I could call 2012 my own Year of Diet and Supplementation. I learned what i SHOULD eat, what i CAN eat, and what i'm best off staying the hell away from (may the gods of grammar forgive me). I learned what supplements are essential to my well-being because i obviously don't absorb them well. Finally, i learned what foods do practically the whole job in making me feel like a properly-functioning human being.
My REQUIRED foods actually make for a very short list: grass-fed beef or lamb, wild-caught fatty fish, raw oysters and liver. Everything else is garnish.
Iron is especially necessary to me, a life-long hypothyroid, and one of the quickest ways to send me into Mama Grizzly mode is to whine about iron-overload -- CONTEXT CONTEXT CONTEXT! ...Okay, i feel better. Through long experimentation, i've determined that i don't absorb iron well FROM FOOD. I absorb it just fine when i take a supplement on an empty stomach with cooperating supplements like selenium, B12 and C. Iron is one of the minerals necessary to convert T4 to T3. As a small child AND in my adulthood, moron-doctors prescribed Synthroid for me and i did not thrive. It's easy to see why, with my absorption issues.
But a highly interesting thing happened during my exploration of liver-based cuisine -- day after day i forwent my iron supplement and day after day my hair-loss diminished. The four before-lunch supplements i used to take can ALL go on the back burner. All i have to do is eat liver on a weekly basis. Did i say i don't absorb iron well FROM FOOD? Amend that to "from ORDINARY food."
When i discovered raw oysters -- yet another thing i love N'Orleans for -- i noticed right away that i felt a glow of contentment. Every time. I go through a half-dozen or more raw oysters, and i sit back relaxed with a smile on my face, regarding the world around me with a sense of benediction. Much is made of eating animals snout-to-tail, and i heartily commend it, but eating raw oysters is eating the whole animal all at once, in one convenient bite -- EVERYTHING is in there!
About the grass-fed ruminants (with their butter) and wild fatty fish, i think anything i say will be completely redundant ... except to note that i can safely omit the K2 supplements i've been taking, and i can save the cod-liver oil for when i'm traveling, too. I don't even need to have laxative substances around, for the rare occasions when i eat too much vegetable matter and get stopped up. From Donaldson (of Strong Medicine) i learned that "by regulating his intake of caribou fat, he [mankind] can have as many bowel movements as he pleases." And it works. I am now saving all the drippings from my GFburgers, doing a quick-and-dirty clarification of them, and adding some to my coffee from time to time. The resulting drink is bouillon-like in flavor -- i like it better than with unsalted butter, though that has its virtues too.
Now that i'm armed with my new-found "personal superfoods" i also plan to stop supplementing CoQ10 or acetyl l-carnitine. I never have FELT any benefit from them. It's actually possible that i am able to absorb/synthesize SOME THINGS properly....
So a whole schmear of the bottles on my side of the bathroom counter are going bye-bye! I'll wave them adieu with thanks for a job well done, for most of them have helped me a LOT -- they're just redundant now. The other half of my collection is staying .. but more on that later.
I'm relatively new to "raw oysters" ... never actually shopped for and/or prepared them myself. Any advice on what to look for?
ReplyDeletewe have little experience of buying them whole -- most of the time we get them in restaurants, so i'm not a mine of information about choosing them. :-) to start it's probably best to go to a good seafood shop, and we've had good luck at Whole Foods, too. opening them is an art, but there are videos online to show you how to do it. one thing i do know is, they aren't happy soaking in FRESH water, so if you keep them on ice, you need to make sure it doesn't melt and drown them. i scrub them well with a vegetable brush before we open them, to help keep the dirt and grit out. we have more luck opening them with a screwdriver than a knife, too -- it might be a good idea to buy a new flat-head screwdriver and keep it only for this task. some people like them with horseradish or cocktail sauce and crackers, but i like them with just a squeeze of lemon and a couple of drops of tabasco. good luck, and enjoy!
DeleteI live in a Forth Florida(climate must be the same as yours) close to fresh oysters sources and don't eat it! I don't know well how, there some guts inside of each animal, and I feel squeamish, while I am normally not. I should get it another try.
Deleteif you think too much about what you're eating, it's easy to get grossed out by it! :-) i suspect that eating oysters-on-the-halfshell VERY cold (they're usually served on a bed of ice) keeps one from noticing anything about what's inside them.
DeleteI too am fed-up with a pillow-case full of supps. Every new thing that gets tried and meh toss way
ReplyDelete:-) i usually finish the bottle before i give up -- keeps the clutter under the bathroom sink controlled and besides, sometimes you don't notice the benefits for awhile! but if all those bottles are inconvenient at home, boy is it a pain in the ass to travel with them. i feel really good about deleting as many as i can.
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ReplyDeleteTess, beef tong it a good inexpensive cut too even when a grass-fed, it can be custom-orderd. It is just a muscle. The easiest thing to do with it - boil it in a salted water till it is tender (could take a while, or use a pressure-cooker) . It is necessary to pill-off the outer layer ofter cooking. The easiest thing to do with it - slice it up when cold and put into a skillet with garlic and butter or any souse you can think of.
ReplyDelete:-) i have one in my freezer right now! i haven't explored recipes very much yet, so i think i'll try your way -- sounds like a good quick meal. what kind of sauce do you like best, bearnaise, marchand de vin...?
DeleteI usually just reduce something on a skillet - like cream, or vine, or broth. To reduced vine or broth I like to add at the end a put of butter. A warmed-up on a skillet with some soy souse and heavy cream , cut in strips tong could be a quick meal too. I often us previously boiled in just salted water(and kept in that broth) meat or chicken as a precursor for other dishes like beef-stroganoff, or a vegetable stir-fry, or a meat with mushrooms and sour-cream.
Deleteall right -- i just went downstairs and got it out of the freezer. :-) thanks, Galina!
DeleteYou are welcome, Tess. I really think it is better to remove at least thickest upper outer skin. I usually do it under a running water when the tong is still very hot, then put it back in a broth to keep it tender (not before I cut myself a generous slice to "try it". Who am I kidding? I love freshly cooked boiled meat!)
Deleterecently I added more, and can really tell the difference this time. Have you tried ubiquinol? I think it works better than ubiquinone.
ReplyDelete@Galina, I cook tongue till tender (OK, sometimes I overshoot) and eat the whole thing, skin and all.
hmmmm.... doing a q&d look around, it looks like i need to check that stuff out -- THANK YOU, EB! :-D
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