Hmmm…..

Brain bubbles that I thought were worth sharing

sorry world, I’ve been a little distracted

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Clearly its been too long.  I couldn’t even recall my wordpress (blog host site) password when I tried to log in.  It took 3 tries.  Yikes!

Fear not, I’m still off-white (well, mostly) and living well.  There have simply been many distractions, such as climbing  trips, husbands getting ready to head to grad school, hard drive failures on my computer, etc.  yes, excuses.  

The pic above is from our recent climb of Mt. Adams, in southern Washington.  We were blessed to be totally unaffected by the fire (not even smoky air), but it was a bit daunting to see the flames grow taller every hour as we completed our expedition.

So, what is new in the world of “off white”, you may ask.  I’ll tell you.  Trail putty.  Yep, that’s a fun new one that we’ve been playing with.  It’s a nice derivation of a tasty treat my friends and I sampled last spring on a bike event up in Washington.  Thank you to the Vancouver cycling club for the inspiration.

Try this recipe when you need a hiking snack or you are tired of shelling out upwards of $3 for a good quality energy bar.  Apparently New Seasons in Portland sells something similar for about $3/bar.  Our are better, I promise!!

Matt’s Trail Putty:

3/4 cup almond butter
2 tbsp rice protein powder
1 tbsp agave nectar
cinnamon, to taste (or leave it out)

In the almond butter jar, fold in the rice powder and the agave and finally the cinnamon.  Take the concoction out of jar and form into a log on tinfoil.  Refrigerate for about 2-3 hrs and cut into strips.

It works best when not squished in a backpack, as we experienced on our climb of Mt. Adams last weekend. 

 

I’m also working on an energy bar made with mung beans, but based on our last sample batch, it’s back to the drawing board for that one.  Mung beans are quite so easy to work with as almond butter is, but we’ll get it.

For those who are wondering about what the heck a mung bean is, check out this site.  Mung beans are an excellent protein and fiber source and are really easy to digest.  In many traditional eastern cultures, cleansing diets often include something called a “kitchery”, usually a mix of mung beans + rice + some veggies for healing.  Good stuff.

I’ll leave you with a clip from Youtube on how to cook some mung bean soup.  Enjoy and have a great “off white” day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA4JpRRg-94

Secret to getting in all your veggies: Go VEGAN

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I have a secret, which I shall reveal……one of the ways in which I get all my veggies in and learn how to cook with those weird ones, like collards and turnips, is that I go vegan.

Those of you who know me are saying “wait a minute, you totally eat meat”.  yes, this is true, but I also think like a vegan when it comes to getting in my veggies and I use a lot of vegan and vegetarian cookbooks to help me out.

Here’s my thought: meat is relatively easy to prepare, at least in basic ways.  I can broil, bake, pan fry, bbq, etc and get a nice tasty lean protein.  But I can only eat baby carrots and spinach from a bag so long before I really want something creative with vegetables.

I now cook dark, leafy greens, like collards or kale at least once a week, and often 2-3x/week.  But if you knew me 10 yrs ago, this was soooo not the case.  I was your basic American.  I though canned green  beans and canned corn were pretty fine choices to fill my veggie requirement, especially if I ate them with ketchup (yes, gross, I know – but I was all about making them sweet).

My mom gave me my first vegetarian cookbook, entitled “Vegetarian cooking for everyone” by Deborah Madison about 5 yrs ago when I started to seriously change my diet and wanted to know how to make veggies taste better than ice cream.

I give myself permission to write in my cookbooks.  I see  them as living, breathing entities that capture both the author’s perspective and my own about a dish.  Plus, I’m just a geek and like to make note in books.  it make me feel smart.

thank God I have a very compassionate husband, as some of my adventures did not turn out well…such as the lasagna which had about 5 lbs of mushrooms and a bechamel sauce.  I’m sooo not a French chef, and totally underestimated the importance of cooking fine sauces in a tender way with a proven method.   I think we went out to Mexican that night instead…..

So, I want to share one of my favorite recipes from this book.  This one usually comes out pretty well – even for first timers!  I modified it a bit from the original. It makes an awesome summer salad and you can absolutely go carnivorous with it by adding chunks of chicken or turkey to it, or on the side.

Enjoy!

PS: other cookbooks I like are :”Greens”, also by Deborah Madison, and the Blossoming Lotus cookbook.

Quinoa or Bulgur and Green Lentil Salad with Chickpeas

Serves 2-4, depending on serving size

½ cup French green lentils, washed
1 bay leaf
¾ cup fine or medium bulgur or quinoa
5 scallions, including some of the greens, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves
Grated zest of 2 lemons
6-8 tbsp fresh lemon juice
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1.5 cups chickpeas (rinsed and drained if canned)
2 cups finely chopped parsley
1 – 1.5 cups chopped vegetables of your choice: cucumber, colored bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, etc
½ cup chopped mint

Cover the lentils with water in a small saucepan, add the bay leave and ½ tsp salt.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 25 minutes, until lentils are tender but firm.  Let them stand another 20 minutes.  Cook the grain (bulgur or quinoa as needed)

Whisk together scallions, garlic, lemon zest and juice, oil, paprika, and ½ tsp salt in a large bowl.  When lentils are done, drain them and add them to the dressing.  Press out any excess water.  Add the bulgur along with the chickpeas, parsley, mint, and vegetables.  Toss gently and then taste for salt/pepper. Can be served warm or cold.

Life, on 60g of sugar per day

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The World Health World health organization suggests a diet of less than 60 g of sugar per day or less.    Generally speaking, us humans can consume approx 200g of total carbs per day, so about 25% of them could be sugars, according to this model.

Some folks, especially sugar junkies trying to recover, ought to consider 100 – 150g of carbs per day or less, and make sure those carbs are from fiber containing sources.

So, how can we do it?  I ask myself this question everyday.  While I don’t go about my day counting carbs or sugar, I certainly keep these numbers in mind, mainly in the form of the concept of low sugar eating.

Through the years, here is what I have learned.  I have to make my sugar grams count, otherwise I’m going to be upset that I have nothing sweet and special to look forward to.  Here’s how I live on 60g of sugar per day (including the sugars in fruits):

  • Focus on lower sugar fruits like green apples, berries, cantaloupe, plums, peaches.
  • Avoid juice, flavored water or using sweetener in my tea at home.
  • Have Stevia in my purse to use for sweetening beverages when I go out.
  • Use unsweetened applesauce.  The difference here is 5g sugar/serving
  • Mix oats with fruit and spices, like cinnamon, for flavor.  I typically don’t add sweetener.
  • Use only plain yogurt.   I don’t do much yogurt, due to the dairy thing, but I will go plain when I do!
  • Watch the sugar in pasta sauces.  On average, a serving of jarred sauce has 10-12g of sugar.  I look for something with about 8g.
  • I avoid boxed cereals altogether.  They are high in total carbs, usually wheat or corn based, and don’t do a good job of watching portions.  For me, its just best NOT to go there.
  • Unsweetened almond milk ROCKS!  We are talking 3-5g of sugar as compared with 12-15g for even rice milk.  Add some stevia if you need more sweet.
  • Skip the ketchup and bbq sauce, unless it “really” goes with the meal (like a BBQ house, which I do like once every 3 yrs)
  • Tell the important people in my life I’m not eating a lot of sugar.  It helps keep me accountable.  I’m a sugar junkie, always looking for her fix, so I’m gonna take a mile when I’m presented with an inch!
  • Lay off of the dried fruit.  I found myself over-indulging in raisins, dates, and dried apples a lot when I started to avoid traditional sugar.  The challenge for me is that 1/4 cup of raisins is about 25g of sugar, and I can shovel in 2-3 handfuls mighty fast…..  I still eat dried fruit, but I try and add them to salads or eat them in front of someone where I’m less likely to pig out.
  • Be very, very humble.  My sugar desires are monsterous at times.  I must be honest with myself about them, and respect the food I am eating as having an effect on me.    Every time I make a good choice for my body, I feel sooooo grateful.

These same guidelines apply to white flour, which is not too much different from white sugar.  I tend to avoid wheat in general, which makes that one an easy choice.  I always skip the crackers, cereals, muffins (unless I know they are wheat-free, but even then quite often I just pass – they set me up for cravings), pastas, and a lot of breads.  Ezekiel bread is a treat in our house, and I choose to enjoy 1 slice per day when its around.  I use a lot of lettuce leaves as bread and whole grains in place of pastas, which helps avoid the interference of white or wheat flour.

Sometimes it gets me down to have to think so much about sugar….and then sometimes I just don’t think about it.  Unforutunately for me, however, not being conscious of it typically makes me end up eating a lot more of it that I’d prefer, as the sugar addict in me will always find a way to get her fix unless she’s kept in check.

Rebecca

Food, frugality and fortitude

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So, I’m kind of a cheapskate.  In general I hate paying for things.    I especially hate it when things I used to pay X for now cost X + 1 (or whatever)…..Its a joke amongst friends/family that my purse squeaks a bit when I open it.  Yes, you self-helpers out there, I AM working on it.

Lately the cost of food has increased dramatically.  Let’s take a look at some common examples

Just last week I stood in the grocery store, making some choices about what to put in, based on price. The items in question were:

Good Earth tea ($3.99/box of 18 bags
Beef (grass fed, $5.99/lb)
Avocados ($1.25/each)
Brown Rice Tortillas ($3.50/pack)

There were a few others, but these stood out in my mind.    I felt these items were rather expensive for what I could get from them, when considering volume and serving size.  I aim to spend $100/week on groceries for my husband and I to eat together.  We eat out approximately 1x/week WHEN WE HAVE THE FOOD WE LIKE IN THE HOUSE!  When we don’t have easy to prepare, wholesome and tasty food, we eat out.  A typical eating out experiences is $10-$15/person, depending upon where we go.  If I purchase a hot tea away from home, it is minimum $1.50 per serving whereas my Good Earth tea was only about $.25/tea bag.

Therefore, my question became clear: Would purchasing the whole food based items at the grocery, for more $$ per item than in the past, save me money at the end of the week based on frequency of eating out, etc.

Yes, yes, yes!!!!  Despite the fact that groceries are more expensive than before, if we can limit out dining out by even once per week, we are still saving money.  Even purchasing all those items on the list, which yield more than 1 serving, would save over 1 meal out.  Factor in the nutritional benefits of eating in, and its a slam dunk deal.

Now, I do believe we need to have some fortitude during these economic times.  It makes sense to use the grocery $$ we have sensible.  It also means schlepping home when my tired body wants to simply find a cozy spot to sit and have somebody else make the meal.

Here’s what I’ve come up with for ideas on how to save some $$ at the store and still eat well, the off-white way.

  • Puchase whole fryer chickens and carve them yourself.  You can get nitrate-free lunchmeats this way too!
  • Purchase only what you will eat that week in fruits/veggies.  Uneaten produce that goes bad is simply a was to $$.  If you can only cook 2-3x in  week, it doesn’t make sense to buy elaborate veggies that would need to be used everday.
  • Bring groceries to work as a way to avoid buying snacks or eating out at work.  Baby carrots, bags of spinach, a bottle of salad dressing, a supply of teas and beverages…all ways to make eating well convenient and cheap.
  • Buy raw ingredients and make your own…whatever.  Instead of pre-made trail mixes (spendy and full of sugar), buy bulk items and make your own.  Use whole oats instead of quick and buy them in the bulk section.  No need to pay Mr. Quaker for his fancy can.  You can even find agave nectar, flax meal, most grains/rices, and dried fruits in bulk these days.
  • Buy enough for at least 4-5 days so you don’t go to the store daily.  This is a total waste of time, gas, money and energy.
  • Make your own soups, deli salads and pasta dishes for work.  Spending $7 on ingredients for a nice home-made dish that you can eat for 3 days will save $$, as these things typically run $3-7/lb at the deli or grocery.
  • make your own cookies, breads, etc.  Don’t give Starbuck’s $2 for a muffin you can make for $.50 that has better nutrition.  Bob’s Redmill flax meal has an awesome recipe.
  • Buy a water filter and stop buying water bottles.
  • The more packaging, the more it costs.  Buy in large quantity and make up your own mini-bags of ‘whatever’. The whole snackpack thing is a gimmick – you can do it at home.
  • Purchase yogurts, applesauce, cottage cheese, etc in larger containers and take a smaller container with you to work each day.  Reuse the smaller container
  • Give the generics another chance. Some generic stuff actually has better nutrition than the “fancy” stuff.  Example: WinCo’s Cascade Pride english muffins. They cost $1 less than Thomas and have no HFCS, more fiber, and I hear they taste pretty good.

Okay folks, off to bed for me.  I like this topic, but I need some sleep :0

Wishing you all an off-white day tomorrow!

PS: The cost of corn, wheat, and sugar are also on the rise – even better reason to stop eating these things!

Self love

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When I awoke this morning I had an amazing sensation: the feeling of gratitude and love for my body and being…what a concept!  I can certainly say that a major reason why I can connect with these feelings is because I am continuing to create distance between me and those toxic foods that skew my mind (the white stuff).

I actually enjoyed breakfast so much that I took a little picture.  This sort of creativity is always a sign in me that I am healing, feeling good, and going with the “flow” of life.

This pic also denotes something more left-brained than just a reflection of self love thru food: it represents 1 standard serving of Almonds.  For me, part of self-care is staying conscious of how much of a food I am eating, even if it is healthy.

Just 2 days ago I was chatting with a gal who struggled with kidney stones due to too much protein.  She had switched to a ‘healthy’ diet, which included 2 CUPS of nuts, day….yowza…..and got kidney stones as a result.  Perfect example of good intentions gone awry or the law of diminishing return.

Slowly my stubborn mind is seeing the grace and benefit of being moderate, gentle and peaceful in my approach.  How nice to have space left in my belly after a meal because I’m not as attached to eating the fullest servings I can.  There is much power in declining the need for “more”.

So much of what I see happens in myself and others when our body-minds are skewed with junk food is the inability to listen to the subtleties of life and our physical/emotional/spiritual needs.  The white stuff puts the sensory system on over-drive and whammy!  All intuitive responses are gone….at least for me because I have a serious inability to handle the white stuff.  Its all or nothing, so I’ll choose nothing – there is more freedom in every other aspect of my life without it 🙂

Oh, for those who are curious, here is what I did with the almonds:

“Fill you for a few hours” oatmeal:

1 oz whole oats

1/2 – 3/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla + cinnamon
1 banana
1 serving almonds (about 22)
2 tsp dried cranberries

Cook oats on med heat.  Half-way through add the fruit, vanilla and cinnamon.  When fully cooked, add the nuts (I like the crunch of keeping the nuts raw).  This meal packs about 15g protein, 8-10 g of fiber, 15g of fat and approx 25 g of carbs…and about 320 kcal.    A great way to to add a little TLC to your morning.  Can’t do gluten?  NO problem: use Bob Red Mill’s Gluten free cereal or rice cereal instead.  Can’t do nuts?  No problem.  Bob’s flaxmeal adds the fat/fiber of the nuts, and a little pat of butter would do the same.

Things I love: Be Three

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There is a new online newsletter called Be Three.  Its for women, its clever, sassy, and the staff seems really cool based on their bios.  Check it out, and for those who just don’t get enough emails in their inbox every day, they even have a daily newsletter.

I don’t often address my yogini side in my posts (Try and focus on nutrition and sustainable wellness, but yoga is certainly a part of that!), but I loved this article, titled: Get your chant on:

Get Your Chant On

swaha.jpg

Last week, you found out that chanting isn’t just for saffron-robed monks, and that (heck yeah!) you’re willing to try it out for the sake of inner peace. Now, let’s turn our focus on ”what is a chant” and how easy it is to get your chant on.

What Is a Chant?
1. Words: One of the most popular spiritual words du jour is Om because of its intention to cultivate a sense of connection with those around you. And while many chants use Om as the main repetition, chants can range from this one-word mantra to a forty-verse ode to a brave monkey, like the Hanuman Chalisa.

2. Short and Sweet: Chants are often short and easy to remember, and, much like the songs you learned in grade school, are done in a call-and-response fashion (so that fading memory of yours doesn’t have to recall much at all).

3. Simplicity: All you need for chanting is your voice. No super-yoga flexibility, odd-shaped implements, or worldly-strength required.

4. Strength In Numbers: If singing in public ranks up there with public speaking on your top-fears list, worry not. While chanting, you’re singing with others – no solos required.

What to Chant?
Turn on one of these playlists – in your car, when you’re cleaning your apartment, or right before bed – and you’ll be on the fast track to zen.

Krishna Das: Check out this chant master’s CD collection of traditional chants, available for download on your iPod.

BMW – the ultimate driving (me crazy) machine

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Lately I’ve been taking my BMW for a spin more than I should.  What I’m talking about is the BMW in my brain: the Bitching, Moaning, and Whining.  Yes, it is the ultimate driving machine – of my neurosis!

Seems like I’ve been living in the problem a bit, and not in the solution…and what happens when I’m there: I get caught up into the desire to eat sugar, forget my responsibilities and become self-centered.

There is a reason I haven’t posted much in the past week – I’ve simply been self consumed.  LIving an Off-White life is all about personal accountability, responsibility, and balance.  Well, this week I none of the above.  I also saw a correlation between my attitude, my stress and my lack of self-care.  I ate too quickly, I did not give myself the simple pleasure of sitting at the table for dinner.  I did not connect with friends as much.  yada, yada, yada…..you get the idea.

What is it about the BMW’s of our minds that make the simple principles of self-care, especially with nutrition, so difficult.  Is it that I don’t feel worthy of good choices?  Is it because I see all the people in the TV and magazine Ads having so much fun with their junk food that I want to join in?  Is it simply that stress really does drive the need to just simple carbs, go into a food coma, and forget life.

I suppose the answer can be all three.  For me, the reason behind all the BMW moments was based in a fear of uncertainty.  I thrive on stability and control.  I like when things are the same, yet they never are.  So much is evolving in my life: career, residence, the role my husband plays in our life (grad student), financial insecurity…..it goes on and on.

Can anybody else relate?  I’m so interested in this human phenomenoa of wanting to neglect self in order to buy into fears and stress.  Yes, I get it that fears/stress are valid, but it never feels better  to give them all my power.

My hope is that I’ve done the footwork, prayer, and surrender over these issues, at least for now, and can get back to what I do love : blogging, connecting with friends, making healthy meals and being creative with food, and trusting that this evolution is absolutely perfect in its awkwardness.  Isn’t everything beautiful at one point awkward (I think of flowers opening for the first time, baby chicks with ugly patchwork down feathers, storm clouds that you can’t tell if rain is coming or not).  My biggest lesson to realize is that I am, and always will be, perfectly imperfect, and no amount of fantasizing about mile-high cheesecakes or donuts is going to change that truth.  For me, or for anybody else.

So, here are a few steps I’ve taken to get my mojo back;

1. Spend time with a friend on Sunday afternoon
2. Make some time for my husband on Sunday night after his trip out of town
3. Eat simply for 3 days: focus on 3 meals/day with the emphasis of these meals being fruits/veggies, and a lean protien.  No grains, and get off the dairy again.
4. Write in my journal
5. Post here, and be honest with myself and others about me
6. Look at websites of people I admire – ever reminding me to stay connected to my dreams and realize that nobody wakes up in one day with it all put together
7. Turn OFF THE TV – it is so demoralizing and food-tempting for me.
8. Go for a walk instead of a run on Saturday – gave myself permission to be in “flow” instead of force.

Blessings,
R

Splenda is not so splendid

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Yet another reason I’m not a fan of Splenda…….corn.
What, you ask, do corn and Splenda have in common?  If you take a look at the back of a Splenda packet, you’ll find a very imporant word: Dextrose.

Dextrose is a sugar derived from corn.  The same plants that gives us high fructose corn syrup also produce dextrose.  Now, dextrose can also be derived from other things, like grapes, but much of the dextrose we eat comes from corn.

Why all the hype about corn?  What gives?  Corn continues to be a hot button because we are over-using it; the typical American approach: Something has a good aspect to it, so we exploit it and over-work it, and then wonder what went wrong.  Our food (including dairy, meats, legumes, grains, etc) is at least 25% corn-based, from the reading I did in both “Omnivores Dilemma” and “Fast Food Nation” recently.  The reason is that many of our lifestock eat corn, so we get the residual issues in our bodies.

Corn sensitivity, like gluten or dairy sensitivity, is on the rise.  Of course it is – when we over-consume something, our bodies get sensitive to it.  It’s like being poked in the same spot on your arm 1,000 times.  Sure, a poke every now and again isn’t so bad, but constant poking yields a bruise, dysfunction on the skin and sensory feedback and general irritation.  Same with food.  We over-eat something ,especially if that something is genetically modified (and you can be your bottom dollar Corn is genetically modified, especially nowadays).
The other reason artificial sweeteners don’t excite me is that they miss the point: we are addicted to sweet.  Wouldn’t you (who are also fellow addicts like me) agree that once you get the taste for sweet, it’s over?
Americans consume a lot of sugar, we all know that
What I think is under-represented is the genetic and biochemical drive to consume that sugar even when we know it is not good for us.  What would serve us better are foods/recipes/mindsets that help us put our sweet craving aside.

In Chinese medicine it is said that a sweet addiction is an addiction to “the sweetness of life”.  We want it to taste like honey all the time, and when it doesn’t, we go looking for the honey.

I can certainly see this in myself.  I’ve used sugar as a compadre to cope with the drama in my head for many years.  Without it, life still seems a little sour, and yet with it I am a slave to its effects.

I suppose the call to action here is to invite myself and others to look at the role sweet foods play and ask ourselves if that role is really suiting our life’s dreams?  And for the times when something sweet would be really appropriatae, why not make something real, good and of the earth?
For such an occasion, I have a recipe.  Maybe its weird to post a dessert recipe here, because I’m talking about abstaining from sugar, so this one is for the birthday party, the 4th of July picnic, or whatever else is a call to celebrate.

I have to thank Better Homes and Garden’s for the inspiration.  I was looking for a recipe for a birthday potluck at work and my new mag came to the door, offering a recipe that catapulted me into creative recipe creating mode.

Blueberry-lemon-coconut-pie (and low sugar too!)

1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
3/4 cup whole oats (you can blend them for 30 seconds for a finer flavor, if you’d like)
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
2 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg, each
1/2 cup flaxmeal
1/4 cup sucanat

In a small saucepan, heat coconut oil over medium heat until melted and warmed (1-2 minutes).   In a med bowl, stir oats, flour, coconut, flax, spices, and sugar.  Stir in butter and mix.  Press into the bottom of a 10″ pie dish, or 13″x9″ pie dish.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Filling:

6 eggs (or 3 eggs + 4 whites)
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp lime peel
2 cups blueberries (I warmed 2 cups of blueberries on the stove w/1 packet Stevia to bring out flavor prior to adding)
1/4 cup sucanat.

In a medium bowl combine eggs, sugar, 1/2 cup spelt flour, lemon juice, baking powder and nutmeg.  Beat for 2 min.  Stir in lime peel and berries.  Pour over crust.  Bake 30 minutes at 350.  Serve chilled after 2 hrs of refrigeration.

This one was a hit with all the co-workers, even those who don’t normally eat healthy.

I’m learning the power of having a well planned, special treat on occasion versus the daily consumption of “junk” sugar, which doesn’t actually make me feel good, and certainly doesn’t add anything to my health.

Blessings

R

More on the price of convenience: a NEAT perspective

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Recently a fellow blogger, named Jeff, wrote this:

  1. Jeff M, on April 15th, 2008 at 7:30 pm Said: Edit Comment

    The average long haul truck driver leads a sedentary life and stops at travel centers 5 times each day. Their diet is heavy on snacks and all-you-can-eat buffets. It should come as no surprise that 73% of professional truck drivers are overweight or obese, more than twice the national percentage. Truck drivers may “celebrate the cost savings” but their bodies are clearly paying a greater price.

Yowza!!  5 times/day…….that is crazy.  This topic reminded me of something I was recently reading in a Mayo Clinic newsletter.  It was a discussion on the epidemic of obesity due to lack of physical activity.  Truck drivers are certainly examples of a population who both move very little AND eat very calorie-dense foods.

So, I did a little research on something called NEAT:
you can check it out at this Mayo clinic link.

NEAT: NON-EXERCISE ACTIVITY THERMOGENESIS

Introduction
Looking out over this crowded coffee bar, I see a 40-year-old man reading a newspaper. He is stationary. He sits next to a 30-year-old woman. She can barely sit still. She gets up and curves between the tightly squeezed tables, just to get a napkin and then gesticulates wildly as she talks on her cell phone. He has still not moved. He thinks now of his three-year-old daughter at home; “she just never stops” he thinks. He smiles to himself and scratches his nose. She gesticulates further as she tells a friend of a rat she saw scuttling rapidly on the subway rails. A taxi drives by. The driver immigrated from an agricultural community in the Ivory Coast. Birds soar high over-head. All these living beings exhibit spontaneous physical activity or, Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT).

Human Energy Expenditure (and semantics)
Even lean individuals store at least two to three months of their energy needs in adipose tissue whereas obese persons can carry a year’s worth of their energy needs. It is the cumulative impact of energy imbalance over months and years that results in the development of obesity or undernutrition.

There are three principal components of human energy expenditure (EE), basal metabolic rate (BMR), thermic effect of food (TEF) and activity thermogenesis. There are also other small components of EE that may contribute to the whole, such as the energetic costs of medications and emotion.

BMR is the energy expended when an individual is laying at complete rest, in the morning, after sleep, in the postabsorptive state. In individuals with sedentary occupations BMR accounts for approximately 60 percent of total daily EE. Three-quarter’s of the variability in BMR is predicted by lean body mass within and across species. TEF is the increase in EE associated with the digestion, absorption, and storage of food and accounts for approximately 10-15 percent of total daily EE.

Activity Thermogenesis has two constituents, exercise-related activity thermogenesis and Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT). For the vast majority of dwellers in the U.S., exercise activity thermogenesis is negligible. NEAT, even in avid exercisers, is the predominant constituent of activity thermogenesis and is the EE associated with all the activities we undertake as vibrant, independent beings. NEAT has an enormous variety of constituents including occupation, leisure and fidgeting. Because of this, NEAT is challenging to study and its role in human energy balance has been difficult to define.

Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT)
NEAT is likely to contribute substantially to the inter- and intra-personal variability in EE. Argue thus; if three-quarters of the variance of BMR is accounted for by variance in lean body mass and, TEF represents 10-15 percent of total EE, then the majority of the variance in total EE that occurs independent of body weight must be accounted for by NEAT. Evidence supports this. NEAT is highly variable and ranges from ~ 15 percent of total daily EE in very sedentary individuals to >50 percent in highly active persons . Even minor changes in physical activity throughout the day can increase daily EE by 20 percent. NEAT is impacted by environment, but is also under biological control .

NEAT and environment
There are many environmental cues that impact NEAT. Broadly, they can be divided into occupational and non-occupational components.

NEAT and occupation
Matched individuals with highly active ambulatory jobs can have NEAT values of 1000 kcal/day greater than sedentary peers. In areas of nutritional need, this has implications for starvation-threatened individuals. In affluent countries, industrialized can convert high-NEAT jobs to lower-NEAT jobs and this has been associated with increased obesity rates.

Non-occupation NEAT

  • Dish washers
  • Cars
  • Remotes
  • Lawnmowers
  • Drive-through
  • Game-boy
  • Elevators
  • Snow blowers

Leisure-time sedentariness has resulted from the availability and volitional use of pervasive mechanization. When the energetic cost of non-work mechanization is estimated experimentally it approximates to, 100-200 kcal/day; a caloric deficit that potentially could account for the entire obesity epidemic.


NEAT and physiology
With experimental overfeeding in humans, NEAT increases. Those who increased their NEAT the most with overfeeding gained the least fat. This suggests that along with self-evident societal slothfulness, NEAT is biologically modulated. Animal data support this. There appear to be central mediators of NEAT. For example, microinjections of orexins into hypothalamic nuclei increase NEAT whereas antagonists decrease it. There may be humoral mediators as experimental hyperthyroidism is associated with increased NEAT. There also be genetic mechanism at play; during overfeeding twinness in part predicts fat gain. Also NEAT is specific for different genetic strains of mice.
Where to from here?

Mechanism: by understanding the neuromodulators and non-central mediators of NEAT; its biological function will become clear.

Physiology: What are the key components of NEAT? What is the role of NEAT in aging, children, gender, and race? How does positive and negative affect NEAT and its components?

Pathology: What is the role of NEAT in obesity and eating disorders?

Intervention: Targeted, evaluated interventions from person to population.

Having read this abstract, please get up and take and short walk down the corridor (or similar). Repeat for each abstract you read. Please let me know how it went.

eating off-white in a “white” world…. (quinoa recipe included)

offwhiteliving1 Comment

They say you can’t go home again……and I think they are correct.

This weekend my husband and I went to Northern CA to check out his new grad school (UC Davis) and visit family.  Food issues have always been a family affair for me.  Dad was overweight and had a stroke in 1995 and mom shared my love of cake frosting and baked goods most of my childhood.  I’d say to some degree we all had an eating disorder.  Never was there left-over ice cream or desserts in my home, no matter how large a package was purchased.  I simply thought it was normal.

So here I am, with my high maintenance diet, going home.  I know where all the treats hide: chocolate chips in the outside freezer, homemade biscotti in the spare bedroom, ice cream in the kitchen and whatever was baked for the weekend’s bbq is probably resting in the laundryroom.  Yes, I come from a long line of food hiders.  Either because the family would eat all of the goodies, or because ants would find their way into the cupboards, food was always kept anywhere BUT the kitchen.  There were stashes everywhere, which meant that I adopted a pattern of ‘sneaking’ from a young age.

For the most part I faired well.  My mom tries to supply me with healthy options, but unfortunately her Splenda-baked lemon cheesecake just did not work out (no dairy and no Splenda for me).  She also lovingly made a HUGE tray of lasagna for everybody to eat….well, except me, as I best not have dairy or white flour.  Nothing like watching others eat homemade lasagna while you chomp down on a green salad with chicken to make you want to devour a whole tray by yourself.

So what did I end up doing…..”sneaking”, of course!!!  I dipped my hand into the Ghirdhelli chocolate chips several times when I was near the outside freezer. I could feel the tension in my stomach and I did not enjoy them at all.  “so this is what I was like growing up…”, I thought to myself.  It was all about getting what I was NOT supposed to have.

The good side of ugly:  compared with past visits, I did relatively well at staying away from the white stuff.  I declined an offer for Starbuck’s drinks when everbody else was slurping down latte’s.  I did not eat late at night when I arrived on Thursday evening, despite a growling stomach.  Choices I make past 8pm are never in my favor.   I even resisted the peanut butter, cheesecake, cheese and ice cream.  I did have a homemade biscotti, and damn was it good!

Other off-white survival tips I use:

  • Start every day with warm lemon water.  This helps keep the GI track a flowin’.   Lemon water also kills a craving, especially if you add tons of lemon.
  • Distract myself when food becomes tempting and I’m not hungry.  My 4-yr old nephew was a great distraction, and he was up for a little fun anytime.
  • Make a dish of my own for family picnics, etc.  I chose quinoa date salad (recipe below) and tabouleh (from Near East).
  • Tell your family about your food limitations. I couldn’t be chowing on peanut butter because everybody knew that it wasn’t a great food choice for me.  I was rigorously honest so I could keep myself healthy.
  • Become your own observer.  I enjoyed watching myself get into ‘sneaky’ eating mode and seeing how I felt, thought and acted. It really was like Jr. High again.  Consequently, Jr. High is when I started obsessing on sugar for the sake of control/rebellion/pleasure.

Quinoa date salad

Serves 4
3/4 cup quinoa, not soaked
1.5 cups water
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp each: cinnamon, ginger, cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped almonds
3/4 cup chopped dates

Add quinoa and water to a medium saucepan.  Bring to a rolling boil and then simmer covered until quinoa absorbs the liquid.  Just after the boil add vanilla, salt, and spices.    Chop the dates and almonds finely.  Add to quinoa 2-3 minutes before cooking is complete.  Serve warm or cold.