Grab your coffee, tea or whatever and let's chat. 🙂
As I write this I’m also in the middle of packing to take the kids up North to our hometown for the weekend. You’re going to be jealous when I tell you what’s going on there… It’s the annual Maple Syrup Weekend! (Kent is happy to pass on this weekend every year, LOL!) We’ll eat lots of Real maple syrup and real sausage made locally, along with pancakes which I doubt are all sparkly, but you can’t have everything. Kids are excited about the carnival rides, but I’m most excited about hanging with my fam (my niece is visiting from Seattle!) AND going out with my high school girlfriends tomorrow night! Oh boy, I’m really boring you now. I’ll stop. 🙂
- Thank you to a reader, Angie, who sent me this Gary Taubes article from the New York Times: Is Sugar Toxic? As she said, it’s long, but a great read. He references the video I’ve watched a couple times, Dr. Robert Lustig’s, “Sugar, the Bitter Truth”, and he asks, “Can sugar possibly be as bad as Lustig says it is?”
- Also, read Lydia’s post, “5 Tips to Curb Sugar Cravings”. (I need this!)
- I’ve posted on this before at the Rookie Class sneak peek post, Does High Fructose Corn Syrup really make us fat? (Which includes an interview with Fat Head filmmaker, Tom Naughton!)
- This post on colorless-foods from my friends, Kimberly Hartke & Jane Hersey, is one I was about to run this week, so I'll just let you read it there. They are discussing a recent New York Times article, and here is another take on that same article, this time from Food Renegade.
- Do you want to see the type of articles that my husband, Kent, enjoys reading online (besides Red Wings hockey updates)? Here’s one he just sent me, “Beer-only fast ends with bacon smoothie”. (Did you see the post about this amazing anniversary dinner that Kent & Joe cooked for Meg & I? Also, here’s one when Kent made dinner and compared a New York Style pizza to a Chicago Style pizza.)
That’s all for now, I have to finish packing!
Remember, I love reading your comments about any of the above stories!
Have a great week!
karen ferguson says
Kelly..
Your class sounds great…concise, to the point and you’ve done all the research…BRAVO.
Now all one has to do is relax and go for it.
My hat is off to you. It’s a lot of work researching, designing what’s important and getting on with the facts, not messing around w/ debate.
I am so happy I found your site. Now I do as suggested!!!
Frees up my time to enjoy my life!! Thanks again.
Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama says
Colorless popsicles?? Weird. Normal popsicles should not be gray! We make our own at home from yogurt and fresh fruit and they are pretty AND yummy with no junk. 🙂
Melinda says
HELP! We’ve just moved to Southeast Asia, and I’m trying to figure out the healthy fats here. Cheese is almost non-existent here unless you count Kraft singles sold on the store shelves (and I don’t)! I have been able to find a French butter… yea! Things are fried here… you know… stir fry. We have a helper who cooks for us some. We have corn oil… YIKES! I don’t want to use that. I did find some olive oil, but isn’t it bad to fry with? The locals use palm oil. We’ve been told that it causes high cholesterol (by the westerners here), but we are wondering if it is a healthy fat??? I have seen some canned coconut milk, but not sure what all is added to it. (I can’t read the labels yet.) I haven’t seen coconut oil, but surely it is here somewhere??? Raw milk… ha ha ha! I haven’t seen a cow yet, but I know they are somewhere. There is only pasteurized milk (“fresh” or in a box on the shelf or powdered) or soy milk. So… what to do, what to do?? Thanks for any tips you may have! BTW, our landlord does slaughter cows every now and then… so I may be able to get some “stuff” from him. What would I ask for? Can’t I render the fat or something like that?? Not sure how “organic” the cow is, but it is probably pretty much grass fed, maybe??? I really have no idea. It could be pinned up like an American cow. Thanks! =0)
Barbara Grant says
I say go for the palm oil, if it is not hydrogenated. Palm oil is a traditional fat and cholesterol is good!
KitchenKop says
I second Barbara’s comments on palm oil! And YES! You can render beef fat, here’s how: https://ow.ly/4L6rX As Amanda said, though, be sure to know how the cow was raised, etc., but that shouldn’t be too tricky since the farmer is your landlord!
Can you go online to figure out the food labels (for coconut milk, etc.), there have to be some good translation sites…?
When cooking with olive oil just be sure not to go over the smoke point, and this depends on how refined it is – the less refined, the lower the smoke point. I’d suggest finding out from the manufacturer what the smoke point is for that oil, but I’m not sure how realistic that is for you over there.
What a challenge you have ahead of you, but at least you are educated enough to know what you’re looking for and what to be careful about!
Kelly p.s. Scope out the general eating habits over there and their overall health/obesity, etc., and let us know. I’m always curious about that stuff. 🙂
Amanda says
I was in China last summer teaching music for a couple of weeks – and had a very similar experience. I was told that most of the people there are hesitant about milk because it has never been part of their traditional diet. Yogurt seemed to be the exception, but I don’t know how healthy it is. Unless you have direct access to milk from the cow and know the farmer personally, I’d avoid purchasing dairy. When I was there, a number of dairy product health issues were announced on TV (the most memorable was a product for children that contained hormones which caused infant girls to grow breasts).
I don’t know about cooking ingredients, when I was there we were served in a cafeteria and so I not only had no control over what I ate, but not even how it was made.
Good luck on your new adventure!
M.E. Anders says
I’ll have to share that “Beer-Only Fast” article with my hubby – – he might be willing to give that a try. LOL 🙂