was extremely frustrating because I didn't have that problem even when I was a teenager.

The worst part about everything was the lack of energy I felt. It was hard to get through the day, especially after lunch. It was common to hit that 2pm lull and struggle to keep my eyes open. Waking up each morning was a nightmare because I felt heavy as lead- from my eye lids to my feet. It was very common for me to feel foggy headed all day. Like the way you do when you wake up after a night of drinking- only I wasn't drinking every night.

Through a lot of (expensive) trial and error I started weeding out the heavily processed foods and replacing them with whole foods. Each time I learned about a new ingredient I went into my pantry and checked labels inevitably throwing out a bunch of food that I previously thought was "good for me". I've spent the equivalent of days in grocery stores going up and down each aisle reading labels.

After about a year I was feeling much better and still learning so much about the benefits of changing the food you put in your mouth. When I got the junk out of my kitchen, I noticed I was making better food choices more consistently and I had a clearer focus. No more mental hangover! Also probably the most rewarding feeling from all of this is that I have lost about 15 lbs in the past 2 years without crazy consistent working out and have been able to keep it off (and am actually still losing it slowly).

YOU WANNA KNOW WHY?

Here it is plain and simple: diets don't work. Lifestyles work. Changes made over a period of time work. Taking baby steps works. Being overweight is a lifestyle. Being sick and tired comes from living a certain lifestyle. Most of us just accept the fact that we are sick and fat and tired. I know I did. I constantly questioned why was I exhausted all the time and couldn't lose weight? It was because I was eating the wrong foods, and I didn't even know it.

This was me:

• I don't have any clue what I am doing
• I know I am eating the wrong foods, but I don't know where to start
• I know what to eat I just don't have time 
• I believe what I hear about nutrition from what I hear on TV
• I know that my highly processed vegan substitutes are healthier than the real version (but are they really??) 

Sound familiar?


LET ME HELP YOU! If you have the foresight to know that you need to change something then you ahead of the curve- way ahead! If you still aren't sure then take a hard look at your day to day life and ask yourself: HOW GOOD DO I FEEL? 

I want you to read and take in what I am about to say: I PROMISE YOU YOU CAN FEEL BETTER. YOU DESERVE TO FEEL AMAZING. Say it- I DESERVE TO FEEL AMAZING!

Now do something about it.

Step #1- Your Goals   First things first. We need to have a conversation about what you want to get out of working with moi. Are you trying to loose weight? Are you completely rundown and need more energy? Are you suffering with an illness that you would like to get over? Are you looking to feed your kids healthier food? This is your chance to talk about YOU and what you want for yourself.


Step #2- In Your Pantry    We start with a 1 hour lesson in your kitchen to "purge" your pantry of the junk that is making you feel like S-H-I-T, making you sick, and making you fat. This is one-on-one session in your kitchen where we go through everything you buy and I show you the real way to tell if it is a good food or not. We go over everything you will need to know so you aren't influenced by empty promises plastered on packaging and can start recognizing real food from food like substances.

Step #3- In Your Grocery Store    We continue at your grocery store with 3- 45 minute shopping trips that focus on teaching you how to shop for real food. I take you through the entire store to show you where the real food is placed and how to find it when it's hidden among the junk. Since this is a process, I spread it out over 3 shopping trips. It is inevitable that you will have questions when making a change like this.  

Materials- Weekly Shopping List     I give you a shopping list with all of the good foods every pantry should be stocked with so you have a reference every time you go grocery shopping until it becomes second nature to you. We wouldn't want you forgetting all of the healthy foods you are going to want to buy! 

Bonus! Once you sign up for the Purge the Pantry Program you have access to me M-F via email where I will answer any of your questions. Changes like these are a work in progress and I want you to know that I am available to you so you don't feel overwhelmed and confused.

What is making you feel stuck? like garbage? fat?

I knew I should have paid attention in high school

I never thought that I would ever use the public school education I received in high school. We read all this "classical" literature BS... which I never enjoyed. We had to interpret what authors meant by their Old English gibberish... over my head. I learned about shale... still have yet to use my knowledge about that particular rock. We dissected frogs... definitely NEVER going to use that!

The one thing I just started researching that I know I definitely learned about in high school is pH balance and the acid/alkaline scale. Vinegar is acidic and milk is alkaline, but as it turns out it is far more complicated than that because a naturally acidic food can have an alkalizing effect in the body (i.e. citrus fruit). Apparently, this is pretty important when it comes to understanding how well your body can fight off infection/cancer/disease, etc, etc.

Here are the basics from The Body Ecology Diet :

• Just as our normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees F, there are other measures of a normal condition or homeostasis within the body. The levels of sugar, oxygen, and carbon dioxide in the blood must all be stable; and the pH (the balance between acid and alkaline) of the body fluids, including the blood, should be 7.4, slightly alkaline.
• An imbalance toward too much acidity allows yeast, viruses, rebellious (cancer) cells, and various other parasites to thrive. Acidity also leads to conditions such as chronic fatigue, arthritis, and allergies. 
• If you have an acidic condition from eating an acid-forming diet, your body is constantly trying to return to a more balanced state by calling on your stored reserves of alkaline minerals: sodium, calcium, potassium, and magnesium. If you continue eating foods that are highly acid forming, over time it can create a mineral deficiency. 
• The typical American diet is high in foods that cause our bodies to become acidic- sugar, candy, sodas, white flour products, beans, soybean products & tofu, wine, beer, saccharin, NutraSweet, alcohol, commercially refined vinegar, all processed foods containing preservatives and chemicals (ingredients you cannot pronounce)
• There are acid forming foods that we should be eating- animal foods such as beef, poultry, eggs, fish, and shellfish, buckwheat, organic, unrefined oils, and Stevia. 

I bought some pH test strips a few months ago and I have been testing my urine (I know I'm weird, don't judge). I definitely noticed a pattern:

• When I eat a mainly whole food diet (whole grains, vegetables, fruit, with a small amount of animal fat & protein) my urine is pretty alkaline.
• When I feel stressed no matter what I eat I am acidic
• When I drink coffee it immediately makes my pee acidic but then goes back up rather fast
• When I go out and drink on the weekends, on Monday I will be almost off the charts acidic. It takes me about 2 full days to get back to alkaline. By Friday evening my pH is in the optimal range and I am ready to destroy it all over again- old habits are hard to break.

The moral of my story is that by monitoring your pH you can get a glimpse of what is going on inside your body. It is really amazing to monitor what goes in your mouth and what comes out the other end (#1 not #2). Your body is a machine far more complex and intelligent than any computer on the face of this Earth, and it responds 100% of the time to what you feed it. It is not necessary to know the ins and outs of all these complex processes that take place when you put food in your mouth. It is important thought to understand that the quality of the food you put in your mouth makes a measurable difference.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

SHOCKING: Paula Deen Has Diabetes

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(source)

I could have told you 10 years ago that Paula Deen was going to eventually get diabetes. You CANNOT eat the way she cooks and expect to stay healthy. Now I have no idea if she eats everything she makes on her show (and for her cookbooks) but I suspect she dabbles (a lot!).

(source)

My first exposure to Paula Deen was when I moved to Savannah, GA to go to college. Her restaurant, Lady & Sons, was the talk for a while. I never actually ate there mainly because I ate at another "Southern" home cooked barf fest of a restaurant and I couldn't stomach putting myself through that misery again. Especially considering Savannah's weather. You walk out of the restaurant- after eating macaroni & cheese, grits, potatoes au gratin, 4 types of meat, banana pudding, collard greens fried in lard (I think this is thrown in there just so they can make themselves feel better because it started out as a vegetable), and 2 gallons of sweet tea- and the humidity smacks you in the face like an abusive husband. All you want to do is lay down and sleep your over-stuffed guilt away.

A few things:

• these are my humble opinions about this issue
• she said that it took her 3 years to publicly admit she has diabetes because she didn't have all the information...it doesn't take a genius (or 3 years) to Google "causes of diabetes" and put two and two together to come up with the conclusion that the way she eats is effecting her health
• she doesn't seem to be concerned that the empire she built on sugar, white flour, and deep frying is making her sick
• she is now partnering with a company that makes diabetes meds...talk about taking the easy way out!
• she could have tried to partner with Dole, Chiquita Banana, or Sunkist...at least she would've been eating more fruit & vegetables

(source)

Now, if instead of acting like a naive Southern lady, Paula Deen came out and announced publicly that she had diabetes and the reason was because she wasn't eating properly I would definitely have her back. It shows strong character to admit when you've been schooled by mother nature. She is big-time enough where she could have flipped it into a boost for herself and her brand. 

(source)

Maybe she needs to find another Marketing/PR team or maybe she needs to pull her head out of the pharmaceutical company's ass. 

oh Jesus

Type 2 diabetes is 100% reversible with a whole foods, plant-based diet. 100% It really boggles my mind that more people don't know this. Do yourself (and everyone you care about) a favor... if you are overweight or obese or have Type 2 diabetes...put down your giant Italian hoagie, your high fructose corn syrup-laden cereal, your Paula Deen cookies and go read up on eating whole foods (fruit, vegetables, whole grains like rice and quinoa, nuts and seeds) and the positive impact it will have on not only your diabetes, but cholesterol, high blood pressure, allergies, fatigue, depression, etc, etc. It won't take you that long to figure out.

my favorite by far
(source)

It is one thing to eat like this on special occasions, but it is entirely another to eat like this on a day to day basis. One last tidbit of info about Type 2 Diabetes...when you get diagnosed it takes 10-15 years off your life expectancy. 

Shocking, I know, and so simple to avoid.



UPDATE: So obviously after posting this a few minutes ago I found Paula's new website Diabetes In A New Light. Take a look a the video on the homepage. Let me know if you think this lady is ever going to beat it...this is 100% pro-pharmaceutical propaganda. Sorry Paula, you sold out. 

OMG I want to eat LIVER!

Well, I've gone and done it again. Just when I think I know enough to make informed decisions about what I am eating I learn something new that totally blows my mind and makes me rethink what I have been doing.

New year's night I ate dinner at my Aunt's house and liver and onions came up in conversation. We aren't weirdos...my grandmother used to eat it all the time. As soon as I heard that my face scrunched up and I got that feeling like "I could never eat organs!" Hahaha like it's any different than eating muscle (which is what meat is).

Anywho, I was just listening to a lecture by Sally Fallon of the Weston A Price Foundation on "what a healthy diet is". In a nutshell, Weston Price (who was a dentist) saw his patients coming in with awful teeth. He knew that diet had something to do with it so he set out to study a bunch of isolated "primitive" cultures around the world. They are referred to as primitive because they have no interaction with the "civilized world". His goal was to examine their teeth, their overall health, and the foods that they ate.

He went to each culture and did just that. He examined everyone from the elders down to the infants and found, to his astonishment, that the majority (99%) had perfect teeth and were generally of good health. Their babies were healthy, the old people were healthy. Then he recorded their diets. He set out thinking that their diets would be vegetarian. On the contrary they ate everything from raw milk to organ meats to fish heads (yum!).

What these "primitive" cultures ate depended on what they had available. There was a group of people in Switzerland that ate mainly raw milk products and a dense sour dough bread.

You ask...how is that possible? I thought carbs and dairy were bad?

Well the bread and cheese those people ate were completely different than the bread and cheese that we eat today. They did not pasteurize their milk which kills everything beneficial that raw milk has to offer, and the bread that they made was made in such a way that is easily digestible.

 There were a lot of similarities between how these "primitive" people ate but here are the few that intrigued me the most:

• they ate what was available to them (whether it was dairy, or bugs, or fish, or grains) 
• they ate entire animals/fish
• they ate the fattiest parts of the animals

How does this relate to liver and onions? Well until just recently it was common to use most parts of an animal. Two generations ago, people ate liver. And this is in New Jersey, not some isolated valley in Switzerland.

liver & onions courtesy of The Food Network

Since then, the no-fat/low-fat health claims have twisted us into thinking that we are healthier without all the fat. But these isolated "primitive" cultures around the world have proven otherwise. These cultures have been eating traditionally for hundreds if not thousands of years (depending) because it has allowed them to thrive and survive in their particular surroundings. They do not need doctors and scientists to tell them what nutrients are in what. They ate liver not knowing it is very high in Vitamin A & D. They did not explicitly know that Vitamins A & D are fat soluable (which means they need fat present to be absorbed). The liver is a fatty organ. They did not explicitly know that Vitamins A & D are important in that they allow all of the rest of the vitamins and minerals to be absorbed and utilized properly, as well as play a huge role in the proper functioning of hormones. Their animals were raised on a pasture, which in turn produces meat that is high in Vitamin D.

They weren't screwed up about what they should eat. 


Why do we (Americans) think we know it all? Why in a relatively short period of time have we screwed it all up? Who do we think we are?

After listening to this lecture, I got the uncontrollable urge to try liver. I heard horror stories from my mom and aunt about liver and onions, but I have a feeling that if I use enough butter and make a pate it will be delicious. I mean if the French can eat it (and a lot of it) why can't I?

Coming Soon...liver pate... are you yay or nay?

*By the way... if you were like me and against liver (or other meat) you can take a cod liver oil supplement, but not without butter!!! Butter makes everything better.

Potato Salad Heaven

No matter the bad wrap that potatoes have gotten, they are still a whole food. Yes they are a high-carb food, but if you have taken nothing from reading my blog so far please take this:

• your body needs carbs to function properly
• there is a difference between good carbs (fruits, vegetables, and whole grains) and bad carbs (processed junk devoid of nutrition)
• you can loose weight by eating nothing but carbs (the good ones)

Most of the dietary advice out there is totally F'd up. No fat, low-carb, no fruit, high protein- WRONG! In all the lectures I have listened to thus far from Integrated Nutrition and from my own research there is a common theme: to avoid chronic sickness eat mostly plant based foods. And the more the merrier. Now that doesn't mean that you can eat nothing but potatoes all day everyday (I wish), but it is important to eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and whole grains. 

In my (humble) opinion, it doesn't even serve us to focus on getting enough of a certain vitamin or mineral, anti-oxidant or phytochemical. That is just confusing and cumbersome. Instead focus on eating real whole foods, real ingredients, and a wide variety of them. That is one simple way you can get the range of nutrients your body needs without counting calories, percent of Vitamin C, grams of fiber, etc.

With that said...here is my fast, easy, and delicious potato salad:

• 5-6 sml potatoes (baked)
• 2 tbsp canola mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
•  thyme, a bunch
• salt & pepper to taste

You can also add hard boiled eggs, celery, rosemary, onion, turmeric, and you can use plain Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise. 

Do you have a favorite ingredient to add to your potato salad?

Oh the PAIN!

I don't know if you remember the story about the last time I took Tylenol to relieve my EPISODE cramps. Well, I took too much, destroyed my stomach, and haven't taken it since.

TYLENOL CONSUMPTION: 6 pills x 3/day x 1-2 days = recipe for serious disaster
ADVIL CONSUMPTION: 2 pills x 2/day x 1-2 days = I can deal with this

Ever since I "became a woman" at the age of 13 I have had debilitating cramps. They used to be so bad that I would be bed ridden for 2 whole days (either at home or in the nurses office at school). I think people thought I was exaggerating, but I assure you I was not. I remember my mom being like, "How are you going to go to work when you get older?" Trust me, that is not something you want to hear when you are 13 and have just been involuntarily thrown into bloody torture that will repeat itself EVERY MONTH FOR THE NEXT 40 YEARS!!!!!!

Anywho...I just came across this article from Dr. Mercola on natural pain killers and thought I would share it with you. I am going to start using some of this stuff and see if it works. These suggestions are more along the lines of prevention than band-aid (which is what Tylenol & Advil are).

• Start taking a high-quality, animal-based omega-3 fat like krill oil. Omega-3 fats are precursors to mediators of inflammation called prostaglandins. (In fact, that is how anti-inflammatory painkillers work, they positively influence prostaglandins.) The omega-3 fats EPA and DHA contained in krill oil have also been found in many animal and clinical studies to have anti-inflammatory properties.
• Eliminate or radically reduce most grains and sugars (including fructose) from your diet. Avoiding grains and sugars will lower your insulin and leptin levels. Elevated insulin and leptin levels are one of the most profound stimulators of inflammatory prostaglandin production. That is why eliminating sugar and grains is so important to controlling your pain and other types of chronic illnesses.
• Optimize your production of vitamin D by getting regular, appropriate sun exposure, which will work through a variety of different mechanisms to reduce your pain.
• In the meantime, you don't need to suffer unnecessarily. The following options provide excellent pain relief without any of the health hazards that acetaminophen and other pain relievers carry:
• Astaxanthin: One of the most effective oil-soluble antioxidants known. It has very potent anti-inflammatory properties and in many cases works far more effectively than many NSAIDs. Higher doses are typically required and one may need 8 mg or more per day to achieve this benefit.
• Ginger: This herb is anti-inflammatory and offers pain relief and stomach-settling properties. Fresh ginger works well steeped in boiling water as a tea or grated into vegetable juice.
• Curcumin: Curcumin is the primary therapeutic compound identified in the spice turmeric. In a study of osteoarthritis patients, those who added 200 mg of curcumin a day to their treatment plan had reduced pain and increased mobility.  In fact, curcumin has been shown in over 50 clinical studies to have potent anti-inflammatory activity, as well as demonstrating the ability in four studies to reduce Tylenol-associated adverse health effects.  
• Boswellia: Also known as boswellin or "Indian frankincense," this herb contains powerful anti-inflammatory properties which have been prized for thousands of years. This is one of my personal favorites as I have seen it work well with many rheumatoid arthritis patients.
• Bromelain: This protein-digesting enzyme, found in pineapples, is a natural anti-inflammatory. It can be taken in supplement form, but eating fresh pineapple may also be helpful.
• Cetyl Myristoleate (CMO): This oil, found in fish and dairy butter, acts as a "joint lubricant" and an anti-inflammatory. I have used this for myself to relieve ganglion cysts and a mild annoying carpal tunnel syndrome that pops up when I type too much on non-ergonomic keyboards. I used a topical preparation for this.
• Evening Primrose, Black Currant and Borage Oils: These contain the fatty acid gamma linolenic acid (GLA), which is useful for treating arthritic pain.
• Cayenne Cream: Also called capsaicin cream, this spice comes from dried hot peppers. It alleviates pain by depleting the body's supply of substance P, a chemical component of nerve cells that transmits pain signals to your brain.
• Therapeutic modalities such as yoga, acupuncture, meditation, hot and cold packs, and even holding hands can also result in astonishing pain relief without any drugs. (Not sure if holding hands is really going to help my raging cramps)

I have incorporated some of these into my diet, but not consistently. I am going to work on being more consistent which includes getting back to hot yoga. I started doing hot yoga 2 years ago and love it! I can't do it more than once a week though without getting burnt out, but it is great cardio and stretching.  

Does anyone have any other natural pain remedies?

FACT: Nuts are good for you

Nuts have gotten a bad wrap over the past few decades because they are high in fat. Which is true. However, they are a whole food that contain protein, fiber, various vitamins, minerals, and many other important things that we probably aren't even aware of. 

Here's another tid-bit of information: they improve your mood. Two handfuls of cashews have been shown to have the same effect as taking Prozac. What? You heard me. Chemically, nuts have the same effect as anti-depressants. So if you're feeling a little blue try incorporating a variety of nuts into your diet. 

Almonds are high in B vitamins, vitamin E, and magnesium. Peanuts (technically a legume) are rich in folate and antioxidants. Pistachios are a source of chlorophyll and potassium. Hazelnuts are full of compounds that help your heart and brain. Pecans (pi-cons) apparently have more antioxidants than wild blueberries (supposed to have the most according to what "we" know now). Walnuts are high in omega 3 fats and vitamin E. 

What is the easiest way? Trail mix...I know it's not sophisticated, or classy, but it's easy and gets the job done. You can make it in big batches, carry it with you in you car, your purse, keep it at work...where ever!

• almonds
• cashews
• pistachios
• walnuts
• pecans (said pi-cons, not pee-cans)
• hazelnuts
• raisins
• dried apricots
• dried cranberries
• dried cherries
• dried gogi berries
• dried dates
• dried banana chips
• raw cacao nibs
• granola chunks

The problem is you can get carried away, and then the amount of fat in them becomes an issue. Also, if you are looking for granola that is healthy, you aren't going to find it very easily. Most of the store bought kinds are LOADED with sugar. At least if you make your own, you can control how much sweetener you put in and what kind (I use agave nectar usually).

*The nutritional info above is what we know now. The science of nutrition is in its infancy in my (humble) opinion. We have only scratched the surface as far as how our body utilizes everything we get from whole foods. That is why it is so important to be eating a diet primarily based in whole foods and not processed foods. 

My advice to college girls

Ladies... as someone who was able to party her way through college and grad school and still get almost straight A's, unfortunately I was not able to party my way through college and avoid gaining weight. I have some advice for you that I wish someone had told me when I was in college. While I know that there are so many fun things that involve drinking, nothing is fun about how long it takes to loose weight. 

• Everyone will notice that you don't look as hot as you did when you graduated high school- but no one will be nice enough to give you a heads up so that you can start working out. People talk about other people. That is a fact of life...and I would rather know that they are talking about how good I look instead of how much weight I've gained.
• You absolutely CANNOT try to keep up with guys when you are drinking. They will try to peer pressure you, but nothing good comes of trying. Guys do not gain weight like we do (nor do they get drunk as fast as we can). They can drink beer all day long, go for a quick run, eat pizza and still look hot. 
• If you have a spare tire that sticks out as much as your boobs do- GO TO THE GYM! And absolutely DO NOT wear tight shirts until that S-H-I-T is taken care of.
• Alcohol is processed by our bodies differently than food and other liquids. We do not get any nutrients out of it so it just depletes us and makes us tired, hungover, and FAT. 
• If you do not want to workout, join a club or something that is activity oriented. It will get your lazy, hungover ASS off the couch. Or...DON'T DRINK LIKE AN ANIMAL!
• If you start cooking for yourself, experiment with a lot of vegetables. Eat a lot of fruit in general. The more raw foods you eat, the easier it will be for you to keep the weight off or loose it. If you have a meal plan, and all of the food is over-cooked or greasy, eat all of the salads, vegetables, and fruit that you can. 
• Designate at least an hour a day for working out (at least a few times a week). This will ensure that you are working off all those beers. 
• Everyone is capable of gaining weight- even the "hot" ones you went to high school with.
• Once you get out of college, all of a sudden your free time dries up and your motivation to workout after a long day at work is close to zero (if not negative). It is that much harder to loose weight. Trust me, I am still working on it and I have been out of grad school for 4 years now. 

At one point during college my Nani said to me 'Jessie, you are finally not skinny anymore." That should have been my cue to hit the gym and change what I was eating. But I thought she was just being an asshole. Well when I look back at pictures from high school and college there is a HUGE difference- and it's called my ass. 

You will know you are gaining weight if:

• Your belly hangs over your jeans when you sit down
• You constantly have to pull your shirts down to cover your stomach
• You are white and getting hit on by black guys
• You start to feel like you are stuffing yourself into your clothes
• You used to be an athlete, but now it's uncomfortable to workout because your jiggly parts are getting in the way 
• You have jiggly parts

Not only is gaining weight disastrous for your self-image, self-esteem, and level of attraction, it is also really bad for your health. I know your health isn't even in your radar right now because you think you will always be young and invincible, but trust me you won't. Time is going to start going faster and faster and all of a sudden you will be creeping up on 30 and realize that being slim, healthy, and beautiful is even more important to you. 

It is much sexier to take be hot and care of yourself than it is to impress guys with your record breaking keg stand. AND...most importantly, it is much easier to maintain being thin than it is to loose weight. Just saying...I wish I had someone who wasn't my mother's age tell me what's up. It isn't really believable when your mother is telling you these things. (sorry Mom)

Do you have any other advice for college girls?

FACT: Eating Fat Does Not Translate Into Getting Fat

I wanted to write this as a follow-up to 'Tis the Season to Get Fat, because I know a lot of people have the misconception that you will loose weight by eating low-fat foods. This is a very complicated topic so I will boil it down for you as best I can.

Everything that you eat breaks down into 3 different components: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. (There are many other things like vitamins and minerals that we get from food, however for the sake of this discussion I will be focusing on these three.) Your body needs all three of these to function properly, and your body knows the difference between the good forms and the bad forms.

Let's talk specifically about fat. I grew up being told that fat was bad for you and anything fat-free was healthy. It all started long before I was born...

"The demonization of saturated fat began in 1953, when Dr. Ancel Keys published a paper comparing saturated fat intake and heart disease mortality. His theory turned out to be flimsy, to say the least, but the misguided ousting of saturated fat has continued unabated ever since. Fortunately, the truth is finally starting to come out, as medical scientists have begun to seriously question Keys' findings."

"Keys based his theory on a study of six countries, in which higher saturated fat intake equated to higher rates of heart disease. However, he conveniently ignored data from 16 other countries that did not fit his theory. Had he chosen a different set of countries, the data would have shown that increasing the percent of calories from fat reduces the number of deaths from coronary heart disease."

"And when you include all 22 countries for which data was available at the time of his study, you find that those who consume the highest percentage of saturated fat have the lowest risk of heart disease."

"Furthermore, many have now realized that it's the trans fat found in margarine, vegetable shortening, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils that is the true villain, causing far more significant health problems than saturated fat ever could!"

"Still, despite the scientific evidence, the low-fat dogma remains a favorite among most government health authorities. Case in point: the most recent food chart issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in December of last year, recommends reducing your saturated fat intake to a mere seven percent of caloric intake—down from its previously recommended 10 percent…" (Original Source)

I don't like citing studies to back up my opinions (mainly because I do not trust that the results are accurate due to biases), but I respect the information that Dr. Mercola puts out (excerpt from above). I am far more impressed with personal experiences, trials, and tribulations. So let me tell you about what I have been doing. I eat full fat everything, but I also eat mainly whole foods. I eat organic butter, organic dairy, I eat whole eggs, I eat avocados, I eat all nuts, and just about anything else you could think of that is considered "fattening". Moderation is key here. Since I started doing this about a year ago, I have lost about 10 lbs. I workout a few times a week, and I eat mainly whole foods- meaning I eat mostly un-processed foods- meaning I make most of my food from scratch and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I still use flour and eat pasta, but try to always eat whole wheat/grain if it is processed.

Back to fat...I read an entire book dedicated to explaining fat that was written by Mary G. Enig, PhD. She is a nutritionist/biochemist who has spent her career studying and analyzing fat. My understanding of good and bad fats started when I read Mary's book, Know Your Fats.

"As we close the second millennium, the prevailing clinical approach from both the nutrition and medical communities in the United States is to condemn a high dietary intake of almost all fats. This emphasis on reducing dietary fat intake has developed from concerns about diet/serum cholesterol, coronary heart disease (CHD) and dietary fat/cancer relationships that have emanated from organizations such as the American Heart Association (AHA), the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's National Cholesterol Education Program, and the US Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines. Many official and quasi-official, articles and publications written for the public reflect this view. Unfortunately, for the consumer and the clinician, many of these articles have multiple misstatements about fats, oils, and cholesterol in general, and about the hydrogenated fats and oils in particular. The kindest thing that can be said about the authors of these misstatements is that they are misguided and not sufficiently knowledgeable about the chemistry of fats and oils and hydrogenation."

FYI...this is a technical definition of fat straight out of her book, "Fats and oils (technically called lipids) are basically made up of collections of molecules called triglycerides. If the collection is liquid at ambient (room) temperature, it is called an oil; if it is solid, it is called a fat." She gets way technical and I figured that I would lose the majority of you on this, but if you are really interested I suggest reading the book for yourself.

Below are some common misconceptions from Know Your Fats...

• Calling animal fats "saturated" is not only misleading, it is just plain wrong. For example, beef fat is 54% unsaturated, lard is 60% unsaturated, and chicken fat is 70% unsaturated. 
• None of the naturally occurring fats and oils is made up of only all saturated or all unsaturated fatty acids; rather they are mixtures of different amounts of various fatty acids. 
• The food industry knows that cookies and crackers, as well as cakes, pastries, and donuts have to be made with a fat at least as firm as a soft fat like lard, so the industry changes the liquid oils, such as soybean, corn, canola, cottonseed, and sometimes peanut and safflower oils, into fats by a process called partial hydrogenation. 
• Partial hydrogenation increases the degree of "saturation" of the fat and has created an entirely new class of fats called trans fats. Trans fats have a very, very long shelf life, unlike the original, highly unsaturated oils they were made from. The unsaturated oils become rancid (bad, spoiled, you wouldn't want to eat them) easily if they are not stored very carefully...a-hem...this is why your box of Ritz crackers can sit on a grocery store shelf for months and then in your cabinet for months!

For shitz & giggles I looked up the ingredient list of Ritz Crackers...Ingredients: ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SOYBEAN OIL, SUGAR, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL, SALT, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA AND/OR CALCIUM PHOSPHATE), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SOY LECITHIN (EMULSIFIER), NATURAL FLAVOR, CORNSTARCH. (Original Source)

• The word Omega is used to designate unsaturated fatty acid families. Saturated fats (cocoa butter, dairy fats, nutmeg butter, palm oil, tallow) do not have an Omega designation. Omega 3's and 6's are considered "essential" because our bodies cannot make them. There are also Omega 9's, however our bodies can make them so they are  not considered "essential"
• Saturated fatty acids are not all the same. They come in different lengths. The shorter ones of the type found in butter, coconut oil, and palm kernel oil, have much lower melting points than the more common longer chain saturated fatty acids ( ). 
• When shorter chain fatty acids are used by the body for energy, they do not produce as many calories as the longer chain fatty acids. This is why there are fewer kilocalories in a pound of butter than a pound of margarine made with seed oils. While this difference in calories is small, it is still significant because most people have been lead to believe that butter has more calories than margarine. 

Here are just a handful of examples of what trans fats do to us when we eat them... (P.S. after I read this book I cut out all foods that have hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in them)

• When people eat fats containing trans fatty acids (hydrogenated oils), these fatty acids are deposited in varying amounts in some of the tissues, and they have an effect on the way the organs in the body function. 
• Feeding trans fatty acids from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to adult humans lowers HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol).
• HDL is significantly decreased, LDL is increased, and the more recent studies have shown that the heart disease marker called Lipoprotein [a] is increased, especially in people who already have high levels of this lipoprotein.
• INTERESTING...saturated fatty acids lower Lipoprotein [a] levels, so an adequate amount of saturated fatty acids in the diet is a good thing to have.
• Consuming trans fats raises the blood sugar levels and causes people to weigh several kilograms more than people consuming the same amount of fat that is not hydrogenated. 
• When researchers have examined the fat in milk that mothers are producing, they have found up to 17% of the fatty acids as trans fatty acids. That is very high, but when they measured the levels in mothers who were not eating foods with trans fatty acids, the levels were so low that they found less than 1%. 
• Feeding infants with milk containing trans fatty acids that came in through the mother's diet causes a significant decrease in visual acuity. 

The bottom line is that we eat a lot more unhealthy fats than we realize. It would be safe to say that anything fried at a restaurant has been fried in partially hydrogenated oil. It is also safe to say that the majority of the snack foods, deserts, and baked goods that you buy have partially hydrogenated oils in them. Even some "health" foods include this disaster of an ingredient in them....so CHECK YOUR LABELS! Start incorporating more homemade meals with whole foods. If you are pregnant or breast feeding it is soooo important to eat foods without hydrogenated oils (or high fructose corn syrup) in them. It's one thing to knowingly do something to yourself (many of us do it everyday- we smoke, we drink, we eating garbage) but it is another to do it to your perfect baby. (I don't want to make you feel like I am talking down to you or making you feel guilty...but TOO BAD I AM! DON'T FEED YOUR CHILDREN TOXIC GARBAGE...THINK FOR YOURSELF...DO YOUR OWN DAMN RESEARCH...BE AWARE!)

I am giving you the Jess Face (with perfect hair)

Do you worry about eating too much fat?

'Tis the Season to Get Fat!

it was blueberry and cherry pie mania yesterday morning....
the most amazing tasting pies by my beautiful and talented sister

I am sure no one wants to talk about food today (including myself). Yesterday was a great day filled with lots of cheese, crackers, dips, veggies, champagne and pie! 

yummy apps

some of the deserts

my favorite part of the day!

the other app table...with my prized spinach & artichoke dip...
a huge favorite

Since yesterday marked the official start of the 2011 holiday season, I figured I should sit down with myself (and you) and hash out how I am going to not gain weight. I could twist myself into a guilt trip over every piece of cheese I inhale and every glass of wine I down, however I have been working on accepting things and not working myself up about what I can't control and what I shouldn't worry about. 

My health is definitely one of those things I was stressing about for a while. When I get an idea in my head (i.e. I can control my health by the way that I eat) I have the tendency to take it to extremes and then stress myself out because it is not working perfectly. Changing my eating habits is a perfect example of this. When I started learning about how the food that you eat affects you, I was like I NEED TO CUT EVERYTHING BAD OUT OF MY DIET RIGHT NOW! Which I did for the most part, but then I would go out to eat, and after the fact realize that I ate something "bad" and then I would feel guilty about it. 

It took me a while to get to the point where I realized that the stress of eating healthy all the time was probably worse for me than the actual unhealthy eating. I sort of eased into eating super healthy during the week and slacking off a little on the weekends. Holidays are no different for me- they are just another weekend. So, yesterday was a complete binge fest... and today I ate a little bit of the leftovers (including the giant make-your-own cannoli thing-AMAZING!), but tomorrow....back to normal! Green smoothies and salads, fish, eggs, fruits and vegetables. 

The 80–20 rule states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come 

from 20% of the causes. 

Has anyone else found this rule to be true?

Garden Leftovers

Not sure if I mentioned this, but I started a vegetable garden this year. It was a rather large feat (basically because I underestimated the time necessary for the scope of it. It took a few months to plan, a few days to prep the land, a few more to plant, a few to weed, and a few to harvest.

Now that it is the end of my first year as a gardener, I can look back with 20/20 hindsight and realize how much easier it could have been if I had done it completely differently. For the amount of stuff we planted, I wasn't too impressed with the yield. But it was only the first year.

We got green bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, lettuce, kale, collards, chard, leeks (what the hell do I do with leeks?). What I was impressed with, however, was the cayenne peppers. I planted two plants from seed in May, and for a while I wasn't too sure if we were ever going to get anything. But all of a sudden about a month ago, the plants were bursting with peppers. So much so that I didn't really know what to do with them. I like hot peppers and all, but I only use like 3 at a time, once a week if I am lucky.

So what to do with all these peppers?

I happened to have a bottle of olive oil that was 3/4 empty. So I figured that would be the simplest way to use a lot of them. I put a bunch in (until it was probably about 1/2 full) and filled the rest with oil. Voila! I will have spicy olive oil shortly.

Cut the tops off before you put them in the bottle.

Did you know the seeds are the spiciest part of hot peppers?

You can also do this with any other herb or spice. I am eventually going to do a few different kinds just to have for cooking and dipping.

• Basil
• Bay Leaves
• Cilantro
• Chives
• Coriander 
• Dill
• Garlic
• Oregano
• Peppercorns
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Sea Salt
• Tarragon
• Thyme

I will report how the cayenne pepper oil turns out after it seasons for a few weeks!