“Dija Know…”
Joe’s Newsletter #149, winter 2019
Sheila (archives available at JoesDining.com)
◆This issue seems to have unfolded as the protein and fat issue. You’ll see why later. In the meantime we welcome the whimsical, fun and engaging works of 3 new artists: Chris Pennington (main dining room), Nancy Nickerson (RedRoom) and Russell Thornton (the ramp). Yes, they are all for sale!
◆ We pay at one end or the other. Good, really good healthy food is not cheap. Europeans typically spent 21% of their income on food. While Americans, just 7%!! Fast food/highly processed food is irrationally, insanely cheap. The corners that are cut to produce this “food-like substance” show up later in those who consistently ingest it. Drugs and surgeries to treat subsequent diseases are expensive. As Joel Salatin says, “If you think good food is expensive, try disease!” Here’s a USDA map of household food expenditure around the world:
◆Richard broadcasts his Richard Eeds Show live from Joe’s each 1st Friday of the month from 1-4 pm on Hutton 1260 AM KTRC. Richard knows everyone in New Mexico – no joke! He keeps us abreast of all the New Mexico happenings.
◆ A Tuesday night tradition at Joe’s – Spaghetti and Chianti Night. $34 for two will get you Caesar Salad, Spaghetti with homemade Bolognese and a ½ liter of great Chianti. Wadda deal! The Bolognese sauce is made with our grass-fed-and-finished Berry Ranch beef.
◆ A sweet treat or impromptu gift for your dear ones? Joe’s melt-in-your-mouth French chocolate truffles. Y
◆ Fat makes it’s welcome return. That savory macronutrient that gives food its luscious mouth-feel and satiety is coming into favor again. It’s a good thing Ancel Keys is no longer living! Why? He and his lunatic ideas about fat, cholesterol and heart disease would be pilloried. Mr. Keys rose to fame in the 50’s and 60’s, even gracing the cover of TIME magazine. His “research” became the nutritional law of the land for decades to follow. I would guess many still believe it. I believed it for a time. But thank heavens his massively-embraced flawed “science” is being discredited and replaced with the true science of human nutrition. And not just by me! Writers, researchers and health practitioners, confounded by the rise of obesity and disease, are waking up, connecting the dots and strongly advocating their clients and patients to do a 180° on long-held dietary theories. Unfortunately not before this Low-Fat-No-Fat-Low-Cholesterol-High-Carbohydratemadness had led us to where we are now. As a nation, 50% of us are overweight and more than 30% are obese. This includes children. Heart disease and diabetes are pandemic. Could it be that our attempts to reduce fat have in fact been part of the problem? Some scientists think so. “I believe the low-fat message promoted the obesity epidemic,”says Lyn Steffen, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Fear of fat has lead us to an epidemic of chronic ailments that have brought us to our knees as a culture. Slender active healthy bodies are now the exception. Robust vitality, energy, stamina and strength are exceptional qualities, whereas they used to be common. One need only view old movies or old family pictures to see that obesity (and all its related diseases) were rare. Not unknown, but rare.
Why? It pretty much boils down to one thing – fear of fat, fear of cholesterol. The food pyramid that was created following Ancel Keys flawed science and the rise of mono-agriculture (wheat, soy, canola and corn) in America, conspired to turn our traditional ways of eating upside down. Misinformed Magazines, MD’s and Mothers convinced us that thousands of years of eating a saturated fat and protein rich diet was “bad” for us. As well, Dr. Dean Ornish must bear responsibilty and infamy for promoting his low-fat-high-carb lethal diet in the 80’s and 90’s. Still dominant in most of us, is the belief that fat will kill us and veggies fruits and beans will save us. Nothing wrong with veggies, fruits and beans in moderation. Just remember that all carbohydrates turn to sugar; sugar drives insulin levels up; and the body can metabolize only small amounts at a time. Protein and fat, however, are the drivers of all metabolic functions. The cholesterol molecule is not a foreign invader that will get stuck in our arteries. Cholesterol is a fundamental building block of almost every cell. Being fat-deprived, has led (via a complex metabolic process) to such diseases as we see sadly common now – diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimers and a variety of auto-immune conditions. Deny it at your own risk.
Cholesterol is the main structural component and building block for bone density, hormone production and endocrine function, for brain and nervous system, for normal GI function and way beyond.
Allow me to be clear here. When we talk of fat, we refer to naturally-occurring fats – those found in grass-finished meats, fatty fish and seafood, organic butter or ghee, avocados, nuts, olives, cheeses, coconuts and not much else. Safe vegetable oils are coconut and olive. Fats that are hard to metabolize are hydrogenated vegetable fats, like vegetable shortening, and highly processed liquid vegetable oils.
For many years I’ve had a very good diet. I now realize I need to take it up a notch. It presents some challenges to eat this way. It requires a re-education of food habits. But there are some REALLY good educators out there who have pulled it all together for us. They have done the grunt work of deep research and the testing of recipes. And in one case, author Lierre Keith writes with searing honesty about her disease-riddled journey back to a life-sustaining diet.
Here are some stellar books on the subject: Eat Rich Live Long by Cummins and Gerber (very thorough on the science and yet immanently readable), Primal Body Primal Mindby Gedgaudas, The Vegetarian Mythby Lierre Keith, The Diabetes Codeby Fung (some have said this info saved their lives), Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradoxby Rheaume-Bleue (clarity on calcium transport and decades of dangerous calcium misinformation) and my favorite, the Big Fat Surprise by NinaTeicholz.
The evidence has become clear. A 7-year study (Lancet 390 number 10107) finished in 2017, tracked 135,000 people in 18 countries on various diets. The diet that emphasized saturated fat yielded incredible improvements in blood markers. The high fat diets in general were found not to be linkedto coronary heart disease.
I truly understand that some will take issue with this information, for religious, moral or other reasons. I honor your freedom to do so. Diverse beliefs characterize and enliven the American spirit.
◆ Oy! Soy! DiJa Know? – Pesticides are rarely used on soybean or canola plants because both plants are so toxic that insects avoid them. Canola is officially an E.P.A. registered pesticide and soy contains compounds that are designed specifically to disrupt hormones. Women who are troubled with hormonal disorders like endometriosis might best avoid soy.
“The amount of phytoestrogens that are in a day’s worth of soy infant formula equals 5 birth control pills”— Mike Fitzpatrick, toxicologist.
◆ There are two bills in the House ( HB-31page 2 line 14 and HB-46 page 3 line 5) right now regarding the minimum wage. Santa Fe is already above the minimum wage $11.40 so that will not affect Santa Fe. However, watch for the buzz word “TIP credit”. This (TIP credit) will change your entire dining experience.
◆ DiJa Know? Dogs need about 95% proteinin their diet and cats even more “For cats, it’s really inappropriate (a vegan diet). It goes against their physiology and isn’t something I would recommend at all,” says Caitlin Heinze, VMD, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist and assistant professor of nutrition at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Lew Olson, PhD, author of Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs, makes this analogy: “Trying to feed a dog or cat a vegan diet would be like me feeding my horses meat. You’re taking a whole species of animal and trying to force it to eat something that it isn’t designed to handle.”
IMO – it’s about quality and length of life. A dog can exist, but not thrive, on a vegan diet. Inevitably the missing nutrients and micronutrients will present as diseases, disorders and shortened life span.
◆ Some of the farmers & ranchers who supply Joe’s: They get their seeds from heirloom seed banks, family and friends, their fertilizer from animals and compost and their agronomic advice from tradition: Monte Vista Organics, BerryBeef Ranch, Jacona Farms, Green Tractor, Camino de Paz, Synergia Ranch, Romero Farms, Shepherd’s Lamb, LaMont’s (now Beck & Bulow) Buffalo, Sweetgrass Co-op, Susan’s Sprouts and others.
◆ DiJa Know . . . there are steroids in your conventional CAFO*-finished beef? “With each pedal-stroke of his now 90-year-old legs, Carl Grove sought to show his fellow Americans that old age can be rich and rewarding. As time caught up with many of his peers, the former United States Navy Band saxophonist, who played for U.S. presidents and visiting VIPs and who was born on his parents’ kitchen table during an Indiana thunderstorm the year before the Great Depression, is still riding to spread his stay-active message. Through his exploits, his hope was to share the simple maxim he lives by: “Do not sit down.” But…a doping violation recently through him for a loop and tarnished his message somewhat. What happened? On July 10, 2018 Carl Grove, a 90-year-old record-setting cyclist, racing at the USA Cycling Masters Track Nationals in Breinigsville, PA. was informed by The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, that traces of trenbolone, an anabolic steroid used by U.S. cattle farmers to bulk up livestock, were found in his urine test. Setting times faster than men in their 80s, 70s and even 60s Carl at 90 was stripped of his gold medal that day. Grove’s conscience was clear. As USADA’s own investigators eventually determined, he knew he hadn’t doped. Instead, Grove had been inadvertently contaminated, by a dinner of cow’s liver he ate at a local diner on the evening of July 10 — his way of celebrating his gold medal in the time trial.” By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Jan 9, 2019 1:10 PM CST
OMG! Could it be more clear how important it is to know where your food and meat comes from? Eat local is not a hackneyed phrase. It is an imperative if you care about your body and your health. *CAFO=concentr
Giggles: Bicycles cross The Wall
A customs officer at the Mexican border noticed a man coming from the US on a bicycle with two small sacks tied to the handlebars. He naturally got suspicious and asked him to open the sacks, but he found nothing but sand. This went on every day for a month. Each time he’d stop the bicycle and open the sacks to find only sand. Years later, he ran into the biker in a restaurant in Tijuana. He said to him, “Come on. I know you were smuggling something all that time. I won’t tell. I’m just curious. What was it?” The other man said, “Bicycles.”
Joe’s Dining
2801 Rodeo Rd (at Zia Rd) Santa Fe, NM 87507
505-471-3800 www.JoesDining.com
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter