Whole Grain Grub

See how easy it is! P.S. Don’t mind what she says about adding salt in the end!

A new study points to yes! Two reasons: A. popcorn is a good source of fiber (it’s a whole grain) and B. now there is proof that it’s a great source of antioxidants as well.

I hate milk. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. I hate the way it smells, tastes, looks, walks, and talks.

This is why I don’t drink it. I drink it’s distant, cooler, cousin of color, soymilk. (I dunno why, but to me if soy milk were a person she would be brown-skinned, and have natural hair, but that has nothing to do with this post so…)

Me and Soy Milk have a had a long-term relationship. I wasn’t feeling regular formula as a baby, so my Mom gave me Soy Formula. You could say “me and soya go back like babies in pacifiers”, for real. We’re tight. But recently I learned that my body’s Vitamin D levels are as pathetic as my courtship of cows milk. Virtually non-existent. ODing on Soy Milk hasn’t been helping either.

Vitamin D is an important part of our body’s ability to absorb calcium, that oh so important mineral for our bones and teeth. Vitamin D is best mostly received by drinking whole milk and getting 30 or more minutes of direct sunlight per day. Being a brown-skinned person, my ability to absorb sunlight, which helps my body produce the Vitamin D needed to process calcium, is lacking as well. So most people of my complexion need to supplement our vitamin D intake, and the average doctor and nutritionist will prescribe my arch-nemesis, Milk.

Like I said, I hate that mess so I have been in search of vitamin D substitutes. My newest discovery is Kefir.

Kefir is milk, it’s just milk’s other cool cousin. It is milk with a little added flavor in the form of Kefir grains, a gelatinous community of fermented bacteria and yeast. (YUCK!) Those bacteria contribute to Kefir’s probiotic power and gut regulation. Kefir aids in lactose digestion, so it is safe and beneficial for those of you who are lactose intolerant! It looks like a watered down yogurt, and tastes that way too. On its own, plain Kefir is hard to swallow. But with the right mixture of fruits and a little sweetness, Kefir is pretty damn good. Good enough for me to drink a whole glass.

The Kefir I have been drinking lately is by Nancy’s, a Eugene Oregon based Family Owned and Operated Dairy Farm that makes organic, hormone free dairy products. Their Lowfat Kefir in Blackberry is truly YUM! It has a pretty high sugar content, from the milk and fruit addition, so I drink a small 4oz serving at a time. Trader Joes also makes their own brand of Kefir, and it is excellent and economical. When I am not spluring on Nancy’s, I buy TJ’s plain Kefir and blend it with various frozen and fresh fruits, or use it as a replacement in smoothies or with granola for breakfast.

It is the Eve of my first day of the Fall Semester, and earlier this evening I was running around the grocery store frantically trying to gather all of the things I would need to keep my belly full and my mind at peace during my classes. In sn search of something that would help me avoid that mid-lecture yawn and ” I am ’bout to pass out” look, I decided to call on a good friend of me and Jessica, protein.

Not just any old protein, Complete Protein. For the sake of a repeat lesson I will make this short and sweet. Not all proteins are created equal and unlike a famous Jerry Maguire movie line, not all are “complete.”

When thinking protein most people think animal, but for those doing vegetable, such as myself when packing lunch and snacks, think 1+1= complete. If your protein source doesn’t contain 9 of the 9 essential Amino Acids, make up for what it is missing, by adding it to your snack.

For example beans and rice separate are “incomplete,” but together they make a great couple and a much more complete protein as do rice and tofu (soybeans). You just add the Amino Acid that the other is missing. This also math equation also works for my favorite back-to-school staple: Peanut(or cashew, or sunflower, or soy) Butter and Honey on Whole Grain bread.

Solo, these ingredients don’t do much on the protein scale, but together they create a wonderful fusion of fullness, alertness, and yummyness. (I know that isn’t a word.)

You can leave the honey out, as it does nothing for the protein piece, and you can substitute the bread for anything whole grain.

I used my favorite locally produced (7 miles from my house) Vital Vittles “Real Bread,” Berkeley Bowl’s own Crunchy Peanut Butter, and Branches Raspberry Flower Honey from Dean and Deluca St. Helena (gift from a foodie friend).

The bread is so dense half of this sandwich keeps me full from 7 am until 11 am, and the second half is my “after-school snack!”

Note: Recent studies have shown eating complete protein during any given meal is unnecessary to achieve the benefits of having all 9 essential Amino Acids. Now scientists believe that eating the various Amino Acids from different sources at different times is okay, if they are in the same 24 hour period. While this seems to defeat the idea of complete proteins, I would still suggest eating them together as much as possible. What’s the harm in knowing you got them all out of the way at once?

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be hard or break the bank. Here is my simple beans and rice recipe that is nutritious, delicious, yet costs pennies. I whip this up at least once a week when I am lazy, broke and in need of a nourishing meal.

According to research conducted at McMaster University, if you’re a woman who dines with a man, chances are you’ll be consuming less calories than if you were chowing down with a woman. And the more females a woman eats with, the more calories she is likely to consume. Meanwhile, men are neither substantially affected by the number of nor the gender of their dining companions. The bastards!

Researchers observed students in naturalistic settings in three large university cafeterias with a wide choice of food options and dining companions. The study found that women who ate with a male companion chose foods of significantly lower caloric value than did women who were observed eating with another woman. Mix gendered groups meant fewer calories for the women, and the higher the number of men in the group, the lower the number of calories consumed.

Confused? Let me break it down further.

For female diners:
Eating with women = more calories
More women = more calories
Eating with men = less calories
Less men = less calories

For male diners:
The same calories regardless of the company

“Eating is a social activity,” says Meredith Young, PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour. “In university cafeterias people select their food before they are seated and perhaps before they know with whom they will eat. Given the observed differences it seems likely that social groupings were anticipated at the time of food selection.”

The diet industry targets female consumers and product advertisements typically depict very slim models rather than average-sized or overweight female models, she says, so food choices appear to be weighed against how other perceive them. In other words, smaller, healthier portions are seen as more feminine, and women might believe that if they eat less they will be considered more attractive to men.

“It is possible that small food portions signal attractiveness, and women conform, whether consciously or unconsciously, to small meals in order to be seen as more attractive,” says Young.

I know, I know. What does being a psychopath have to do with food or nutrition? Not much. But I may have dated a psychopath in the past (although it has not been confirmed) and I’ve always been curious about how their brains work.

So it turns out that Professor Declan Murphy, along with colleagues Dr Michael Craig and Dr Marco Catani from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, have found differences in the brain which may provide a biological explanation for psychopathy. The research investigated the brain biology of criminal psychopaths using powerful imaging technique (DT-MRI).

Here are some of the interesting points:

While psychopathy is strongly associated with serious criminal behaviour (eg rape and murder) and repeat offending, the biological basis of psychopathy remains poorly understood. Also some investigators stress mainly social reasons to explain antisocial behaviours. To date, nobody has investigated the ‘connectivity’ between the specific brain regions implicated in psychopathy.

Earlier studies had suggested that dysfunction of specific brain regions might underpin psychopathy. Such areas of the brain were identified as the amygdale, ie the area associated with emotions, fear and aggression, and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the region which deals with decision making. There is a white matter tract that connects the amygdala and OFC, which is called the uncinate fasciculus (UF). However, nobody had ever studied the UF in psychopaths. The team from King’s used an imaging method called in vivo diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) tractography to analyse the UF in psychopaths.

They found a significant reduction in the integrity of the small particles that make up the structure of the UF of psychopaths, compared to control groups of people with the same age and IQ. Also, the degree of abnormality was significantly related to the degree of psychopathy. These results suggest that psychopaths have biological differences in the brain which may help to explain their offending behaviours.

Dr Craig added: ‘This study is part of an ongoing programme of research into the biological basis of criminal psychopathy. It highlights that exciting developments in brain imaging such as DT-MRI now offer neuroscientists the potential to move towards a more coherent understanding of the possible brain networks that underlie psychopathy, and potentially towards treatments for this mental disorder.’

Read more about the research here.