Back to Normal

Posted on April 23, 2014 by dcarmack

We are into the new normal at our house. New hot teas and tea blends that taste sweet from the spices that are in them, without actually having any sugar added or incorporated. Coffee black, no sugar is a new norm. Keurig machine and quality K-Cups are what we use, and when you start with high quality ingredients it is easy to take without having to be sweetened up. Continue reading →

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So Maybe You CAN Think With Your Gut

Posted on April 22, 2014 by dcarmack

According to this Scientific American article, there is a nervous control center similar to the brain located in the abdomen.  So when Stephen Colbert talks jokingly about Truthiness and Thinking With His Gut, he was more right than wrong. Continue reading →

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Food, Inc. Movie Trailer

Posted on April 22, 2014 by dcarmack

Food, Inc. Movie Trailer

I watched this movie after reading Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma“.  This movie shows a couple of great things about the US food manufacturing system, where money is far more important than the health effects or any other consideration.  Best movie on this subject that I have found.

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Forks Over Knives Movie

Posted on April 22, 2014 by dcarmack

Forks Over Knives Movie

This movie, while it seems at times to be pitching a diet, is really instead pitching a lifestyle change.  These days it seems that what is going on the body is probably a change in gut bacteria makeup.  Modern science is chasing probiotics and gut microbiome effects.

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Blowout!

Posted on April 22, 2014 by dcarmack

Last meal of the 21 day sugar detox had zero sugar calories. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it was a 1200 calorie meal, all by itself. We went to Rancho Grande Cantina for dinner and I got 3 deep fried beef tacos, at 427 calories each (according to MyFitnessPal’s database). I enjoyed every calorie, and my body is thanking me this morning for breaking the drought. We ate a few chips and some of their guacamole before the tacos came out, too. We earned it! Continue reading →

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By Special Request

Posted on April 21, 2014 by dcarmack

For my sister, who requested dietary links that all of us could really use, here are a few instructions in my own words with links to people who video tape themselves doing even the easiest things on youtube…. Continue reading →

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Crisis, Epidemic, Catastrophe–Another reason to do-it-yourself

Posted on April 21, 2014 by dcarmack

Interesting Op-Ed in today’s New York Times contains a great deal of hand-wringing about high blood pressure and high sodium loads in foods packaged and prepared in today’s United States. Side by side with the mountain of sugar they are feeding us is another cheap chemical that makes foods that are otherwise tasteless palatable once again.

The prescription offered by the piece is to consume less salt, but then they gnash their teeth in frustration… Continue reading →

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Spreading the Good News

Posted on April 21, 2014 by dcarmack

Easter Dinner was a great chance to prove the feasibility of holiday meals without any added sugar or starch.  This weekend, the last weekend of our sugar-free detox, was perfectly normal compared to the last two weekends without it.  Except that we had a family dinner, where we entertained six extra adults and five children, 13 total, with a meal that held to our food restrictions, and nobody noticed.  I believe that had we not warned guests to bring their own sugary foods if they couldn’t do without, they would not have seen anything unusual in the holiday meal that was prepared. Continue reading →

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Finally not Hungry

Posted on April 19, 2014 by dcarmack

Half of a great steak and half of a large wedge salad at Anton’s Taproom was enough to finally dull the edge of the constant hunger I have been feeling. After work yesterday, I came home to a sliced apple, cheese and canadian bacon snack. I ate five out of eight pieces of this, then we went out for dinner and a movie.

Anton’s is at 16th and Main, Continue reading →

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What if we realized that food security is homeland security?

Posted on April 19, 2014 by dcarmack

Very interesting take on food security, poverty and priorities. Sometimes it’s too natural to look left and right and forget that millions of your fellow citizens don’t have the time or freedom to make the food choices that we do. What would it be like to not have a car and not live within walking distance of a grocery store? What if you really wanted your wife to breast feed, but her employer wouldn’t allow her any time to express her milk while she was there?

astuebe's avatarBreastfeeding Medicine

I’m waiting for my flight home from the 1,000 Days U.S. Leadership Roundtable, a spectacular meeting that was held today at the Gates Foundation in Washington, DC. Stakeholders in nutrition and maternal-child health gathered to discuss how we can galvanize support for nutrition during the 1,000 days from conception to age 2. This is the time when our youngest citizens build their bodies and brains, laying the foundation for long-term health. Investing in optimal nutrition during these crucial days improves health and productivity across a lifetime.

For too many of our children, however, this foundation is fractured. Poverty, food insecurity, and commercial pressures prevent moms and babies from achieving their full potential. During the meeting, 1,000 Days executive director Lucy Sullivan shared daunting statistics about the challenges facing children in America. One in eight infants and toddlers in the US lives in deep poverty, defined as less than half the poverty…

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