24

Jan

Thoughts on “protein”…

Filed Under (Nutrition) by Alvin Mites on 24-01-2013

There is no better or worse “protein”. It’s a commonly used word with little understanding, protein is like a house with bricks  of “amino acids“. There are 9 “essential amino acids” that you cannot synthesize from raw ingredients and must be consumed. Any form of protein that has all 9 is termed to be a “complete protein” the great trick is that you can consume 100+ grams of protein daily and still be deficient if you have been consuming incomplete protein. This is unlikely to happen with any variety in your diet, though can happen if your staples consist of foods that come in bags and boxes.

Many plant proteins come up lower in 1 or more essential aminos unless combined ex: beans & rice. There are ongoing debates about whether these foods should be combined in the same meal or not, etc…

If you are a vegetarian or considering trying the option then please do some homework about nutrition, eating meat is simple, your almost guaranteed to have 70%+ usable protein, plenty of B vitamins from the bacteria that lived with them, and more oil soluble vitamins to help maintain your health. The downsides come in the form of other factors that cause you harm.

Diet is a tricky thing, there is more going on with health than being fat or thin, calorie in, calorie out. Perhaps in years to come someone will find a unified theory, though with such genetic diversity within our species and lots of money to be made from pushing a new fad we are unlikely to see a 1 size fits all approach to optimal health anytime soon.

There is no such thing as food that is good for you, only that which is less bad.

That was told to me by a very wise man some years ago, my research suggested that it is true. Everything you consume causes an immune response short of glacial water. So please do your own research, no-one cares about your health more than you (I hope).

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31

Jan

My Juice Fast Recipe for Day 2

Filed Under (Nutrition, Personal Inventory) by Alvin Mites on 31-01-2011

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Yesterday I started to feel myself coming down with a cold so I decided to kick it out quick with a fast. At the end of the day I decided why not keep it going for a few days and turn this into a deep cleanse.

My juice fast recipe for the day:

  • Carrot
  • Apple
  • Celery

I tend to use this juice fast recipe as a base since when combined properly it forms a complete protein and allows for extending fasting. The proper mix is 2 parts carrot : 2 parts celery : 1 part apple. If you are not an experience juicer then I don’t recommend jumping right into that mix as the saltiness of the celery is a bit much to handle. That said if you add some celery to your fresh pressed carrot and apple juice then you will be gaining some complete proteins and allow your body to maintain it self while your cleanse.

My method is fairly simple, I ran 3 pounds of carrots, 2 pounds of apples and 2 pounds of celery through a Champion Juicer to make roughly 3 quarts of juice. I will drink this throughout the day along with water and store bought not-from-concentrate Orange Juice anytime that I feel hungry.

Having my juice pre-pressed this way makes it much easier to avoid the temptation to indulge and break my fasting since all I have to do is pour a glass rather than go through the process of making juice each time I feel hungry. Aiding
The orange juice being is also there to aid in my will power in case I seek something sweeter, being pasteurized it contains significantly less nutrients than my what I pressed this morning though it does make for a nice change.

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12

Dec

1 piece of advice for diabetes

Filed Under (Nutrition) by Alvin Mites on 12-12-2010

Diabetes: not fun, used to have hypoglycemic crashes somewhat regularly before learning to manage

watch your fat vs carb intake, higher blood fat levels cause sugar/carbs to stay in your blood stream creating the conditions for a crash – biggest thing I’ve learned is scheduling, when eating a fatty meal try to stay light for a few hours sticking with water and low glycemic index foods (apples are a particular favorite)

can share more if interested, learned how to cure diabetes when I went raw and haven’t had an issue since

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11

Sep

Quick map to your local food season

Filed Under (Nutrition) by Alvin Mites on 11-09-2010

Recently I was looking to prepare a grocery list based on what was in season. Being September when there is a window between sumer and fall seasons the tradditional seasonal list for produce doesn’t quite work. Thanks to epicurious.com I found a map that not only listed produce in season by month, it also gives you state specific listings opening up the farmers market raid for fresh ingredients to your meals.
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14

Apr

Thoughts on a cancer diet cure

Filed Under (Cause and Effect, Nutrition) by Alvin Mites on 14-04-2010

I believe that cancer is curable in most cases. I don’t use the word “curable” lightly or by accident, you’ve likely heard of cancer being “treated” a number of times. When I think of curing a dis-ease like cancer I go right back to looking for the cause and effect relationship. One common cause of cancer is the ongoing presence of overt fats within your bloodstream. To enact a cancer diet cure where this was a partial cause would be to cut back on your intake of fats, go a couple days in a row where you eat as few calories from fat as possible. Make that into a dietary cycle, observe your results and adjust from there. This would be in addition to any other ongoing treatment, though again this is all based upon individual cause and effect and not to be taken as serious medical advice.
Reasoning: Once consumed fat remains within your bloodstream for 12-48 hours, if during that time you eat more fats then the countdown is extended. In the presence of enough fat a couple of things are going on at the cellular level. In this case I’ll focus on 1 process, breakdown of sugars into energy. In the presence of Oxygen a process called ATP is used, this is a primary system that will most often help produce healthy cells over time. When there is no or insufficient Oxygen present then your cells will go through a process of fermentation to release energy from sugar. This fermentation over time can cause a number of mishaps in future cell generations if used as a primary system to fuel your cells.
Connecting the dots: If you take a teaspoon of olive oil, pour it onto a bowl of water and let it sit for a while you will eventually end up with a thin layer of oil of equal thickness floating on top of the water. Since you’re body and cells are mostly water, fat will do the same thing to individual cells. This coating interferes with other chemicals and processes internally such as the cell having access to Oxygen when it is ready to convert sugars to energy.
One good source for further details is Matt Monarch‘s article on Blood Gas
He get’s a bit extreme in his writing though results have a way of speaking for themselves…

So what do you think? Have I gone over the deep end thinking that cancer is a curable dis-ease?

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17

Apr

You are what you eat

Filed Under (Cause and Effect, Habits, Nutrition) by Alvin Mites on 17-04-2009

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You are what you eat, you’ve likely heard the phrase before. Ever given it much thought?

Ghandi once said “There are men in this world so hungry that god cannot appear in any form except bread“. Both powerful and true, the hungrier we get the more things looks like food. This is basic survival instinct that has carried our species through many generations of feast and famine. Given a choice you likely have preferences based upon one of two things; taste or nutrition.  As you may guess I fall into the later category. Life has a way of changing over time, when placing your attention upon improvement.
While I was exposed to eating for nutrition early on it wasn’t until later than I began to gravitate towards the idea. This is not to say that taste does not have its place, taste is one of a few sets of senses we have to experience the world with and I like to feed my senses a healthy variety. Primarily sweet fruits, with textures and flavors of all kinds being mixed in over time.
Why nutrition? Seems strange to adopt the idea of eating to live, until you consider the alternative is living to eat? Do you pay much attention to the causes and effects of the world around you? Have you considered the relationships apply within you?
One way to experiment, visit your local grocer, watch the people around you. Look at what is in their carts and how they appear, who do you see that looks happy, how about healthy? You can do this with people of any age, though it seems more pronounced in those that appear older. I practice not judging people, I also notice relationships.
Another way to look at it, how often do you get sick? Have any ailments that your doctor said must be treated with drugs, not mechanical things (broken/replacement bones, etc…) so much as imbalances. Diabetes, cancer, depression, arthritis, etc… with a bit of research, and the willingness to adopt some new [eating] habits you can probably cure your dis-ease? If you don’t believe me take a look at Google and spend a bit of time searching, ignore the theories, look for repeatable science and patterns in personal stories. They are all over the place, if you have trouble finding any please leave a comment on this article. I am not claiming that changing what you eat will cure [any|every]thing, for [any|every]one, closer to 80%. That still leaves a fair chance that your suffering can be alleviated.
“Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food.” Hippocrates
Though there will be side effects, depending upon what changes you adopt, in most cases the biggest negative is that others will make comments about “eating rabbit food”, if you practice non-judgement this will be great. The benefits… for now I’ll focus on just one. Mental clarity.
Oddly enough your brain is a part of your body. Your brain just like the rest of your body has a direct relationship between how well it functions what what kind of fuel it has. Yes, you can become smarter by changing what you eat. How much depends upon how far you decide to stray from the normal empty calorie junk food.
Over time I have tried a number of experiments and encourage you to do the same. One of my prefered methods is the 30 day trial. This can be eliminating a single thing from your diet, changing what you eat for a meal each day, or whatever you come up with. For your own sake, when attempting any personal experimentation, keep a journal, it’s not difficult to remember what you had for breakfast yesterday, remembering everything you ate last Tuesday is a bit more of a challenge. Also remember the brain likes what is familiar, if you are used to doing things a certain way anything different will seem strange, for a little while.
Suggestions for what to keep track of; what you eat, how much effort it takes to concentrate, how much sleep you need to feel rested, how easy is it to remember new and old information, how many times do you wander into a room with a purpose and forget why you are there, or how much effort it takes you to comprehend.
Becoming smarter may not seem like such a big deal, to make a quick list of changes I have noticed both in myself and others that have made improvements in their diet include increased; emotional wellbeing (overall happiness), physical agility and endurance, libido, overall health (not getting sick)… This list could go on for a while, because you really are what you eat.
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