Eliminating Refined Foods

[Joseph Bronson]

I can't stress enough the importance of eliminating refined foods from your diet. With all the talk about health insurance problems, to me we are all missing some very important things. How we treat our bodies, what kind of fuel are you putting in it and how active are you. It is vital that we exercise and are you putting organic food in you or poison food? All to often people go on crash diets eating foods they really don't enjoy and always regaining their weight back. I have never ever supported diets. They always go to low on calories. It's important to go for a life style change. When it comes to food It is important to eliminate the bad but put things in you enjoy. For a start here is the bad, artificial sweeteners, refined sugars and grains, and chemical additives, that would cover all fast food joints. So on that note here is a recipe to try for the holidays.
This is a basic recipe for any fresh ripe fruit( although I have used my own frozen), such as apples, apricots, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, or figs.
3-4 pounds fruit
1 cup apple cider
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 heaping tablespoon arrowroot starch clour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of clove spowder
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1-2 tablespoons Amasake Syrup ,or barley malt extract or brown rice syrup or agave
Whole-Wheat piecrust ( If you need a recipe for this please let me know)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rinse and core fruit if needed. Peeling skins is unnecessary if you're using organically grown fruit. Combine all ingredients in a large, heavy saucepan. (No Teflon) Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Bake piecrust for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and spoon in filling. Bake for 45 minutes. This recipe calls for only a bottom crust, but if you like a liffle crust on the top, cut leftover pie dough into thin strips and make a lattice effect by crisscrossing them over the top of filling. Or, just sprinkle some wheat germ on the top of the pie for a light topping.
Enjoy and remember serving sizes

[Angelina Williamson]

Don't give me a neck twist for asking this question (please!) but I have been wondering a lot about the grain syrups like barley malt and rice syrup and wondered how they can possibly be healthier than corn syrup? I am curious to know what processing they have to go through to extract the sugar from them and if it's any different than the process used for corn. I wanted to use a rice syrup to make home made "energy" bars for Max but wondered if I would be getting ahead at all by using them. I used honey for one recipe but although Max really likes honey (and we always use raw) it gave the bars too strong of a flavor. He was eating some organic cereal bars for a while that used rice syrup- but then no one I know knows much about rice syrup and why it might be better than cane sugar.

If you've got some information or some thoughts on this I would really appreciate knowing them.

Incidentally, that recipe sounds really good!

[Robert Frisbee]

Awesome Question. I decided to do a little research and this is what I found.

from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_syrup) "Corn syrup is a syrup, made using cornstarch as a feedstock, and composed mainly of glucose. A series of two enzymatic reactions are used to convert the cornstarch to corn syrup.[1]"

Note the "Enzymatic reaction" I wonder what that means? Well.. Wikipedia continues with "Currently, corn syrup is mainly produced by first adding the enzyme α-amylase to a mixture of corn starch and water. (The enzyme α-amylase is secreted by various species of the bacterium Bacillus. The enzyme is isolated from the liquid in which the bacteria are grown.) The enzyme breaks the starch into oligosaccharides, which are then broken into glucose molecules by adding the enzyme glucoamylase a.k.a. "γ-amylase". (Glucoamylase is secreted by various species of the fungus Aspergillus. The enzyme is isolated from the liquid in which the fungus is grown.) The glucose can then be transformed into fructose by passing the glucose through a column that is loaded with the enzyme D-xylose isomerase (This enzyme is isolated from the growth medium of any of several bacteria; e.g., species of Streptomyces, Bacillus, etc.) See (on-(1) http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/biology/enztech/starch.html"

Oh.. So Corn starch is doped with Bacteria and Fungus to break apart the Glucose.. Ouch! And I believe both the Fungus and the Bacteria have been genetically modified to work faster.

Barley Malt has been made for hundreds of years by... "To make barley malt syrup, barley grains are allowed to sprout, or germinate. The resulting sprouted barley is dried, often in a kiln or quick drying oven. Next, the sprouts are slowly cooked so that they form a sweet, dark syrup. The syrup is strained to remove impurities and then it is bottled or canned."
source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-barley-malt-syrup.htm

Hope this helps..

Robert



Angelina Williamson said:

Don't give me a neck twist for asking this question (please!) but I have been wondering a lot about the grain syrups like barley malt and rice syrup and wondered how they can possibly be healthier than corn syrup? I am curious to know what processing they have to go through to extract the sugar from them and if it's any different than the process used for corn. I wanted to use a rice syrup to make home made "energy" bars for Max but wondered if I would be getting ahead at all by using them. I used honey for one recipe but although Max really likes honey (and we always use raw) it gave the bars too strong of a flavor. He was eating some organic cereal bars for a while that used rice syrup- but then no one I know knows much about rice syrup and why it might be better than cane sugar.

If you've got some information or some thoughts on this I would really appreciate knowing them.

Incidentally, that recipe sounds really good!

[Claire Steele]

I've heard most of my life how refined and processed foods are bad for your health, certainly with greater frequency since I started taking classes at the school, but as I normally enjoy a pretty balanced diet, I've never before had the opportunity to experience how bad they can be for your body. Until recently, that is. The one thing I really don't like about study abroad is that I'm no longer in control of what I get to feed my body. The school packed the international students sack-lunches for the day we travelled back from the amazon; normally, the lunches are at least decent, they have some fresh fruit and a water bottle and I can deal, but this last one was awful. It consisted of a pack of oreos, a pack of "fiesta limon" cookies (think vanilla oreos with lime frosting), a roll of ritz crackers, two PB&J sandwiches on white bread, and a capri sun, and it was all that we had for the 12-hour long trip back to Quito. I've never felt so sick in my life. When I got back to my homestay my parents had already eaten, so I just foraged in the kitchen for every green, leafy thing I could get my hands on. If I never eat another cookie again, it'll be too soon.

[Matt - a simple hobbit]

Wow. Did you have people dropping right and left? I am so jealous about your time in Ecuador. What was the Amazon like? I was never able to make it there in my visits to Quito.

Claire Steele said:

I've heard most of my life how refined and processed foods are bad for your health, certainly with greater frequency since I started taking classes at the school, but as I normally enjoy a pretty balanced diet, I've never before had the opportunity to experience how bad they can be for your body. Until recently, that is. The one thing I really don't like about study abroad is that I'm no longer in control of what I get to feed my body. The school packed the international students sack-lunches for the day we travelled back from the amazon; normally, the lunches are at least decent, they have some fresh fruit and a water bottle and I can deal, but this last one was awful. It consisted of a pack of oreos, a pack of "fiesta limon" cookies (think vanilla oreos with lime frosting), a roll of ritz crackers, two PB&J sandwiches on white bread, and a capri sun, and it was all that we had for the 12-hour long trip back to Quito. I've never felt so sick in my life. When I got back to my homestay my parents had already eaten, so I just foraged in the kitchen for every green, leafy thing I could get my hands on. If I never eat another cookie again, it'll be too soon.

[Claire Steele]

Well, we all pretty much fell into sugar-coma naps on the boat ride, but luckily no one tossed their cookies... literally. Actually, the majority of the other students were just as skeptical about the provisions as I was and most of us limited ourselves to a PB & J and some bran crackers with the hope of getting something better once we were in Coca. Unfortunately, all Coca had to offer was ice cream and beer, so that plan didn't work out so well.

As for the amazon, it was incredible - i'd go back in a heartbeat, especially if I could go back to a research station. They just had so many things for us to do and see, and every night we had dinner with actual researchers working there, so we really got to pick their brains, and a couple people even organized to come back and work with them this summer as research assistants. That wasn't an option for me, unfortunately, but maybe I can get in touch with someone after I graduate. The station I was at was really cool for primate studies too, because I think they're supposed to have something like 12 different species all living within the area of the reserve - I guess their land sits right on the intersection of a bunch of different habitats, and therefore a bunch of territories. It was really cool. I'm probably going to post a longer description of my time there later today or maybe tomorrow.

Datt Myment said:

Wow. Did you have people dropping right and left? I am so jealous about your time in Ecuador. What was the Amazon like? I was never able to make it there in my visits to Quito.

Claire Steele said:

I've heard most of my life how refined and processed foods are bad for your health, certainly with greater frequency since I started taking classes at the school, but as I normally enjoy a pretty balanced diet, I've never before had the opportunity to experience how bad they can be for your body. Until recently, that is. The one thing I really don't like about study abroad is that I'm no longer in control of what I get to feed my body. The school packed the international students sack-lunches for the day we travelled back from the amazon; normally, the lunches are at least decent, they have some fresh fruit and a water bottle and I can deal, but this last one was awful. It consisted of a pack of oreos, a pack of "fiesta limon" cookies (think vanilla oreos with lime frosting), a roll of ritz crackers, two PB&J sandwiches on white bread, and a capri sun, and it was all that we had for the 12-hour long trip back to Quito. I've never felt so sick in my life. When I got back to my homestay my parents had already eaten, so I just foraged in the kitchen for every green, leafy thing I could get my hands on. If I never eat another cookie again, it'll be too soon.

[Cathe Frederic]

I like to add one additional step to a recipe like this. I like to take some of my fruit and blenderize it with some extra arrow root and add that back to the pot of ingredients and cook till thickened as above. Don't ask me why, I just like the gooey feel in my mouth that thickening the blenderized fruit gives. If any one out there is allergic to gluten as I and my entire family are, let me know and I'll give you my recipe for a whole grain rice flour crust.