St. Elizabeth’s Shelter Hungry Mouth Festival is certainly one of the most unique and exciting events of the year! St. Elizabeth’s has provided food and shelter for Santa Fe’s homeless for 27 years and is now planning an evening of fantastic food cooked by 4 teams of prominent Santa Feans. These four competing “Iron-Chef-On-Steroids” teams are coached by four local celebrity chefs. Roland is proud to be one them, guiding his incredibly pumped team of local elected officials (yes you will recognize them). Don’t miss this cut throat competitive, delicious food filled, musical, raffled and sure-to-be fun event!! Tickets are a bargain at $100 and are truly limited so don’t wait! Call Rosario Gonzales now 505-982-6611 x108 or go to steshelter.org Details: Farmers Market Pavilion on Sat. Sept. 14th at 6 PM. Come and root for Roland’s team! If you’ve wondered how to truly help the homeless in Santa Fe, your money and trust is well placed in the time-honored St. Elizabeth’s Shelter.
Joe’s signature Margherita Pizza and Caprese Salad will be available for as long as Mother Nature allows. It’s she who determines all the weather conditions that promote the continuing ripening of our lovely local tomatoes. How long can that be? Well the longest we remember since we started this in 1996 is Oct. 7th. We’ll see.
Memory Part 2:
Last newsletter I began a series on the prevention and cure (yes I said cure) of neurodegenerative conditions such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS. I named the top 10 foods that can ameliorate these conditions. Well, due to some mysterious brain disorder, I omitted the most potent food of all.
But first let me ask this – do you believe in magic bullets? I bet you can guess that I do. You’re right – I love magic bullets. Why? Because time after time my health has been positively impacted by the use of a timely magic bullet.
Let me present Magic Brain Bullet #1 – coconut oil. More specifically the medium chain fatty acids (MCFA’s) comprising coconut oil. Now if you don’t believe in magic bullets you should really stop reading. Because until all the studies are in and conclusions are drawn and the FDA is onboard, you may not believe that something so simple as coconut oil can effect such miracles.
For the rest of us here goes. This beautiful food, the coconut, has been vilified mostly by the soy and canola industry since the 70’s reducing its usage in the US to almost nil. But I am happy to see a marked comeback in the last 10 or so years. This has been informed by such writers as Mary Enig and Udo Erasmus, both expert researchers on fats. And the movement back to coconut oil has been fueled by grass-roots health seekers. It is now widely available for purchase.
How does it work for the brain?
In very simplified terms, the brain must have glucose (sugar) for fuel. For a variety of reasons with the progression of AD (which here I use as proxy for all neurologic conditions) the brain loses the capability to turn glucose into brain energy. So it starts consuming its own cells for energy. Eventually parts of the brain are damaged or atrophied causing dementia-like symptoms. As we know, this can be anything from wandering and forgetfulness to uncontrollable rage and aggression, all heartbreaking for loved ones to witness.
But what if there was an alternative to glucose that could fuel the brain after this ability is impaired or lost? More researchers are saying there is. Enter coconut oil, rich in medium chain fatty acids (MCFA’s).
When the human body metabolizes MCFA’s, it creates a ketone called beta-hydroxybutyrate. This ketone helps protect the neurons in the brain as well as providing food to the brain cells much like glucose does in the normal brain. Voilà! A simple natural remedy anyone can use.
Here’s the story of Steve and Mary Newport. Steve began to noticeably lose brain function at age 52. This dynamic man an accountant by trade, 4 years later wandered aimlessly about the house with one shoe on not even recognizing his family. It’s a story with a happy ending though. Mary, a neonatal doctor, discovered the ketone trigger to firing up the brain and in desperation one evening bought some coconut oil. Over the course of that first evening she gave Steve 3 or 4 tablespoons of the oil. In 24 hours there was a 28% improvement on Steve’s Mental Status Exam! In 37 days much of the damage and certainly the direction of Steve’s Alzheimer’s was reversed. Read more here: Coconutketones.com or buy Mary’s book, Alzheimer’s Disease: What If There Was a Cure?
That’s just one of several natural treatments for AD. I will share more exciting developments in future newsletters.
Joe’s charming waiter and music lover, Adam, now hosts his own show on KSFR FM 101.1 on Wednesdays at 8PM. It’s called Ground Zero Radio. Ask him about it and even better, tune in. Adam, we’re proud of you!
We are frequently asked why we do not offer tofu or soy milk at Joe’s. You really want to know?! OK, here goes. Soy is the most agressively marketed product targeting vegetarians and vegans today. It is backed by the largest global industrial food complex and is tied to the “big boys” such as Monsanto. Soy is a product that is grossly overfunded and subsidized and has therefore become a mere bottom line$ commodity. It has crept into our “health food” market under false pretenses, successfully becoming a staple of the vegetarian diet. The truth is that soy couldn’t be further from being a health food. Almost every soy product purchased in the US is genetically modified.
Also the soybean has one of the highest phytic acid levels of any grain or legume ever studied. Phytic acid is termed the “anti nutrient” because it blocks the uptake of essential minerals – calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc – in the intestinal tract therefore putting one at risk of a mineral deficiency. Furthermore, soy foods contain trypsin inhibitors that inhibit protein digestion and affect pancreatic function. Last but not least, there is the concern of soy’s phytoestrogen (isoflavones) content. Soy isoflavones are phyto-endocrine disrupters, meaning they mimic the body’s naturally occurring hormone functions (similar to what plastics do) thus interfering with normal hormone balance. The thyroid gland is one of the body’s master glands. Soybeans contain the phytoestrogen, genistein, which has the ability to increase thyroid-stimulating hormone, further interfering with normal hormone production and inhibiting the intake of iodine (already seriously deficient in the American diet and necessary for metabolism, protection from radiation, prevention of goiters and so many other functions). So, there ya go – that’s why we don’t offer soy milk and tofu Joe’s.
Why is locally grown food so very important to Joe’s? Why do we keep hammering on this “buy local” theme? There are many factors that are out of our hands when it comes to our food supply. Most of what ends up on the American dinner table derives from a shockingly few giant agribusinesses. Their influence reaches from designing the (GMO) seeds to planting, harvesting, processing and shipping. We as consumers cannot with confidence hand over the entirestewardship of our food to these few multinationals. Our passion here at Joe’s is for a local sustainable food supply – food produced by growers who are accountable for what they grow. KYG – Know Your Grower. We are able to look our
local farmer in the eye and ask him about his growing practices or even visit his operation. This gives us the confidence that we are eating food that is healthy, wholesome, non-genetically engineered, often better than organic, humanely treated and minimally processed. It is grown with a smaller energy-use footprint and transported short distances. We cannot divorce human health, the economy, ecology, personal (perhaps spiritual) satisfaction or honorable work from food. Food is fundamental. What we eat, where it comes from, the stewardship of food animals, the nurturing and building of soils – all these factors affect us at a cellular and visceral level … whether we slow down enough to be aware of it or not. We are fortunate in Santa Fe to have a dedicated farm base producing a wonderful array of goods. Here at Joe’s we do our best to offer this bounty to you, keeping dollars in the community. In the interest of transparency, in 2008 Joe’s spent $30,000 on local foods. In 2009 that increased to $60,000. And for 2012 we exceeded $100,000. During the growing season as much as 95% of our menu is locally sourced.
Land, economy, health – inseparable.
*Here are some of the farmers/ranchers we have developed long-standing partnerships with – Monte Vista Organics (Dave and Loretta), Camino de Paz Farm & School (Greg & Patty), Shepherd’s Lamb (Antonio and Molly), La Mont’s Buffalo (Monte and Lana), Green Tractor Farms (Tom and Mary), Synergia Ranch (Mark), La Montanita Co-Op, Matt Romero Farms, Sweetgrass Co-Op.
Tired of still paying for BB’s (big banks) bailouts? Tired of lining the pockets of the uber-rich Wall Street bankers? DiJa know… in 2011 a congressional audit of the Federal Reserve found that the Fed gave 26 trillion dollars from American taxpayers to bail out the “too big to fail” banks with a hefty portion of it going to obscene CEO bonuses. Can you imagine — had this staggering figure been re-directed to the people of the US, how different the picture could have looked today? Manufacturing starts, job creation, skills training, roads and bridges repair, national parks, education, etc. Here is what Iceland did in exactly the same situation — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt4Z3rm4r-4
Every time we use a credit card, part of that 3%-5% fee contributes to the BB’s. Now let’s be real – in today’s world you can hardly function without a cc, but there are still (legal) alternatives that can save us all money and reduce our dependency on and subsidies to the BB’s. We have a couple of suggestions: (1.) Are you on Joe’s Check List? If you are a “regular” and wish to pay by check, please ask your waiter to get you on the list. (2.) Joe’s “frequent diner” or gift card – purchase a $100 gift card with cash orcheck, get a $10 card free!
Giggles:
Ever Wonder? Whose cruel idea it was for
the word “Lisp” to have an “S” in it?
Joe’s
2801 Rodeo Rd (at Zia Rd) Santa Fe, NM 87507
505-471-3800 www.JoesDining.com
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