Corny Corn Corn

'Tis the season for limited-edition candy-corn-flavored, corn-syrup-sweetened, corn-starch-laden Oreos.

Barf.

Popcorn & Sleep Deprivation Go Together Like Ponch & Jon

Don't you hate it when you fall asleep eating popcorn? I mean, there's still so much crap to ingest! The popcorn bowl's still full -- and those (obviously caffeine-free) Cokes are going to lose their fizz, dammit.

Thankfully, modern science has come up with the answer: BioFuel Caffeinated Popcorn.

Think sugary kettlecorn, only "loaded with caffeine." You know -- so you can stay up and eat more kettlecorn. And possibly some red velvet cake-battered onion rings, too.

The ingredients in BioFuel Caffeinated Popcorn? "Sugar, light brown sugar, caffeine, canola oil, and salt." And probably some corn, too.

I'm so glad our greater scientific understanding has created this altogether healthy, artistic, and culturally sensitive food product for all to enjoy. Because who needs sleep, anyway?

[Source]

Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream

One of my five food rules: Only cheat when it's absolutely worth it.

I rarely deviate from strict Paleo eating. (Example: In the past several months, I've eaten only one sugary dessert. And THAT one was totally worth it.) It hasn't been all that hard for me to pass up grains, legumes and sugar; I've never been a huge fan of any of the above. I don't have a sweet tooth.

BUT: If -- after careful consideration -- I'm absolutely certain that the pleasure of downing a non-Paleo food item is going to totally eclipse any resulting intestinal distress, I'll have zero qualms about eating it. And once the decision's made, I don't go about it half-assed. I go all out.

Case in point: I drove by Humphry Slocombe today (after picking up rabbit from 4505 Meats -- yes, we're cooking and eating Easter bunny flesh this weekend) -- and as luck would have it, there was a parking space right up front. Visions of Chris Cosentino's Boccalone Prosciutto ice cream danced in my head. I parked the car and hustled inside.



Sadly, there was no prosciutto ice cream on the menu today. But my mind was made up: I wanted to taste every flavor on hand. I tried spoonfuls of Salt & Pepper, Jesus Juice, Ancho Chocolate, Salted Licorice, and whatever else looked sufficiently weird and tasty.

After priming my palate with a sufficiently large bolus of sugar, I ordered a scoop of Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee ice cream (because I love me some Blue Bottle coffee), with a scoop of Secret Breakfast ice cream on top. Secret Breakfast is, of course, "ice cream with bourbon and toasted cornflakes, including so much Jim Beam that the scoops always run soft."

My very first cup of ice cream in 2011, in all its glory:

Booze. Coffee. Cornflakes. Dairy. Sugar. Total faileo, and my gut is going to hate me for it.

But it was delicious.

Amber Waves of Pain

Is the news media finally wrapping its head around the fact that it's the intake of sugar and carbs -- not dietary fat -- that's making us obese? An article in yesterday's L.A. Times seems to suggest so.

Most people can count calories. Many have a clue about where fat lurks in their diets. However, fewer give carbohydrates much thought, or know why they should.

But a growing number of top nutritional scientists blame excessive carbohydrates — not fat — for America's ills. They say cutting carbohydrates is the key to reversing obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

"Fat is not the problem," says Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases."

The article even gives a shout-out to the core rationale behind Paleo eating:

As nutrition scientists try to find the ideal for the future, others look to history and evolution for answers. One way to put our diet in perspective is to imagine the face of a clock with 24 hours on it. Each hour represents 100,000 years that humans have been on the Earth.

On this clock, the advent of agriculture and refined grains would have appeared at about 11:54 p.m. (23 hours and 54 minutes into the day). Before that, humans were hunters and gatherers, eating animals and plants off the land. Agriculture allowed for the mass production of crops such as wheat and corn, and refineries transformed whole grains into refined flour and created processed sugar.

Some, like [UC Davis' Dr. Stephen] Phinney, would argue that we haven't evolved to adapt to a diet of refined foods and mass agriculture — and that maybe we shouldn't try.

(Source: L.A. Times)

Go Grass-Fed

After learning that healthy dietary fat is not the enemy -- and especially after watching "Food Inc." lay out a compelling case against stuffing livestock with corn and other crap -- we've been searching out grass-fed meat at farmer's markets and grocery stores. You should, too; after all, it's increasingly easy to find 100 percent grass-fed meat at your local supermarket:

With more consumers questioning how their food is grown and organic fruits and vegetables exploding into a multibillion-dollar market, grass-finished meat and dairy look like the next food frontier. In the past five years, more than 1,000 U.S. ranchers have switched herds to an all-grass diet. Pure pasture-raised beef still represents less than 1% of the nation's supply, but sales reached some $120 million last year and are expected to increase more than 20% a year over the next decade. Upscale groceries like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are ramping up grass-fed offerings, including imports from Australia and Uruguay. Last month the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed a certified grass-fed label to provide a federal standard.

Dr. Steve Atchley is one of many health-conscious carnivores fueling the trend. "I got tired of telling my patients they couldn't eat red meat," says the Denver cardiologist. So three years ago, he launched Mesquite Organic Foods, which sells grass-fed beef to 74 Wild Oats stores nationwide. The company, which contracts with ranches from South Texas to the Canadian border, has quadrupled sales since December.

And with summer here, there's no better time to throw some steaks on the grill. Grass-fed meat is more expensive, but there are a bunch of affordable grill-worthy cuts that won't break the bank.

(Source: Time Magazine, Washington Post, The Telegraph)