OT - Modern Nutrition - (changed from the slanderous Damn that JB subject line)

>> Agree with everything you said. Don't forget we no longer get good

>>> vegetables and fruits in the supermarket. It is usually picked before >>> maturity so it can be shipped thousands of miles. >> >> Or it has been changed so the skin is tough and there is no taste. >> Like the >> tomatoes we get around here. Even many of the local ones are tough >> and not >> much taste the farmers sell in the local stores. >> > > Hi Ralph, > > 1+ > A lot of the stuff has been hybridized to lay flat and > to withstand being picked green. YUK!!! > > I have a theory. People don't buy produce because > it tastes like crap. > > When I grow it myself or buy local, the stuff is > very tasty. First batch on local organic carrots > I bought stunk my car up so bad it was everything I > could do to not stop the car and devour them! (Farmer > told me later he preferred the term "aroma". Huh?) > Since when did carrots have a (pleasant) smell! > > -T

The problem, of course, that cooking takes a lot of time and now that most women are in the work force, who's going to spend all day cooking fresh food? I've started cooking more now that I've retired but even making breaded chicken cutlets takes a few hours of prep and cleanup. I have come to greatly respect how hard my stay-at-home mom worked to feed us fresh, wholesome food.

I would have NEVER had the time when I was working 8 to 12 hours day. It's how fast food and processed to death boxed junk wormed their way into our diets.

Reply to
Robert Green
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(Don't now the attribution of the above. Fictional experiment, as if a researcher would expect a rat to open a box of cereal any way but by chewing through the box.)

I read a Consumer Reports article where CR tested cereals about 35 years ago. They used rats and fed them various cereals, with milk and without. They thrived on Cheerios alone. Only cereal that kept them healthy. It was before and after I read the ratings my go to cereal. Speaking of oats, my uncle had a horse that talked out of his ass. Uncle would ask the horse if wanted some more oats, then lift his tail to hear the answer. Horse usually said "A few."

Your ma was much faster but it still took considerable work. My wife is a chef, and I'm amazed at how fast she can put together a cooked meal. Still takes some time though. Of course she doesn't sit at the table and examine every bean for blemishes, like my grandma did, before cooking them.

Reply to
Vic Smith

Not sure rats and humans have same dietary needs. Still, it's a fun story, and I enjoy it. Over the years I've enjoyed a lot of Cheerios. I've also been raised on Life. I did find one day that three bowls of Cap'n Crunch before going to the Red Cross causes my heart to pound in my throat, and they decline me for high blood pressure.

Another anecdote. Someone came into a load of old Civil Defense rations. Fed the decade old saltine crackers to his pigs, who promptly came down with a bunch of nutrition deficiencies.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I've cooked for myself most of my adult life and never found it very time consuming unless I get fancy. For example, I've never made breaded chicken cutlets. Simplify the recipes, and they become either something fast to prepare. Even something that takes a long time to cook like a roast or a pot of stew doesn't require that much actual involvement.

It's always amazed me how people take basic ingredients and invent some long, involved process to cook them.

Reply to
rbowman

TH> >That kinda cereal is dead food.

My cat once knocked down a box of Purina cat chow and chewed right through the picture of the dish of kibble that graced the front of the box to get to the food.

Yes, that's exactly why the only cereal I will eat is Multigrain Cheerios. The simple truth about grains is that without them, civilization as we know it would not exist. Once agrarian society came into being, farmers could raise enough food so that hunting/gathering was not the only way people could survive. With that extra time, people built villages, towns, cities and whole empires (and don't you dare say "whole grain empires.") (-: In Asia, it was rice that fulfilled the same role.

Phewee! At the stables I worked at as a kid, we had a horse that indicated whether it liked you or not by waiting until you passed behind the stall to expel its considerable excrement with surprising force. I learned then that horses were not as dumb as I thought they were. That's the summer I became a sugar cube hoarder (remember when they were served in restaurants?) and always kept some in my pockets to make equine friends. It would have been healthier to use carrots but they get mushy in your pants.

Way too much to consider when I was so wiped from a twelve hour day and fighting with morons on the Beltway who thought they'd get home SO much faster if the jumped one car length ahead by cutting me off.

Lucky you!

It's an art form. It's interesting how much faster I've gotten at doing it and how I've learned how to "stage" the cooking so that I can prep the cutlets, leave them in the fridge until just before dinner and then fry them. It's much better that way because it doesn't seem like so much drudge work when it's split into phases. At least two phases. (-:

I remember the first time I ate at a schoolmate's house. The meat was untrimmed, full of gristle and just thrown into the pan and cooked without any seasoning or tenderizing. Yuck!

Before mom died she gave me a loose-leaf folder with all of her recipes written in her very precise longhand - it's amazing how unique her penmanship was and the memory it evokes. The only one missing was for the cutlets.

It took nearly a year of experimenting with every recipe I could find on the net until I could duplicate the taste of her hand-butterflied and mallet-pounded breaded cutlets. Olive oil, romano cheese, a spoonful of dijonnaise mustard and some lemon zest turned out to be the missing ingredients. I found it interesting that taste and smell memory was so precise that I could always say to my wife - close but not quite right.

Of course nowadays I can get raw cutlets already prepared (no butterflying) and use Progresso's Italian breadcrumbs to save a little time. But there's lots of cleanup, lots of utensils and lots of standing around battering, dredging and "crumbing" the cutlets before frying them up one by one in the electric skillet (mom used a big wooden-handled job on a gas stove).

I just wish I could duplicate the recipe for Thai battered chicken that my favorite restaurant used to make before it disappeared quite literally overnight. Nothing even comes close although I'm pretty sure it's peanut oil that gave it most of its taste.

I wish you lived nearby because although it takes a lot of time to make, I've yet to meet someone who's tasted mom's cutlet recipe and hasn't asked for the recipe or some to take home! My wife and I are planning to move to an apartment building when she retires and hope to start a "dinner club" where we all cook one meal a week for each other.

When I was living in the back country farmland in Buncombe County NC, that was a fondly remembered tradition that really served to keep the large families that were spread out over a wide area very closely knit. I hope to replicate it, even if we're not all related. I read somewhere that large community meals first evolved during the early times of Christianity. If so, it's at least *one* positive thing to evolve from religion.

As for breaded cutlets, only once have I had them at a restaurant and thought they even came close to mom's. The problem was they were almost always too damn thick and unlike my mom (and me) they didn't cut out the long, stringy tendons that are sometimes found in chicken breasts. Really ruins the experience to have to yank out the long, rubbery cords from your teeth while eating. I fry up the trimmings in the remaining oil for the dog. She has no complaints. She'll eat poop so stringy tendon meat is a luxury.

I have to fault "Hell's Kitchen" and "Master Chef" for rekindling my interest in cooking (which I've been doing since I was a teenager). I started with scrambled egg sandwiches I would make to take to school because I would never last until lunch I got so hungry. I had to leave for school at 5:30AM to walk to the bus stop, take the Staten Island Ferry and then two subways to reach my high school in Brooklyn.

At about 10AM I would begin metabolizing my underwear from the hunger so between classes I would open up my briefcase and there, nestled between my yellow aluminum Pickett slide rule and my K&E drafting set, grab up an egg sandwich and scarf it down. Then at lunch I would have a tuna sub from the lunchroom. I ate tuna subs every day for at least two years. It's apparently something even teens today do (get a "missile lock" on one food item and consume it day after day).

Reply to
Robert Green

Then I would say there's something missing from your life. (-: I suppose you've never made Texas-style chicken-fried steak, either? That's seems sad to me. The best thing to come out of Texas except for the Cowboy's cheerleaders.

Either something fast to prepare or what? Tasteless? (-:

Fast food is fast food and while home-cooked is still healthier, it's not any tastier. To me it's like woodworking and cabinet-making. You can bang out something serviceable in fairly short order but something outstanding takes considerable effort. To me, it's worth it to select matching grained wood, sand and re-coat as many times as it takes to get a deep, lustrous finish, use techniques to conceal the joining hardware, take time to use a dovetailer to make the joints strong and veneer all the edge grained wood.

Watch Hell's Kitchen to discover how a few seconds of inattention can ruin a good dish. It's like anything else in the world. Attention to detail is always important to the quality of the final product. A neighbor cooks all of his meals with a crock pot and they pretty much all taste the same. Overcooked stew-like taste that you could duplicate from a can of Campbell's "hearty" soups. That kind of dining experience is not for me unless starvation is the only other choice.

long, involved process to cook them.

Taste matters to some people, I guess. If you tasted my mom's cutlets, I think you might understand why it's worth the time it takes to cook them. Contrary to your experience, I am amazed at the people that can eat the same "bachelor chow" day in and day out without gagging. Like my neighbor and his crockpot, the zenith of easy-to-cook meals and the nadir of taste.

Reply to
Robert Green

If you want to eat whole grains and increase your risk of all the metabolic syndrome diseases, knock yourself out. Maybe you'll have a stroke and spend the remainder of your life drooling on yourself and pissing your diapers in a nursing home.

What bothers me is that mandatory ObamaCare forces me to pay for the treatment of your addictions.

Reply to
Taxpayer

On Fri, 10 Oct 2014 08:05:33 -0400, Taxpayer wrote in

It's the American way.

Reply to
CRNG

About a decade ago, I guy I used to associate. He'd not had a paying job in years before that, as "he's disabled". He does home repairs and other cash jobs. Smokes a couple packs a day. Wasn't feeling well, so his family called him a taxpayer funded ambulance, and he spent four days of taxpayer funded time in ICU, came home with a shoe box of taxpayer funded meds so he could have a strong heart and clear lungs while he continues to smoke cigs he buys with taxpayer dollars from his welfare benefits.

Point is, that at least in PRNY, this predated O'care by at least a couple decades.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Nope. The few times I've had chicken fried steak in a restaurant I've wondered why they did such awful things to a piece of meat.

The only Hell's Kitchen I know about is around 47th and 9th Avenue. Oddly, my ex has a condo in that area so I guess it got gentrified.

I got a 8 lb sirloin roast at CostCo this week, threw it in the Brinkman smoker for a while, and put it on a plate. I'll be eating rare roast beef for a while. No problem. Protein is protein and I've never been too concerned with the delivery system.

Ut's like the wine snobs. When I drank, it was for effect, not for the bouquet. Coffee snobs are just as bad. I roast my own and enjoy it but I can't detect those fruity overtones with hints of chocolate and old overshoes they yap about. My only requirement is that it's not Ethiopian. I can definitely detect the fruity overtones in that stiff; reminds me of Earl Grey's screwing up of perfectly good Assam tea.

Reply to
rbowman

On Fri, 10 Oct 2014 08:10:39 -0600, rbowman wrote in

It got gentrified a long time ago when it was replaced by Lincoln Center.

Reply to
CRNG

Most of my memories of NYC are from the period when the Lincoln Center was just getting off the ground. I doubt I'd recognize the new, family rated version.

Reply to
rbowman

There's no accounting for taste. It's a pretty popular dish with all the Texans I know. You mileage varies, obviously, but there's nothing wrong with that - unless, of course, you're a (sniff, sniff) damnable MEAT snob! (-:

You're not much of a TV watcher, I'm guessing. It's a show about cooking as well as a former neighborhood in NYC. Someone else just mentioned it. Stars the foul-mouthed soccer star turned restaurateur, Gordon Ramsay berated a bunch of wannabe chefs in an elimination contest.

He also stars in "Kitchen Nightmares" - the horrifyingly scary (much more so than the Walking Dead) show where he visits the very worst restaurants in the world as he tries to reclaim them. Could make a sane person never visit another restaurant, ever! Especially when touring the walk-in coolers to reveal meat turned to goo, unlabeled trays of "you don't know WHAT is is!" and kitchens that haven't been cleaned since Hector was a pup.

If everyone were like you, there would be no Michelin guide, no four star restaurants, etc. It would be as bland as Australia in the 60's before ethnic cuisine arrived. While I have no problems with you sticking to your feelings about what constitutes a good meal, I know you're smart enough to realize what you find appealing others might not.

From your own description of what smoker you use and the cuts of meat you choose, you're very much in danger of being accused of being a meat snob . Of course, that pales in comparison to being accused of being a Cheerios addict. I've been wondering, do I go to the Betty Ford Clinic or the Betty Crocker Clinic to shake off such a horrible affliction?

It makes me wonder, though, if grains have been a huge part of people's diet since even before the Roman times, how likely are they to be the source of the Type II diabetes epidemic sweeping the country and the world? Not very, IMHO.

If I wanted to find the real cause of the epidemic I'd look toward things that have appeared in the last 100 years: pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, artificial sweeteners, sedentary life styles, anti-depressant drugs (among other new meds that grow breasts in men) and the gobs of odd-sounding chemicals that populate the ingredients list of modern processed food.

Notable increases in metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes appear in populations where grains are a staple ONLY after modern farming and food processing techniques arrive.

Earl's fruity and "stiff?" Screwing? Sounds like gay tea to me! (-: Not that there's anything wrong with that . . .

Reply to
Robert Green

Although Cheerios is my most eaten food, I get to try all kinds. My wife - the chef - about every month uses her job skills at home. Yesterday we had a couple of the kids and their spouses over for dinner because it was my son's birthday. Got to eat some new dishes. Fried breaded chicken breasts with pecans in the breading. Can't say I even tasted the pecans, but it was good fried chicken. Something really good was the baked sweet potatoes, with pineapple chunks and coconut. Sweet stuff. And the broccoli salad with sesame seeds was real good. Probably 5 other things in there, but I forgot. The others appreciated it more than me, because fortunately or not, I'm not a big "food fan." I do appreciate it, and know I'm lucky to have a fabulous cook as a wife. I have to make sure I do all the "oohs and aahs" as our guests. I admit the right seasonings can work wonders. But as long as she can make a plate of well fried eggs, bacon, and hash browns I'll be happy. See, I forgot pecan chicken and all that, and got happy just thinking about that plate of eggs, bacon and hash browns.

Reply to
Vic Smith

Well, Texans are Texans... I do have very definite ideas about barbecue. For starters, it comes from a pig and only a pig. There are two types, chopped and sliced. Nobody is going to pull my pork. Lastly, there are no tomato products involved. Ever. Vinegar, pepper, cayenne, and maybe a touch of mustard. Candied beef brisket is okay but it ain't barbecue, I'm sorry.

I might take a whirl around the PBS selections after the DVD finishes but that's about it. I suppose I could be said to watch TV since I do watch some of the cable series like 'Person of Interest' on DVD.

Sometimes if I'm traveling I'll check in on how the other half lives on the motel TV. I did see one cooking show, the name escapes me, that seemed to consist of a name brand chef humiliating chef wannabes. I turned it off and fired up the Kindle. 57 channels and nothing on like Springsteen said.

I think I've eaten in some of them. I'm pretty casual about food preparation, refrigeration, use by dates, and so forth with no ill effects. It sort of worries me when I eat a restaurant prepared meal and need to frantically seek a rest room an hour later.

No, it's like houses that look like they're out of Architectural Digest. I can appreciate their style and wonder what it would be like to live there but I've never cared enough to make the effort. About 40 years ago I had a job that involved a good deal of travel and I'd make a point of locating the best rated restaurants in the area. It was fun and I had some memorable meals but I was a little nonplussed about the sort of joint where when you ask for pepper a guy in a tux shows up with a peppermill. He doesn't hand it over either -- he slowly grinds some while his expression lets you know he thinks you're destroying the chef's artistry. Setting stuff on fire at the table is always fun. My favorite was steak tartare at a place in Buffalo. That was another ringside event and when a curious patron at a nearby table enquired about what I was having I think she would rather not have asked after I explained I was about to chow down on what was essentially a very delicious raw Whopper.

Meat eater, yes, meat snob, no. The joys of the Brinkmann Smoke'n'Grill is you fire up half a bag of charcoal, throw some hickory or mesquite chips on when it's going good, and set the superstructure with whatever meat is involved on the base and cap it with the cover. Then you ignore it for a few hours while it does its job. None of those embarassing episodes with the blazing lambchops and the rural fire department.

My food boredom tolerance is a blessing for shopping at CostCo. An 8 lb roast last a while. I like a good pork shoulder, but their's tend to run about 15 lbs and that is a little too much.

No, as you say, I think there are other factors at work.

The Native Americans don't seem to do well with large quantities of fry bread, but it is quite a switch from camas, bitterroot, and bison burgers. Plus, back in those days they were putting about a thousand miles a year on their moccassins collecting the above.

Yeah, well. I've had my doubts about 'Constant Comment' that go back to a college friend whose orientation wasn't too clear to me. I was weaned on very strong Red Rose with evaporated milk and sugar.

Reply to
rbowman

Candied brisket? Ooooh, that will get some attention.

Where I come from barbecue is hot dog and burgers ona gas grill.

About 1985 I went to our plant in North Carolina to spend a couple of days with a new salesman. At lunchtime, he said let's go to a place for barbecue. I followed his lead and had a sandwich with some kind of shredded pork in a clear sauce of some kind. Damn,it was good. For the next couple of days, I had it at least once a day.

That set off a quest to find out what it was and how to make it. Now I make every style with both pork and beef with rubs and sauces of all types. . I've done (with others) whole hog over hickory coals, goat, and others. I welcome and appreciate all of it.

I wrote this a long time agol

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Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Hi Taxpayer,

Those "Healthy Carbs" are what caused my Diabetes injury. In the States 1 in 11 now have T2 Diabetes.

Robert is correct about grains and civilization. Missing is the part about shrinking in size and loosing all our teeth and losing our longevity. Grains main call to fame back in those days was that they did not need refrigeration.

Now a days, we have hybridized them so much they are far higher in empty carbs and almost totally devoid of nutrition, as if they weren't to start with. In the last 20 years or so, they have even hybridized them so the heads won't fall over.

When I first got inducted into the pin cushion club over two years ago and started cooking Primal/Paleo (meaning cooking pre-agriculture), I was worried that I would have nothing but a few items to eat. Turns out after two years and more than a year drug free that I have tons of things to eat. Never had any problem what-so-ever.

Now I realize that the things I am eating on my new regimen (not a diet, I eat all I want) are all the things I looked past because they weren't high enough in carbohydrates to feed my addiction.

And I am eating more variety that I ever did before. Plus, when my satiation switch reset from carbohydrate overload, I can now taste my food again! I can taste subtleties I never knew existed before. The food is SO good.

Just Obummer Care? What about the 130 million or so that have taxer payer subsidized health care through their employers? And health benefits are income whatever the tax code says.

There are also somewhere abouts 105 million on direct subsidies.

All Obummer Care did what mix the subsidizes around a bit. Fun listening to those on other subsidies complain about who gets what subsidies. I got mine, you don't get yours.

This non-sense where we have to pay 10 times the rate for medical care that it should be under a market system all started when we foolishly subsidized medical insurance during WW2 so we could raise wages without breaking the wage and price controls in place for the war.

And since only a minority (probably all those on Obummer Care now) of people were paying for their health care directly, prices rose to mean the subsidizes, which is what always happens when you subsidize something. Government interference in the marketplace: spit!

I have worked for veterinarians and vet pharmacies. Makes my blood boil when they tell me about and show me the IDENTICAL skew numbers for item sold to humans that are sold for 10 to 20 times the amount as for animals.

On a brighter note, my wife heard that Walmart, who busted the perspiration drug monopoly, is testing a $45.00 cash per visit pricing scheme to see a clinic doctor.

At some point, the subsidizes have to stop. All of them, not just Obummer Care.

When people get in the big med's face and tell them that they are not paying $80.00 for the same saline drip bag you can buy at an animal pharmacy for $3.00, then we will see some changes.

Obummer Care is just Big Med looking for one last deep pocket to raid before everything collapses.

-T

Reply to
Todd

Hi Robers,

HA! Yes and no. I had to teach myself to cook after I got inducted into the pin cushion club. And, you are right about the stay-at-home moms being under appreciated.

I have to laugh at my brother-in-law making fun of the work involved in cooking: "Hand me the can. Hand me the can opener. Look, I am a cook!" Course, his wife sucked as a cook, so he may have not been making that much fun of her.

Thing is, the time it takes decreases as you get better at it. You also find yourself cooking and freezing, like your grandmother use to. Out of the freezer, into the microwave is your new fast food.

And, when something you have cooked brings joy to one of your loved ones, it ceases being a chore and BECOMES A PASSION. My wife tells me four or five times how good a cook I have become during a meal. And even if she shut up, the sparkles from her eyes gives her away. As, I said, it becomes a passion.

When you cook, it is also important to eat with your loved ones (friends, family, tribe, etc.). It affected us more that we ever can realize.

Here is some incredibly fast food you can make. Faster than ever pealing the wrapper on a TV dinner:

Take your favorite cheese, liberally sprinkle onion power on it, heat it in the microwave (you can melt or cook it, I like it both ways). Serve with a garnish of cherry tomatoes.

Not all meals you prepare have to be labor intensive. (My primal Moussaka about kills me to prepare. But you should see my wife's eyes sparkle.)

-T

Reply to
Todd

Hi rbowman,

1+

I have to agree. Make it simple first. Then, get more adventurous. I have started recipes that almost killed me. Stayed away from them afterwards, even though I like the outcome.

And why would yo add carbs to a prefect chicken? Garlic, Rosemary, Chimayo (New Mexico Red) chili powder now you are talking!

one yo get good at cooking and you have someone to share it with, it becomes a passion, not a chore.

-T

Reply to
Todd

Hi Robert,

1-

DUUUUUUUDE !!!!!

How many time have I heard that we don't go out to eat because my wife is such a better cook.

My wife says that about my cooking. It took a bit of time to get there, but it is so worth the effort! When cooking becomes a passion, you will smoke all far or otherwise food joints.

-T

Reply to
Todd

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