I love thrift store shopping.

And not just to save money.

In addition to being pretty frugal on certain things, I enjoy shopping at thrift stores for more than just the savings. Don’t get me wrong – I love finding that amazing deal, but that’s not quite enough to keep me coming back to the mysterious color-coded tagging systems, “vintage” kitchy glassware, and dusty late ’80s electronics bins. And although you might question how this is connected to improving my health, I assure you there are logical reasons.

There are also a few gigantic, impossible, James-Cameron-like stretches of reason – but hear me out.

Before I get into that, let me be clear that there are a few things I don’t buy ever at thrift stores. Old non-stick cookware is out. Old electronics? Very rarely, if ever. Underwear? No way ever ever ever. And the king of things to never buy? Intimate items for your significant other, which amazingly they do sell (never never ever, gentlemen).

Reasons I love shopping at thrift stores – oh yeah and that health tie-in thing

Here’s a list of some of the reasons why I love shopping at thrift stores when you’re trying to lose weight.

- Rewarding yourself with clothes that fit – on a budget. One of many great tips I come across repeatedly (and use to my advantage) is to “reward” yourself with clothes that fit as you get in better shape. Similarly, you can set up a goal by buying something that you love but that is a little too small – Its a great motivator for me.

However, clearly this could get expensive if you’ve got a lot of weight to lose, and especially if you’re eating higher quality food that may force you to rethink your budget priorities a little. And that’s where thrift stores come in.

Case in point: The pants in the picture.

I bought these pants today knowing full well that they do not fit – YET. They are about a size too small in the waist, but the quality was too good to pass up. So, these pants become a great weight loss tool: they are an affordable source of motivation to get down another pants size.

And these pants are luscious. Yeah, I just said “luscious”.

They are pants that normally retail for easily more than I’d spend on 3 pairs of pants, but being a find at the thrift store means they’re within my inner cheapskate’s boundaries. And the best part? Today was blue tag day at the thrift store, so they were marked down by an additional 50% to $7.47 – an almost 95% discount off of retail, and never worn as far as I can tell. But they will be soon, proudly.

- It’s a hunter gatherer thing: I love the thrill of the style hunt – even for styles meant for thinner folk. My wife and I both love to find and share things that are visually interesting or unusual, from innovative ads to well-designed kitchenware. Fashion is no exception. It’s not uncommon for me to rush from one side of a large store to the other only to extoll the virtues of the triple stitching in a jacket, or the rare-but-highly-sought-after hand-stitching of vintage Italian leather shoes.

Personally, I think it’s good for our marriage. Unfortunately, most of these great finds are for people of, well, slimmer physiques. But turning that into motivation works for me, even if I don’t buy it (I will never be a size 28 waist. No way.). It doesn’t help me with fine leather shoes much, but pants, shirts, and jackets? Definitely.

- Exercise equipment graveyards – Or, “things at which you should not throw your money”. Thrift stores almost always have piles of grungy, junky fad-driven exercise machines. The piles of junk are good reminders not to waste your money in the first place. There are better ways to exercise than overpriced, poorly made fly-by-night contraptions that wither and die in the closet or under the deck.

- On the other hand, exercise equipment graveyards are good places to find new things to try – on the cheap. Occasionally buried in those piles of ab floggers and thigh blasters you can find high quality items that are made to last and might give your exercise routine a change – at a fraction of the original price. Good examples of quality items I’ve found are cast iron dumbells, kids’ sports gear, and sometimes bicycles (if you know what you’re looking for).

Today was a great example: Thanks to some personal knowledge of bike gear and my iPhone I was able to check the original price as well as the reviews for a bicycle that had just been put out, and it was a good deal: It retailed for over $400 dollars several years ago, not including the improved seat and rims that it came with. My price? $19.95. Sold.

- Haunting thrift stores is a good way to stay grounded. This might sound terrible to some, but it’s honest: If you visit thrift stores often you will quickly encounter a huge cross-section of people ranging from those who are pretty “together” just looking for a bargain, to those who…well let’s just say that in the Texas Hold ‘Em game of life, so far they either a) haven’t been dealt much by way of face cards, or b) wasted more than a few good hands by indulging in some of the more destructive vices of life – for much too long.

I point this out because there are a few immediate internal results each time I leave a thrift store. First, with regard to patrons clearly down on their luck, it’s a good reminder that hard times can befall anybody no matter what station you think you’ve reached in life, or what good fortune you’ve had so far. It reminds me to be thankful for what I have in health, in my family, and in my work. It also reminds me that we’re all just people, and it takes all kinds.

But it also reminds me that my life choices matter. If you continue down a path of self-destructive behavior (i.e. smoking, eating junk, drinking excessively), in all likelihood it’s going to catch up with you sooner or later both in form and function. And some of the rougher folks at thrift stores, sadly in my opinion, are living proof.

In my case, that means being as healthy and “put together” as I can be. Seeing someone at the opposite extreme is frankly a good reminder that I’m in control of my own fate, regardless of the circumstances or in some cases, the choices, of others. Does this make me better than them? No. It means every day I make a good choice, I took responsibility for my life in that moment, and I was really fortunate to have that option.

- Buying quality products is synonymous with buying quality food. While I don’t recommend ever, ever buying a snack at a thrift store (yikes), being surrounded by piles of plastic disposable junk reminds me that we are bombarded with the “more, and cheaper, is better” philosophy in everything, and we as a culture continue to buy it over and over again.

But we don’t have to. You can buy quality things that last, even on a budget. Finding good quality items in a thrift store requires time, including both the search and the research beforehand. But the investment of time pays off in big ways, and affords me the “luxury” of putting my money into better choices in other categories, like food.Thrift stores have piles of cheaply made, worn out clothing. But occasionally you find something that you could never normally afford that has little if any wear (my wife once found a pair of women’s pants that were from an exclusive designer – they were $400 dollars originally!) But knowing what you’re looking at of course involves learning a bit more about what to look for in brands, in construction, and so forth. And that may not be your cup of tea.

For me, it has become a hobby of sorts that I enjoy. I love looking at sites like The Sartorialist for style ideas (though some are a bit too “out there” for me), as well as guidance in understanding why some clothes look better than others (where a jacket should fall on the shoulders, what a tailored shirt looks like vs. a cheaply made shirt, etc.). Again, it may be a little too “chi chi” for you, but there is nothing that says you have to follow what sites like these suggest; you can pick and choose some of the advice, or none at all.

The soapbox – You knew it was coming, right?

Believe it or not, I am increasingly of the belief that consumerism is one of the root societal causes of obesity – even beyond our food choices. Walk down the aisles of a thrift store and look at pile after pile of broken, branded, unnecessary junk, from giant candy-shaped plastic toys to junk food-themed cookie jars, and you will start to see how this mirrors what we are being continually told to put in our body from a food perspective.

And while I may be waxing philosophical a bit here, I think there is merit to the idea that we can easily look at our food like we look at a pile of cheap plastic goods. Buying cheaply solves an immediate problem/hunger, and on occasion is necessary – but more often than not a better choice can be made by reprioritizing where we put our dollars and planning ahead for what we need. And in the end, whether it’s plastic thrift store items or cheap industrial food, the junk adds up.

As I mentioned, thrift store shopping may not be of interest to you. But that’s OK. It just means more bargains for the rest of us.

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The idea of intermittent fasting (IF) has intrigued me for some time. I am a big fan of the website Fitness Spotlight, and have read their exhaustive research on the subject of IF several times, always wondering whether it is realistic for me. Today, I gave it a shot.

A little context: Before I tried the fast I had a doctor’s appointment at which I discovered a) that I had already lost two pounds on the year at that point, and b) my blood pressure was surprisingly good (122/78) despite increased stress right now. This was great news since it was a significant improvement from borderline high blood pressure a year ago, and made me feel as though my longterm dietary changes have helped my overall health. Of course one measurement is not enough to establish a trend, but I’ll take it until the next BP check. Although I am far from in ideal condition weight-wise, my other vitals appear to be pretty good.

Good news at the doctor’s office, even a little, is a great energizer.

Second, this morning I got up with the kids at around 7:00AM, and felt motivated to go hard after my general dietary goals. I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything last night after about 9:00PM or so. Having been reading about the paleo/primal methods of eating over the past few days, and the use of intermittent fasting in combination with it, it occurred to me that I was in an ideal state to give it a try. I knew that I had a 3-mile run scheduled for the afternoon, so I was curious to see not only how I would deal with it throughout the day, but how it would affect my energy levels.

Why fasting?

In the bigger picture, I am intrigued by fasting because in a sense it de-emphasizes food as something to obsess about. Current trends in the diet world often include eating lots of small meals and pre-packaged snacks to “keep the fire burning”. I think there is some merit to this perhaps (stabilizing metabolism makes sense intuitively); but I think the opposite end of the spectrum is worth exploring. In many countries around the world people do not seem to need to eat constantly just to stoke the fires; when it’s time to eat, it’s time to really eat. When it’s time to do something else, food isn’t part of that activity. I’m not sure which way is better, but I have a feeling that thinking about food all day long by scheduling everything around 6 or more eating times and bringing snacks and drinks with us everywhere from car rides to doctor’s visits may not be the best solution.

That was a long way of saying I enjoy keeping an open mind on the subject, especially because there are simply no one-size-fits-all absolute truths in diet and exercise.

I also think that giving your digestive system a break, or an opportunity to recover, makes intuitive sense. Whether or not it leads to effective cleansing and restoration I can’t say; but it seems logical to give such a vital system a break once in a while.

[ed. note: I'll discuss more of the benefits in part 2.]

Quick summary of intermittent fasting (at least the way I did it)

For the uninitiated, the rules of intermittent fasting are relatively simple: No food at all for a set period of time, but water is fine. Water with lemon is preferred in part because it helps with hunger and additionally because it’s good for your liver. Note that in religious disciplines it is not uncommon for water to also be prohibited during a fast. This is far from a religious thing for me, so I opted for the water.

One of the chief strategies in intermittent fasting is to use your sleep time to your advantage. Sleeping for 6-8 hours means you don’t eat during that period; so starting a fast the night before is a great idea, and ultimately what I did.

Generally folks who fast successfully seem to fall into two categories. Quoting from Mike’s article on Fitness Spotlight (“Intermittent Fasting 101: How to start burning fat“):

Daily Fasting: Typically done every day and only giving the person a smaller eating window in which to get their calories. (for example, a 18hr daily fast would mean someone would only eat every day between the hours of Noon and 6pm). You will see varying times from 15-19 hours for daily fasting as seen with the Warrior Diet, Leangains, and Fast-5 approach.

Fasting 1-3x a week: This could also be called alternate day fasting/calorie restriction (for those doing it every other day). This is just fasting of usually longer periods 18-24 hours but only 1-3x a week. Many variations to play with here like the Eat Stop Eat method (24 hr fasts 1-2x a week).

I chose the latter option, fasting for 20 hours.

Finally, another key to fasting is what is called “clean eating” during eating times. This basically means eating whole foods with an eye on nutrients and meeting caloric guidelines. Again, the idea is that if you need to be eating at a calorie level that will keep your metabolism flowing, but if you are trying to lose weight, that you maintain a healthy caloric deficit. I’m not too concerned about the calories; but the nutrition is essential.

Heavy disclaimer: I should take a moment to note that if this is something that interests you, you should definitely read not only the Fitness Spotlight article, but do your research, talk to a doctor, etc. Fasting is certainly not for everyone, particularly people with known or underlying health conditions. This particular article makes it pretty clear that there is no magic formula for fasting that will work for every person. Your approach to fasting may be radically different from another person, ranging from a wider window of eating daily to 24 hour periods. Combining exercise can be effective, but it depends on whether you are an irregular exerciser or an athlete in perpetual training. In other words, this is not a one size fits all situation – there are simply too many variables. As Mike says, if something isn’t working for you, change it!

Common fears of fasting

If you read any of the forums where folks discuss the idea of fasting, you quickly notice that people generally fall into either the “I do it and love it” camp or the “oh my Lord that is so bad for you/dangerous/I could never do that/you could die” group. I am somewhere in the middle – listening to the concerns on one hand, but interested in the benefits as well.

The most important factor that seems to get confused is that contrary to the fearful mindset, you are not starving yourself. You are simply changing the time at which you eat. In fact, the idea is to reduce the window during the day in which you eat, but when you do eat you emphasize greater quantities of whole foods that provide the necessary nutrients and calories for a healthy diet.

The mental game

As longtime readers of Almost Fit know, I have clearly identified that food has some significant emotional ties for me. In fact, that is the biggest challenge for me diet-wise. The physical feelings don’t generally bother me when I’m less than full; it’s the emotional part that gets a little (or a lot) funky. When I’m trying to make a significant dietary change I almost always get irritable and, on a bad day, a sense of “hungry desperation” takes hold. I can get quite emotional about it, and completely irrational. Not fun.

So how would IF affect my emotional state?

Additionally, I purposely avoided activities that might bring out cravings. Television was off limits, as well as any reading on new recipes for lemon bars or smoked bacon.

The physical game

Physically I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had a strategy: Stay busy, and stay hydrated. Simple as that. I knew for sure that I’d feel the pangs of hunger, but I was more curious about the blood sugar effects.

I was also really interested in my overall energy level with no food; so often we convince ourselves that lack of food is the cause of low energy, when in reality it may be that the real culprit is poor food choices.

Lastly, knowing that I had a 3 mile run scheduled, I was really interested to see how I’d feel pushing exercise on nothing but water. Would it cause low energy, cramping, lightheadedness, or worse?

Going for it

With a plan in hand, I chose to go for it – I decided to try a 20 hour fast, which meant I would not be eating until 5PM. I also knew that if things got too frenetic I wasn’t exactly stuck on a desert island; I could always stop if it started to feel wrong.

So how did it go? Stay tuned for part 2.

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Editor’s note: This post is a “Real Food” recipe that follows the core philosophy of this site: Eat Real Food in Moderation. The idea is to find delicious, practical, seasonal alternatives to industrial food products. Of course, the recipes do not focus on low fat/low carb dietary ideas, so the key as always is moderation. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to my feed. Thanks.

Green corn tamales are a seasonal favorite in the American southwest, various areas of Mexico including Sonora and Veracruz, and even a few islands in the Caribbean. If you’re unfamiliar with green corn tamales, one of the hallmarks is the texture: where a traditional, well-made tamale is moist and cake-like, a green corn tamale is generally a little “wetter”. Depending on the version, the texture can range from nearly a creamy corn salad to somewhat like a thick custard. They are best made when corn is in season, generally from May to October in northern regions.

After doing some digging, it’s clear that there are a variety of theories on why they’re called green corn tamales. I’ve read ideas ranging from the use of the green husks to wrap them, to the fact that some include a non-traditional whole green chile (I highly doubt the latter as the reason). The theory I find most likely however is the use of fresh corn straight off the cob. Where “traditional” tamales rely on corn flour (masa) as the primary ingredient for the dough, green corn tamales generally use fresh corn as the main ingredient. The physical difference is obviously the moisture content in fresh corn, but I’ve also found that the flavor is (usually) slightly sweeter (particularly if the corn is ripe). The flavor also has an “earthy” quality to it that I don’t seem to get as much of in corn flour tamales. I also tend to think that the use of fresh corn for the tamale probably predates corn flour, but I don’t have any proof – it’s just a hunch.

Are green corn tamales worth the effort?

When I decided to try to make green corn tamales for the first time, I received a variety of responses from folks I knew who had made tamales before. But mostly it seemed that each comment echoed two themes: a) It is a LOT of work, and b) what time should I come over for dinner?

In making these tamales, I can confirm that they are right – there is a fair amount of work involved. But I would counter that it is no more work than many other traditional “real food” dishes we’ve tried so far (for example, authentic Indian meals we’ve prepared took nearly twice as long to prepare).

They are truly delicious, satisfying, and…did I mention delicious?

So the answer is YES. It is time consuming and does require some manual labor, but for me the payoff is well worth it.

One last thing…

I freely admit that I am far from a tamale-making expert, but I do love to eat them (big surprise). I developed a love for authentic tamales while living in Los Angeles for years, where abundant Latino culinary traditions are fundamental to the cultural landscape. These days I have some definite opinions on the qualities of a good tamale (translation, I’m rather picky at times), but I certainly fall into the Gringo category when it comes to making them. In fact as I made these, I really wished that I had my brother-in-law’s mother from Mexico looking over my shoulder and telling me what I was doing wrong – because truth be told it took a few tries to get them right.

Real Food Recipe: Green Corn Tamales

This version of the recipe happens to be vegetarian, but substituting beef or pork would be excellent as well. One of the great things about making tamales is you can really use any filling that suits your taste. Most typical savory tamales have shredded beef or pork of some kind, but I’ve found that this basic cheese and green chile vegetarian option is excellent (and does not require the extra steps of preparing the meat). Experiment; see what tastes good. For example, we recently had a Nicaraguan version of a tamale called a Nacatamal, and they used ingredients like a savory meat and asparagus with sweet plums, which was a great combination.

One alternative to try? Goat cheese and sun-dried tomato is excellent. And I imagine that a more dessert-like version would be wonderful as well.

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

20 ears yellow corn, ripe and in season
1 package of corn husks* (optional, see notes)
2 cups medium grind cornmeal
1/2 cup unsalted organic butter**
1/2 cup organic shortening**
3/4 cup agave syrup (sugar also works if you don’t have agave)
1/2 cup cream
1 Tbsp. salt

Filling:
16  strips medium or sharp cheddar cheese
1 24-oz. can of whole green chiles

Parchment paper (optional)

Makes approximately 16 tamales

Preparation

Cut the ends of the corn off, leaving the husks easy to remove in large pieces. Reserve the husks and discard the silk. With the corn still on the cob, rinse each in cold water and pat dry. Cut the kernels from the cob.

In a blender, grind the kernels with the corn meal in roughy equal batches to make sure the corn meal is distributed evenly. The length of time in the blender depends on the texture you prefer, but we blended each batch pretty well until the hulls of the corn were mostly gone. Using a large spoon, mix the batches together in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the butter with the shortening until the mixture is creamy. Add the agave, salt, and cream, and then mix lightly. Add the cream mixture to the corn and mix together well.

Assembling the tamales

On a piece of parchment paper roughly 12 inches square, place two large husks, overlapping them lengthwise so that the narrow ends are pointing outward. Your little tamale nest should be shaped something like an American football. Using a large spoon, spread the batter into the husk – somewhere around a half a cup or so depending on the size of the tamale you want. Add a piece of cheese and a green chile in the center, and then cover with more batter.

Roll the long edges of the corn husks over the tamale, and then fold in the ends to seal in the batter. Roll the tamale up in the parchment, and then twist the ends of the parchment several times to seal the package. You can also tie them shut, but twisting seemed to work just fine.

To cook, steam on a rack for about an hour depending on how you’ve packed the tamales. For us, I stood the tamales up on one end and packed them into the steamer pot. This increased the overall cooking time to about 1.5 hours, but allowed for many more to be cooked at once. To test if they are done, take one out and open it up carefully (the steam is of course scorching hot, so use caution). If the tamale pulls away from the husk in a single piece, it’s done.

One side note: I don’t believe that the parchment is strictly necessary. If you package the tamale properly in the corn husk, you don’t necessarily need the paper to wrap it in – you can use string to tie off the ends. But if tamales are not in your regular rotation of cooking, the parchment is a shortcut that makes it a little easier.

To Serve

One of the brilliant things about green corn tamales is they really do not need a sauce since they are by nature very moist. That said, a good fresh mango salsa is excellent with this version. Serve with a side of seasoned rice and black beans, or eat it by itself – it’s up to you. Tamales are typically served in the husk, so that the person eating unwraps the little package and enjoys the melting, comforting contents.

Notes

One of the great things about these tamales is they freeze and reheat very well, so it’s worth taking a little extra time to make a large batch. By freezing them, green corn tamales transform from real food into “convenience” food for later. Forget the frozen TV dinner or awful tasting Hot Pocket – opt for the homemade comfort of a tamale.

*Corn husks: To wrap the tamales, there are basically two options. Traditional green corn tamales use the green husks from the corn you use, which does work, though your success depends on both your skill and the size of the green husks you have removed. The second, easier alternative is to use pre-dried corn husks that are pre-soaked in warm water. I tried both ways and found that I had better results with the pre-soaked husks, as they are much larger and easier to work with. So, if you go with the easier choice, you’ll want to pre-soak the husks in warm water for at least 10 minutes. Dried husks can be found in ethnic food aisles at most grocery stores, and a package of 100 or so costs all of five bucks.

**Lard as a better alternative: The next time I make this I’ll use locally obtained lard (not the hydrogenated store-bought version), which not only has health benefits but is undoubtedly closer to the original recipe. For more information on the health benefits of lard, see this Seattle Times article: The Real Thing. The Weston A Price Foundation also has some excellent information on the subject.

All in all, this recipe was well worth the time and effort. I’ll be making another batch soon – so be on the lookout for a dinner invitation.

Thanks for reading.

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Note to Almost Fit readers: This photo is, surprise surprise, ME, from a while back. I rarely post photos of myself, but I think I’m going to try to change that over the coming months to increase my level of accountability. At any rate, this is what I looked like – 4 years ago after having run 13.1 miles .

That’s not physically possible for me to do

When my wife and I trained with a group for a 1/2 marathon a few years ago, part of our motivation was to spend time together. That worked sometimes, but the truth be told when we ran together, my wife was always holding her pace back a little, and I was usually pushing harder than was healthy for my body at the time. Essentially I was trying to “catch up” even though my body really wasn’t ready for it.

When we trained, I was put in a slower pace group. When I expressed my wish to catch my wife’s pace group to our coach through extra training, she looked into my eyes, put her hand on my shoulder, and quietly said, “I hate to break this to you, but…you’re not going to. I know you think that if you just work harder you’re going to get there, but the truth is? Not possible.”

I was rather shocked.

I mean, wasn’t she supposed to say, “Great Goal, Big Guy! You can do anything you want to do! Why, you can be President someday if you just put your mind to it! Go Team Go!”

But realistically? She was right. Part of me thinks that given a longer stretch of time and some really consistent training, I could eventually have caught up with her. But one obvious problem with the aspiration was that our event was only 3 months away, and there simply wasn’t time for me to get there in that short of a training window. But beyond that, I had to remember – my wife was literally less than 1/2 my weight, and in good shape. Secondly, for every hard run with my slower pace group, she was logging a hard run with her faster group. In other words, with every day we trained, we each got faster and stronger.

So what was the lesson? The coach was trying to help me to see that overtraining would not help me accomplish my goals, and with such a limited timeframe, my goal was truly unrealistic. If I wanted to complete the task, I was going to have to forget about the competitive aspect of trying to catch up with someone much faster than I, and just focus on where I’m at, and where I’m going.

Lesson learned.

Catching up – on Reading: Part 1

It has been months since I’ve made the time to really catch up on what folks around the Web are writing about, particularly when it comes to health, fitness, and overall well-being.

That ends today.

To all of my fellow writers, bloggers, and scribblers (you know who you are), this is for you. This is part one of a list of my favorite articles over the past couple of months, as well as some blogs that readers of Almost Fit will probably find interesting/inspiring, as I have. Note that most of these are diet and fitness related, but there are some great food blogs in here too – they may require an extra bit of moderation though, so consider yourself warned.

Fit Bottomed Girls: My Own End to Overeating (Well, for the most part)

Mark’s Daily Apple: How to Render Bacon Fat (Plus a Fennel and Dill Omelette Recipe)

Kelly the Kitchen Kop: Ten Tips for Building a Healthy Immune System

Fitness Spotlight (formerly Modern Forager: Are Low Carb Diets Overrated for Health and Longevity? The Kitavan and Okinawa Diets

Wine Guy World: I’m feeling super, man

Andrew is Getting Fit: A few questions answered [or, the secrets of one of the most inspirational fitness bloggers I've ever read]

Get Fit Slowly: Where I’m at

60 in 3: How Far are You Willing to Go?

FertileHealthy: Taking it to the next level

Cranky Fitness: Evil Non-Dairy People

Bohemian Revolution: How to send back food at a restaurant

Go Workout Mom: Beware of Limiting Labels

Gym Junkies: The Quickest Way to Build Muscle and Lose Fat

Gourmeted: As Basic as Choux Pastry, As Classic as Julia Child

Health Bolt: The Keeler Migraine Method Q and A

John is Fit: My Visit to a Sleep Clinic: Overnight Sleep Study

MizFit Online: Spotting 101 and Losing the Guilt

What’s Cooking: Blackberry Flan Ice Cream

Orangette: The whole point [and a recipe for salsa verde for potatoes]

Food Blogga: Healthy Cherry, Banana, and Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

Food Wishes: Dry-Aging Steak at Home – The Final Chapter: I think it worked

That concludes part 1 – I’ll be back in a week with part 2. Again, thanks to everyone who has stuck with Almost Fit through some down time. I think things are finally back in gear.

Thanks for reading.

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Last night we had a great evening out. The idea was to get a babysitter for the kids, have dinner with friends, then go to a parenting class, and finally head to a pub for a well-earned drink or two.

Mission accomplished.

However, in the midst of all of that fun, I learned something tremendously useful that I thought Almost Fit readers either a) already do (and I’m clearly in the dark again), or b) might find really useful, as I have.

Get with the program

Our friend K. runs a very successful business, and he has done quite well despite the current economy. That in itself is a feat given that I’ve heard of several of his peers that have gone out of business recently in Oregon, but add to that a full docket of family responsibilities, and I have wondered how he does it all.

As we ate dinner, in passing I described what feels like a slightly new philosophical direction for Leo at ZenHabits.net – one of the few blogs I read every day. Leo has made a few fairly “radical” moves lately, including attempting to eliminate email from his life altogether and bucking the popular productivity trends of heavy long and short-term planning in favor of going with the flow, with a focus on being present. Not exactly common ideas in productivity and motivational circles from my admittedly limited (but interested) experience, but the concept of being present really resonates with me.

In that context, K. described how a seminar he attended has really changed his life toward being present, organized, and effective without a lot of expensive planning tools ruling his every move. His wife also noted that this has made a huge difference for K., so much so that friends have asked what has happened to him lately. [Ed. Note: At this point I'm going to leave out the name of the system until I can get a few more details, but sufficed to say I think the readers that are interested in motivation and productivity may have heard of this. I'll update the post when I can verify the facts.]

I was intensely interested in this, not only because I’m working on a variety of personal projects that have stalled in some ways (including reviving Almost Fit to a level I’m happy with), but I really believe that the concepts of motivation and organization contribute to success in achieving health goals.

The ideas behind the system are not revolutionary; basically it involves using a log to capture thoughts, and then organizing those ideas at an established time each day. The system relies on using a calendar as a repository for thoughts and actions. As I said, these things are not new; however as part of this system they suggest a series of simple techniques that are all designed to free your mind from the clutter of a fast-paced life.

I need that.

One simple tool

To help organize myself a little better, I do what I think most of us do: I keep lists. Lots of lists. But to be honest, this often fails to be enough to motivate me to actually do the things I’ve written down.

It turns out that this is a common challenge (who knew?). To help make lists more powerful, here was his suggestion:

Rather than just writing down a task that must be done, rephrase the task to include the “why” of the task. This is similar to the concept of “positive phrasing”, but feels more practical (and useful) to me.

For example, rather than writing “do laundry”, or “Rock the laundry” (my version of positive phrasing ), I could rephrase it to “wash shirt to feel good at dinner tonight” – and then put that on my calendar. I know it’s a subtle difference, but the idea is to quickly state the reason that I need to do a thing, not just record the idea that it must be done. The trick of course is to keep it simple; it should be one sentence that captures the value of doing that one thing today. The power of that is then compounded when I actually schedule a time for it during the day.

So why bother? Why spend the extra few seconds to write out the reason? Ultimately, there are two key reasons that immediately come to mind: First, it’s so I don’t have to carry that reason around in my head any longer or rework through the reasoning later. My head is chock full of things I really need to purge that float around in there for years on end, and this is a good way to do it. Second, providing a reason not only frees your mind from having to recall the reason later (which for me leaves room to justify procrastination), but forces you to pause, be present, think about and concisely state how important it is to get the task done.

So I decided to try it straight away – no excuses. Here’s how it went.

Testing the technique

Big picture goal: Complete the first draft of my super-secret new book.

Task: Write a rough draft of one chapter of my new book – Today.

A little context: I am currently writing a book, but it’s been slow going. I have the outline formed and the concept is ironed out (it’s evolving as I think it through), but getting to the actual writing has been a real challenge. I know that I’m passionate about the subject, and have been thinking about it for a couple of years now, so it should be coming together. Unfortunately, it is my easiest task to procrastinate.

So, today here’s what I wrote:

“Complete rough draft of one chapter to get one step closer to November completion.”

Maybe its a little cheesy (I can admit I need to practice this idea) but it seems to be working. After I thought about whether I wanted to do this today, whether it was attainable, and WHY it’s important to me, I could let it go and focus on my other tasks without the nagging distractions of uncaptured thought on this subject. Each time I look at that goal I feel a small charge of energy realizing that I have a really, really good reason to work on this today. Since I wrote the reason out, I am essentially telling myself that I’ve already gone through the “why do this” phase and now have little excuse but to just do it. And then by allotting time to do it, I’ve suddenly got a workable, reasoned plan that feels good.

Applying this to exercise and health

I think the practical application of this idea is pretty clear: Probably most of us have written on our daily list “exercise”, but for me that is rarely enough to get me to actually do it. If you want to exercise today, why not write out a very concise reason why, and then schedule it?

Here are a couple of other ideas: Do you want to eat a light dinner? Why not write that down as a task for the day, possibly saying something like, “Eat light tonight to prepare for a DECADENT meal with friends on Saturday”. Or, preserve your sanity with this: “Eat a reasonable sized piece of chocolate to stay satisfied with what I’m eating.”

I am going to keep trying this technique as well as a few others over the coming months, and will report back on the success. I hope it works. I have a lot that I want to get done, and could use a simple (and free) tool or two.

One last thing on motivation

As I mentioned earlier, I’m a big fan of ZenHabits.net. I read it daily, and have recently purchased Leo’s new book, “The Essential Motivation Handbook“. If you are looking for a very straightforward set of ideas on motivating yourself to accomplish your goals while simplifying your life, I highly recommend the book.

I’ll be doing a more indepth review of the book soon (I’m still in the midst of reading it), but I highly recommend it if you are looking for help to get up from the couch and back on track. It is based on many of the articles on Zen Habits as well as Eric Hamm’s site, MotivateThyself.com (Eric is coauthor), and is well worth every penny.

Thanks for reading Almost Fit.

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Ed. note: This entry is about working toward lifelong dietary goals by eating real food in moderation. The list of techniques will change over time, but this is where I’m starting from. This is actually an update from an article I wrote a little over a year ago, including my observations, corrections, and a handful of new ideas. Your constructive feedback is always appreciated. If this is your first time here and you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing via RSS. Thanks.

“Action Feeds Motivation.”

This thought occurred to me as I finished my first run of the year today, in the rain and wind. Yes, you read correctly: my FIRST, as best I can recall. As many readers have noticed, I’ve been a little scarce lately. I’ll write another post soon with my theories (and a few personal facts) on why that has been so, but for now I thought it was more important to simply do something about it. And as it turns out, that phrase, “Action Feeds Motivation” is going to be one of my recurrent themes for Almost Fit in 2009.

A year ago I was fully motivated to pursue these techniques. I didn’t need a whole lot of inspiration; I was ready to go. Over the last few months however, I haven’t been “feeling it” like I was. That tide however, is changing. So in an effort to really rekindle that fire I decided to review some of what I wrote a year ago to try to learn from my successes and mistakes, which is one of the great side-effects of writing your thoughts down in a public format like this one. For this analysis, I came back to one of my all-time favorite posts: 33 tips on how to lose weight without dieting, and one that I now think, after a year of trying out this approach to eating, needs a little revision.

As regular readers know, my focus here on Almost Fit is to do one simple thing: Eat Real Food in Moderation. No low fat this or low carb that; just real, whole foods in moderate amounts. As simple as the statement is, the principle is much harder to apply, particularly if you live in what I think of as a culture of excess. Most of us have come to accept as normal the gigantic, oversized meals that are available at every restaurant you go to, and on every food commercial or ad you encounter. We’ve confused quantity with value, and we’ve also convinced ourselves that the cost of food should be minimal – meaning it’s common to think that we simply can’t afford to eat better. I disagree; however, applying it on a daily basis is a lot like trying to light a candle in a hurricane.

In the 2008 article, I stated:

“I don’t believe that moderation in itself is the answer; eating moderate amounts of garbage still means you’re eating garbage. If I eat real food, in moderation, I am convinced that the weight will come off naturally. Changing my diet to focus on vegetables first, and then moderate amounts of high quality meat, grains, and dairy, makes sense to me. And so far, its working with little or no negative side effects including the emotional struggle that I associate with every diet I’ve ever tried, and I haven’t had to buy a single pre-packaged plan or frozen low fat dinner to do it.”

I still very much stand by these statements, and my diet and current condition is living proof. And that’s because I’m now thin, right?

Not quite yet.

In the last year I’ve managed to prove these principles from both angles – “success” in a sense, and “less than stellar” as well; I still contend that it’s not smart to view diet habits in a pass/fail context. No, I definitely proved that it does work; but lately I’ve also proven that if you take your eye off the ball for a while, the reverse is also true. We still eat well; the problem is the idea of eating vegetables first has succumbed to carb-heavy eating habits, particularly in the Winter months when our garden isn’t producing anything other than Leeks. There is plenty of room in my diet for carbs, proteins, sugars, and fats, but they need to be very secondary to vegetables as the bulk of what I eat. When I achieve that balance and combine it with reasonable exercise, Real Food in Moderation simply works.

However, when carbs, fats, and sugars begin to dominate my diet, all hell breaks loose when I step on the scale.

With that in mind, this article is intended to revisit my thoughts from a year ago, and provide new insight where it applies. And to be frank, this is somewhat self-serving; I’m putting my axiom to the test, and taking action to generate motivation.

Let the games begin.

33 Scratch that – 44 Weight Loss Tips for 2009

1. “Eat real food.” This principle is at its core, simply true – my opinion has not changed after a year of testing this out. Every day I am increasingly convinced that our poor, industrially-driven dietary habits particularly in the West are largely responsible for most of the bigger health maladies we suffer today. Real food means to me minimally processed, preferably non-packaged foods. “Good” is organic at the grocery store; “Better” is organically grown (even if not certified) from a local farmer who you can look in the eye and ask intelligent questions; and “Best” is growing your own, right in that patch of ground that used to be your front yard.

2. “Eat smaller portions of real food.” As I’ve pointed out many times before, portion size in the West is out of control. And contrary to what we are told all the time, eating more of someone’s industrial product is NOT what’s best for us – It benefits the seller, but that’s about it.

3. “Eat slower. Take at least 20 minutes for every meal. One of the best tips I’ve read on this is to divide the amount of food on your plate into fourths, and then eat only 1/4 of it each 5 minutes that passes. After a while I’ve found that you do this by nature once you get used to it.” 2009 observation: I am going to do this tonight in fact. This is one area that has really eluded me in the last few months, but I know that it works.

4. Technique: put your fork down between bites. This is another habit that is easy to let go, as I have proved over the last 6 months. Time for an adjustment.

5. Use smaller plates, cups, and utensils. No change here; still applies in 2009.

6. Cut between meal snacking – using some smart techniques. This is one of those areas that still holds true, and if you play it right can actually be a benefit of a sagging economy. Rather than throwing in that $5 dollar iced coffee drink during the morning and afternoon lull, save the money and go with the following: First, try a glass of water. Second, if that doesn’t stop the craving, a small piece of the best dark chocolate you can afford. Third, if that doesn’t work, try a small, pre-rationed handful of almonds. If I follow these steps in order, I’m generally fine for another couple of hours.

7. When you’re eating out, skip the appetizer. This rule still holds true. With the portion size of a typical entree, there is simply no need for “frontloading” your meal with unneccesary calories. On the other hand, if you want the appetizer, order it – as your meal. But if I do, I sometimes tip a little better if possible, only because my bill will be less as a result of my food choice and the server will appreciate the good will. It’s not a rule really, but it feels right for me.

8. Limit certain types of foods to a few times a month. This is one aspect that is more true now than ever, particularly with our current economic state. While I don’t apply this to fruits and vegetables, I certainly do for meat consumption. In addition to the health benefits of a diet rich in vegetables, eating better cuts of non-industrial meat is not only healthier, but more feasible financially when you eat it less frequently. And despite what those beef industry commercials suggest, not everyone has steak 3 meals a day.

9. Be aware of how much you are putting in your mouth, and keep it small. Smaller bites, savoring each one. Sounds simple enough. And, still true.

10. Understand what it means to be not quite full, and be OK with that. I don’t believe that I’ve done an article yet on Hari Hachi Bu (the art of eating until you’re 80% full), but that is soon to come I hope. What are my observations on this now? It is undoubtedly difficult. And it becomes a true mental game, where we often hear that little voice in our head that says, “But I LIKE to eat a lot”. It’s difficult to overcome that voice, but it’s possible. On this, more to come.

11. Don’t eat in front of the television. This technique has really worked for me this year, and I stand by it. That said, I do watch Top Chef while enjoying a very small dish of the best quality ice cream I can afford. The biggest trick here is not eating it straight from the container – which is deadly to the waistline when you combine it with the distraction of television. If you’re going to watch while you eat, serve a small portion away from the television. Savor it; eat it slowly; and don’t go back for more.

12. Don’t eat in front of the computer. See the previous tip – the same applies. 2009 observation: As was the case in 2008, this is still my biggest weakness. In fact, I’ve let the “emergency nuts snack” get out of control on this one – I have a jar of nuts on my desk as we speak. I’ve got to change that.

There. Done.

13. Whenever possible, eat together as a family. This is still true in my mind, however there’s one big challenge for me. Having two small children, I spend more of my focus on what they’re eating and less than on what I’m eating. I’m looking for suggestions on this one, but I still maintain it’s a good principle not only for dietary health, but for familial emotional health as well.

14. Whenever possible, in addition to your family, take your meals with friends and coworkers. We have been moderately successful at this one, but I have found that it is easy to overeat in these situations as well. I think ultimately you can truly appreciate the food more in the company of others, but it requires diligence to not get carried away.

15. “Read the ingredients list of anything in a package, but pay less attention to the statistics. The general rule should be to strive to eat things that don’t require ingredients lists, like fruits and vegetables. But in real life, this is not always practical. That being said, the key is to focus on the contents, not the scientific descriptions. You should try to eat only things that are easily identifiable as real food, not chemically processed substitutes. If you focus on eating only real food, and in moderation, the other elements become less important (unless you suffer with food allergies of course). The emphasis should be on real food and less of it, not counting milligrams of any one element.” 2009: More true now than ever.

16. Use real sugar, preferably raw, even if only trace amounts of it. Don’t use chemical substitutes. Again, for 2009, this rule holds absolutely true. I just spent a year NOT consuming chemical sweeteners, and I didn’t suffer in the least. Actually, I do have one amendment to this: I now prefer Agave syrup for most sweetening. Agave is a great sweetener, and requires very little refining. It’s also a great substitute for simple syrup for the occasional mixed drink.

17. “Eat fat – but only eat real, high quality fats. [...] the key is moderation – if you eat a pound of Brie, you’ve gone to the dark side.” 2009 observations: I still strongly feel this is accurate. However, with one caveat: Fats, specifically great-tasting ones like real cheeses, are difficult to control on the moderation front. But my theory is the French succeed here because it’s awfully difficult to eat the stinkiest of cheeses. For practical purposes, take what you want from the block of cheese, and then put it away. This helps to prevent “nibbling” on the cheese left out on the counter.

18. Don’t rely on supplements – eat the real thing first, and supplement what you need. 2009? Still true, with one bit of advice: If you do take supplements, make sure they are not synthetic. For a great resource on the subject, see my fellow writer Robin’s blog, here: http://realnutritionsupplement.blogspot.com/.

19. Focus on the reasons you are overeating, and address those first. in 2009 I did a fair bit of work here, but even after a year of self-analysis, I still have yet to control my emotional eating patterns effectively. 2009 may be the year that I seek professional help with emotionally-driven overeating, which I believe is at the heart of most of my struggles with weight.

20. Don’t eat fast food if at all possible – its not real food. This has been a great success for me, with one small exception: In Oregon and parts of Washington, we have a restaurant chain called Burgerville, which uses organic, grass-fed, locally grown products whenever possible. The bigger problem of course is it tastes really, really good. So it’s a little too easy to justify a stop at Burgerville on somewhat shaky “ethical” grounds. Granted, it’s not very often that we go here, but to be honest it’s more than it should be. This needs to change.

21. Avoid vending machines. Still true in 2009. If you work in an office or a building near these machines, it requires a small amount of planning ahead, but this is entirely possible, and entirely the correct choice.

22. “Don’t believe the “no pain no gain” philosophy. Regardless of what your gym coach told you, or what that aggressive personal trainer says, unless your goal is to be a body builder or a professional athlete, if you are practicing moderation, this philosophy is simply not true. In order to maintain health, eating should not be difficult. Exercise should be a pleasure, not a struggle. For those of us who simply want good health, if its painful, you’re not doing it right.”

In 2009, my opinion? Despite some disagreement among readers, I still stand by this statement. While pain can be a useful tool, I don’t think it’s strictly necessary. That said, there ought to be some “burn” going on; it just doesn’t have to be as painful as most “gung ho” advocates indicate. Let the disagreement begin.

23. Don’t apply the “if its not hard its not worth doing” philosophy to eating. 2009: Still true. This statement stemmed from a “diet counselor” who was clearly bitter in her feelings about diet. “Do you like Caesar Salad?” she asked. I replied, “Uh, yes I do…” She said, “Well get used to the idea that you’ll have to give that up. If you want to lose weight, forget eating Caesar salad again.” That diet, of course, didn’t work. And hopefully my embittered “counselor” moved on to a new career, perhaps in Credit Collection.

24. Learn to cook. Over the last year this has become, its fair to say, an obsession. My wife and I are systematically working our way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I truly think this is key, particularly if you want to wean yourself from the industrial food products that many of us are used to.

25. Educate yourself on the diets of cultures that live longer and are generally in better health. 100% true. I would add only that if possible, it’s best to go visit those cultures, which we hope to pursue further in the coming years.

26. Reduce your coffee size to enjoy real cream – not “creamer”. I absolutely believe this is true, but I must admit: working at home as I do, it is terribly easy to “overdo” it by drinking coffee throughout the day. In 2009, I am considering eliminating coffee in favor of Yerba Mate tea, which I also enjoy, and for which I don’t need cream.

27. If you are a coffee drinker, develop an appreciation for espresso. I am hopeful that in 2009 we’ll be able to pick up a quality espresso machine. I am a little particular on this and have my eyes set on one that I of course cannot afford, but with some planning and saving hopefully we’ll be able to pick one up sometime soon without breaking out a credit card.

28. Avoid packaged juices. Juice is one of my biggest weaknesses, because it feeds my inate and powerful sweet tooth. I find that when I drink juice, I stimulate sugar cravings terribly for the rest of the day. I really try to limit juice intake, even going as far as asking my wife to refrain from keeping it in the house. That said, there are a few juices that I do enjoy on occasion, including pomegranate juice from POM. I like the flavor, and it’s expensive enough that I rarely can justify the expense – a built-in moderation feature.

29. Buy the best food you can afford. After a year of doing this, I have to say that it is the most important aspect in my opinion of eating in moderation. A food budget is a balancing act. For the more expensive cheeses that we buy, we have reduced our coffee and packaged foods (we still eat a few) budget. This year we will continue to grow our own produce, which also reduces the overall cost of food for us especially with a family of four. I am hopeful that this year we will have a better handle on our food budget (and our budget in general) – once I find out exactly how much we’re spending, I’ll share the information.

30. Retrain yourself away from the “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” mindset. 2009: THIS one, I think needs a little correction. After reading many, many arguments in favor of eating breakfast, I think I missed the mark on this one in some ways. My original reasoning was that if you overeat at breakfast, you’ll just overeat later. I still think that is true; however, I took it to the extreme and started skipping breakfast altogether, which is a big mistake. I am not entirely convinced of the metabolic reasons yet only because I think this is a matter of conditioning (considering the lack of heavy breakfast in many “lighter” cultures); however I am sure that if I reach lunchtime and am starving, I make bad choices. Better to start out with a whole, light breakfast, than to skip it only to be desperate for anything to eat later.

31. Eat at regular times. This is still true, though I am admittedly not good at it. I tend to eat breakfast sometime in mid-morning, lunch somewhere in mid-afternoon, and dinner at a regular time. I think this is one of my problems, and I need to work on a better morning and afternoon eating schedule.

32. Keep junk food out of the house. To me, this one is obviously true for 90% of us. If you are one of the lucky few who don’t have this weakness, good for you. But for me, this is a necessity.

33. Don’t be in a big rush to lose the weight. This is for me, in the top 3 lessons that carry the most, ahem, weight. I lost 25 lbs or so last year, which is what I would have shot for in a month on some of the crazy diets I’ve tried. Rather, I’m very happy with those results. This is a lifelong process of health improvement; not to mention, it took me 37 years to get to this point. It’s madness to think it will turn around, permanently, overnight.

NEW FOR 2009:

34. Skip the afternoon snack – in favor of afternoon tea. I think our friends across the pond have this correct – afternoon tea time seems to me to be a great idea. I did this today in fact, and it satisfied my slight hunger until dinner. Give it a try. Make the tea time an opportunity to sit quietly and contemplate where you’re at. Enjoy the moment – be present for your life, which will be one of the themes this year for Almost Fit.

35. Focus on broadening your tastes in food. There are so many cultures that eat incredibly healthy foods, often out of necessity. Broadening your taste can lead to tremendous, healthful discoveries. This is something that we are also passing on to our children, who these days will eat pretty much anything – a fact for which I am convinced is at least in part due to exposure.

36. Develop a better understanding of the ethics of food. Foods as they are presented by the food industry are just nice, tasty products that we shouldn’t worry our pretty little heads about – just trust the food industry and surely we won’t go wrong. Unfortunately, this is why we have an obesity epidemic, and quite bluntly, family tragedy from things like poisoned peanut butter – our misplaced trust in a) the marketers to tell us what we should eat, and b) the government to look out for us. Neither is even close to a good source of information on what we feed ourselves and our kids, as they always have an agenda that puts consumers squarely in the last position.

37. Use tools, like social media, to your advantage. I am an active Twitter user and have been for some time. One of the benefits? I follow a number of great health bloggers, inspirational/motivational writers, and generally just good people. I find great inspiration and motivation in their suggestions throughout the day. One great example is a Twitter user I follow posts “nudges” throughout the day to remind followers to get up and move around a bit, or grab a glass of water. This is useful for me, particularly working by myself.

38. Be careful with the calories in wine. I have found that surprise surprise – when one glass of wine at dinner is good, two glasses is often a little better. It’s easy to overdo it – not in an alcohol/sobriety sense necessarily (though that is certainly a reasonable concern), but in the unwanted calories in particular. One glass is usually all I need; I just need to remember that especially after a hard day.

39. Consider (as in think about) trying moderate fasting. Many, many cultures use fasting as part of their dietary regime. I am currently fascinated with this, and plan on trying it sometime this year as an Almost Fit documented experiment. But for me, it is fasting moderately; I don’t intend to go more than a day on a fast. But it’s definitely something I think may have health benefits beyond weight loss.

40. If you make enough for leftovers, pack the leftovers first. When you make a meal, before you serve it, set aside the leftover quantity you intend to eat the next day. I’ve read this tip in numerous places, and it really both makes sense, and works.

41. When possible, only bring to the table what you plan to eat. For me, if the bowl of pasta is on the table, it’s much easier to eat more than I need. If I serve myself in the kitchen, it’s one step more difficult to overeat on seconds.

42. Find the stress relievers that work for you – other than food. With the economy in the current state of disrepair, this for me is of critical importance. I will be exploring this over the coming year on Almost Fit, and welcome suggestions.

43. Don’t go to bed too late. This one is one of my most difficult habits to break, but one I’m set on accomplishing this year. When I stay up late, I eat more. Simple as that. If I go to bed early and rise early, I rarely eat much if anything before breakfast. This may be different for you, but I have a feeling that late night work sessions, or #afterhours as we say on Twitter, are not great for a healthful diet.

44. Action Feeds Motivation. I think the best thing you can do on the weight loss front is simple: get up and do something about it. It sounds simple, but I know for me, I spent an awful lot of time trying to find motivation to exercise, often with mediocre results. This year, I’m hoping to turn this on it’s head on a personal level – rather than waiting to be motivated to do something physical, I’m going to focus on getting up and doing it as a means of creating motivation. It’s a subtle distinction, but one that I feel is worth making. My intention is to feature great sources of motivation that focus on taking small, immediate actions that you can do with minimal planning. Plans are great. But action is what is always needed if you want to get anywhere.

Thank you for reading. Here’s to another great year of working together. Your comments and suggestions are, as always welcome and maybe more importantly, appreciated.

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In part one of this series (“Want to save money and eat well? Join a CSA“), I introduced one of our primary methods of saving money and eating well: Participating in a CSA. This is part 2.

One of the biggest contentions with basing your eating habits on local, organic, minimally processed food is that it is just too expensive for most families. The truth be told, I don’t discount this opinion at all – in fact, for many of us, the cost difference in a grocery store is more than we can justify. Being frugal has not only become a pastime, in this economy it is increasingly a requirement.

In our case, frugality has its perks: We are actually saving money by eating better – thanks to our local CSA.

I Heart our CSA

We love our CSA for a variety of reasons. Here are just a few:

• First and foremost, the beauty of a CSA starts with the idea that we are eating as locally as possible, both supporting our community and building relationships with people who have similar values. We drive a small distance each week to get our CSA box, and it is well worth the drive.
• Second, the quality of produce is exceptional, and is harvested and cleaned with great care. All organic, no pesticides, and ready to eat straight out of the box. It is picked at the peak of ripeness – not weeks or months early and then left to ripen later with a heavy dose of chemicals.
• Third, having a weekly box of vegetables forces you to do something elementary: You have to eat your vegetables, otherwise they will go to waste.
• Fourth, it encourages you to find new recipes, try new things, and broaden your tastes for vegetable dishes that you may not have had growing up.
• And the fifth benefit has been huge for us: the money-saving value is outstanding. Even when gas prices where at their peak, it was still cost effective to drive out a ways to pick up our box of produce.

Think you can’t afford real food? Think again

Out of curiosity, I decided to inventory what we received in one-week’s worth of CSA produce over the summer, and then compare what we were getting to what we would pay at a retail grocery store. I was truly amazed at the value.

For our $20.00 per week, here’s what we got – and here’s what we would have paid based on our local grocery store’s prices:

All I can say is….WOW.

A couple of things about this chart:

1. The green rows indicate produce that was not available in organic form when I did the price comparison. So, I used the price of conventional for both just to try to be conservative on the cost savings. (Obviously if this was a comparison between conventional vs. organic, which it is not, that wouldn’t be a fair method.)

2. My first inclination is to quickly figure a months-worth comparison of organic vs. CSA (multiply the organic $74.79 times 4 weeks ($299.16!) and compare that to $20.00 times 4 weeks ($80.00!)) and say we just saved $219.16 a month. However, the reality is we wouldn’t have saved that much. Why?

Because frankly, we wouldn’t be eating as many vegetables because it would be more than we could afford.

So to me, the real value is much greater than the dollar-savings. Our CSA actually dramatically improves the quality of food we’re eating because it is reasonably priced and responsibly produced.

That is not the message you get from the food industry, who argues that you cannot have good food at a reasonable price – they posit that reasonable price equals cheaply made heavily produced food. If you want healthy food, you’re gonna’ pay dearly.

However in my experience, if you can find a local CSA and adapt your lifestyle a little to eating seasonally, this argument can be turned on it’s head. Our grandparents did it. People all over the world do it. I think we can bend a little too.

“But don’t you waste a lot of it?”

I know that some people have found that participating in a CSA doesn’t work for them for one reason: sometimes the produce goes to waste because there is just so much of it. For us, it hasn’t happened very often, but for others we know, that’s how it has gone.

Looking at the list I created, you might wonder if we eat all of it – or if much of it turns into so much compost.

The answer is for the most part, we actually do use it all. But we didn’t at first. We’ve adapted our diet according to what’s in season, and learned to cook, eat, and preserve seasonally. We’ve had the occasional tomato or pear go too soft, or the remains of a head of lettuce that didn’t survive after a week or so, but for the most part we use it up.

Granted, there are four of us including a toddler and a 4-year-old (who both ask for salad), so if you are single this might be a challenge. But really, if you start to look at this list in terms of using parts of it in potentially 21 meals over the span of a week, I think it’s clear that you could put this to very good use.

And we certainly did.

So how do you find a local CSA? Stay tuned for the next article.

Thanks for reading. If you found this article interesting, please consider sharing it via StumbleUpon. I do appreciate it.

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Find one if you can, and treat them with great respect.

In this series on CSAs on Almost Fit, I’ll describe our experience with our CSA, how it has benefited us from multiple perspectives, how to find a CSA near you, and some ideas on what to do with the produce you receive.

You may have noticed that the second half of that statement, “find one if you can, and treat them with great respect“ is kind of an odd thing to say. Beyond the obvious human decency aspect, there is a vital reason why I’ve brought it to the forefront. But you’ll have to wait to find out. 

But wait – I may be getting ahead of myself. Maybe this question should be answered first…

So uh, what is a CSA? A new college entrance exam? Some sort of all-season radial? 

For those not familiar with CSA, here is a description from LocalHarvest, a great real food resource in it’s own right:

“Many farms offer produce subscriptions, where buyers receive a weekly or monthly basket of produce, flowers, fruits, eggs, milk, meats, or any sort of different farm products.

A CSA, (for Community Supported Agriculture) is a way for the food buying public to create a relationship with a farm and to receive a weekly basket of produce. By making a financial commitment to a farm, people become “members” (or “shareholders,” or “subscribers”) of the CSA. Most CSA farmers prefer that members pay for the season up-front, but some farmers will accept weekly or monthly payments. Some CSAs also require that members work a small number of hours on the farm during the growing season.” – LocalHarvest.org

Unfortunately, most CSAs only run from late spring to early fall – and quite honestly I wasn’t sure what we were going to do when ours drew to a close – we’ve grown spoiled, and truly have adjusted our eating habits to work on a seasonal basis 90% of the time. However, fortunately for us, we received some good news: we are going to continue to receive a basket for as long as there are winter crops to harvest. We really do love our CSA.

Can’t afford organic produce? Think again

In the early days of Almost Fit, I relied heavily on our local grocery store for much of our produce. In fact, my recommendation at the time was to visit the grocery store more often if you could, while limiting your purchases to fresh produce on each visit. I still believe that this is a valid approach if the grocery store is your best source for fruits and vegetables; however, it takes discipline, because there are a lot of culinary temptations just waiting to jump off the shelf and into your cart with reckless abandon.

However, as many readers pointed out, the cost of buying organic produce in a grocery store is often prohibitive, particularly in the off-season. It goes without saying that we are all more budget conscious these days, so this problem hasn’t gotten any simpler in terms of affordable choices at a grocery store. If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if the availability of organic produce begins to diminish as people have less money for day-to-day living.

Unfortunately my suspicion is that cheaper, more “durable” produce (like mealy, gassed tomatoes) will likely sell better when cash is tight.

But there is hope.

From a real food perspective, the advantages of locally grown organic are obvious. But from a financial perspective, it’s also one to put in the “Win” column. We have saved a tremendous amount over the last few months, and broadened our culinary horizons in the process. 

So how much can you save? I’ll give you a detailed example in Part 2. Thanks for reading.

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Editor’s note: Welcome to Almost Fit. This post is this week’s Friday Fit recipe. The idea is to try “real food” recipes that can be prepared on the weekend. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing. Thanks.

With fall finally here, in many parts of the country it’s time to start pawning off garden-grown squash as fast as is humanly possible. Growing up in a squash-friendly growing zone, it was not uncommon to open our front door in the morning and find a paper bag full of homeless squash having been randomly delivered by a mysterious, mythical creature under cover of darkness.

These days, while we rarely have a visit from the Great Pumpkin or his lesser-known comrade, the Squash Fairy, we do seem to have an awful lot of squash growing, and have to act fast.

So other than carving faces in them or dropping bags of them off in the middle of the night on  neighborhood porches, what do you do with all that squash?

Like most things, if in doubt, FRY IT. Of course, the key is moderation, but squash has a way of filling you up quickly, so it’s a good option for a tasty fried indulgence.

This is a recipe that my wife makes, and we all feel it is a more than acceptable use of zucchini squash. Here’s what she says:

“This is a late summer, abundance of runaway zucchini version of Italian bruschetta.

We often miss a stray zucchini in the garden and within days, we have a rocket size squash on our hands.  When this happens, we love to slice it and fry it like you would an eggplant.”

Friday Fit Recipe #13: Fried Zucchini Bruschetta and Fresh Mozzarella

This recipe calls for a simple herb and flour dredge that really adds a lot of flavor to the zucchini. For this version of bruschetta, the zucchini replaces the traditional grilled bread. The basic tomato topping is also a great way to “use up” some of the tomatoes in the garden, particularly if you had a late ripening like we did this year.

If we have leftovers, we use them later, chopped up and put into soups or sauces. The flavor is an excellent addition.

[Ed. Update: Sheesh. So the original post did not show the recipe number (see the heading, above). I have had huge problems this week with my site due to "server abusers", and the loss of the script that automates this process is one of the casualties. My apologies for showing a little of what's under the covers. In other words, "Folks, move along...nothing to see here...."]

Ingredients

One large zucchini (approx. 3-5 inches diameter) sliced into 1/2″ thick rounds
2 cups of herb flour mix (11/2 c. flour, 1/2 c. masa or corn meal, 1 tsp each dry thyme, oregano or marjoram, basil and a pinch of ground sage, salt and pepper)
3-4 fresh vine ripe tomatoes, (preferably different varieties for color)
1 sm. sweet onion, preferably a Walla Walla sweet or cippollini, finely diced
Lots of fresh basil – about two large leaves per slice of zucchini
1-2 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
10 or so ounces of fresh mozarella

Olive oil for frying

Serves 4, depending on the length of the zucchini

Preparation

For the tomato topping: Seed and dice the tomatoes.  Finely chop the onion and garlic. Mix in a bowl and toss with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  You can either finely chop the basil and add it to the tomato mixture, or you can leave the leaves whole and add them when you assemble the final dish (our usual preference).

Zucchini: Pat the zucchini slices with a paper towel to remove excess moisture. In a large cast iron skillet, add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, and heat to medium-high.  Coat one slice of zucchini at a time with the flour mixture and carefully place in the slices in the pan in a single layer.  Leave enough room in the pan so that the slices are not touching each other.  You will need to fry several batches.  Depending on how much you are cooking, you may need to add more oil to the pan between batches, letting the added oil heat before you add more slices.  Cook the zucchini for several minutes or until golden brown before turning.  Cooking times will vary.

Remove the fried zucchini and place onto a platter lined with paper towels.  Immediately place about 1 tablespoon of the tomato topping on each zucchini slice.  Top with about a tablespoon of fresh mozzarella.

Finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a bit of fresh basil, salt and pepper and serve warm.

To Serve

It is best served as soon after cooking as possible, however as it can get a bit soggy if it sits for too long.  Our children love this dish!

Notes

In the U.S. (I am not sure about elsewhere), there has apparently been a semantic shift on what the term, “bruschetta,” actually means. Most Americans think of bruschetta as the tomato, onions, garlic, and herbs that are usually added to a grilled slice of artisan bread. However, the traditional meaning of bruschetta is actually little more than the grilled bread itself rubbed with garlic and then dipped in olive oil, with toppings (if any) added based on what you’ve got. (See this article on bruschetta on Wikipedia for more information.)

In classic Italian form, it sounds an awful lot like eating seasonally.

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In the previous article, “5 Reasons Why I Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup“, I described at length the first five out of ten reasons why I don’t believe a word from the Corn Refiners Association (CRA), much less their expensive ad campaign to try to convince consumers that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is actually good for you. Although they may succeed in that attempt, in my opinion, the campaign is really designed to accomplish something bigger: confuse the public into a state of inaction. And unfortunately, it’s working. I have read more comments across the Web and heard, even from my own family members, more expressions of confusion over the subject than I possibly ever have.

I guess that’s what you get when you spend $30 Million dollars on an ad campaign.

Although my budget is eh, slightly less, my hope is that this series, alongside the many others on the Web (many of which are much more concise, for what it’s worth), will help folks to see through the thin veil that the CRA has dropped over common sense.

Here’s a quick summary of the first five of my reasons:

1. Fructose and HFCS are not the same. This we know. And, it’s important.
2. HFCS is used in foods that would not normally contain sugar – as an unnecessary sweetener and chemical preservative
3. HFCS in its most common form is no sweeter than sugar. This is true – and a great distraction
4. HFCS is manufactured using Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s). It is not “Natural”. CRA, get your facts straight.
5. The environmental damage from subsidized corn overproduction far outweighs its value

For more details on 1-5, see the previous article – which incidentally, set the record for the most visits for a single article on Almost Fit. Thanks for reading – I really do appreciate it.

Common Sense: It’s What’s for Dinner

For this final installment, my focus is on something my 7th grade shop teacher was big on reminding us to do, particularly in those awkward moments at the band saw. Here’s a clip from 7th grade that I replay often in my mind, particularly around power tools:

Mr Lewis, shop teacher extraordinaire: “Son, what the heck are you doin’?”
Me: “Um…not sure..Mr. Lewis?”
Mr. Lewis: “Boy – All you gotta do is use your basic common sense. Use some common sense, son!”
Me: “OK. Should I turn the saw on then, sir?”
Mr. Lewis: “Boy? Sit down before I have to make Willin over here clean up the fingers you’z about to cut off.”
Me. “Thank you Mr. Lewis Sir.”

One thing to note: as I mentioned in the first articles, I am not a physician or nutritionist. But it is my belief that you don’t need to be to understand the issues. You just need a desire to learn about it and an ounce of common sense to make your own decision. It’s not as complicated as it’s been made out to be.

Here’s the conclusion to the list. Thanks for reading.

6. Diabetes and HFCS have a strong relationship – and an unexpected connection to another deadly substance

As readers of Almost Fit are aware, one of my chief motivations for changing my dietary and physical habits is to stave off what I feel is likely the inevitable for me: diabetes. I have a long family history of diabetes on both sides of my family, including parents, grandparents (my grandmother died from it), aunts, and uncles. Add in my own lifelong struggle with obesity, and I feel that it is in all likelihood only a matter of time before I’m next on the insulin train.

The good news is, I believe I have the power to alter the course in my favor by making changes now.

Sugars in general are usually the target of discussions on diabetes; things like simple carbohydrates are often cited as a common culprit. But there is also scientific evidence that shows a link between HFCS and diabetes that is not present in table sugar.

Science primer part 2: Reactive carbonyls and HFCS

From Mercola.com:

“HFCS, a liquid sweetener commonly used in soft drinks that contains both fructose and glucose, has been accused of causing diabetes, particularly in children, and a recent study further supported this theory.

The study investigated 11 different soft drinks and found “astonishingly high” levels of reactive carbonyls, which are thought to cause cell and tissue damage.

Reactive carbonyls are associated with diabetes, as they’re found in higher levels in the bloodstreams of people with the disease. Reactive carbonyls are linked with the unbound structure of fructose and glucose molecules in HFCS, and are not found in table sugar.”

There is a lot of information on the Web on reactive carbonyls, but this piece I find supremely disturbing:

According to a study done in 2002 (here), reactive carbonyls may also cause significant artery damage, but from a different source: SMOKING CIGARETTES. That’s right: The study showed a direct link between reactive carbonyls that were a result of cigarette smoke exposure and arterial damage. Exposure over time leads to atheroma – which is one of the chief causes of heart attacks – and heart disease.

So the question is, is there a link between reactive carbonyls in HFCS and those in cigarettes? The study doesn’t specifically address it. But folks, this is all the information I need to make a decision against adding unecessary sweeteners like HFCS to my diet. Unless I’m looking for an excuse to keep consuming HFCS, there is simply no good reason to keep taking it in. If I’m looking for ways to stay away from diabetes and heart disease for as long as possible, there is no arguing the fact that consumption of HFCS does not help me on that journey.

For the record, I’m not a big fan of the reactive carbonyls argument for one reason: the CRA will undoubtedly dispute any negative health findings by funding counter studies that tilt the evidence in their favor (which is easy to do, as you’ll see).

However, I’ll say it again: Unless I’m looking for an excuse to keep consuming HFCS, eliminating it from my diet will only improve my health.

It’s pretty simple. In my opinion, it sounds a lot like common sense.

7. Just because something is proven “not unsafe” doesn’t make it safe, much less beneficial

There is a lot of misinformation on this subject too – but this time it comes from the corporations who fund studies to try to prove that their product is essentially what I call, “not unsafe” – which is vastly different from proving that a product is good for you. This is a key distinction, because its relatively easy to prove something is not unsafe. It’s much more difficult to prove that something is not only safe, but beneficial – particularly with manufactured food.

In cases like these, the most important rule? Consider the source. It is becoming increasingly difficult to figure out who, exactly, is funding the studies these days when the politics of food are involved. But more often than not, I’ve found that the slant of an HFCS-favorable result comes from studies sponsored by interested parties.

And sometimes, its all in how you ask the question.

I’ll give you a good example of why this is important:

If I were to conduct a survey by asking people on the street, “Are you opposed to murder?” I would likely get an overwhelming response that says, “Yes, absolutely. Opposed to it. For sure.” Let’s say I get 96%, with 4% who are undecided (scary, I know).

But what if I rephrased the question and said, “Are you opposed to a life lost, if it means a life saved?” The results would be quite different, and probably much less clear cut. Then, using the second poll’s results, I could likely make the case that my study concluded that the country is divided on the issue of untimely death in any form, from abortion to the right to die.

In other words, when you have an agenda, it’s pretty easy to twist statistical and scientific data. In fact, lobbyists have made a science of it.

For an interesting read on the subject of statistics (yes, I know that sounds like an oxymoron), read The Honest Truth about Lying with Statistics, by Cooper B. Holmes. Another good read is How to Lie with Statistics, a classic written by Darrell Huff and Irving Geis. Both books are excellent eye-openers on how you can prove just about anything with a handful of scary numbers and an opinion.

Bottom Line: Don’t forget that you can use your own common sense on these ideas. You don’t have to be a chemical engineer to understand the results of unbiased studies, or what the difference is between “not unsafe” and “safe and beneficial“. You also don’t have to buy the results of a study when their is clearly an agenda behind the questions. Don’t accept the idea that it’s too complicated for our fragile consumer minds to grasp. It’s pretty easy to see through it, if you keep your eyes open, and you’re not distracted by Big Corn’s $30 million dollar shiny objects.

The old axiom, “Numbers don’t lie” is true; but it’s lesser known corollary, “Numbers don’t lie…But Salesmen Do” is probably more accurate in this case.

8. Foods with HFCS are often cheap, and of poor nutritional quality

There are all kinds of exceptions to this rule – for example, I was shocked to see that Ghirardelli Chocolates have HFCS – but common sense will tell you that better quality, more nutritious food, does not generally contain HFCS. Cheap, industrially produced and nutritionally deficient foods on the other hand, often do.

Lack of nutrition, and the over-availability of fructose in a diet is a truly deadly combination. Because fructose inhibits satiation, we tend to eat more. This effect is increased greatly when the diet lacks nutrients. Your body craves energy, but it also signals cravings when there are nutritional lacks that needs to be rectified. Pregnant women are a very visible demonstration of this effect, who often have hard-to-explain cravings. One school of thought is that the body is seeking the nutrients that it needs by craving foods that it recognizes as having those nutrients. (Anecdotal example: Pregnant women who are deficient in iron have been known to have a craving for dirt – a common source of iron).

Thus, if you eat foods that lack the nutrients you need, your body will send signals that encourage you to keep eating until the nutrients are acquired. Well, again, common sense here: If you are eating foods that don’t have those nutrients, your body will continue on it’s quest to find them, telling you to keep eating.

Granted, this is an oversimplification; But it makes sense.

Along the lines of common sense, I really enjoyed this quote from an article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer. The article focused on the fact that several local market chains are banning HFCS from their stores altogether. When asked, a Mother who avoids HFCS said:

“”I try hard not to add that to my family’s diet,” said Hunt. “I just don’t think we need to do that. I’m sure there’s a lot of arguments on both sides, but I just sort of feel intuitively that it’s better not to.”"

Well said. That Mother’s intuition is important, and shouldn’t be discounted by someone selling a product.

9. To support Corn farmers (a good thing) and reduce taxes (a great thing), you should buy less corn – and HFCS in particular

This reason has nothing to do with personal health, and everything to do with saving the country $4 billion dollars in taxes for which each and every one of us taxpayers chip in. From Mercola.com:

“[...] President Bush signed a bill requiring taxpayers to pay farmers $4 billion a year, over a ten-year period, to grow more corn. More corn when the U.S. is desperately trying to find ways to get rid of the current surplus corn produced here. More corn when farmers are currently selling it for over a dollar less per bushel than it cost them to produce it. A $190 billion bill to grow more corn when planting less corn would increase the price farmers receive for it, and eliminate the extreme surplus. If farmers don’t benefit from this bill, then who does? The Archer Daniels Midlands, Tysons and Coca-Colas of the world. “ – Mercola.com (“Why Corn Is Not Your Best Food Choice“)

In Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan doesn’t explain how buying less corn benefits corn farmers - he has a corn farmer himself explain it. Here’s Pollan’s summary of the information:

“A farm family needs a certain amount of cash flow every year to support itself, and if the price of corn falls, the only way to stay even is to sell more corn. Naylor says that farmers desperate to boost yield end up degrading their land, plowing and planting marginal land, applying more nitrogen – anything to squeeze a few more bushels from the soil. Yet the more bushels each farmer produces, the lower prices go, giving another turn to the perverse spiral of overproduction.”

I highly recommend this book if you want to get a better understanding of why corn overproduction is undermining much of the Midwest and costing us, by some estimates, $5 billion dollars a year in government subsidies.

So how does reducing consumption of products with HFCS affect our taxes? The truth is, very little that we do has an instant impact on this problem. But in 3 years, the decision on whether to continue to run small farmers out of business to make way for government-subsidized Big Corn interests comes up for consideration again. Making small changes in our purchases may not seem like much, but collectively reducing our corn consumption makes economic sense, and may help to keep vital small family farms in business.

I believe in this kind of change; creating change through personal choices – as in where you put your money – really works.

A good, simple example? Years ago we decided to only buy Fair Trade certified coffee beans. That meant that at the time, we couldn’t buy coffee at Trader Joe’s, since they didn’t have anything that was Fair Trade certified. While we shopped elsewhere, my wife and I sent numerous notes to Trader Joe’s on our purchasing choice, and our desire to buy coffee that is ethically produced. Lo’ and behold: Trader Joe’s now offers at least 4 versions of coffee beans that are Fair Trade certified. I can’t say for sure that we were the tipping point, but we do drink a lot of coffee – and now, we can buy it ethically at a reasonable price at Trader Joe’s.

10. Common Sense, For The Win: The real issue is overconsumption of calories, and the availability of HFCS makes that excessively easy

For me, this is the most compelling reason, above all else. I am not a nutritionist or a chemical engineer, so I know that it’s possible that the things I accept as truth on those fronts could change. But for me, a reasonable person with an ounce of common sense, it is pretty clear that at the end of the day, we’re suffering from obesity, heart disease, and a whole slew of health problems because we simply consume too much – and we’re consuming the wrong things. Too many calories, and too many calories from non-natural sources. HFCS does not help in any way, shape or form to solve this problem – in fact, it is one of the leading causes of over-consumption because it is in 80% of the industrial food supply.

From an article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“A single 12-ounce can of soda has as much as 13 teaspoons of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup. And because the amount of soda we drink has more than doubled since 1970 to about 56 gallons per person a year, so has the amount of high fructose corn syrup we take in. In 2001, we consumed almost 63 pounds of it, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The USDA suggests most of us limit our intake of added sugar — that’s everything from the high fructose corn syrup hidden in your breakfast cereal to the sugar cube you drop into your after-dinner espresso — to about 10 to 12 teaspoons a day. But we’re not doing so well. In 2000, we ate an average of 31 teaspoons a day, which was more than 15 percent of our caloric intake. And much of that was in sweetened drinks.” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL)

HFCS makes cheap food cheaper and makes you hungry for more (the 6th grade science that adding simple sugars to satisfy the body’s craving for energy makes you want more). The lack of nutritional value in those cheap foods also makes you eat more, since you are not giving the body the nutrients it needs. The preservative quality of HFCS makes foods have a greater perceived value because they last longer (and you eat more), and ultimately we’re again consuming more fructose, in it’s worst, unbound form, than we would by eating real food.

In other words, we are reinforcing the quantity equals value philosophy, which is in my opinion one of the reasons that we’re in this health crisis in the first place. If you pay a reasonable price for better quality food, the simple fact is you eat less. It’s better for your health, better for the seller of the food, and better for the planet.

Years ago consumers objected to the idea that starting kids on the path of cigarette smoking was in our collective best interest. Yet overconsumption is far more dangerous in the long run in my opinion than even smoking (although I am certainly not suggesting that smoking is a good idea either ). If you start early on a path of taking in too much fructose in any form – sugar, HFCS, or otherwise – you are guaranteed to have significant health problems later. Guaranteed. With smoking, you are much more likely to have significant health problems later, but you might get lucky and the cancer bus might pass you by. Not so with attacking the liver and pancreas for a lifetime. In my view, it is guaranteed to be a losing proposition.

In the end, it’s pretty simple

For me, I think the solution to our health crisis is right in front of us. It’s not finding new drugs to allow us to continue down the path of over-consuming garbage food that we are sold; It’s not finding excuses to keep infusing more artificial substances into our food to make us crave more of it. It’s something our great-grandparents knew a thing or two about: If you eat moderate amounts of real, whole foods, of which HFCS is certainly not, you will see positive, lifelong results on both a personal and (hopefully) global level.

In other words, it comes down to a simple phrase: Eat Real Food in Moderation.

Thanks for reading Almost Fit.

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Sources and resources

I’m reprinting this list from the previous article, with a few additions. Please do check these concepts for yourself and make your own decisions. I know I have.

Foods and products containing HFCS:

http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php/2005/06/09/foods_and_products_containing_high_fruct

Focus on fast food that contains HFCS:

http://www.foodfacts.info/high-fructose-corn-syrup.shtml

Dangers of excessive fructose consumption via HFCS and sugar:

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/76/5/911

A link to the Bray Study, 2004 (full text):

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/79/4/537

A great summary of the importance of insulin and it’s relationship to fructose

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2001/07/14/insulin-part-one.aspx

Citations:

• http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/283/2/H591
• http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/08/30/tea-extract-could-reduce-hfcs-diabetes-link.aspx
• http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/07/22/debate-about-dangers-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup.aspx
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL
• http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html
• http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/79/4/537
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup
• http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-fructose-corn-syrup/AN01588
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/06/AR2008030603294.html
• http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2007/9789241209472_eng.pdf
• http://blogs.webmd.com/healthy-recipe-doctor/2008/01/high-fructose-corn-syrup-new-bad-boy-in.html
• http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-High-Fructose-Corn-Syrup
• http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-soda2-2008aug02,0,1313143.story
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070523163049.htm

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