Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Sarmen (Pork Cabbage Rolls)

The holidays were hard. Really hard. And the new year feels bittersweet. On one hand, I�m looking forward to putting a painful year behind me. On the other hand, this will be a new year without my dad. 2015. A year that he�ll never see a day of. I�m moving into this new year without resolutions, but with purpose. I want to live fully and love deeply, like he did. Like he would want us to do. I�m going to focus on health and wellness, to get out and move around more. If I've learned anything in the last year, it�s that these bodies are the only ones we have, and they can break. Our bodies can betray us. The worst thing we can do with a working, healthy body is to take it for granted. 

Sarmen (Pork Cabbage Rolls) // Loves Food, Loves to Eat

The last few  months I�ve grappled with whether or not I want to continue blogging. My priorities just feel different now. Writing about the joy of a good cookie when my heart is breaking feels fake. But I also don't want this to be a sad place that brings you down with each new post. So, I�m still figuring it out. Figuring out how I want to use this space and the time and effort I put into this blog.
Figuring out how to still enjoy the happy, good things. My dad wouldn�t want me to stop blogging because he�s gone. He would want me to figure out a way to make it work, to carry on. In 2015, I plan to honor him in these small ways.   

Sarmen (Pork Cabbage Rolls) // Loves Food, Loves to Eat

So, we carry on. We move forward. Eating pork for the year is supposed to be good luck, since pigs move forward when they eat (versus chickens, who root backwards). These cabbage rolls are a riff on my Oma�s sarmen. Sarmen is how she always said it, though online research tells me it�s more often sarma. Is sarmen plural maybe? Who knows. I mean, the country the woman came from isn�t even a country anymore, so I suppose words could have shifted and changed. Oma�s sarmen is ground pork and rice, heavily seasoned with Hungarian paprika, rolled up in cabbage leaves, and baked in a bed of sauerkraut. When Amanda and I were kids, my mom would often do tomato sauce instead of sauerkraut, which is what i�ve done here. Feel free to replace the sauce with sauerkraut or a store-bought tomato sauce though, if you�re so inclined. My Oma always makes sarmen for new year�s eve or day, for good luck.  

Here�s to the new year. To good luck, joy, and lightness. To carrying on and looking forward. And to JFK, the coolest dad a girl could ask for. We�re lucky we had you in our lives, and lucky we have you in our hearts. 

Sarmen (Pork Cabbage Rolls)
Makes about 12 rolls, serves 4-6

Sauce
Olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes (like san marzano)
Splash balsamic vinegar
Large handful fresh parsley
salt & pepper

1 large head cabbage, cored simmered in hot water until soft and easy to separate.

Filling
1 3/4 pounds ground pork
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 tablespoons Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper
1 egg
1 cup cooked, cooled rice

Preheat oven to 350. 

To make the sauce, heat olive oil in pot or high-sided large skillet. Add onion and cook until just browned, then add garlic, cook for a minute until fragrant but not burnt. Add tomatoes (with liquid), vinegar, parsley, salt, and pepper to taste, and simmer. Remove from heat and set aside. 

Separate the cabbage leaves and cut out the hard stem. Dry each leaf. 

To make filling, mix together pork through rice (using your hands is the easiest way to combine it all).

Add a small amount of the tomato sauce to the bottom of a baking dish (I used a 9x9 dish with tall-ish sides). One at a time, spoon the filling into the center of each cabbage leaf. Roll, and place each one snuggly in the dish. Top with remaining sauce. Cover dish with foil, and cook for 2 hours, until pork is cooked through and cabbage is tender. Serve rolls with sauce from dish, and a bit of grated parmesan if desired. 

See you guys in 2015! 


Saturday, December 27, 2014

What's Happening in January

Tired of being cooped up inside or eager to learn something in the new year? Check out these events around the city!



Vancouver Winter Farmers' Market



Location: Nat Bailey Stadium, East Parking Lot (4601 Ontario Street / Vancouver - map)

Dates: November 1, 2014 to April 25, 2015

Hours: 10:00 am to 2:00 pm each Saturday






Credit: Magnolia Lim



Vendors include
farmers, fishers, artisans, food preparers, and more! Also find a
selection of food trucks and hot drink vendors. Bring your food scraps
from home to recycle at the Food Scraps Drop Spot.






In an effort to reduce plastic use at the market, please bring your own shopping bags.



For more information on the market, including transportation and parking at the site, please visit their website: http://www.eatlocal.org/



Homesteader's Emporium


Location: Various (check website)


Cost: Starting from $5


Check
out some of these workshops hosted by the Homesteader's Emporium! For
times, details, and registration for individual workshops, visit their
Workshops page: http://www.homesteadersemporium.ca/calendar/



Upcoming Workshops




January 7: Tasty Crunchy Sprouts at Home

January 14: Grow Your Own Wheatgrass

January 20: Growing Microgreens at Home

January 21: Homemade Block Tofu

January 22: Worm Composting

January 24: Handmade Vegan Soup

January 25: Sake Making

January 25: Homemade Nut Milk

January 28: Homemade Nut Milk and Cheese

Friday, December 26, 2014

Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky winner... Cheesecake Factory carrot cake!!


Read more �

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Apron Project: Volunteers Needed

As many of you, our friends in food security, may know, Burnaby Food First volunteers have been sewing handmade aprons using donated fabric for the past couple of years.





These one-of-a-kind productions are being sold at the Burnaby Farmers' Market and at other local events around town. All of the monies raised from apron sales go right back into supporting our many food security activities, including workshops and events.



The project has really expanded recently, and we want to start selling aprons online here on our blog -- but to do that, we need pictures. Here is where you come in!



Volunteers Needed! Apron Project Photo Shoot



We need models -- no experience necessary -- to pose wearing our aprons, so that pictures can be taken for our online catalogue. Are you interested? We would love your help!



For more information or to sign up to volunteer, please email us.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Holiday cooking/baking on CBC's Weekend Morning Show

This morning on CBC's Weekend Morning Show with guest host Laurie Hoogstraten, I am making the following dishes, plus a few extras.


This afternoon, I'll be at D.A. Niels, demonstrating the Gastrolux pan and making Tuna Tatatki (seared tuna) and Pomegranate Chicken with ras el hanout.



Spanikoptia Triangles

1 pkg filo dough
2 pkgs frozen spinach
1 white onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 c mushroom sliced
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp paprika
3 1/2 tbs olive oil
1 1/2 c feta cheese crumbled
1 egg
pepper to taste
1/3 c butter
Thaw pastry in package. In advance, prepare filling. Saut� onion and garlic
until translucent. Add mushrooms and saut�. Add thawed spinach and
spices. Cook on medium-high heat until some of the water has cooked off.
Add grated feta. Mix in one beaten egg. Remove from heat and cool.
To prepare pastries: Heat oven to 350F. Dampen tea towel. Cut rolled
pastry into four equal parts and lay out on cutting board. Cover with
dampened towel. Melt butter and set aside with pastry brush. Fill pastries in
desired shapes (triangles, pockets, in muffin or cupcake tins, etc). Brush
pastries with melted butter before filo turns papery. Bake until golden, about
15 minutes.

Latkes (Potato Pancakes)


3 medium potatoes, peeled and shredded
1 onion, shredded
2 eggs
1/4 cup flour or maztah meal
salt and pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp paprika (optional)

Pickerel cheeks and vermouth or your favourite clear liquor.
Butter
Olive Oil
S & P
Cr�me Fraiche
Golden Caviar

Mix potato pancake ingredients together and fry in pancake size in a little olive oil until golden brown on both sides. Remove from heat and using cookie cutters, cut bite sized pieces from the pancake.
Saut� pickerel cheeks and deglaze with vermouth.

 Seared Ahi Tuna with 3 kinds of Sesame Seeds.
 Grilled Pomegranate Ras El Hanout Chicken.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Is Meat Unhealthy? Part V

In this post, I'll examine the possible relationship between meat intake and type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, and it is strongly linked to lifestyle factors.

Non-industrial cultures

Non-industrial cultures have an extremely low prevalence of diabetes, whether they are near-vegan or near-carnivorous. This is supported by blood glucose measurements in a variety of cultures, from the sweet potato farmers of the New Guinea highlands to the arctic Inuit hunters. Here is what Otto Schaefer, director of the Northern Medical Research Unit at Charles Camsell hospital in Edmonton, Canada, had to say about the Inuit in the excellent book Western Diseases (Trowell and Burkitt, 1981):
Read more �

Monday, December 15, 2014

The Other Side of Food

Gardening can be very fulfilling and tasty, but sometimes, those veggies and fruits have ideas of their own. Here's some pre-holiday food fun for you all! (Source: Viral Nova)



Warning: Food humour and puns ahead.






1) Heimlich maneuver or hugging carrots?






2) That's a very bear-y strawberry! (We didn't say the jokes would be good.)






3) Eggplants need love too!






4) Hot tub time, anyone? (Let's hope no one tells those two that they're soup-bound.)






5) The devil is... in the tomato?






6) Full of starchy, cuddly goodness.






7) A healthy version of Peeps?






8) Boldly going where no carrot has gone before!






9) Not sure what to do in photos? If in doubt, make a duck face. (This may have gone a little too far, though.)






10) These potatoes aren't shy to show you how they feel.

I guess you could say that food has personality, eh?

Coconut Macadamia Biscotti | Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2014

It�s cookie swap time! This is my 3rd year participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. The first year I made my ma�s recipe for the most amazing maple waffle cookies, and last year I made insanely good peppermint mocha icebox cookies. And this year? 

Coconut Macadamia Biscotti, Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2014 | Loves Food, Loves to Eat #fbcookieswapThis has been a really tough year for me, with lots of tears and heartache. I almost wasn�t able to participate in the swap this year due to my recent posting hiatus, but luckily the head gals in charge have super big, warm, fuzzy hearts! Participating in this event seriously gave me the motivation I needed to get in the holiday spirit and start recipe planning and blogging again! So, I wanted my cookie to be all about the big, warm, fuzzy, heart-shaped part of my life, which is� 

Coconut Macadamia Biscotti, Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2014 | Loves Food, Loves to Eat #fbcookieswap#PIROMAR! (PS. this is a combo of Evan and my last names� it�s clearly right up there with Brangelina, Beniffer and the like, but not with Kimye, because seriously NO ONE CARES ABOUT KIMYE). We got married in October and then went on our #piromoon to Kauai! So, these cookies (which are actually biscotti) are inspired by our honeymoon� full of coconut and macadamia nuts, just like Kauai. Not full of sand or roosters though� we left those on the island. 

Coconut Macadamia Biscotti, Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2014 | Loves Food, Loves to Eat #fbcookieswapI made several batches of these before I got it right. I wanted the coconut flavor to come through nice and strong, and in the end it meant using every kind of coconut imaginable. Desiccated, shredded, flaked, and coconut extract! Then I threw in some mac-nuts for crunch, and topped the whole thing with a drizzle of dark chocolate! These crunchy little goodies are made to be eaten alongside a cup of hot coffee, especially if you came back from Kauai with roughly $200 worth of beans. Yoiks!  

Coconut Macadamia Biscotti, Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2014 | Loves Food, Loves to Eat #fbcookieswap 
PS. Want to see some of the pics from #piromoon!? (Not those kind of pics� pervs!) I have a Kauai post in the works, stay tuned! 

Coconut Macadamia Biscotti with Chocolate Drizzle
Makes about 36-40 biscotti (a bit smaller than standard sized)

� cup coconut oil
� cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons coconut extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon spiced rum
� teaspoon salt
pinch nutmeg
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted and cooled to room temp
� cup large flake coconut
� cup roughly chopped salted macadamia nuts
1 cup dark chocolate chips/ chunks


Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

With electric or stand mixer, mix together coconut oil through nutmeg until well combined. Add flour though macadamia nuts, and mix until a solid dough-ball forms. 

Separate dough into 3 equal sized balls, and roll each one into a log, about the length of your sheet pan. Arrange each long on pan so there�s plenty of space between, and flatten to about � inch thickness. 

Bake for ~25 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool until you can handle them, then carefully slice each log into strips (about 12 pieces per log). 

Lay pieces cut side down/up on baking sheet, and bake for 6 minutes on each side. Cool on wire rack.

Once cool, melt chocolate (over double boiler or in microwave) and drizzle over biscotti.

Wait, there's more!
Looking for more recipes from the cookie swap? Check out the blogs of my random matches: the bloggers I sent these bad boys to, as well as the bloggers who sent cookies to me!

Friday, December 12, 2014

Monday, December 8, 2014

Apron Project: Volunteers Needed

As many of you, our friends in food security, may know, Burnaby Food First volunteers have been sewing handmade aprons using donated fabric for the past couple of years.





These one-of-a-kind productions are being sold at the Burnaby Farmers' Market and at other local events around town. All of the monies raised from apron sales go right back into supporting our many food security activities, including workshops and events.



The project has really expanded recently, and we want to start selling aprons online here on our blog -- but to do that, we need pictures. Here is where you come in!



Volunteers Needed! Apron Project Photo Shoot



We need models -- no experience necessary -- to pose wearing our aprons, so that pictures can be taken for our online catalogue. Are you interested? We would love your help!



For more information or to sign up to volunteer, please email us.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Fancy Tuna Melts from Sheet Pan Suppers

Do you follow the blog Dunk & Crumble? If not, you should! Molly�s writing is cute and personable, and her recipes are always fun and approachable. And she and I are the same age, we both live in Seattle, and we both got married this October. #soulmates. And guess what? She wrote a cookbook (so, I guess this is where our paths diverge) which is every bit as cute, fun, and approachable as her blog! I can already tell you this book going to be a weeknight staple in my house! 

Fancy Tuna Melts from Sheet Pan Suppers // Loves Food, Loves to EatSheet Pan Suppers is full of dinners, desserts, sandwiches, appetizers, and brunch things, all made on a trusty sheet pan! Her sheet pan style makes things simple and easy, even for some serious show-stoppers, like lemony fish baked on top of crispy potatoes, a pork tenderloin recipe with squash, apples, and onions that looks amazing for fall, a giant sheet pan-sized dutch baby with meyer lemon sugar, and a thin chocolate chip cake rolled with cannoli filling that I�m dying to make. She also has a lot of recipes for quick weeknight meals or weekend lunches, like these Fancy Tuna Melts.

Fancy Tuna Melts from Sheet Pan Suppers // Loves Food, Loves to EatTuna melts are one of Evan and my go-to weekend lunches. They�re easy and delicious, but also a little bit fancier than your average weekday sandwich (for us office folk, anyway...especially since I don't eat tuna at work, out of coworker respect...amiright!?). We usually go with a classic chunky and not too creamy (because I hate overly mushy tuna) tuna-pickle-mayo mix on toast or bagels, topped with cheddar or swiss. 

Fancy Tuna Melts from Sheet Pan Suppers // Loves Food, Loves to EatThis recipe ups the ante in every way. The tuna is full of sweet, tangy, crispy, fresh additions like apples, shallot, capers, and fresh dill. Instead of standard bread, we�re using naan, which gets a little bit crispy in the oven, and we�re topping the whole thing with marinated mozzarella. Extra flavor in every element of this sandwich! And it doesn�t stop there. Once everything�s warm and the cheese is all melty, Molly offers two topping suggestions: sun-dried tomatoes and fresh greens, or salt & vinegar potato chips! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? This is a like the his and hers sandwich combo of Evan and my dreams. I try to health things up if I can, with greens or fresh veggies, and he tries to trash things up (and I mean that in the best way possible), with chips, hot sauce, and all manner of pre-packaged foods. From my experience though, I can tell you that the perfect topping for these melts is actually a combination of all three: sun-dried tomatoes, peppery arugula, and salt & vinegar chips.    

Fancy Tuna Melts from Sheet Pan Suppers // Loves Food, Loves to EatThings you won�t regret this holiday season: making these tuna melts, visiting Molly�s blog, buying a copy of Sheet Pan Suppers (for yourself or for a gift!), eating a few extra potato chips. 

Fancy Tuna Melts 
Adapted slightly from Sheet Pan Suppers by Molly Gilbert

Makes 4 sandwiches

Molly uses Armenian braided string cheese, which is marinated in oil and spices. My grocery store, which has the fanciest of all fancy cheese sections didn�t have this, so per her suggestion, I went with marinated mini mozzarella balls, which you can find in most grocery stores, including Trader Joe�s. This recipe makes 4 enclosed sandwiches. If you prefer open face, just use 2 naan pieces, each cut in half (making 4 open face sandwiches). 

4 pieces of naan bread, each cut in half 
1 12-ounce can chunk light tuna in water, drained
1/2 large shallot, finely diced
1/2 cup diced, unpeeled apple (something crunchy like Pink Ladies)
1/4 cup capers, drained, plus 1 tablespoon caper brine
1 heaping tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
1.5 tablespoon dijon mustard
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Fresh ground pepper
1 container small marinated mozzarella balls, drained

Topping
sun dried tomatoes (drained if in oil)
Arugula 
Salt & vinegar potato chips

Preheat oven to 375, with rack in the center. Line sheet pan with foil or parchment paper. Arrange 4 of the naan halves on the sheet pan. 

Mix together tuna through pepper, and scoop evenly onto 4 naan halves. Top each one with about 4-5 balls of the marinated mozzarella, broken in half. Arrange 4 remaining naan prices on the sides of the pan (not on top of the tuna).

Bake for about 10 minutes, until everything is warm and cheese is melty (a bit longer for crispier bread). 

Top each melt with sun dried tomatoes, salt & vinegar chips, and a handful of arugula, then place extra naan half on top for an enclosed sandwich. 

Friday, December 5, 2014

Saturday on CBC's Weekend Morning Show - Brandied Farmer's Sausage with honeyed apples


 I will be presenting the following recipe tomorrow on CBC's Weekend Morning Show with host Terry MacLeod.  This isn't your Dad's Farmer's Sausage.  It is, a take on a Spanish Tapa.  Great for holiday entertaining.

Enjoy!

Brandied Farmer�s Sausage with apples

1-2 Farmer�s sausages, sliced on the bias ~ 1�  ( I used Pioneer sausage, low salt easy peel)
2-3 apples, cut into thin wedges  (I used Granny Smith)
2 tbs butter (Local Notre Dame butter!)
� cup honey
� tsp cinnamon
good pinch black pepper
Brandy, to deglaze (or your favourite non-cream liquor)  I used a Polish, Old Krupnik honey liquor

Heat skillet and add Farmer�s sausage and butter and brown.  Half way through cooking, add apples, honey and cinnamon.  Cook until meat is fully cooked.  Add Brandy or favourite liquor.

To serve, skewer or lay out on platter with toothpicks.

Later, I will be demonstrating Tajine cooking at D.A. Niels with the following recipes;


Moroccan Squash Tajine

1 small butternut, hubbard or winter squash, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 medium chopped red pepper
1/4 cup chopped black olives
1/4 cup chopped dates
1 medium onion, chopped
1 head garlic (loose cloves)
2 tbs olive oil
juice of half a lemon
1 tbs turmeric
1 heaping tablespoon Ras El Hanout *
Splash of Rosewater**
1/2 chopped pickled lemon (just the peel)***
Pinch of salt
Optional: eggplant, zucchini

Place all ingredients together in a casserole dish (traditional cooking vessel is a tajine). Cover and bake at 350F for about 45 minutes. If cooking on the stovetop, cook covered at medium heat for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables are fork tender. Serve with rice or couscous or bulgur.

Enjoy!



Osso Bucco
 
 1 cup all-purpose flour
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 pieces Beef shank (call for fresh at Millad's Grocery Mart on Notre Dame)
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
1-3 tbs butter
1 onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 lemon, zest peeled off in wide strips with a vegetable peeler
1 head garlic, cut horizontally through the middle
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 bottle dry red wine (use an Amarone related wine for fullest flavour)
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can low-sodium beef broth (I had homemade chicken broth on hand instead)
1 (28-ounce) can whole San Marzano tomatoes, hand-crushed

Put the flour in a large shallow platter and season it with a fair amount of salt and pepper. Dredge the meat in the seasoned flour and then tap off the excess (extra flour will burn and make the dish off-tasting).

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat and hit it with a 3-count drizzle of oil. Add the butter and swirl it around the pan to melt. Sear the meat, turning carefully with tongs, until all sides are a rich brown caramel color. Drizzle with a little more oil, if needed. (Do this in batches if the shanks are big and look crowded in the pot.) Remove the browned meat to a side plate. There will be a lot of flavor left over in the bottom of the pot. You're going to use that to create your sauce.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Using the same pot, saut� the onion, celery, carrots, lemon zest, garlic, bay leaves, and parsley over medium heat. Cook the vegetables down until they start to get some color and develop a deep, rich aroma. Season with salt and pepper; add a little oil if needed. Nestle the meat back in the pot. Pour in the wine and let it simmer down for 20 minutes, until the wine has reduced by half. Reducing is key for intense flavor. Add the beef broth and tomatoes and stir everything together. Cover the pot and put it in the oven. Braise for 1 and a 1/2 hours. Then remove the cover and continue to cook for another 30 minutes. The sauce should be thick and the meat tender and nearly falling off the bone.
Remove bay leaves.

Enjoy!

Greater Vancouver Food Bank at Rogers Santa Claus Parade

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank is BC's largest food bank. As we head into the holidays, they have seen a significant decrease in food supply and donations this year. On average, over half of the food donations the Food Bank receives in a year come in during the holiday period.






Source: Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society



The holiday season sees an increase in usage at the food bank, but many people throughout the year continue to use food banks to make up for household food shortfalls. Did you know? Almost a third of food bank users in BC are actually children.



So, what is the Greater Vancouver Food Bank looking for? Items include canned fish or beans, natural peanut butter, canned fruits or veggies, whole-wheat pasta, and rice.



Tomorrow (Sunday, December 7, 2014) is the 11th Annual Rogers' Santa Claus Parade, which also fundraises for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.



Rogers' Santa Claus Parade



Date: Sunday, December 7, 2014

Location: Downtown Vancouver (route information)

Cost: FREE



The Rogers' Santa Claus Parade is one of the largest events organized to raise food and money for the Food Bank. The parade starts at 1:00 pm and other event festivities start from 10:30 am.



Participants are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food or money donation on parade day for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. Donations can also be made online.



For more information on the event or find out more about the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, visit the Santa Claus Parade website: http://rogerssantaclausparade.com/

Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... Pizza Hut Doritos Crunchy Crust Pizza!


Read more �

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Is Meat Unhealthy? Part IV

In this post, I'll address the question: does eating meat contribute to weight gain?

Non-industrial cultures

I'll get right to the point: humans living in a non-industrialized setting tend to be lean, regardless of how much meat they eat. This applies equally to hunter-gatherers, herders, and farmers.

One of the leanest populations I've encountered in my reading is the 1960s Papua New Guinea highland farmers of Tukisenta. They ate a nearly vegan diet composed almost exclusively of sweet potatoes, occasionally punctuated by feasts including large amounts of pork. On average, they ate very little animal food. Visiting researchers noted that the residents of Tukisenta were "muscular and mostly very lean", and did not gain fat with age (1, Western Diseases, Trowell and Burkitt, 1981).

!Kung man gathering mongongo fruit/nuts.
From The !Kung San, by Richard B. Lee.
Another remarkably lean hunter-gatherer population is the !Kung San foragers of the Kalahari desert. The !Kung San are so lean that many of them would be considered underweight on the standard body mass index scale (BMI less than 18.5). Average BMI doesn't exceed 20 in any age category (The !Kung San, Richard Lee, 1979). Is this simply because they're starving? It is true that they don't always get as much food as they'd like, but on most days, they have the ability to gather more food than they need. The fact that they are able to reproduce normally suggests that they aren't starving. Richard Lee's detailed work with the !Kung San indicates that approximately 40 percent of their calories came from animal foods during his study period in the 1960s. This was mostly meat, with occasional eggs when available.

Read more �

Monday, December 1, 2014

Recent Interviews

For those who don't follow my Twitter account (@whsource), here are links to my two most recent interviews.

Smash the Fat with Sam Feltham.  We discuss the eternally controversial question, "is a calorie a calorie"?  Like many other advocates of the low-carbohydrate diet, Feltham believes that the metabolic effects of food (particularly on insulin), rather than calorie intake per se, are the primary determinants of body fatness.  I explain the perspective that my field of research has provided on this question.  We also discussed why some lean people become diabetic.  Feltham was a gracious host.

Nourish, Balance, Thrive with Christopher Kelly.  Kelly is also an advocate of the low-carbohydrate diet for fat loss.  This interview covered a lot of ground, including the insulin-obesity hypothesis, regulation of body fatness by the leptin-brain axis, how food reward works to increase calorie intake, and the impact of the food environment on food intake.  I explain why I think proponents of the insulin-obesity hypothesis have mistaken association for causation, and what I believe the true relationship is between insulin biology and obesity.  Kelly was also a gracious host.  He provides a transcript if you'd rather read the interview in text form.