Breathing new life into the food you eat.

I hate eating. You have to do it everyday, sometimes several times, hunger causes discomfort, and there are only so many different types of cuisine out there so with each passing meal, you get diminishing returns on your investment of spending the time, energy and money on food.

If you focus on quality, you spend tons of time and money on it and you quickly run out of ideas, having to turn to novelties like molecular gastronomy and fusion recipes in order to liven things up again, but if you focus on thrift and haste, you eat incredibly poorly, feel terribly and gain weight. Being a person who has literally been every weight from 142 to 300lbs in my adult lifetime, I understand the problems of yoyo dieting and the annoyances of buying food on a calorie/$ basis.

I have noticed a trend; however, the more time, effort and money I put into food, generally the happier and healthier I am in every other area of my life. Maybe it is just a symptom of my doing well overall that I actually have the resources about me to focus so much on a daily essential, but it could be similar to smiling. Sometimes you smile to feel better and sometimes you smile because you are better.

Anyway, get out there and try some fusion recipes and molecular gastronomy, blacklight banquets are so much fun. Also, a secret I've learned, fill your stove full of meat and slow cook it on 225F for the entire day. It makes up the main entre for your meals for the week in advance, and it is amazing. Plus, charring causes cancer, so it is another way to preserve your health for as long as possible. I like to do some BBQ, some butter/garlic and some in apple vinegar with dill just to mix it up a bit. Also brisket, lots and lots of brisket. I've found it for as cheap as $1.80 a lb, and when slow cooked, elevated out its juices and broiled to form a bark, it is amazing, plus you can fry the burnt ends on the skillet and I'm sure that is not cardio-friendly, but it is the tastiest thing I know of on this planet.

a reply to: Nechash

fill your stove full of meat and slow cook it on 225F for the entire day

preserve your health for as long as possible.

Or try going vegetarian or even vegan for a while and see the whole new world of lite healthy food full of nutrition.

a reply to: Char-Lee

I was vegetarian for three years from 18 to 21 for moral reasons. Once I became poor, it was no longer manageable. Today, I could probably go back to it, but I no longer care about animals enough to sacrifice my own comfort, and I already get bored with food. I'd go nuts being that restricted. As a side note, I do eat meatless meals very often. I have to for the pure sake of diversity. One of my favorites is bean salad, not the sour stuff out of the can, but a nice mix of fresh beans with a decent dressing and some nuts and fruit thrown into the mix for some texture, color and flavor.

Morally speaking, I now believe that we should treat domestic animals with care while they are alive and when we kill them we should do so as quickly and painlessly as possible, but were it not for mankind, there would be less than 1% of the total number of chickens, pigs and cattle that there presently are on this planet. They are a product of our civilization and there is no reason for us not to benefit from their existence. In fact, from what I've gathered studying history, it seems that livestock domesticated us, not the other way around. So really, our whole meddlesome sedentary society can be blamed on goats and sheep.

I have no hatred for vegetarians and vegans though. Do as thou wilt but harm no person.

a reply to: Nechash

but were it not for mankind, there would be less than 1% of the total number of chickens, pigs and cattle that there presently are on this planet. They are a product of our civilization and there is no reason for us not to benefit from their existence.

So you stopped caring and decided that if we bring something into this world we can take them out...got it.

This sounds interesting. I have been studying how cooking practices negatively and positively effect how food is utilized by the body. I study energy and communication between the cells and within the cells. I'm seeing discrepencies in present accepted research but do find that some people have done research on these things but it is not being adopted by the ones overlooking our foods. In fact, it is being ignored and sometimes they lash out at this information when they should be listening and properly evaluating the information.

By pasteurizing and homogenizing milk they have increased the number of people with insulin resistance. They have actually hurt way more people than they have saved. They have made regulations to cook some aged meats to kill germs but doing that has also added to the number of people with type two diabetes. I think they want people to suffer when they get older instead of having a good life. They want us to give all our money to the medical and pharmaceutical professionals.

a reply to: Char-Lee

I found a bunny once in the middle of the road. It had been struck by a car and I took it home to care for it. It turned out it had three broken legs, and the fact it survived at all was miraculous, because normally a rabbit would die of shock from injuries that severe. I shot it. I didn't want to shoot it. It hurt me very deeply to do so, but I knew it was the correct course of action. I could have kept it alive, hobbled as it was, but that would have been a cruel fate and to release it back to nature in the condition it was in would mean either death by starvation, exposure or predation.

Chickens in their domestic form have no place in nature. Were we to set them all free, they would rapidly go the way of the dodo, and there is no island on earth large enough to insulate them from all of earth's varied predators.

As romantic as veganism is, humankind is unable to produce all of its required micronutrients from plant products alone, and while we can get most of them, there are a few that we much acquire from animal products. We were never meant to be a vegan species, so either you embrace your nature and try to make it the best form of yourself that you can become, or you fight against it eternally denying yourself, trying to be a floating rock.

You'll never be truly satisfied in this lifetime if you turn against your inherent nature. You can synthesize a third road, keeping your nature in mind, which is superior to your most basal form, but you've always got to pay the tollman. Either you pander to that ego or you suffer.

I know I am carnivorous. There is no avoiding that, so you become as gentle as you can to the creatures that sustain you, but at the end of the day everyone's got to eat.

a reply to: rickymouse

One thing that interests me is the slow cooking method preserves proteins so as not to denature them, which is important in avoiding the misfolding of amyloid proteins. I am convinced that many cases of Alzheimer's in humans are really a prion disease and would be avoidable if we took greater care in the slaughtering and preparing of our meat.

originally posted by: Nechash
a reply to: rickymouse

One thing that interests me is the slow cooking method preserves proteins so as not to denature them, which is important in avoiding the misfolding of amyloid proteins. I am convinced that many cases of Alzheimer's in humans are really a prion disease and would be avoidable if we took greater care in the slaughtering and preparing of our meat.

My body doesn't like misfolded proteins, it causes a lot of inflammation problems. Darn genetics. Trying to sort out what I can eat that doesn't stimulate this. Taurine and NAC are destroyed by heat, they help us with this problem if we cannot support the bacteria to put them back together or cannot create the necessary enzymes to convert them.

a reply to: rickymouse

I was on an anti-anxiety medication called Atarax, and it was amazing for inflammation. Chemically, it is similar to benedril, but it seems to have a wider binding affinity because it targeted every cell in my body. Not only did it cause me to shed water weight and to lose puffiness, but it made the vasodilation response in my body much stronger so that I warmed more easily, had better bloodflow, and it had some other very pleasing side effects as a result of this condition. I solved my anxiety problems with meditation and thought control, but I wish I could still take that drug just for all of its varied side effects.

Ever since having taken it, my bp has been excellent. I went from 160/90 and now I rest at about 110/65, although that could be the lack of anxiety too.

a reply to: Nechash

Chickens in their domestic form have no place in nature. Were we to set them all free, they would rapidly go the way of the dodo, and there is no island on earth large enough to insulate them from all of earth's varied predators.

No so they live wild many places and I had chickens in an area full of fox coyote and other predators, the rooster took good care of his hens I never lost a single one and they lived free in our orchards.

You'll never be truly satisfied in this lifetime if you turn against your inherent nature.

LOL you mean your taste buds that led you to 300 lbs...keep your road we are totally happy on ours!

a reply to: Char-Lee

Desire is not itself the cause of morbidity, but the will being unable to understand the virtue of moderation. It takes a mastery of the self to enter into rapture. Only then can you begin to practice the nuanced hedonism that leads to the highest state of happiness that mankind has ever known. And, the outcome of your efforts is your own self-authorship. When you fail to understand the nature of reality, you live by the consequences of your actions. Monochromatism is almost never the nature of reality. Only when you sythesize truth can you see the full spectrum of possibilities and only then can you choose where in the rainbow of existence do you want to reside.

I have noticed a trend; however, the more time, effort and money I put into food, generally the happier and healthier I am in every other area of my life.

I completely agree, I was on a pretty bad diet for a few years, eating takeaway and if I cooked it was the same old pasta or rice. And as such I was pretty bored back then, in all aspects of life.
Since I have started to take better care with what I eat, and actually spending more time (and money) with the whole preparation of the meal, I have found to actually enjoy the food and feel generally better. And the range of things I prepare has broadened considerably.
I think it's really down to feeling present whilst cooking, like a meditative process. Or like a painter fully focused on his painting.

a reply to: Nechash

I've been testing taking a thousand MG of taurine. It helps me be able to work longer, controlling my TLE by attaching to the glutamate sensors in the brain and this seems to have a settling effect. The problem with the taurine is it boosts my insulin and I am already hypoglycemic naturally. Got the head spins. It lessens triglycerides in the blood also so I get lots of energy but I need to keep eating proteins every hour or so. That is going to make me gain weight. I can't take taurine unless i boost my molybdenum, the sulfurs give me a problem. Taurine is a sulfonamide. Too much is not good for some people who cannot properly detox sulfur compounds. I am not sure if it blocks the creation of Pterins or not, it does about the same as a sulfa based diabetic drug.

For people who are normal, this might not be a bad approach at lowering bp and triglycerides. I have to evaluate this better. It was a pretty powerful head spin I had. I should have eaten something for breakfast, but I wasn't hungry at all. I went out and cut wood with the chainsaw and split it and piled it. When I came in I sat down and got the spins and sweats. I did get a chance to get my heart rate this time, normal at one ten. Definitely not AFIB. Whatever this is, I feel it is related to What initially starts AFIB, Nitrogen causes AFIB plus it also stimulates Insulin release.

Sorry for getting off topic.

a reply to: rickymouse

Maybe I don't know what you're talking about, but they have red bull here in the US and its main ingredient is taurine and that stuff makes me feel like I'm having a heart attack. It would never be an option for me, although I don't think I've ever had it in its pure form, so if red bull has excessive amounts of caffeine, it might have been that. One thing I did try was Guarine, and it made me feel an increased vitality without bad palpitations or anxiety. Have you looked into that?

One natural compound I don't often hear about is kavalactone. It and St. John's Wort are probably the two most underrated plants I know of. Kava is almost like plant based tranquility and ST. John's Wort seems to cause an overall level of improvement in many areas of my mood/health across the board. I do remember as a young child when my dad was teaching me the useful plants in the woods around our house that chewing on American Ginseng stems gave me an energetic effect. That might also be an option. It is relatively easy to find, especially in the fall.

a reply to: athousandlives

That seems to be a nearly universal truth in this life. The more here you are and the better you tend your garden, the more beautifully it blooms in almost whatever you do.

a reply to: Nechash

Cooking give me great pleasure!!

I love slow cooking and having it smell up the house and knowing i have at least 3 different meals after this one ready for the week!

We are cooking a whole chicken today and tomorrow we will make enchiladas with the left overs and then Monday we will have chicken pot pie! I love foods that give you more than one meal. I already have the homemade cream of chicken and mushroom soup in the freezer. All I have to do is make the pie crust and bam chicken pot pie!

For me cooking is love and how I show appreciation. I love to cook for others and when company comes expect to be fed!

a reply to: mblahnikluver

I was an atheist in my younger teenage years, and we had these Mormon missionaries come to our door. We spoke a lot. Much of it was them trying to woo me over to whatever kooky handshakes, planet making technology and magic underpants they have going on, but most of it was just being neighborly with teenagers who were far away from home.

I cooked for them as often as they would allow and I think we became friends. One of them left and did a mission trip in Thailand of all places and he and I have kept in touch intermittently to this very day. I went to a few of their church's social events. I will say this for Mormons. Of all the Christian derivatives I've seen they do more for the needy people in their community than any other church I have encountered and they do so joyously, which, I am assuming is how charity should be given.

If I had to convert to Christianity, I'd have to be a liberal quaker, drinking directly from the font of light in their oh so friendly way, but Mormon would definitely be on the list of my top picks.

Anyway, there is a spirit of bestowal that surrounds cooking for others and it is very divine.

a reply to: Nechash

I have natural ginseng here on my land. just a few of them though. It grows well a hundred miles north of here in the woods.

If I want a tranquil feeling, I can drink Arizona green tea. Something in that makes me feel really good and calm. I haven't tried plain old green tea, that is probably what is making me feel that way. One thing about the green tea, it does not seem to dumb me down at all like lot of the other things do.

I can't take St. John's wart. Something in it is too similar to the meds I was allergic too. Same with valarian root, I don't like being in lala land anymore.