Michael Pollan has written several books, but is perhaps best known for his two most recent: The Omnivore’s Dilemma and his latest, In Defense Of Food.
In the former book, Pollan discusses problems with the food supply and food industry in the US, and the challenges faced by consumers who actually care about what they eat. In the latter book, he addresses the same issues, but from the perspective of answering the question: “What can we do about it?”
Central to his perspective is that food isn’t very profitable to companies as a commodity. A bunch of celery or a simple piece of beef doesn’t sell for very much (unless we’re talking organic, then all bets are off), relative to the prices and profit margins companies can get from making products out of the celery or beef. Pollan calls these products “edible, food-like substances” in contrast to real food.
In this video of a lecture he gave at Google, he gives the example that while cut oats are pennies to the pound, if General Mills, Post or Kellog add high-fructose corn syrup, salt and additives and process the oats so as to remove some of the fiber, they end up with a product costing tens or hundreds of times the cost of the oats themselves.
He also talks about what he calls “Nutritionism,” or a belief that nutrients are important and sources of nutrients are not. Food companies use this to encourage people who want to be healthy eaters to buy premium healthier versions of their products that have vitamins, minerals and/or fiber artificially added back in. This can make them almost as healthy as the original food item was when it came out of the ground and before it was converted into frankenfood!
Highlights:
Eat locally
Eat organic
Eat grass-fed
Shop the perimeter of the grocery store, not the middle.
Don’t eat it if:
You can’t pronounce the ingredients
Your great grandmother (or someone else’s) wouldn’t recognize it as food.
The whole philosophy boils down to seven words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Welcome to a blast from the past - a rerun of the original episode of the original Health Hacks Podcast, from August of 2006.
At the time of launch the show had four contributors: myself (Kevin Kennedy-Spaien), Jimmy Moore, Chris Brogan, and Reinhard Engels.
Chris had been doing a show called “Fat Guy Gets Fit,” and asked me to take the lead in expanding it to a multi-contributor show that I would run. I recruited the other contributors from blogs I followed and we started out on Chris’ show for two episodes before putting together this beta episode. Listen in to hear it - warts and all, although the content is still good.
We don’t have all the episodes anymore. When Grasshopper New Media closed down, most of the episodes were lost, but those we still have will be posted here in the coming weeks, then more new episodes of the revised “Health-Hack Podcast.”
The Health-Hack Podcast returns in a new incarnation today with a special interview.
Kelly Damron is a blogger and the author of Tiny Toes: A Couple’s Journey Through Infertility, Prematurity, and Depression. In this podcast we take a look at how Kelly’s own personal experiences have effected her and helped form the basis for her work through Twin Peas, LLC.
Guest poster Michelle Koen of our sister site Healthy Helpings TV offers these tips on dining room fitness!
All that holiday food is tempting, so go on, enjoy it, but remember, if you’re going to keep up your healthy lifestyle you have to exercise too.
Getting to the gym can be tricky with all your holiday commitments and I can only imagine what being knee deep in snow does to you motivation!
When I don’t have time to go to the gym or get on my bike, I make my own circuit workout. Today I was being a bit creative and came up with a full body workout that I can do at my dining room table!
The table and chair workout:
Perform these exercises in quick succession to make a circuit. You’ll need:
2 sturdy chairs
1 sturdy table
Warm-up for a few minutes before performing this workout. Either jog on the spot, jump rope or climb stairs if you have them.
Step ups onto a chair.
Make sure your chair isn’t going to move. Carpeted floors work best but placing the back of the chair against a wall helps on wooden floors. Alternate legs until you have done 10-15 steps on each leg.
Chair Tricep Dips (to combat turkey wings): Stand with your back to the chair, as if your were going to sit down but about 1.5ft further way. With your palms facing behind you place your hands on the front of the seat. Lower your body, keeping your back straight until your elbows are pointing backwards and bent at 90º. Pushing using your hands (not your feet) raise your body to a straight armed position and repeat up to 15 times or until failure.
Chair Glute-crunches: Lie on the floor facing the seat of the chair with your knees bent, so that your feet are slightly under the chair. Straighten on leg and place it on the chair. Push through the heel of the foot which is on the floor and squeeze your buttocks, raising your hips off the ground. Slowly lower your body and repeat 10-15 times for each leg. You can add an adominal crunch or crunch twist at the end of the movement for added ab work.
Table chinups: Lie underneath the table with your head and shoulders protruding, so that your shoulderblades line up with the end of the table, legs straight. Grip the tabletop, palms facing up. Squeeze your shoulder-blades together and pull your chest towards the underside of the table until your chin is touching the edge of the table. Keep your body in a plank. Slowly lower your body to the starting position and repeat. If this is too hard bring your feet in and bend your knees slightly, keep your body straight.
Bulgarian split squats: Stand in front of a chair (as if about to sit). Take on large step forward and place the toe of your rear foot on the chair. Keeping your body upright and chest high lower your body towards the floor until your front leg is bent at 90º. Make sure your front knee does not pass your toe and that you are not twisting your body. Squeeze your buttocks and push through your heel to help raise your body to a starting position. Repeat 10–15 times for each leg.
Chair shoulder press: Place 2 chairs, seats facing each other, 2-3ft apart. Place your body in between them with your palms on the edges of the seats, fingers pointing towards your body gripping the edge of the seat. Extend your legs infront of you either fully or slightly bent for an easier version. Slowly lower your body towards the floor until your arms are bent at 90 degrees. Keep your shoulders back and body tall and upright. Push through your palms to raise your body slowly to a starting position. Repeat 10–12 times.
Sit down, stand up… and up: Start by sitting in a chair with good posture. Try to stand up without using your hands, squeezing the abs and buttocks to help raise your body. Push through the heels. Once you are standing, transfer the weight to the front of your feet and raise up onto the balls of your feet, hold for 10 seconds and slowly lower to flat feet and then to hovering just above the seat, hold for 10 seconds and repeat 10–15 times.
To increase the calories burnt during the workout include an active recovery of jogging or skipping on the spot for a minute between each exercise. The circuit should take about 7 minutes to complete, perform it up to 5 times. To increase the intensity of these exercises do them wearing a backpack with something heavy in it, sacks of flour and sugar are ideal.
Don’t forget the other most important exercise these holidays: The put down and push away: Put down your fork and push away the plate when you’re full.
For about a year, we moved over to a special site just for the Health Hacks Podcast. I am planning on moving the podcast archives over here and re-starting blogging here. Keep an eye out!
In the mean time, say “Hi,” if you are at Podcamp Boston II this month, and check out our newly re-launched Disc of Light website, too!
Popular U.S. sub shop “Quizno’s” has been stonewalling the public on their mandatory nutritional data factsheets. In the U.S. restaurants are required to provide this information to customers, and many actually feature their data sheets right on the walls of their dining areas.
Mysteriously though, Quizno’s seems to be willing to just pay any fines and NOT release this information. Apparently it was once available on their website, but has since been removed. A recent thread on MeFi has turned up one place where this data can still be found: About.com’s Calorie Count web site.
According to one biological theory that is gaining more and more acceptance, you have an extra brain.
It’s called the enteric nervous system, and is a collection of neural tissue that wraps in sheaths around your digestive tract, from esophagus to colon. It is fairly well separated from the cranial brain, growing independently during fetal development, and only later being joined by the Vagus nerve.
It is speculated that “nervous stomach” conditions such as colitis and irritable bowel syndrome may be caused the enteric nervous system. The discipline of neurogastroenterology is studying the connection between these (and other) disorders and the “belly brain”.
What does it mean to be part of the movement? Very simple:
1. Blog your weight/thoughts about weight loss each day (you don’t have to put the number in the subject line if you don’t want… but I think that’s fun).
2. Search for Fatbloggers daily (i.e. on Technorati or Google Blog Search)
3. Link to and comment on blog posts by other fatbloggers. Share your ups, downs, and tips.
Jason was kind enough to respond to a post I wrote about this over at the GNMHealth.com blog.
One key to better health is to eat more meals at home. The humble crock pot is a great tool to help squeeze more home-cooked goodness into our busy lives.
Here are two quick tips to hack your crock pot cookery:
1) Freeze all ingredients the night before cooking. Put them in before leaving for work and your food won’t be mush by dinner time, though it will be cooked. Great for roasts.
2) Don’t have a fancy model with a timer? Use a cheap lamp timer available at any hardware store. Set it to turn off an hour before you get home and the food will be cool enough to feed your kids as soon as you walk through the door.
My Crew over at the Health Hacks Podcast have an episode with a theme inspired by Dr. Who villains the Daleks.
Episode 18 is all about helping you stick with the resolutions you might have made at the start of January:
Reinhard Engels continues to explain the relationship between the everyday systems “Chain of Self-Command” and “Personal Punchcards” which were introduced last week. Hint: it involves evil robots!
Occupational Therapist Eve The O.T. takes a break from her multi-part report on office ergonomics to help you bolster your willpower and patch up any lapses now that you’re ten days into your New Year’s resolutions.
