Playing With My Food

Friday dinner we found an old round roast in the back of the freezer from before our local-meat-only days. Rather than waste it, I went ahead and cubed it into stew meat and browned it. In the crock pot, I put the meat, 1 qt of my chicken stock, one diced onion, 2 stalks celery, 2 carrots, one bell pepper, sliced crimini mushrooms and some garlic. Basically by volume there were more veggies than meat. Added a bit more water, a little beef base, and some red wine. Let the pot simmer all day, then thicken with a little kamut flour. Served over homemade kamut pasta squares = beef and veggie stroganoff. It mostly worked, but that meat was still super dry even after stewing all day. Glad I won’t be buying any more of it.

Saturday I started my weekly baking. I made my spelt-rye sourdough bread recipe, with a little twist. I reduced the water to 300g and added 120 g of cooked, whole-grain kamut, so it had big chunks of softened grain in it. I can’t stretch the dough to form a skin without the grain kernels popping out. Even so, I took it out of the fridge this morning, shaped it, and put it in a loaf pan to rise before baking later today.

I also made a trip to Kroger to return my creamline milk jugs. They had a fresh supply of creamline milk, so I bought another gallon to play with some cheese. I like making cheese, but I really don’t have a good aging cave, which severely limits how much I can do with it. And I don’t know that I’d use a cave (or old wine fridge, really) enough to justify the cost of another appliance. I settled for making more uncured cheddar curds like last time, with another twist of my own. When I prepared the milk for the culture, I took about 10g of blue cheese that we had on hand, and dissolved it in a few tbsp of milk from the batch. The idea being to try to culture some of the penicillin mold from the existing cheese into the curd. It may or may not do anything with the short (12-24 hour) aging that these curds are currently sitting through. I don’t think it can hurt anything to try. In their raw stage, just before I set them out to dry and age, they tasted about the same as normal curds.

Things I learned from What You Must Know About Statin Drugs, by Jay Cohen, MD:

• most cholesterol recommendations are based on studies of patients who have already had heart problems, and therefore the target numbers presented are extra conservative to prevent a second heart attack
• my own numbers are less than 10% off reasonable limits
• my current statin medicine is expected to change my cholesterol by more than 25%, so it’s overkill
• statin drugs interfere with brain function as a side effect in some people. (I have not noticed this, myself. Nor had I tried to look for it.)
• four nutrients have more effect on heart health than cholesterol levels and statin drugs: Omega-3 oils (and reducing Omega-6 oils), Coenzyme Q10, Folic Acid, and Magnesium.
• Saturated fat (a) is the devil incarnate according to the author, (but with frequent nods to Dr Mercola championing coconut oil in spite of it being saturated);  (b) has not been confirmed in clinical trials to have any correlation to cholesterol levels; and yet (c) reducing saturated fat as part of a low fat diet is “proven” to improve heart health. Confused yet? Me too.
• Red Yeast Rice is a natural fermented product that produces a family of statin like compounds, including the compound that was later refined and patented as lovastatin.
• A healthy diet includes good carbs and good fats, and avoids bad carbs and bad fats. (Saturated fats are bad fats.)

On the other side of the debate, I’ve started reading The Great Cholesterol Con, by Malcolm Kendrick, MD. He’s a little hard to take seriously, as his writing is more sensational and less clinical than the first author. There’s a line somewhere been alternative scientists and conspiracy theory nuts, and I really have trouble telling which side he’s on. He is on the side of the Atkins, Taubes, and Fallons of the diet debate, for whatever respectability that brings to the discussion. He tells me that:

• There is no correlation between cholesterol levels and heart health
• Cholesterol measurements are actually measuring lipoprotein carriers used by the body to transport fats and cholesterol through the blood.
• The presence of these carriers is assumed to be the cause of plaques and clots in the arteries, and that this assumption has never been proven even though widely accepted.
• Saturated fats and cholesterol in the diet have no effect on cholesterol levels in the blood. The liver has to make additional cholesterol for you to maintain necessary levels, and adjusts accordingly to the amount it receives in your diet.
• “Why do eggs contain a lot of cholesterol? Because it takes a lot of cholesterol to build a healthy chicken!” An amusing quote, and one that underscores the point that our cell walls and neurons require cholesterol to function properly. (This seems a likely explanation for why statin drugs can cause neural problems by blocking cholesterol production.)
• When the liver processes fat for storage in our bodies, it creates saturated fat. Unsaturated fats must be processed by the liver before they can be used by the body.
• Trans-fats are evil because they are not compatible with our liver enzymes that process fats. Contrast this to the pro-cholesterol camp saying trans-fats are evil because they raise LDL and lower HDL cholesterol levels.

What to do with all of this? So far, I’ve added red yeast rice to my daily regimen as a lower-dosage statin than the one I was taking. I’m on the fence about whether or not I need to keep taking this in the long term. I haven’t noticed any side effects or benefits either way. I did add a CoQ10 supplement as well, both as a necessary nutrient and because statins are proven to interfere with the body’s production of this enzyme. I’ve already been taking 2g of Omega-3 fish oil every day, and removed Omega-6 vegetable oils from my diet. I have also added saturated fats back to my diet: coconut oil, butter, whole-fat milk. These items pass the “was it considered food 100 years ago” test, where corn oil, soybean oil, and margarine do not. Lard also passes that test, in spite of the statement that “lard is never a good fat” by the pro-statin book. Lard and butterfats have been around longer than the diet and heart-disease epidemics. That alone makes me think that they are not the culprits that food policy thinks they are.

… that is the question.

One of my personal food/medical experiments came to fruition this week. Last fall, in the midst of my change in diet, I took myself off my Lovastatin pills to see if my new diet alone could improve my cholesterol health. This week I visited my doctor and had a fresh round of blood work done. Her answer: “your cholesterol shot back up, start taking the statin again.”  Me, I’m not so sure.

My results are mixed. My last blood draw was last July, after I had lost weight (200 -> 173lbs by the doctor’s scale). I was taking my lovastatin at that time. Monday’s results are at similar weight (175lbs) and having not taken lovastatin since last Oct. I have started taking a daily fish oil (omega-3) supplement since that time as well.  My triglycerides are way down. My total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol are up. My HDL was just slightly down, but crossed the recommended line to the “too low” side.

I must say I’m lost in all the arguments. Gary Taubes and his kin tell me my cholesterol isn’t that critical to my health, that the calculation for LDL is known to be wrong people eating lower-carb, real-fat diets. Other folks say statins are all just money makers for big pharma and a scam on the public. That part may have been true. Lovastatin, as I take it, has long been a generic drug with a monthly cost to me of under $10. It can have bad side effects, but I can’t say I’ve noticed having any of them. On the other hand, I’ve been trying to do this the natural way, and it doesn’t seem to be working. True, my triglycerides are very nicely down. The rest appears to be up.

Today we visited the library and I picked up a book called What You Must Know About Statin Drugs, by Jay Cohen, MD. Skimming over it, he seems to be pro-statins, but with very careful use with lower than prescribed doses being most effective with the least side effects. He does offer a lot of advice and procedures to help you decide how much you need.

My doctor wants to see me back again in 8 weeks. Guess I’ll do some reading and see if I’m taking what I need, or if I need less, and then we’ll get new tests to see if it is working.

Cooking for the week today. Already roasted a chicken from Triple-B farm and picked off 9 servings of meat. The rest is in the pot turning into stock. I’ll probably make chicken soup for dinner. I played with some very simple Kamut noodles last night (kamut flour plus two eggs, rolled and cut into spaghetti). So we’ll probably have chicken noodle soup. I diced up lots of veggies last night: two big onions, a whole celery, at least 1 lb of carrots, and one leftover bell pepper before it went bad. Split the mix into 3 freezer bags plus the 4th portion held in the fridge for the stock today.

We also picked up some ground beef and hot country sausage from Triple B yesterday. The plan was to make some Joel Salatin style hambugers. He mentions in one of his books that he serves burgers to his guests that are half beef and half sausage, but the act of mixing the two meats makes them illegal to sell from his farm. Looks like I have to make it myself. Darn.

With burgers on the horizon, I wanted to make buns. Did some research in Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads book and decided to start with his recipe for “Oat Bran Broom Bread”. The name, as you might guess, refers to what all the fiber does to sweep out your colon. I made a few modifications. First, I cut the recipe down to 3/4ths the original. I figured that would make about 12 decent-sized buns. Second, his recipe calls for a soaker and a biga preferment. I adjusted the soaker to use fresh miso. The idea is to have some enzyme activity in the flour before baking, and I already know the miso has some of those useful enzymes. Third, I added some almond flour per his suggestion to add more richness to the bread without more carbs. Fourth, and most obviously, I made rolls not a loaf of bread. My shaping was designed to make thin rolls, similar to those mass-baked 100-calories rolls in the stores.

Soaker, made the day before baking.

• 138g coarse ground whole wheat flour
• 21g oat bran
• 11g whole flax seeds
• 32g fresh white miso
• 125g water

Mix all. Cover with plastic wrap and rest at room temperature for 12-24 hours.

Biga, also made the day before baking:

• 171g fine ground whole wheat flour
• scant 1/4tsp active dry yeast
• 128g water at 70F

Dissolve the yeast in the water, then mix in the flour. Knead for 2 minutes. Rest 5 minutes. Knead 1 more minute. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for 8-24 hours. Remove from the fridge and warm to room temperature 2 hours prior to making the dough.

Final Dough, made after the biga has warmed up:

• all the soaker, cut into pieces
• all the biga, cut into pieces
• 41g fine ground whole wheat flour
• 4g salt
• 6g active dry yeast
• 16g honey
• 10g walnut oil
• 27g almond meal

Using kitchenaid, mix about 1 minute on low until combined. Knead on medium low for 2-3 minutes. Flour a board and knead by hand 3-4 minutes, incorporating extra (fine, whole wheat) flour as needed. Rest 5 minutes and prepare an oiled bowl. Knead 1 more minute, form a ball, oil the dough and rest in the bowl. Let rise  for 45-60 minutes or until 1.5x rise. Preheat oven to 425F. Cut dough into 12 equal portions (mine were about 63g each). Roll into a ball then flatten into a 4 inch disc. Set on parchment paper on the back of a baking sheet. Repeat for all 12 rolls, filling the pan. Cover and rest 45 minutes for second rise while the oven heats. Before baking, uncover rolls and dock each one. I used a bamboo skewer to poke 7 holes in a hexagon pattern. Mist the rolls with water. Place the pan in the oven, lower the heat to 375F, and bake about 15 minutes until the rolls are light brown and cooked to over 205F internal temperature. Remove to a cooling rack.

Results? Nice puffy slim sandwich rolls. Docking didn’t make too much difference, but at least they didn’t turn into pita-like balloons. They spread out just a bit and ended up touching edges on the pan. I plan to bag+fridge 6 of them for this week, and bag+freeze the other 6 for later.

I’m not sure if the flax seeds “worked”. The soaker is supposed to germinate the seeds to start their own enzyme activity and hopefully make them more digestible. As they are, whole seeds generally pass through the digestion system untouched. I figure it can’t hurt to try them this way, and I can always change to ground seeds the next time.

“Mexican-style fast food Restaurant Chain A” linked to two 2010 Salmonella Outbreaks was Taco Bell, who is it this year? - One of the things that makes me glad I’ve stopped eating fast food. I love Taco Bell, or at least I did when I ate it. And yet, here’s three cases, one from just this last week, of salmonella outbreaks in fast food restaurants that get to hide their identities while consumers can do anything to avoid their problems. Another story I read today, also linked to me from Michael Pollan’s site, tells of how random testing of consumer pork found 65% contamination by staph bacteria, and 6.6% contaminated with antibiotic-resistant staph in particular. NC is well known in the US for its CAFO-style pork farming, which has to be contributing to these problems.

My audiobook this week is Charles Mann’s 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. He observes that American natives were not defeated by divine providence, nor overwhelming European numbers, so much as by European diseases like Small Pox, Hepatitis, Measles, and Influenza that devastated the native populations, destabilized their societies, and made them much easier targets for takeover. 500 years later, are we giving ourselves the same problem?

Today’s experiment was based on reading about bagel making in a couple Peter Reinhart books, looking online on the Fresh Loaf blog for a pretzel recipe, and finally deciding to wing it and use up my extra sourdough starter. We still have bread left in the house, so I didn’t want to make another loaf, especially with Kellie trying to get back on her low-carb diet.

Once a week I have to tend the sourdough starter in the fridge. I take about 1/3rd of it and put it in a fresh jar, and add an equal weight of water and spelt flour. Stir it up and back into the fridge for another week. That always leaves me with extra, well fermented dough that I can throw away or find something to bake. Here’s what I made, aiming for 300g total flour and 56%-ish hydration.

• 190g week-old 100% hydration spelt sourdough starter
• 105g coarse spelt flour
• 100g fine whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp raw sugar
• 4g molasses
• 75g whole milk

Preheat the oven to 425F. Combine all the ingredients and mix thoroughly. Let sit for 5 minutes to hydrate the flour. Knead by hand for 1 minute , then rest 5 minutes to relax. Repeat kneading and resting over about 30 minutes. Start a soda bath: add 4 tbsp baking soda to 1 quart of water and bring to a boil. Divide the dough into 6 pieces (mine were 80g each). Roll each piece into a rope and rest to relax. Repeat until the ropes are 16 inches or so and about the diameter of a finger. While resting, prepare a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Spray the parchment with oil. Make one rope into a pretzel and dip into the boiling soda bath. Remove when the pretzel starts to float, 30-45 seconds. Place on the prepared sheet pan. Add kosher salt while the pretzel is wet. Repeat for the other 5 pretzels. Bake for about 15-17 minutes, or until deep brown. Remove to a cooling rack or eat hot.

Unfortunately for Kellie’s diet, they turned out really good. The skin is slightly crisp and tastes exactly like a pretzel. The inside is denser than a white pretzel, but still soft. We shared one fresh out of the oven, and put the rest in away for later.