Fight Fat with Fat

The new Girl Taking on the Mode: Oh Im spending Chrimas in Paradise....You?

2010-12-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

The new Girl Taking on the Mode: Oh Im spending Chrimas in Paradise....You?: " Christmas and the holiday season are ..."

Why Fats are Essential to Health - Fatty Acids, Omega-3

2010-08-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

Why Fats are Essential to Health - Fatty Acids, Omega-3

Bananas Foster Redux

2009-02-26T06:27:00.001-08:00

It happened again. I saw a so-called diet recipe done over by a couple well-meaning home economists who obviously drank the Koolaid on the low fat road to Nirvana. So these women took a classic recipe for Bananas Foster which is simply a scoop of vanilla ice cream over a sauce made from bananas cooked in butter, brown sugar, and finished with a flourish of flaming rum and turned it into a horror made with some blue john custard made from non fat milk, egg whites and artificial eggs, enough white sugar to send you into sugar shock, then finished off with a sauce they devised in their infinite wisdom that substituted orange juice for rum. Orange juice! That liquid sugar delight guaranteed to send your blood sugar into the danger zone in about a second. Why do those ladies think orange juice is the drink of choice for diabetics whose blood sugar has dropped? To suggest to dieters that orange juice is better for them than lovely carbohydrate free triple distilled rum is beyond me. What were they thinking?

This is a perfect example of meddling with success that results in some dissatisfying excuse for a dessert that will leave you yearning for a Snickers bar within twenty minutes because its so loaded with sugar itself.

So what is the answer? Get back to basics. Start off with a scoop of sugar free ice cream, no more than 90 calories and 13 carb grams. Place that in a dessert bowl. Meanwhile, melt a tablespoon of real butter in a small skillet and add a half banana. Heat until it's limp and begging for mercy. Now you can do what you want. Add a teaspoon of brown sugar substitute, or a bit of sugar free buterscotch ice cream sauce. Let this melt together. Now the clincher is to add a shot of carb-free rum and set it alight, pour it over the ice cream and voila. A satisfying, dramatic dessert in under 20 carbohydrate grams, and bursting with satisfaction and flavor

You know you want it

2009-01-06T11:40:00.001-08:00

OK. Tell the truth. When you stand in line at the grocery store and see The National Enquirer for sale aren't you tempted to buy it? I could hardly resist this week, when I saw the cover. Look at all those bare bellies? Where are the flat belly celebrities? And how did they get there? And so what?

Well what drew me to this cover was that picture of the woman with her face covered up and it said Guess Who? What I was thinking is, hmm, that looks kind of like me. Except her thighs are worse, but her tone is better. Of course, she is the same age as my daughter, so maybe I get 5 years off for good behavior, and some bit of credit for being old. But I don't know.

Women can't help comparing themselves to each other. So when I flipped the issue open - ok - i couldn't wait until I got home, I read the damn magazine in the parking lot, sipping my Starbucks. A little guilty pleasure. but you wanna know who that Babe is? It's Pierce Brosnan's wife. And it sez she weighed 130 when she met her hunka munka husband, but now eats what she wants and weighs 195. she's 5'8", just like me, and that's about how I gained weight, because my husband thought I looked just luscious.

But, OK. So time passes. blood pressure goes up. Blood Sugars go crazy. You gotta get a grip. You can't just indulge yourself forever. Well maybe you can, but only if you leave out the processed carbs that make your blood sugars spike and your blood pressure soar.

So, Pierce's wife. I've lost 30 pounds and you'll be happy when you do too. Honest you will. And if you fight fat with fat you won't even suffer.

So here's a great recipe I just discovered recently that works for me. My grocery store sells a container called "salad fixins" that is a blend of almond, dried cranberries, and pumpkin seeds. According to their nutritionals 1/4 cup has 14 carbs. So I put about 1/2 of that into the slaw and it was yummy. 7 carbs I can live with. This goes really well with ham. I bought one of those spiral sliced ham and I've eaten off it all week. Still good to me.

Napa Cabbage Slaw with Salad Fixins

makes 2 servings

4 cups shaved napa cabbage

1/4 cup "Salad Fixins" (dried cranberries, almonds, and pumpkin seeds)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

few drops best quality balsamic vinegar

pinch salt

Mix it all up and divide between two plates. Add 2 to 4 oz. protein meat and Baby, that's lunch.

Napa Cabbage Slaw

Old Resolutions for the New Year

2009-01-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

January is the traditional month for new diets. I get kind of amused reading this week's Time magazine which chose 3 of the new diet books to review. The first one disallows wine, salt, sugar and artificial sweetener. The second forbids carbonated drinks, coffee, gassy foods including cabbage. The third forbids dairy, white rice, and processed foods. And the last one forbids volume. Eat anything you want but just choose small portions.

Are you beginning to see a pattern here? Why does every new diet start off by telling you what you cannot eat?

People have had problems with excess weight ever since mankind began to grow food. The hunters and gatherers weren't fat. They spent a lot of time just searching for food and were grateful for what they could find. And the game and berries they found also spent time searching for nourishment and water and didn't store fat either.

But that was then. This is now. We are besotted with food, drink, choices, and chance. What on earth can we do?

Dr. John Salerno of the Salerno Center in New York city has taught me that I can really indulge myself, eat fabulous foods and lose weight. I have, to date, lost 31 pounds. My blood sugars are now normal. My cholesterol has gone down. And I have not suffered one day.

I propose that you can treat your self to luxury foods, pates, smoked salmon, steaks, ham, shrimp. You're beginning to see a pattern here, right? High fat, high protein foods. Why would a person do that? Won't it clog your arteries? Haven't I read all the materials from main stream medicine that tell you NOT to eat fat? Entire careers have been built on this premise. Am I not paying attention? Dr. Salerno has shown me the light.

I myself used to be on the masthead of Cooking Light Magazine which made a very successful venture teaching people to take fat out of foods. Of course the dark secret in the test kitchen was that the so-called portions they recommended were laughable. A cake with 15 servings? Sure it looked good on the cover of the magazine. Sure its nutritional numbers looked good. But everybody who worked on the recipe could joke that they'd eat 3 servings in a hurry. The whole notion was as flawed as Bernie Madoff's money making schemes.

Fat is good for you. Protein is good for you. I am not making this up.

Before South Beach, Before Atkins, there was a doctor in England named Richard Mackarness who wrote a book in the fifties called Eat Fat and Grow Slim. Now Dr. Mackarness was not basing his diet on some poppycock theory, but on solid science that went back as far as the nineteenth century when a mortician named William Banting, who was so fat he had to walk down the stairs backwards made a stunning discovery. with the help of a nineteenth century eye, ear, nose and throat doc, he figured out he could lose weight and eat all the fat he wanted to.

Be cause, mirable dictu, Banting discovered it wasn't fat that was his problem, but rather bread,sugar, beer, and potatoes.

Banting was a fashionable London mortician who actually made the coffin for the Duke of Wellington. Before he came upon his amazing discovery, he had tried a number of other remedies: Turkish baths, violent exercise, spa, drastic punishing diets, and what they called purgation which sounds so awful we don't even want to go there. I suppose its the equivalent of high colonics today which promise to drop 20 pounds in an hour. Ugh.

But eventually, he went to see this ear, nose and throat doctor named William Harvey who put him on a new diet. Within a year, he had lost all the weight he needed to and much to his astonishment, Dr. Harvey's diet was pleasant and not the least painful.

So this is how Banting became famous. He wrote his own little book which he called "Letter on Corpulence", published in 1864. He breakfasted on 4 or 5 ounces of beef, mutton, kidney, fish, bacon or cold meat. He had a little dry toast and a cup of tea. For lunch, he had 5 to 6 ounces of fish except salmon (See everybody has to leave something out...) pork, meat, poultry and game. Any vegetable except potatoes, a little toast, a glass or two of claret or sherry and some fruit. For tea, he had 2-3 ounces of fruit, more tea and another piece of dry toast. By dinner, he ate again 3-4 ounces of meat washed down with more claret. for a night cap he took a shot of gin, whiskey or brandy.

And following this generous regimen, he lost more than 100 pounds in a year. He was elated.

His diet was almost totally fatty meat, with some roughage and booze helped him regain his youthful shape.

Now perhaps the most significant caveat about this diet is that it is meant for people who tend to gain weight. Not for those who have picked up 10 pesky pounds.

But, in fact, after Dr. Salerno's Full Fat Fast, which lasts a couple weeks and jump starts your metabolism by restricting all carbs, you could easily go with the good mortician's diet and find yourself healthier, slimmer and sound for the coming year.

I am happy to report that I got through the holiday parties without gaining any weight. I didn't lose any but I didn't gain, and I pretty much stuck to Banting's suggestions. Yes, I did have bites of desserts often. I am addicted to sugar.

But now its the new year and for the first two weeks I'll stick to the full fat fast and know that I will not have to suffer, I will not have to shave off calories until I'm as mean as a snake. And I will continue with the weight loss plan that I started last year. I've lost 30 pounds and expect to lose 30 more.

Now, you'll have to excuse me. I'm going to stop and eat the third 2 ounce meal for the day. Smoked salmon from Mackenzie, Ltd.com and some capers and a squeeze of lemon. What's not to love about that kind of diet?

Why Diets Fail

2008-12-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-06T07:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-02T12:25:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

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.

Welcome to the Path Lab

2008-11-25T11:44:00.000-08:00

You may have seen bodies dissected and examined on CSI, or in a real medical school lab. You know the drill. The dearly departed is stretched out on a cold slab and people in lab coats hover over and examine the pitiful minutiae of the poor soul's remains.

Today, I'm going to show you how to dissect a recipe you see in the mainstream press and then you'll get some basic science under your belt --the belt that is getting looser and looser as you keep to your High Fat High Protein diet -- and you will know how to glance at a recipe and see if it can be salvaged. The basic question being what is healthy about the recipe and what is not.

The recipe we're working with today sounded so enticing. It was billed as a low carb dessert. Well, that gets my attention. And the photo was glorious. It was a parfait glass with layers of chocolate cake, whipped cream and cherries. They called it a Black Forest Trifle. What's not to love?
Then, reading the details of the recipe, the horrible truth began to sink in. In the first place each serving had 28 grams of carbs. Are you kidding me? They call this low carb?

The recipe began with some abomination called a sugar free chocolate cake mix. Next came the inevitable fat free Koolwhip. and finally some frozen cherries. The picture looked good, but my question was, is there any way to make this thing and not have it be lethal?

The short answer is yes. And yes, you can eat fat and grow thin. And you don't have to count calories. Just start with basic, good food, eat only until you feel full, and your belt will soon be too large too.

Black Forest Trifle

1 recipe flourless chocolate cake, made and broken into pieces

1 cup heavy cream, whipped and touched with vanilla and cinnamon

1 cup frozen IQF (individually quick frozen with NO juice) cherries

85% bittersweet chocolate to shave over the top

The assembly is past easy. Make the cake. Cool it and then layer the pieces with whipped cream and cherries in parfait glasses. Serve at once to dazzled diners.

7 oz bar 85% bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar substitute (Splenda for baking)
4 large eggs, separated

Preheat oven to 350 F
Line the bottom of a 9 in springform pam with parchment and butter it.
Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt it with butter over hot water.
Beat the egg yolks with half of the sugar substitute.
Fold in the melted butter and chocolate mixture.
Beat egg whites until frothy by using an electric mixer; gradually add the remaining sugar substitute, beating until stiff peaks form.
Fold in the beaten egg whites.
Bake at 350 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 40 minutes. Please note that cakes of this type will collapse and look like a pie because no flour is used.
Meanwhile, whip cream with a touch of cinnamon and vanilla.
Defrost cherries.
To assemble, layer cream, cherries and cake in parfait glasses. Top with cream and shave chocolate on top. Yum

In Case You Lose Sight of the Important Stuff

2008-11-24T15:30:00.000-08:00

Don't be overly concerned with your weight, it's just a number
Always try to see the glass half full

Salvation Through Label Reading

2008-11-24T10:58:00.000-08:00

Finding something to snack on is one of the most difficult things about a diet. For the last thirty years with everybody falling for the BIG LIE about low fat diets, people just wolfed down fat free chips, and baked not fried stuff, and watched themselves fail in the diet wars. But now, with the resurgence of Dr. John Salerno's High Protein, High Fat regimen, you can snack on delicious, nutritious foods and I'll tell you just what I found in the grocery store today. I looked at a lot of labels today and put back a lot of tempting things because they had carb counts in the stratosphere. I mean you have to think, people. This is your life here. Don't pour a bunch of poison down your throat.
Take a long, loving look at the spinach dip in the photo (courtesy of TimeInc) and ask yourself, what is wrong with this picture? The chips. That's what's wrong. If you choose a spinach dip for a snack and put it onto a piece of celery or eat it with a bit of carrot, you'll be ok. The dip I bought today at Stop and Shop is made from sour cream, cream cheese, spinach, water chestnuts and Knorr soup mix, plus a list of minor ingredients as long as your arm. May I tell you that if you want to be really healthy, just make it yourself. Ditch the chemicals and the soup mix, flavor it with a shot of cayenne and chili powder and you'll be way better off. You'll also save a whole lot of money. But, barring the time to cook -- if you can call stirring a bunch of stuff together cooking -- you'll still have a decent snack where each ounce yields a mere 2 grams carbohydrates, and 80 calories, 70 calories of which are fat. This will keep you satisfied and is a perfectly legitimate snack. Munch on.

The Dark Side of Dieting

2008-11-21T10:48:00.000-08:00

So, for weeks and weeks, I have followed the low carb diet plan faithfully, sometimes going for a week or so with no carbs at all. But once in awhile, something inside me just snaps and I have to have my old favorites.

Like today. I can't really tell you why. Perhaps its just old tapes playing. You know, You need comfort, you eat something sweet and sassy. But when i got up this morning, I just knew I had to have pancakes.

So I hustled around in the kitchen making the basic dry mix, you know, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. All the things I NEVER eat. Then I broke an egg into the mix. I didn't have any milk in the house. I'd bought some Eggnog for the coming holiday visitors. Its one of those things I can have in the house to serve to friends, and know it will be safe because I don't really like it much. So I whizzed it into the dry mixture but it was thick and noncompliant. There was a bottle of jack on the counter so I sloshed a little whiskey into the mix. Perfect texture, thin, pale, creamy colored, and I poured it into the hot skillet. Now let me tell you, the mixture of egg nog and whiskey just made almost perfect pancakes. The flavor was mysterious and smoky, a little sweet and a lot of lovely.

I ate two of them, but I gave the other three to the dogs. Let their diet slide a little today too.

But now I'm back on the wagon. I won't be doing that again. I'll have pork loin and brussels sprouts for lunch.

And maybe I'll make the dog run extra long this afternoon, in expiation for my sins. Thanks for hearing my confession.

something to be thankful for

2008-11-20T08:53:00.000-08:00

With the big feast almost upon us, we can stop and wonder what in the heck we are going to see on that groaning board that we can eat -- and not be into diet busting mode.

Turkey breast is easy. and enjoy all the skin too.
But from there, the menu begins to look like starch city. I mean mashed potatoes and gravy? I don't think so. Stuffing made with bread and fruit? Not on my watch. Pumpkin pie? Well, at least I can honestly say, I never liked it anyway.

So what can you do? Cook a spaghetti squash, then using two forks, scrape out the luscious golden strings. Mound them into a bowl and dress with lots of butter and cracked pepper. Oh, and to cook that squash, just pierced it a few places with a sharp point and nuke it in the microwave about 15 mintes. Cut it in half. Scoop out and discard seeds, then serve.

So, ok. Now your plate has a couple slices of turkey breast and some spaghetti squash. But what about that cranberry relish? Here's where the fun begins. Years ago, Susan Stamberg, on NPR gave out her mother-in-law's recipe. I had to pull the car to the side of the road and write it on the back of an envelope. Aren't those always the best recipes? Now the only thing I've changed from the original recipe is the sugar, which I've replaced with sugar substitute. But this relish is bright, sweet, hot, and sassy, and it's the color of Pepto bismol, which when you think about it, makes your plate look a lot more interesting.

Have a happy turkey day.

Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish Recipe

by Susan Stamberg

Avie Schneider, NPR

The Recipe's Origins

As Susan Stamberg has noted, her mother-in-law got the recipe from a 1959 New York Times clipping of Craig Claiborne's recipe for cranberry relish. In 1993, Claiborne told Stamberg: "Susan, I am simply delighted. We have gotten more mileage, you and I, out of that recipe than almost anything I've printed."

NPR.org, November 23, 2006 · Every year as Thanksgiving approaches, fans ask NPR's Susan Stamberg for her mother-in-law's recipe for cranberry relish.

"It sounds terrible but tastes terrific," Stamberg says of the Pepto Bismol-pink dish.

Below is the cranberry relish recipe, and a bonus recipe for another Stamberg favorite — garlicky cranberry chutney.

Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish

2 cups whole raw cranberries, washed

1 small onion

3/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup sugar (substitute appropriate amount of stevia or splenda for a diet)

2 tablespoons horseradish from a jar ("red is a bit milder than white")

Grind the raw berries and onion together. ("I use an old-fashioned meat grinder," says Stamberg. "I'm sure there's a setting on the food processor that will give you a chunky grind — not a puree.")

Add everything else and mix.

Put in a plastic container and freeze.

Early Thanksgiving morning, move it from freezer to refrigerator compartment to thaw. ("It should still have some little icy slivers left.")

The relish will be thick, creamy, and shocking pink. ("OK, Pepto Bismol pink. It has a tangy taste that cuts through and perks up the turkey and gravy. It's also good on next-day turkey sandwiches, and with roast beef.")

Makes 1 1/2 pints.

Nuts to You: The suitable snack for a high fat diet

2008-11-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

Well, okay. Nuts are good for you. they offer plenty of vitamin E and other good stuff. so when I'm on the hunt for a suitable snack when I'm away from home, a little bag of nuts is often the best I can do.

Here's a shot I took of a walnut tree when I was in California for the walnut harvest this september. Such glorious trees. Such great products.

But back to yesterday. I was in Target for laundry detergent, but of course -- I'd been out so long, I missed my lunch, so I thought nuts. I'll find nuts.

Now you would think I could find some nice, simple walnut halves wouldn't you? But no. I went like a shot to the jars of fancy nuts. And then to my alltime fave cashew32s. Two for $7.00 I thought that sounded pretty good, so I grabbed on jar of pepper flavored nuts, and then -- against all good sense, the triumph of hope over experience, and any other single thing, I got a jar of those luscious sugar coated nuts. I told myself, I'd save those for a party.

You know where this is going don't you. Over the rest of that day, I ate the whole damn jar of sugar coated cashews. Telling myself the truth, I toted up the calories. 1300 calories with more sugar than I've had in WEEKS. Oh lord. The guilt. I only ate one thin brothed cup of soup for supper. Punishment.

But by this morning, I'd decided to fess up. I got on the scale. And here's the unbelievable part. I lost six pounds. I am not making this up. Is the body not more peculiar than we know? But I'm back on the straight and narrow today. I ate my two eggs for breakfast. Had a couple cups of good strong coffee with cream. Now I'm ready for lunch. Gonna have mesclun in evoo and balsamic with walnuts, dried cranberies, and aged gouda alongside a slice of Pate Forestier. Lemon water to drink.

The moral of the story is, if you fall off the wagon, don't beat yourself up. Just get back up and ride again another day. Because who knows? You might even lose some weight.

Here's what I learned about cashews.

Diet Nutrition & Cashew Nuts:

Cashew nuts, like all nuts, are an excellent source of protein and fiber. They are rich in mono-unsaturated fat which may help protect the heart. Cashew nuts are also a good source of potassium, B vitamins and folate. They contain useful amounts of magnesium, phosphorous, selenium and copper.

Calories in Cashew Nuts:
1 oz/25g = 160 calories

This is before they dipped them in sugar. argh

How To Start the Fight Fat With Fat Plan

2008-11-11T13:33:00.000-08:00

The Full Fat Fast is shock therapy for your system. Getting rid of carbs from your diet will quickly put your body into fat-burning mode, and if you adhere to this for two weeks you will lose from five to fifteen pounds and two inches off your waist.

The amazing thing about this diet is that eating plenty of saturated fat will actually help you LOSE weight. And IMPROVE your blood chemistry. don't ask. I'll explain later.

The picture shows a restaurant serving put in front of me a couple weeks ago. It's two to three meals. So I cut the fish into pieces and saved the left overs for lunch the next day. When you start out, eat the salmon, and leave the spinach. Once you've gotten to the second stage -- the Marathon -- you can wolf down the spinach too. All you want of it. At one sitting.

But back to the beginning:

Here’s a step-by-step guide to your day on the Full Fat Fast:

Within one hour of rising each morning, eat two large organic eggs, cooked any way you like (suggestions and recipes below). You can add a side of bacon or sausage or ham if you want, and you can also have coffee or tea with cream and sweetener.
Three hours later have a small snack: a stick of string cheese, a handful of nuts, jerky, an ounce of sausage, or even some pork skins. Add another cup of coffee or tea with cream and sweetener if you wish.
Eat lunch three hours later: two ounces of cooked steak, hamburger, lamb chop, pork chop, any preservative free sausage, salmon, sardines with mustard, tuna salad made with regular mayonnaise. You may even choose a couple more eggs, perhaps made into a salad.
Three hours later have another snack of about fifteen nuts (macadamias, brazils, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, or pistachios are fine). A hand full of pork skins, a stick of cheese, or some jerky is also ok.
Have your dinner three hours later: another two ounces of steak, burger, chops, poultry or fish.
Drink lots of water-based liquids during the day, at least 64 ounces. Coffee with heavy cream is fine, iced tea with fresh mint, or lemon water, which is ice water with a squirt of lemon juice and a packet of sugar substitute. Stevia is best, but sucralose (Splenda) is fine too. Remember that these products are much sweeter than sugar, so use a small amount in the water. Plain, old fashioned water is perhaps the best choice. Just drink and drink and drink.
On the first day of your fast, measure yourself. Weigh in and write it down. Use a tape measure around your waist. After a week, weigh yourself again, and then weigh yourself one more time at the end of the Full Fat Fast one week later.

Foods to Adore

FOODS TO ADORE

Fats

extra virgin olive oil, butter, unrefined flax oil, fresh lard, foie gras, nuts (walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts, and hazelnuts)

Proteins

organic or grass fed beef, pork, veal, lamb, game, chicken, turkey, duck and other fowl (where possible). Chicken or veal liver, nitrate free bacon and sausage, all seafood from cold, deep water (including codfish, halibut, and salmon), shellfish, and eggs

Dairy

butter, raw milk cheeses, organic full fat cream, yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream from pasture-fed cows

Beverages

water, lemon water, coffee, tea (at least 64 ounces a day)

Condiments

sea salt, best quality balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, rice wine vinegar, mayonnaise, mustards, soy sauce, fish sauce

Foods to Abhor

FOODS TO ABHOR

Fats

highly processed vegetable oils like canola or soybean, margarine, vegetable shortening

Proteins

processed meats

Dairy

processed cheeses, reduced or non-fat dairy products

Carbohydrates

fruits and vegetables, any highly processed carbohydrate, white flour or anything made from white flour (including bread, cookies, crackers, pastas, and dry cereals), high fructose corn syrups, refined sugars, irradiated or genetically modified grains, chocolate mixed with sugar in any form

Beverages

soda, full strength fruit juices, bear, wine, rice milk

Condiments

catsup, commercial baking powder, MSG, artificial flavors, additives and colors

We all scream for ice cream

2008-11-11T13:04:00.000-08:00

I try to do the right thing, and most of the time I stay on the high fat, high protein diet, but in the name of science, I have to try ice creams to see if I can find a better one than the one I developed (see recipe below). Now, life in this new age is complicated, and I also try to buy local products as much as possible, so you can imagine my delight when my new neighborhood Whole
Foods store had a local ice cream for sale (the big sign over the case trumpeted the story) called 5 Boroughs.

So, ok, I live in the New York metropolitan area with its 5 boroughs and I thought, now this is good. One of their flavors was called "Cha Cha Chocolate". Sounded good. I grabbed it and went - as in my usual style of grab and go grocery shopping. Never bothering to read the fine print.

As we all know, people, you gotta read the label. Its part of being an informed shopper. Especially if you're on any kind of special diet. But god forbid I should follow my own rules. This cha cha chocolate is flavored with habaneros and chipotles. Excuse me? Now i'm from Texas and i can stand tall with the best of them at the capsaicin counter, but this ice cream flavor was not a marriage made in heaven. And you don't even want to hear about the calorie and carb count. OK. But I did love the vanilla. Yum. But, I learned my lesson. I went back to the ice cream recipe I developed for the book, made up a pint in my trusty Cuisinart and everybody was happy. even Doctor Salerno who knows that i fall off the wagon once in a while. You don't have to. Just make the ice cream I developed. In fact, if you don't have an ice cream maker, you could even just freeze it in a pan then whiz it up in the food processor before serving.

And yes, you can eat this home made ice cream from day 1 of the Fight Fat with Fat diet. didn't I tell you you'd never have to suffer???

Full Fat Chocolate Ice Cream

Makes 1 quart

15 minutes to cook custard

4 hours + to cure in the refrigerator

20 minutes to freeze in electric ice cream maker

One of my particular weaknesses is ice cream. I might be able to eschew cakes and pies, even my beloved chocolate chip cookies, but ice cream? I don’t think so. I dug out my first cookbook and made a version of my favorite traditional custard ice cream, simply substituting stevia for the sugar, and adding some fine European cocoa I’d brought home from my last trip. I used the traditional method, and when it was made, the flavor was fantastic. You can substitute other flavorings for the cocoa: lemon zest and juice, orange, crushed coffee beans, a vanilla bean, smashed strawberries or blueberries. You get the idea this is your lifeline.

4 large organic egg yolks

4 cups heavy cream

¼ cup best quality unsweetened European Dutch process cocoa

Pinch salt

8 -10 drop liquid stevia (or to taste)

Whip egg yolks and half the cream in a glass measure or bowl. Pour remaining cream, cocoa and salt in a heavy bottom saucepan and heat until cocoa is completely dissolved.

Pour custard and cocoa mixture together and whisk thoroughly. Cook until the custard coats the back of a spoon. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours. Pour the mixture into the ice cream canister and freeze in your ice cream maker.*

*No ice cream freezer? Just freeze it in a pan, then dump it into the food processor and whiz it up before serving. Yum.

Want to lose weight? don't want to suffer?

2008-11-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

Dr. John Salerno has taught me a fantastic way to lose weight without suffering. It's called the full Fat fast. For a week or so, you eat nothing but fat and protein, and your weight will plummet. I lost 12 pounds in 8 days. Next step, you segue into a long marathon of eating only wholesome, whole foods and your weight will normalize. I know it sounds crazy, but you can eat foie gras, heavy cream with berries, steaks, lobster, butter, and your blood chemistry will improve, your weight will drop, and your waist size will come down.

You can eat out easily. Last week, I had this lamb shank, and just left the corn on the plate. I'll teach you how to eat out, feel good, and lose weight.

Tomorrow I'll tell you how to start.