Primal Pasta?

When people ask me about my diet and they hear that I don't eat grains, that's when the slightly horrified (or not so slightly horrified) looks register on their faces and they exclaim "I could never give up grains/bread/pasta etc."

Well, I was just as into my grains as anyone, so it's doable, people! Further into this article, I am going to show you that it's not a spartan lifestyle of white-knuckled deprivation. I love food too much to live like that (but I also love my good health enough to make some adjustments!)

Why are grains worth cutting from your diet? As humans, we haven't been eating them for all that long and the mineral-depleting antinutrients, as well as starches and gluten they contain can function as troublemakers in our bodies.

Some things are obvious: Celiac disease, Crohn's Disease, IBS, etc. Some are less obvious: GERD, skin issues like eczema and acne, inflammation in joints and other parts of the body (I discovered that my excruciating monthly symptoms of cramps and IBS just up and disappeared
after cutting the grains from my diet) and even mental/emotional symptoms like anxiety can all be rooted in grain and gluten consumption. Here's a little more info on why grains aren't so awesome for us and here's a great article on how to quit them.

Now, on to the fun stuff: Pasta!

Are Primal and pasta mutually exclusive? No! Am I going to give you recipes for spiralized zucchini and tell you to pretend it's pasta (Rose likes zucchini "pasta" but I'm not a fan)? HECK NO! I'm going to give you a decent spaghetti alternative from a land far, far away: Japan! Meet the wonderful shirataki noodle!

Shiratake noodles are made from a tuber called konjac root (also called "yam" or "elephant yam"- not to be confused with regular yams. There is also a different version made with soy called "tofu shiratke". I don't use that form.) and they have nearly zero calories and carbohydrates. They also have no taste, so they can be used in a wide variety of dishes. I simply rinse off the sea-weedy smelling water they come packed in and boil them for a bit in generously salted water or broth to infuse them with a bit of flavor.

Shiratake can be found in the Japanese section of any Asian grocer and will be refrigerated. Some brands have a softer texture than others, which I prefer (shiratake can be a bit "springy" feeling when you eat it), so experiment with different brands to find your favorite.

While I don't have specific recipes to give you, I'll tell you about the two dishes pictured. The top pic is bison marinara- I used a low sugar organic marinara sauce (since I'm too lazy to make my own!) and added lots of ground bison and grated parmigiano reggiano (one of the world's great cheeses and not to be confused with parmesan!) Since the noodles themselves have almost no calories, it's important that the toppings are more calorically dense and nutrient rich.

The dish pictured below is pasta with an asiago cream sauce, sauteed morels and ramps, asparagus and baked salmon. It would also be wonderful with other veggies (summer squash, broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, etc).

Shiratake is fantastic in Asian noodle soups (it was made for this purpose and can be found in sukiyaki in Japanese restaurants.) and in Asian noodle dishes. I also pulse it in a food processor to "rice" it and serve with Thai coconut milk-based curries. It's great like that and my husband was pretty impressed with it!

I hope this opens up a whole new world of pasta possibilities for everyone. Mangia, mangia!!

-Erin

Big Fat Lies

"Jack Sprat could eat no fat; his wife could eat no lean..." According to conventional dietary wisdom, Jack is doing things right and his wife is in for a WHOLE lot of trouble! But what if the reality of it was nearly opposite of what we've been told all these years?

Here is a little clip from the documentary "Fat Head" which is like the high-fat/low carb counterpart to "Super-Size Me". It takes to task the idea that dietary fat is the root of all evil (a.k.a the "Lipid Hypothesis"); that it causes obesity, high cholesterol, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, etc.
It's based upon the book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes and the ground-breaking work of physicians like Dr's Mike and Mary Dan Eades. Many researchers and doctors are finding out that it's the carbs, not the fats that are the real root of so many woes!

It's eye opening to see the flawed data upon which our fear of dietary fat (especially saturated fat) is based on:




For more info on fat, read this excellent article by Mary Enig, PhD. (one of the preeminent experts on the biochemisrty of fats) and Sally Fallon, of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Deep Thoughts

"Here's a thought... If you try to break the natural law of gravity by leaping off your roof will the outcome be a good one?.......if you continue to take medications that inhibit (or break) the natural laws of your body, while not feeding it what it needs,will the outcome be a good one?....You cannot break natural laws without them breaking you." -Dr. Tom McKay

Lazy Sunday Night

Last night I felt LAZY. I earned my laziness though with an ambitious morning that started at 4:30am (I didn't mean to wake up that early!). By early afternoon it was catching up with me and I decided to take a nap. Four hours later I woke up hungry realizing all I had eaten was a spoonful of pepita butter in the morning. I looked into my near empty fridge, some zucchini bread my brother had brought home smirking at me from on top of the fridge.
Just then I spotted some summer squash a friend had brought over from his garden. I opened the freezer and found the last part of a bag of shrimp. The laziest dinner ever was born! Here's what I did:
2 small summer squash sliced
1 small green onion diced
1 cup frozen cooked shrimp, thawed, tails removed
2 T coconut oil
2 T Jamaican jerk seasoning

Heat oil in pan and sautee squash and onion, add Jamaican jerk spice and toss, throw in shrimp and toss again, heating shrimp just for a minute. Voila! Laziest dinner ever! ~Rose