CRON and cooking

Did you catch Michael Pollan's latest article in the NY Times Magazine, Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch? As always, Pollan has written an entertaining and thought-provoking article about changes in American culture and how they affect the way we eat.

I particularly enjoyed this one because it focused so much on Julia Child, my hero. What a woman! Yes, she was much too fond of butter, but how could you not adore her? She attacked food with the enthusiasm of a soldier on a battlefield, and when things didn't go exactly according to plan, she laughed at herself and assured her audience that mistakes are inevitable and quite bearable, especially if you console yourself with a nice tall glass of wine.

I love and admire Julia.

And I get Pollan's point that we Americans have, for the most part, given up on learning to cook, effectively turning it into a weird spectator sport. I also agree with him that the decline in culinary skills has contributed to the obesity epidemic. We have come to rely on Big Food to provide our meals, either served to us at a restaurant or neatly packaged and microwaveable in under five minutes.

Still, I can't get all that fussed about it.

Here's the thing: I don't cook much--at least, not for myself. In fact, I doubt anything I do would qualify as real cooking according to Pollan's definition. Here's all the food prep I did for myself today:

Breakfast:
I made eggwhites with nonfat cheese. This entailed pouring the eggwhites into a microwaveable dish, sprinking cheese on top and nuking the mixture for about 5 minutes.
I also ate some non-fat yogurt with berries, almonds and a smattering of Grape Nuts. No cooking there.

Lunch:
I prepared a huge salad of raw kale with mushrooms + a dab of Walden Farms "calorie-free" dressing--no cooking involved.
I also had more yogurt+berries+almonds. Again, no cooking.

Dinner:
I nuked two Quorn naked cutlets.
I nuked a bag of frozen broccoli and ate about 200g of it.
I had even more yogurt+berries+almonds+Grape Nuts

These meals were incredibly healthy. Altogether, they required about 11 or 12 minutes of microwaving plus the time it took to assemble the ingredients--I'd guess 30 minutes tops.

On the other hand, spending hours and hours in the kitchen doesn't guarantee you a healthy meal. I mean, seriously, some of Julia's recipes are just as unhealthy as a lot of the frozen dinners you could buy nowadays. I have no doubt Julia's recipes *taste* infinitely better than pre-packaged stuff, but they aren't necessarily any better for you.

Cooking is neither necessary nor sufficient for healthy eating.

Another problem: Pollan's denigration of the humble sandwich. I ask you, what's so bad about slapping some lettuce, tomato and turkey (or meat substitute) on two slices of whole wheat bread and calling that a meal? It may not be up to the highest CRON standards, but it's perfectly reasonable health-wise. And who cares if it isn't some mouth-watering four-course affair? As long as it's healthy and satisfying, I really couldn't care less whether or not heat was involved.

Sometimes I get the feeling Pollan confuses reasonable public health policy with nostalgia for the good old days. Yes, it would be great if more people learned to cook, but if everyone is learning to cook fat- and salt-laden dishes, how does that make anyone healthier? It doesn't.

Cooking (or lack thereof) isn't the problem. Eating too much gak is the problem. Period.

Was it the Pill?

A few weeks ago, I decided I wasn't enjoying some unpleasant side effects of my birth control pills, so I quit taking them. Since then, I've noticed a precipitous decline in my appetite. Coincidence?

If you search the web, you'll find all sorts of experts claiming that birth control pills do not cause weight gain. But anecdotally, many woman report weight gain after going on the pill. And for some types of birth control pills, studies have shown that certain women are especially susceptible to weight gain while taking the medication.

I wonder whether other CRONies have noticed any problems with birth control pills. Just curious.

A calorie is a calorie is a calorie...or is it?

I just read the most interesting article in the July 18-24 issue of New Scientist magazine. Author Bijal Trivedi challenges the notion that calorie counts on food labels are remotely accurate. According to the article, entitled "The Calorie Delusion," if you rely on food labels to tell you how many calories you've been eating, you may be off by as much as 25 percent.

This is all because of the calculation used to come up with that all-important calorie count on the label. As I understand it, chemists burn small samples of a food item to measure the energy released as heat and then subtract from that some estimate of how much raw energy is lost as undigested food in feces and urine. Sounds reasonable, right?

But it turns out that not all foods are digested and absorbed in the same way. The author writes:
"Dietary fibre is one example. As well as being more resistant to mechanical and chemical digestion than other forms of carbohydrate, dietary fibre provides energy for gut microbes, and they take their cut before we get our share...all these factors reduce the energy derived from dietary fibre by 25 per cent--down from the current estimate of 2 kcal/g to 1/5 kcal/g."

Wow.

The article goes on to say "...the number of calories attributed to protein should be reduced from 4 kcal/g to 3.2 kcal/g...because it takes energy to convert ammonia to urea when protein is broken down into its constituent amino acids."

And that's just the beginning. Food texture, chewiness, digest-ability, the method and extent of cooking--all of these things may affect the number of calories we actually absorb from food. Yet none of these factors is taken into account in those fun calorie labels. Nor, I suspect, were they taken into account by those who put together the USDA database on which all of our calculations are based.

What does this mean? I'm not sure, but I think it definitely helps explain why I kept losing weight last year even though I was eating over 1700 calories per day at the time. 1700 calories of kale, broccoli, egg whites and fruit just ain't the same as 1700 calories of Twinkies and potato chips, not just from a nutritional standpoint but also from an actual calorie standpoint. I have no doubt I absorb many more calories from a bagel with cream cheese than I do from a salad, even if both contain the same number of calories to begin with.

For the vast majority of Americans, none of this really matters much, I suppose. But for people following a CRON (or even quasi-CRON) lifestyle, it definitely gives you something to chew on.

Back on the straight and narrow...

...and feeling fine.

I can't tell you what made me decide to go back to this. Maybe it was because my clothes started getting too tight. Maybe it was a particularly bad case of indigestion after eating gak. Or maybe I just remembered how good it feels to be healthy and I wanted to feel that way again.

Whatever the reason, I'm back to veggies, fruits, egg whites, kale--all my old favorites. The only difference is that I've made life a bit more challenging by cutting out all meats except fish. I like fish, but I don't think I can eat it every day. And without meat, I'm having trouble getting enough B-12. To supplement or not to supplement, that is the question.

Life is very busy these days, but it's all good. I'm working a lot, as is my husband, which makes it challenging to keep up with all the kid stuff. I'm still reading and thinking a lot about Judaism. The rabbi says I can probably complete my conversion in November---I'm really excited about it!

How is everyone else out there? Actually, is there anyone else out there still following this blog? If so, you deserve a medal.

Well, Lookie Here!

For all those who think CRON only works in mice, read this.

Why do it when you know you shouldn't?

This is a question I ask myself all the time. And it isn't just about food.

I know I shouldn't be impatient with my children...yet I often am.
I know I shouldn't procrastinate...yet I often do.
I know I shouldn't be so disorganized...yet I am.

Knowing that you should or shouldn't do something isn't enough.

I know that a bagel with cream cheese is not at all good for me. But I won't be able to resist it if I don't have other weapons in my arsenal. Thoughts can only get you so far.

Here are some other things you need:
1. Mental preparation - Being mentally prepared means being fully aware of your weaknesses and the circumstances under which you are most vulnerable. For example, I find it much easier to be strong earlier in the day. I'm well rested and generally at my best in the morning. But by evening, I'm just exhausted. I always have to remind myself that from 5 pm to bedtime is my most dangerous time of day. It's when I'm most likely to blow my cool with my kids and my husband. It's the time when I'm most likely to reach for sweets and snacks. It's the time when I have to be most careful and guarded.

2. Physical preparation - You can't eat healthy foods if they aren't around your house. You can't eat a healthy lunch if you didn't bother to pack one and you only have fast food options available to you. You can't stick to a particular way of eating if it doesn't provide you with the basic nutrients your body needs. Being physically prepared requires a lot of forethought and commitment.

3. A strategy - Some people weigh their foods. Others use a point system. Some use CRON-o-meter and keep a food diary every day. Most people who succeed in losing weight and keeping it off step on a scale pretty regularly. All of these methods have the same basic strategy: Pay attention!

4. Allies - It really helps to have someone in your corner. Someone who will encourage you and gently help you hold yourself accountable for your successes and failures. A cheerleader. A mentor. You get the idea.

I'm sure there are other things to add to this list. What helps you avoid your shouldn'ts?

When she was good she was very, very good...

...and when she was bad she was horrid.

Lately, I feel like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One day, I'll eat my usual CRON fare...egg whites and oats for breakfast, a huge salad, some yogurt and a little fruit for lunch, and a dinner filled with nice, healthy legumes and veggies.

The next day, I find myself downing Girl Scout cookies like there's no tomorrow (damn you, Thin Mints!).

The irritating part is that it has absolutely nothing to do with hunger. It's all stress relief. And it's always at the end of the day. Always.

When I come home, I am just *so* exhausted, and I often can't relax the way I really need to. Dinner has to be cooked, kids must be fed and bathed and prepared for bed, dishes must be washed, floors must be swept, etc. When I reach for junk food, I know in the back of my mind that I'm doing it because I just want to feel better now, now, NOW! Sugar and fat give me a temporary "high" to get through whatever it is I have to do before I can finally have a little time to myself.

I say this not to make excuses. It's simply an observation. In my case, crappy food is not really food at all. It's a drug, just like nicotine is a drug that some people feel they need and alcohol is the drug of choice for others.

How did I get here? Well, I think it was when I decided just one cookie couldn't hurt. I've learned that just one cookie *can* hurt. Maybe some people are capable of consuming junk food in moderation. I've tried and I can honestly say there's nothing moderate about my relationship with junk food. Either I eat all of it or none of it. There is no in between. Disheartening, I know, but true.

So I'm going to try to start again (again) by following one simple rule coined by April long, long ago: "Not one bite." Wish me luck.