A wild rose

A wild rose, snapped in the bone yard. Either it is wild or it was planted a very long time ago. This bloom seems to do quite well up here, probably from a more temperate climate.

One of the disadvantages of living at this altitude, is the lack of bugs. Great, no mosquitoes, but not much of anything else either. I saw a few interesting butterflies; blue triangle, blue jay and a species of delias that I would love to get close to, but no luck.

Good fats, bad fats and cholesterol

Usually the only time we start to think about the junk that we feed our bodies, is when we start a program of weight reduction, a good a time as any. But, it is something that we should be thinking about every day, not just during a diet.

So what is cholesterol? Well, I got dizzy reading all about that, so I won’t bore you with all the science mumbo. Just Google it if you cannot sleep.

All animals, including ourselves need cholesterol, BUT, we do not need to ingest any, as our bodies make all that we require, and it is recycled. Many plants have similar to cholesterol, called phytosterols. These compete with cholesterol for re-absorption and as such can reduce our cholesterol levels.

Rather than reducing levels with fancy drugs, what we should really be doing is eliminating all sources of animal cholesterol. It clogs up the arteries and causes heart disease – this is about all you need to know.

My initial thought was that the fact that our bodies cannot handle all the extra cholesterol that we feed it, is just one more bit of proof that we are not meat eaters, we are vegetarians. But, research points to humans being omnivores or opportunist eaters and meat is part of that scenario. Still, our bodies just don’t seem to be very good at coping with a diet of meat.

Good fats and bad fats – this is a constant source of frustration to me. All the experts wittering on about good fats, mono this and hypo that. Half of the articles don’t even give you examples of foods, so after reading all the mumbo, you are still none the wiser. There are four types of fat, so hear is the list including some examples:

First the good fats:

Monounsaturated fat – good for your heart, your cholesterol, and your overall health – olive oil, Canola oil, Sunflower oil, Peanut oil, Sesame oil, Avocados, Olives, Nuts (almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews), Peanut butter.

Polyunsaturated fat – good for your heart, your cholesterol, and your overall health - Soybean oil, Corn oil, Safflower oil, Walnuts, Sunflower, sesame, and pumpkin seeds, Flaxseed, Fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, trout, sardines), Soymilk, Tofu.

The bad fats:

Saturated fats – these are the bad boys that we should be avoiding – butter, cheese, red meat, cream, eggs, ice cream, whole milk, sour cream.

Trans fats – these are fats that the food industry has messed about with, in order to make them last longer and not spoil. No amount of trans fats is healthy. Trans fats contribute to major health problems, from heart disease to cancer. The primary source of trans fats in the Western diet comes from commercially-prepared baked goods and snack food:

Baked goods, fried foods, snack foods, solid fats, pre-mixed products.

Conclusions – avoid anything to do with cows, both the meat and by-products of milk, cream and cheese. Egg yolks are bad, but the whites are good. Fast foods and cheap take-a-ways are all bad news.

I know, it is frustrating. But there are actually plenty of very tasty foods left to make up a healthy living diet. Just look at that list of monos and polys, all those ‘good’ oils that you can use. Any oil that comes from an animal is bad and this includes chicken fat. Good oils generally come from nuts.

Why do we even use fats and oils? Personally, usually to stop the food from sticking to the pan or to stop the food falling out of my sandwich, Both rather silly reasons. Get yourself a quality copper based non-stick and dry fry, it is just as good. Look after the pan though, only wooden tools and don’t melt the Teflon coating, keep turning the heat down. A wok with a properly shaped spatula is hard to beat. The spatula needs to be rounded at the end to match the wok, if not, it will be a real pain to use.

From a weight-loss diet point of view, all fats are bad news as a pound of any oil is pure energy, pure calories, 4,000 in fact. But you cannot keep avoiding calories, you still need to feed your body energy and you are allowed upto 2,000 for the ladies and 2,500 for the men per day. Keeping track of such small quantities can be very annoying though. How do you weigh a drizzle of oil without getting it everywhere.

My method – I like my food very tasty and spicy. I buy 250ml of very expensive virgin olive oil and mix it with the tastiest pesto that I can find. From here there is lots that you can do; The containers tell you what the mix weighs and how many calories it contains. You could decide to use say 100 cals per day. Simply divide the weight by the number of calories and multiply by the cals that you want. This gives you the weight you want per day. Weigh it out and find a small container that you can mark and you don’t have to go through this messing about again.

Dave