~~~~~nutrition nazis 2012~~~~~

The black bean brownie thing is that if you're feeling lazy but want something warm and chocolaty and maybe not horrendously bad for you, you can just mix a box of any kind of brownie mix (reg, no pudge, natural - whatever) with a can of black beans and forget all the other stuff it tells you to add like eggs or oil. Just one can of black beans. Bake as per the directions and you get gooey delicious brownies that taste nothing like beans.

a friend makes black bean brownies. i can taste the beans... but they are good anyway, in their way - but yeah, they have flour in them anyway and sugar, so i'm like, why not just make regular brownies? anyway, my NN way doesn't include beans (except mung) - and that includes peanuts and peanut butter. exception being certain burritos found in california! because the super long soaking/cooking of burrito black beans does something magically digestive to them!

I have only made the bean brownies 2x but they were good although I think I'm sort of with you on the why not just make brownies thing. After I while I sort of thought I could taste the beans a little bit but then figured that's because I was thinking about it too hard maybe.

probably not enough cocoa?

i think have all the ingredients to make those cookies right now...

3 days this week, lunch = kale salad
today, lunch = almonds, green tea

Sigh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Taubes

do u nazis have opinions about this guy?

Taube's argument that refined carbs are responsible (through acquired insulin resistance) for the modern obesity epidemic is close to, but IMHO misses the mark and could lead to worse outcomes than mere obesity. The "energy balance" 1st law of dieting Taube's rejects remains true (you can eat a restricted diet of Twinkies and lose weight) but there's definitely a kernel of truth that the moderned refined/processed food diet is awful. Dr. Lustig in Sugar: The Bitter Truth has a cogent (and IMO, better) argument that its the high consumption of fructose (in HFCS, but also table sugar and fruit juice) leads to de novo lipogenesis and interferes with normal appetite satiation through the leptin hormone path.

On the other hand, there are plenty of cultures that historically eaten plenty of starches like white bread, rice & potatoes and remain thin with little vascular disease and lower cancer incidence (though they tend to suffer from diseases of poverty from poor sanitation and lack of micronutrients). In one an interesting (though dated) study, mildly overweight men lost 19 lbs in 8 weeks after adding 12 slices of white bread to their daily diet - I've seen other studies like this and it suggests that while white flour is a pretty empty calorie, its clearly is displacing worse culprits. Basically, starch is pretty innocuous as empty calories go.

My main concern with Taubes is not so much that his conclusion that refined carbs are the smoking gun is wrong, but that his argument used to support high-protein / high-saturated fat diets like Atkins that have clear negative consequences for long term health. Micheal Pollan's summary "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." remains a succinct summary of the science.

sanpaku people usually say this with derision but i am 100% not kidding: do you have a newsletter i could subscribe to?

Sanpaku Weekly Digest!

On the other hand, there are plenty of cultures that historically eaten plenty of starches like white bread, rice & potatoes and remain thin with little vascular disease and lower cancer incidence (though they tend to suffer from diseases of poverty from poor sanitation and lack of micronutrients). In one an interesting (though dated) study, mildly overweight men lost 19 lbs in 8 weeks after adding 12 slices of white bread to their daily diet - I've seen other studies like this and it suggests that while white flour is a pretty empty calorie, its clearly is displacing worse culprits. Basically, starch is pretty innocuous as empty calories go.

this is the view I subscribe to so I can continue to eat pasta and rice

I have no special expertise but i have been coping with a (very) minor skin condition with no known cure that i hypothesize has something to do with diet and nutrition. so i've tried a lot of different approaches. unfortunately the one that seems most successful is also by far the hardest (for me anyway): the "raw food" diet.

my sister in law has been diagnosed with MS and a modified raw food diet seems to have helped her control some of her symptoms to an extent.

update: my sprouting onions look quite green and healthy

can you do the green onion thing forever? like is there a point where they just give up?

no they are perpetual onions

but only if you buy the variety 'evergreen onions'

make your green onions sprout forever using this one weird trick

the green onionhood forever

down with deciduous onions

it's like basil plants, right. they tell you it can't re-spawn but you can keep it going on a kinda lower-energy cycle for a while, growing smaller leaves.

I planted green onions from seed yesterday, but will also try the sprouting thing with some stuff I have in the fridge.

Currently on the stove: soup with homemade chicken stock along with onion, carrot, celery, orange pepper, tomato, cabbage, and kale. Oh and just a tiny bit (one slice) of bacon. Also garbanzo beans, gonna chuck some macaroni in there as well.

NN question: are corn tortillas considered wholep-grain? Also, is pho NN? 'Cause if pho is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Just don't drink the broth like a crazy westerner. Pho is high calorie, but pretty not bad

Just don't drink the best part? Have you met me?

the broth is crazy sodium-y, no?

drink more water

instead of drinking eight glasses of pho broth a day? whatevs.

lol

my sprouted green onions have grown a lot! who knew they had it in them? they are champs. I feel like a proud parent.

I'm afraid to strip away the onion skin to see what my sprouted onions look like. feels like a dorian gray situation.

I'm sucking at NNing, but hey the garden is on its way so better times ahead I think. Planted green onions from seed, they have sprouted!

Went to a Vegan diner/bakery for brunch. Cookies are find for you if they're vegan, right? RIGHT?!

:/

Absolutely! Just like you can eat as much guacamole as you can possibly put down because avocados=sooooo good for you!

OK, good. I'm glad we're on the same page about this.

It was so good though and except for the cookies and fries (whoops) sort of NN. I had scrambled eggs and homemade seitan chorizo. It was amazing.

sugars about the only bad thing I can think of

How do you prounounce seitan? I always say "say-tan" (think spray tan) but have never been sure if that's correct.

Obv I had eggs so the diner part was veg not vegan but the bakery was all vegan, I think. This place was SO GOOD.

I also do the spray tan pronunciation, based on vegan friends who say it that way!

that is correct i think

:)

In non-NN, non-vegan news, I am dining frenchie tonight and will probably have bone marrow if on the menu

My dad loves marrow. I've never had it. Hope your meal is yummy :)

sweet potato fries count, right? I ate a LOT of them :/

i've been going meatless during the week. on the weekends i've been meat crazy but yesterday was only bbq chicken and tonight cooking with pork necks. my plan now is one meat dinner per week, oh god that rib eye with Szechuan sauce at the local Japanese place here i come next Wednesday.

lol @ "Szechuan sauce at the local Japanese place"

its' actually an ~Asian fusion~ restaurant

it's pretty heavy on japanese cuisine

i just hate the word fusion tho

also, i'm culturally ignorant

haha I was just teasing the restaurant

I am amused by pan-asian restaurants in general

i need my rib eye with sauce so any Port Arthur in a storm