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I’ve been a fan of Ginnifer Goodwin since her appearances back on “Ed” in 2001. She’s really come into her own, with several feature films and major roles in TV shows.
And she’s no longer a vegan.
I love this interview because I love her laugh, but also because she is honest. She had health problems as a vegan, added humanely raised animal products to her diet and loves bacon!
ann miller, new year's eve by carbonated, on Flickr
I borrowed “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell from our local library and read it through. In the very first chapter, I was struck by a researcher’s insistence on ignoring fact unless it suited his paradigm:
The results were astonishing. In Roseto, virtually no one under fifty-five had died of a heart attack or showed any signs of heart disease. In men over sixty-five, the death rate from heart disease in Roseto was roughly half that of the United states as a whole. The death rate from all causes in Roseto, in fact, was 30 to 35 percent lower than expected…
There was no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction and very little crime. They didn’t have anyone on welfare. Then we looked at peptic ulcers. They didn’t have any of those either. These people were dying of old age. That is it…
The Rosetans were cooking with lard instead of with the much healthier olive oil they had used back in Italy. Pizza in [Roseto] Pennsylvania was bread dough plus sausage, pepperoni, salami, ham, and sometimes eggs…When Wolf had dieticians analyze the typical Rosetan’s eating habits, they found that a whopping 41 percent of their calories came from fat.
But, the researcher dismissed the dietary findings, not correlating it to the long-term health findings because he “knew” that modern medical science had proclaimed lard less healthy than olive oil and possibly even dangerous.
In the 1970′s, “everyone knew” that margarine was better for you than butter, but we now know that’s not true. In the 1980′s, “everyone knew” that a balanced diet focused on 6-11 servings of bread, cereal and pasta while using fats sparingly, but now we understand the insulin resistance that type of diet brings about. In the 1990′s, “everyone knew” that the linoleic acid found in polyunsaturated vegetable oils increased breast tumors but now we are beginning to find that the conjugated linoleic acid found in grassfed meats is actually tumor-protective. In the 2000′s, “everyone knew” that a deficit of Omega-3 oils could endanger mental health and we are just starting to learn that the Omega fats out of balance are dangerous whether they are 3, 6 or 9.
In the words of a favorite film character of mine, “Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.”
One of the keys to learning new things is to not ignore facts that fly in the face of what you already “know.” My New Year’s wish for you, dear reader, is a healthy skepticism when you read the latest research, the time and persistence to find out for yourself whatever you can, and the courage to question your own paradigm.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
big night by endlesscity, on Flickr
I love the last five minutes of “Big Night.” It wasn’t a huge movie, so you might not have even heard of it, but it’s a “food” film. Two brothers (Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci) who own a restaurant on the verge of bankruptcy pull out all the stops for a celebrity visit. The movie is fraught with many bittersweet conflicts: first and second born siblings, old and new world, presentation vs. customer satisfaction and big, power-hungry business against small, family-owned restaurant.
At the end of his worst day ever, the junior brother has lost his best friend, his girl, his business, and his dreams. But, when the sun rises, he picks up a skillet and silently makes eggs.
And isn’t that the ultimate act of faith? In that single act, Secondo (Tucci) not only rises above the defeat that would whisper “just lay down and die” to feed himself, but he also shows love by serving the brother from whom he feels so estranged. When he prepares eggs, he serves the restaurant’s only other employee then leaves a portion in the pan for his brother who hasn’t entered the room yet. It is warm and waiting for him when he arrives. Secondo need not be asked because service is his nature.
Feeding my family isn’t the only way I show them love. But it is a real, tangible way I can express patience, forgiveness, sympathy, apologies and care toward those who may not be receptive to my words.
If I am ever old and alone, I know I will not return to the plastic pre-made foods of my young adult life. The simple act of feeding myself real food prepared by hand is a way of showing the love toward my own body which I could not express during decades of self-imposed harsh food restriction. It isn’t a job from which to retire, a chore to dread or a task to resent. It is an act of mercy, grace and faith.
And a way to improve my little corner of the world.
Twinkie, not really food. by Vilseskogen, on Flickr
I picked up Twinkie, Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger at the library after seeing this interesting visual about the Twinkie’s 37 ingredients. It wasn’t a riveting read, aside from a few real shockers I’ll get to in a minute.
The author doesn’t pass negative judgment on any of the ingredients he investigates, other than citing recent research on hydrogenated oils. So the genetically modified corn and the Roundup it resists are just wonderful new things that make High Fructose Corn Syrup possible and prevalent. Ingredients so stripped of nutrition that they require enrichment to prevent diseases of starvation are considered a marvel, made possible by the very best modern agriculture and processing has to offer. After a while, the annoying lack of thought being given to the ingredients the author describes becomes nearly unbearable. It was all I could do to push on to the final pages of the book.
But I did learn two very important things from this book—shocking, paradigm-shifting things that threaten once again my ability to eat processed food with a clear conscience.
As I mentioned in my post titled There’s Peak Oil In My Sandwich, a surprising number of ingredients in our food supply are reliant on, or derived from, petroleum. The “1500 mile rule”—the average American meal travels about 1500 miles to get from farm to plate—describes the petroleum used to get food from farm to distribution center to store and to home. If that were the only petroleum used in food production, that would be bad enough.
The processed food on your grocery store shelf is dripping with crude oil. Petroleum is used in great quantity as a solvent to extract the essential nutrient part of various substances to create the “enrichment blend” used in almost all processed foods. Any time you see the word “enriched,” just think “petroleum.” It’s also used to process the corn thickeners that provide processed foods with the desired texture. Mono- and diglycerides can be made from petroleum. Glycerin made this way meets kosher requirements. Polysorbate 60 is a petroleum product. Artificial vanilla flavoring, made from benzene, is a petroleum product. Propylene glycol is a petroleum product. Diacetyl is a petroleum product. Sorbic acid is made from petroleum. Artificial colors and flavors are made of petroleum.
The other piece of info that shocked me right out of my chair was how much of our food supply originates overseas. Each year, approximately $2 trillion of imported products enter the United States. Experts project that import volume will triple by 2015.
After the discovery of melamine in milk and milk powder in 2008 (which caused 300,000 illnesses), the discovery of trace melamine in Chinese eggs and pet food, and subsequent recalls of lead and cadmium paint in consumer goods, most people I know are avoiding foods and goods produced in China. But they are fooling themselves—they are only avoiding foods that announce their Chinese origin. If you are eating any processed food, the likelihood is great that you are eating something from China.
Of that omnipresent “enrichment blend” of vitamins that give Twinkies the ability to fight pellagra, only iron is produced in the United States. Every other vitamin and mineral comes from Switzerland and China. This is also true of storebought enriched breads and the enriched flour used in home kitchens.
Artificial vanilla flavoring is made in two major petrochemical plants in China and one in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Food colorings Red 40 and Yellow 5 most likely come from a petroleum refinery near the Yellow River Delta in China.
Start in Belarus, Russia, and Poland with the least expensive milk on the planet, then ship it to New Zealand or Ireland for processing into sodium and calcium caseinate. The only makers of sorbic acid are found in Japan, China and Germany.
Pick up any food with an ingredient list in your pantry, and you are likely to find at least one of these ingredients. Eat in a restaurant, fast-food or upscale, and you will run into several.
So, while I didn’t think Twinkie, Deconstructed was a great book, I sure learned something from it. I’m not comfortable with my newfound knowledge, however, and must agree with Thomas Gray: Ignorance is indeed bliss.
This post is part of Fight Back Friday hosted by Food Renegade.
Roger Ebert by imjustkimmie on Flickr
Roger Ebert and I agree from time to time in our assessment of movies, but more often we disagree. Our taste in film differs on quite a few points. But his recent article, “Why I Hate 3-D Movies” in Newsweek is spot on.
Near the end of the article, he mentions MaxiVision and Showscan. My husband went to a demonstration of Showscan while he was still employed in the movie industry. He describes it this way:
Douglas Trumbull, who did the FX for 2001: A Space Odyssey, developed this technology for a 1981 movie called Brainstorm, which you may recall had three or four scenes in which memories and brainwaves are being recorded and/or played back. These scenes were supposed to utilize the Showscan technology. But then Natalie Wood died before the film’s release, and Paramount backed out of their commitment to pay for the processing.
However, I was able to see a demonstration of Showscan in L.A., and it was phenomenal. It’s not 3D as we’re familiar with it. The images don’t leap off the screen but, rather, recede from the screen so that it appears you’re looking out the world’s largest and cleanest window. Just brilliant!
My previous 3D rants:
Avatar, 3D, and Hollywood as a model for Real Food Activists
3D TV warning in Australia
I’m a fan of the TV show “Fringe” because of John Noble, the actor in this video. He plays Walter Bishop, a brilliant but off-center scientist. You gotta love a man who keeps a cow in his lab so he can drink fresh, raw milk! Of course, the cow would be better off in fresh air and sunshine, but this is TV.
This clip from last night’s episode was sad, funny and kind of embarrassing. Sad, because of the circumstances surrounding the moment: Walter has had a falling out with his adult son whom he loves dearly. The son has left Walter’s side to get a little space while he heals and Walter is coming unraveled by his grief. But the moment is funny and embarrassing because I admit, I’ve been tempted to do this very thing!
It truly is the year of the Food Renegade! Cheer up, Walter, Peter can’t stay away long!
This post is part of Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.
Cross eyed by net_efekt, on Flickr
This just in: Samsung has issued a warning on its Australian website that watching 3D television can be hazardous. Interesting that the same warning has not yet appeared on its American site. For info on how 3D can cause health problems, see my post from earlier this year.
Flynn's Duck by jandhands, on Flickr
Maybe you’ve heard the rumblings about BPA, teflon, mercury, PBBs, PBDEs, triclosan, 2,4-D, or phthalates, but don’t know what the fuss is about. Maybe you shrug and assume if it’s touching our lives it’s been tested and is safe. Maybe you suspect differently but are overwhelmed by the thought of that much change all at once. Maybe you have done some research, but find that there are too few studies to bother taking action.
I’ve been in each of these situations over the course of the last several years. As I come across issues, I do some research only to find three camps:
- This stuff will kill you. Avoid it at all costs. (Fear)
- It’s gotta be safe or the government wouldn’t allow it. (Ignorance*)
- Maybe it is dangerous, but it’s everywhere so it’s useless to fight it. (Hopelessness)
Over and over again, these are the three viewpoints I hear. I’ve even heard each of these come out of my own mouth at one time or another!
I picked up Slow Death by Rubber Duck at the library a few weeks ago because I thought the title and the cover photo of a cute little yellow ducky were hilarious and titillating. In its pages, I found compelling evidence, enjoyable reading, sobering facts and an action plan.
Since 2005, authors Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie have been involved with Toxic Nation in Canada, testing the blood of citizens from all walks of life for 130 pollutants. The people tested would always ask the same questions: “How did this get in me?” “How do I get it out?” “If I reduce my exposure to it, will it go away?” Since science offered no answers, the authors set about creating their own experiment, turning themselves into human lab rats.
The results of their experiment were immediate and conclusive. Exposure produced increases of toxins in their blood and urine, some by more than a thousand-fold, detoxification after exposure provided improvement for most pollutants.
The book is well researched but not dull to read with lots of quotes from TV, films and music, old ad copy (“DDT is good for meeee!”) and photos. The arc a concept rides from being laughable to believable to enforceable is well-demonstrated, as is the idea that Everymom and Everydad have louder voices than they know.
The sub-title “The Secret Danger of Everyday Things” might seem alarmist, but the book offers a whole chapter of hope. You can affect your health, and your children’s futures by making simple changes to your life and your purchases. The “powers that be” will hear our concerns as we become educated and able to speak intelligently about the pollutants in our kitchens, bathrooms and toy boxes. Slow Death by Rubber Duck is a great primer for this revolution.
*Please know I am not calling any individual that espouses this view ignorant. I am saying that the assumption that these untested substances are safe is based on lack of information.
James Cameron by worldchaos81, on Flickr
Avatar made a bit of a splash at the box office this year. Well, okay, maybe more of a tsunami with a domestic gross to date of almost $708,000,000 and a foreign gross of $1,839,000,000. Yup, people worldwide have dropped a two and half billion for two and a half hours of escapism. Wow. Nine Oscar nominations should indicate people are coming away with something of value. Personally, I came away with a headache, and I wasn’t the only one.
This will come as no surprise to some, but 3D movies cause unnatural eye motions and can cause blurred vision and motion sickness, even after you leave the theatre. Mark Pesce describes the process very well:
Since the various movie and television display technologies only offer parallax-based depth cues, your brain basically has to ignore several other cues while you’re immersed in the world of Avatar. This is why the 3D of films doesn’t feel quite right. Basically, you’re fighting with your own brain, which is getting a bit confused. It’s got some cues to give it a sense of depth, but it’s missing others. Eventually your brain just starts ignoring the other cues.
That’s the problem. When the movie’s over, and you take your glasses off, your brain is still ignoring all those depth perception cues. It’ll come back to normal, eventually. Some people will snap right back. In others, it might take a few hours. This condition, known as ‘binocular dysphoria’, is the price you pay for cheating your brain into believing the illusion of 3D. Until someone invents some other form of 3D projection (many have tried, no one has really succeeded), binocular dysphoria will be part of the experience. [emphasis mine]
In the meantime, filmmakers are rushing to get more 3D features on screen because where Hollywood smells blood in the water, the sharks congregate. Avatar‘s massive revenues have sent filmmakers scrambling to retool movies for 3D presentation. Here’s a partial list of major motion pictures scheduled to be released in 3D:
How to Train Your Dragon
Alice in Wonderland, which broke opening weekend grosses, earning $210,300,000 in its first three days.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, parts 1 and 2
Clash of the Titans
Spider-Man 4
Madagascar 3
Priest
Toy Story 3
Shrek Forever After
Tron Legacy
Despicable Me
Beauty and the Beast (reissue)
Guardians of Ga’Hoole
Saw VII
Rapunzel
Cars 2
And many, many more.
Paramount is also talking to JJ Abrams about making the next Star Trek in 3D. In a recent interview, he said, “And, if I, in fact, direct the Star Trek sequel, 3-D could be really fun, so I’m open to it. What I’ve seen of Avatar makes me want to do it because it’s so crazy-cool looking.” Now, asking me to boycott a JJ Abrams film because it is in 3D is beyond the pale. But I can still enjoy the film in its standard presentation, choosing to cast my vote for more of that instead of more brain confusion.
In an attempt to claim the moral high ground, some claim that the profound realism of deep focus (3D) confers more honor upon the natural system of sight than flat presentation. Recent advertisements are touting the advent of 3D in the home with new television technology.
So what does all this have to do with real food?
The Hollywood system is a lot like Big Food in extreme close-up. One super-successful product (in this case, Avatar) changes the way companies do business, even if it costs them more at the outset. They are counting on the new tech to pull in enough customers on its own, irrespective of other factors (writing, directing, acting, editing and distribution). Some customers, citing health problems (binocular dysphoria) complain, but for the most part, the new and exciting tech is able to generate enough buzz (Oscar nominations, but mostly money) to drown out other voices, dismissing them as old-fashioned Luddites. Besides, the tech offers great moral promise (closer to reality). And money rules all: What sells (at the box office) is the template for the next generation of product.
And so it is with food technology: One super-successful product (for example, genetically modified corn) changes the way companies do business, even if it costs them more at the outset. They are counting on the new tech to pull in enough customers on its own, irrespective of other factors (increased pesticide/herbicide use, resistant weeds, the patenting of life forms). Some customers, citing health problems (allergies and the documentation of Jeffrey Smith) complain, but for the most part, the new and exciting tech is able to generate enough buzz (yet unrealized promise of fortune) to drown out other voices, dismissing them as old-fashioned Luddites. Besides, the tech offers great moral promise (feeding the world). And money rules all: What sells (at the grocery store) is the template for the next generation of product.
The good news is that we can turn this system on its head and make it work for us, for our health, for our children and for the future. As the movie Food, Inc. says, we all get three votes a day to change the system. What are you voting for?
Stanley Tucci by califrayray, on Flickr
If I were to make a movie, there are certain actors that would be my first choice. Stanley Tucci is one of them. When I think about his ability to disappear into a role and make it his own, I’m amazed. I remember seeing him first in “thirtysomething,” a TV show I watched every week. But it was his portrayal of Lucky Luciano in “Billy Bathgate” that really got my attention. I saw him again and again in small roles in “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,” “It Could Happen to You,” and “The Pelican Brief.” His role in “Big Night” next to Tony Shaloub was painfully sweet, and his slick but evil “trust me” character in the television series “Murder One” was very complex.
I could go on for pages, but I’ll spare you and fast-forward to “Julie and Julia” in which he plays the patient, loving, silently-strong husband of Meryl Streep’s Julia Child. He is earning critical acclaim for this role, and not only on the coattails of Ms. Streep and Amy Adams.
In a recent interview with Brad Balfour at the Huffington Post, the following exchange takes place:
Q: What would you have asked the people you played in this film if you had the chance?
ST: I’d like to ask them how they lived so long eating what they ate. I’m convinced that they both had two livers. I’d just be curious.
I had to laugh when I read his response because it is a common response to the real food diet espoused by the dietary guidelines of the Weston A. Price foundation. Many people are shocked by the amounts of saturated fat, cholesterol and dairy in the guidelines, but don’t read on to the details of the recommendations.
It’s saturated fat from grassfed herbivores, not herbivores fed inappropriate diets and held in captivity with no light or fresh air. It’s not just cholesterol for the sake of cholesterol, it’s eggs from pastured chickens on grass, synthesizing vitamin D in their own bodies and passing it down to their progeny without the need for prophylactic antibiotics. It’s not just dairy, it’s raw milk, unpasteurized, fresh, from trusted sources who know what they are doing.
Take a copy of Nourishing Traditions to a mega-grocery-store and purchase eggs to consume raw, dead milk from which to ferment kefir, ultrapasteurized cream to make creme fraiche, and antibiotic-laden meat to consume regularly and occasionally raw, and you have a nutritional and culinary recipe for disaster. Absolutely, eating eggs is important, and if pastured isn’t available, a grocery store egg is better than none, but there is no way I’d recommend anyone eat one raw!
To me, the dietary guidelines of WAPF require careful consideration, thought and planning and not a laissez-faire attitude toward food. The good news is, once you’ve acquired the knowledge and made the leap from CAFO to grassfed, ultrapasteurized to raw, processed to fresh, the learning curve smooths out considerably.
Mr. Tucci, you don’t need two livers to eat the traditional diet of your forebears. You don’t even need an extra trip to the gym. You’re already a food-lover, would you be interested in a role as an advocate promoting real food? Have your people call my people. Let’s do lunch.
This post is part of Fight Back Fridays, hosted by Food Renegade.
The Dark Side of Fat Loss
