Why Diets Fail

How many times have you heard it? The so-and-so diet worked very well for me. I lost 20 pounds. But the minute I got off the diet, I gained back every pound plus 8 more.

The reason for this is both simple and hard. If you went back to your old way of eating, your body gave out a big sigh and said AHHH, then began to plump itself up again. A more complicated explanation involves the notion of your metabolism, your body type, and your habits.

I have to go back to the original statement I made, "It's not your fault you're fat." The food presented to Americans has changed drastically in the last thirty years. So have cooking and eating habits. In the first place, the market is flooded with processed foods which are loaded with sugars in all forms, salt, chemicals and often built on a base of tasteless, nutritionless white flour.

Flour and sugar are the end products of a long processing system which strips them of any nutritional value and leaves them as nothing more than simple carbohydrates. Now when you eat these processed foods, in their zillions of permutations, they often taste really good, but your body is not fooled. Within an hour, your blood sugar will rise, your hunger will scream, and you're body will be saying, help! Feed me.

And so, you are on a roller coaster of eating empty foods as deadly as that of the poor soul who is addicted to alcohol or drugs.

But, you say, my sister eats cakes and cookies all the time and she never gains a pound. OK. Here's the deal. Your sister has a different metabolism from you. Her body turns everything she eats to energy. Yours, the more conservative model, says you never know when the next famine is coming, better stock up.

Just think of it this way. If you and your sister were stuck in a row boat in the great Swamp and weren't found for weeks, you'd have a better chance of survival than she does, because you have all that lovely stored fat. But, since its not likely that you are going to get stuck without food, you're going to have to accept the fact that your body treats carbohydrates differently than those string beans we all know and (secretly) hate.

So the short answer is you'll have to change what you eat, and when you choose to alter your eating habits, you'd better choose a plan you can stick with, basically, for the rest of your life, because the old ways are, for you, the bad ways.

If you can accept that sugar and flour are basically POISON to you, then you can move on from there. This means no bread, no cake, no cookies, no pasta (except whole wheat), no rice, except brown, you get the idea. You just have to put these food categories out of your mind.

It may take you a while to get used to this idea. Take your time. It's your life at stake here and I know you'll come to the right decision.

We'll talk more about this tomorrow. Meanwhile, here's a great recipe to ease your acceptance. As you'll see, the Fight Fat With Fat program is not so much a diet as an enlightened way to eat.
I believe you'll come to love it. After all, you never have to count calories again, you never have to worry about portion size, you just have to eat until you are satisfied from a wide variety of whole, delicious foods. What's not to love?

Peppered Lamb Chops on a Bed of Bitter Greens with Walnuts and Cranberries

(adapted from Fight Fat with Fat, by Dr. John Salerno and Linda West Eckhardt)

You’ll get a spicy, crunchy crust on the outside of the chops that is just the first of the flavor hits you’ll get from this one dish dinner that yields all the satisfaction you can stand and still call it a diet: sweet, salty, bitter, and sour flavors, and hot besides. All rolled into one.

Makes 2 servings

8 ounces thick loin lamb chops (2 to 4 depending upon the size)

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon olive oil

½ teaspoon cracked black peppercorns

4 cups mixed bitter greens: washed, dried and torn escarole, chicory and/or radicchio

1 tablespoon chopped walnuts

1 tablespoon dried cranberries

Dressing:

1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon water

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon cracked black pepper

Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat, and then film it with oil. Meanwhile, make small incisions in the chops with a paring knife and insert slivers of garlic. Press in cracked peppercorns, then sauté, turning only once, about 3-5 minutes per side.

Place salad greens in a large bowl along with walnuts and dried cranberries. Whisk together dressing ingredients in a small bowl then toss with salad. Divide greens between two dinner plates. Top with sautéed chops and serve.

Try some Terrific Grass Fed Beef

Chicago Steakhouse Style Grass-fed Steak



The secret to mimicking a steakhouse style steak in the comfort of your own home is to heat your broiler 20 minutes before you put the steaks in. You want the oven really hot! Some people go as far as to broil the steaks over a rack that is placed over an aluminum tray filled with salt so that it catches the juices. With a grass-fed steak you want to broil it about 5 minutes on each side. But each broiler is different so do please use your personal discretion. Make sure to season the steaks with salt and pepper. I made herb butter with mine because I love the flavor of the charred steak with herbed butter!

Herb Butter: In bowl, blend 1/2 cup softened butter, 2 cloves finely chopped garlic and 2 Tbsp. finely thyme and parsley.

You can see how easy it is to do this high fat, high protein diet, when you see the luscious piece that came my way from a great website you should check out called Grass-Fed Party. These are the folks who are taking on the political problems in the mea inustry and we applaud them.

Order a great steak today. Your body will thank you.

Stop Him Before He Kills Again

I really cannot take it. there is so much misinformation on the internet that it is truly terrifying. Today, checking out The American Diabetes site, which had a 'recipe of the day" for type 2 diabetes. It went something like this:

rice	1/2 cup	---
water	1 cup	---
fat-free milk	1 Tbsp	---
raisins	2 Tbsp	---
low-calorie margarine	1 tsp	---
sugar	1/2 tsp	---
cinnamon	1/4 tsp

Rice??? Are you joking? If you have elevated blood sugars the closest grain you should come to is quinoa, an ancient whole grain that will not spike your blood sugar. Then fat-free milk? Ixnay. Pure carbohydrate. Raisins? You may as well bomb your blood sugars. Low-calorie margarine? Do you want to die of a coronary? Are you telling me you will stop at 1/2 teaspoon of sugar? I do not believe you. You will dump a tablespoon on that rice and you know it.

Here's a healthy grain recipe that will taste good and will not kill you. Enjoy.

Lemon scented Quinoa
(adapted from Gourmet)

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Wash quinoa in 3 changes of cold water in a bowl, draining in a sieve each time.

Cook quinoa in a medium pot of boiling salted water (1 tablespoon salt for 2 quarts water), uncovered, until almost tender, about 15 minutes. Drain in sieve, then set sieve over same pot above 1 inch of simmering water (water should not touch bottom of sieve). Cover quinoa with a folded kitchen towel, then cover sieve with a lid (don't worry if lid doesn't fit tightly) and steam over simmering water until tender, fluffy, and dry, about 10 minutes. Remove pot from heat and remove lid. Let stand, still covered with towel, 5 minutes.

Transfer quinoa to a bowl and stir in oil, zest, lemon juice, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Chocolaca Yes Indeed

Like I say, you gotta learn to look beyond the headlines, folks. I saw this blog about dieting and they had invented a "diet" hot chocolate. Now this horror was made with a package of sugar free hot chocolate mix, some fake creamer with hazelnut flavor, and hot water. Are you kidding me? Enough chemicals to turn your plumbing into iron pipes. Neither healthy, or delicious. Hot chocolate is one of the simplest things in the world to make, and all you have to do is start off with top quality plain cocoa. I like European Dutch Processs cocoa, but you use the best one you can afford. A tablespoon of cocoa stirred into 1/4 cup water and brought to a boil, then add 1 cup cream and sweetener to taste. Now how bad is that? On the diet, good for you. Offers brain-saving fat, plus tons of antioxidants in the cocoa. Yum.

Raw Food Revenge

Thanksgiving came and went. The cooking done and gone. The leftovers given away. And now, I can face the bathroom scale. Phew. Not too bad. Only gained 3 pounds and I'm sure that was all pecan pie. but I know from experience that weight quickly gained, will be quickly lost.

So, I'm back on the high fat, high protein diet trail and feeling really good. Dr. Salerno would be proud.

You may have heard about the raw food cult. Its actually an idea that comes and goes, but it seems to be here again. I don't really know the reasons for it, but I do know there's one raw food that's really flavorful and healthy and that's salmon. Today, I made a salmon ceviche, put it on a base of thinly sliced cucumbers and minced green bell pepper. It was fantastic and I didn't feel the least bit punished.

Which is big for me. I am happy to stay on this strict regimen of mostly protein and fat, provided I don't have to suffer. Trust me when I tell you. With this recipe., you won't suffer.

And you can count yourself lucky to be eating all those Omega 6's in the salmon as well as the vitamin C in the peppers. You will like this dish, and it will like you. Enjoy! Be sure to buy sushi grade wild caught salmon. Coho is a great choice, but any deeply rose colored salmon that is squeaky fresh will do.

To make this look great, form the salmon using a mold or a tuna fish can with both ends cut out of it.

makes 4 to 6 servings

• 12 ounces wild caught coho salmon fillets, sliced thinly
• 2 limes
• 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 juice orange
  
• Finely chopped orange rind
  
• 6 tbsp coconut milk
• 1 tsp red Thai paste
• Thinly sliced cucumber
• Minced green bell pepper
  
• fresh cilantro

Slice the raw salmon fillets thinly and lay in a dish. Squeeze over the lime and lemon juices. Add zest from lemon and lime. Cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours.

Meanwhile, dip orange rind into boiling water. Let it stand a few minutes, then drain, and finely chop. Pour orange juice over it and set it aside. Mix the coconut milk and red Thai paste together and then add some of the citrus juice and fresh coriander. Chop salmon and mix with coconut, Thai paste mixture. Chill up to 4 hours. Then, at serving time, form into squares or rounds.

On a chilled plate, make a bed of cucumber, bell pepper, and cilantro. Transfer a block of salmon. then top with a sprinkling of orange rind and a jot of finely minced cilantro.