Why Not Stop Feeding Grain to Beef Cows?

I love Michael Pollan's writing and attitude. Sure, I eat a hell of a lot more bacon and red meat than he does, but I admire his intelligence, writing skills and ability to generate publicity about the environment and real food. I'm looking forward to reading his new book, Cooked.

However, in an excerpt published today at Daily Beast, from an interview with Rachel Khong in Lucky Peach magazine, Pollan says: 

"But meat has a tremendous carbon footprint: beef in particular because it takes so much grain to get a pound of beef. It takes about 15 pounds of grain to get 1 one pound of beef, and that grain takes tremendous amounts of fossil fuel—in the form of fertilizer, pesticide, farm equipment, processing, and transportation. All told, it takes 55 calories of fossil-fuel energy to get one calorie of beef. The average for processed foods is 10 calories of fossil fuel per calorie of food" - Michael Pollan

Why feed grain to beef cows? There's a reason they are made to consume grass! Of course the carbon footprint of a 100% grain-fed cow is immense. Put them out to pasture on real grassland!!

Michael, I like ya, but there is an alternative. It's called grass-fed beef.

#michaelpollan, #paleo, #grassfedbeef

pphoto of Michael Pollan by Ken Light

Day Off from the Gym - Not From the Kitchen!

Sunday often is my off-day from working out (if summer ever gets here that will change, as cycling and running outdoors, and other fun in-the-sun activities will be available), but I stay busy in the kitchen preparing for the week.

This afternoon I cut up a big batch of broccoli, asparagus, kale, mushrooms, sundried tomatos, brussels sprouts, and a little bit of bacon. All this went into a big frying pan with coconut oil and a bit of bacon fat. Cooked on low temps for 10 minutes maybe, until the greens turn bright. I also toss in capers, roasted red pepper strips, and some japopena pepper pieces. 

That's three or four days of vegetables.

Two loaves of meatloaf just came out of the oven. Two glass pans of sweet potato chunks went in.

The blender ran hard, making two big coconut milk - coconut flakes - Fiberlyze - whey protein meal shakes for those odd times in my personal training schedule when I cannot eat a meal of food. 

I made a big spinach salad with a giant chicken breast (baked Wednesday night) cut into pieces, with sundried tomato, cut-up kalmata olives, and plenty of aged balsamic vinegar and nice olive oil. This will be one of my meals tomorrow.

Also, when the vegetables were completed, I put about four cups into another smaller pan, and when they were hot, added six scrambled eggs. Cooked it and placed into another container. That and the salad are my three meals for the work day tomorrow; I'll also take a shake with me "just in case."

I also made a big batch of white rice, or "safe starch" to some of you. Four cups of rice, eight cups of water.

As I'm getting up at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow, with my first client at 5:30, I'll only have bulletproof coffee for the first three or four hours. I won't even be hungry until 8:30 or so. Intermittent fasting at it's most convenient.

What did you do today to prepare for your week? It's easy to pack a gym bag ahead of time; what about fuel for your body? Are you on top of that?

I Probably Won't Do This Again

In a hurry today, mid-afternoon, preparing to leave home for a couple of hours, it had been four or so hours since breakfast. Deciding to quickly down a couple of scoops of whey protein powder/water, I realized I was out of macadamia nut oil, my usual go-to fat for these occasion. So I dumped in a tablespoon of dense, Italian olive oil. Mixed well, then down the hatch.

Not a good flavor combo, my friends. Vanilla Gaspari Myofusion and Tuscan olive oil. Effective - but my taste buds are scarred!

Do you really want to take care of yourself?

Are you truly dedicated to improving your health and fitness? Prove it to yourself and prepare food ahead of time. I spent two hours in the kitchen today cutting up red pepper, broccoli, kale, asparagus, mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, garlic - sautéed it all in a big fry pan with a bit of cut-up bacon, coconut oil, capers, sub-dried tomato.

Baked a half dozen chicken breasts. Peeled, cut into small chunks and baked a pan of sweet potato fries. Made a loaf of meatloaf. Prepared a big dish of six eggs scrambled on some of the vegetables.

These are all my meals for the next three days other than post-workout shakes. Done. Kitchen clean. What will your excuse be tomorrow?

Do Top CrossFit Competitors Really Eat Paleo?

As someone kinda eating Paleo for 2 1/2 years, but long ago realizing "strict" Paleo doesn't work for me as an athlete, I'm on a bit of a mission to find out how many top athletes in CrossFit or any strength sport really eat this way. Do any?

I came across an interesting tidbit in an interview with gym owner / competitive strength/CrossFit athlete Scott Paltos, conducted by Paul at Eat To Perform:

"...and as far as the other question you asked.  “If I know any other CarbBackLoading followers?”  Hell yeah…but they don’t call it CBL.  They just call it paleo with refeeds and paleo with 'anything I can eat at night'.  Haha.  CrossFit followers who watch some of the personal videos of others, or read blogs from athletes, should understand what I am talking about.  There are a good deal of TOP athletes who follow a similar if not exact system of CBL.  They just don’t say it."

In my experience with top CrossFit competitors, none are Paleo in their nutritional mindset. They appreciate healthy eating and embrace all that's Paleo, but they don't stop there!