Category Archives: Health and Lifestyle

Health and Lifestyle

I wanted to love you Stroopwafel McFlurry

I have to admit that McDonald’s international menu promotion ongoing in the United States intrigued me. As part of my fitness journey I’ve done some menu hacking at McDonald’s when on road trips or squeezed for time. You can cobble together some delicious and nutritious options.

The technically five items that McDonald’s brought to the United States include the above mentioned Stroopwafel McFlurry from the Netherlands, a Grand McExtreme Bacon Burger from Spain, a Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich from Canada (both grilled and fried) and Cheesy Bacon Fries from Australia.

The buzz has been around the Stroopwafel McFlurry, which multiple reports put head and shoulders above the other offerings. I’ve been in maintenance for four months now, holding a steady 173 to 179 pounds depending on the day (my basement is 172 and my oh shit is 180, so doing a good job of keeping it between the lines). Surely a a Stroopwafel McFlurry could be made to fit in as a treat on a day accented by heavy salad consumption.

Then I visited the McDonald’s site for nutritional information – what was I signing myself up for? Yikes! First, 650 calories. That isn’t awful with a target calorie burn of 3,000 a day, I can make 650 calories fit. But what kind of calories are they? Eighteen grams of fat, not surprising but 11 grams of saturated fat and a half-gram of trans fat. Any trans fat is bad, and that McFlurry has 85% of the recommended saturated fat for the day. One-hundred-and-eight grams of carbs and 78 grams of that is sugar. That is 28 more grams than the recommended maximum for added sugar for the day. Five different sugars, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, glucose syrup, molasses, and “sugar,” are in the list of ingredients. The 310 milligrams of sodium is just enough to light up the tastebuds. This is a pleasure bomb for the brain targeting fat, sugar, and salt receptors.

Just…say…no. I’m not anti-McDonalds (as mentioned above) and I will on occasion visit for breakfast, I also think their drip coffee is downright – passable. When on a highway road trip or squeeze for time, my go to is a large coffee with an extra espresso shot and a single shot of cream. I like my bitter flavors. If you must have a Stroopwafel McFlurry, then at least make a point to have no other added sugar (good luck with that) for the rest of the day. Better yet, find someone to half that with. At least at 39 grams of sugar and 313 calories, it is a bit more acceptable.

Health and Lifestyle

Satisfying summer salad just 421 calories

Fruit plays more than a supporting role in this easy creation

We’ve entered that time of year when fresh local produce is plentiful. If you’re dealing with Weighty Matters, it is an excellent time to explore new options for a quick dinner. If you think salad requires lettuce, think again!

I’ve always loved putting fruit in a salad during the summer months. Berries and salad go hand-in-hand, along with apple and pear in the fall and winter. Tonight fruit played more than a supporting role and was almost on parity with the vegetables.

I hate the term superfood as I think the idea that food has superpowers is BS, but to make the Google SEO gods happy, this salad contains the power of healing superfoods! I prepared this summer salad using items that we already had in the fridge – so there was a degree of, “use this up or else,” in deciding the ingredients. Although we have a mountain of fresh lettuce growing in our garden right now, to make this work, I had to go sans greens. A combination of fruits, vegetables, and proteins provides a man-sized amount of food that can satisfy even a large appetite. At an estimated 421 calories per serving, with dressing, this satisfies, provides many nutrients, and is a caloric bargain.

Oh, and if you want to go vegetarian, swap out the chicken for some firm tofu.

Malcontented Summer Salad

Salad

3 pearl tomatoes or other sweet/small tomatoes, quartered

2 Persian cucumbers, sliced

3 Sweet mini bell peppers, sliced

2 apricots, pitted and diced

6 strawberries, hulled and sliced

½ cup blueberries

1 ounce Greek feta cheese (I used Athenos fat-free), crumbled or diced

4 ounces boneless skinless chicken breast, grilled or sous vide cooked, diced

Dressing

4 tablespoons non-fat Greek yogurt

2 tablespoons fig infused balsamic vinegar

Salt to taste

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the first 8 ingredients and gently toss together.
  2. In a separate bowl, combine the non-fat Greek yogurt and fig infused balsamic vinegar and salt to taste.
  3. Pour the dressing over the mixed salad and toss lightly to coat ingredients.

Serve with bread or crackers (I used Finn Crisp Rye Crackers – 4 – for another 80 calories).

Salad: 361 calories

Dressing: 60 calories

Servings: 1

Health and Lifestyle

The paradox of hospital food

I had to go to a hospital yesterday for some long-planned imaging. There was a planned gap between my ultrasound so that radiology could create their report, and my doctor could review, and the post-exam consultation. My day yesterday was one of the frustrations of sitting in a car, sitting in traffic, sitting in a waiting room, lying still for 90 minutes, more sitting, getting slightly bad news, to then sit in the car in more traffic. I ended up doing my jogging in the unexpected rain shower that dumped on Juanita last night, but that’s another story.

During all of this hurry up and wait, a man has to eat. After my imaging, I had about 30 minutes to go down to the cafeteria and feed my head hole. My selections were a made to order salad, a “large” chicken noodle soup, a small side of beets (tossed in with the salad), and an unsweetened ice tea. When I check out the cost of my meal, with plain red wine vinegar for dressing was $12.31.

I couldn’t make my salad, a server went through the salad bar and provided my selections. My container consistent of spinach, romaine lettuce, white mushrooms sliced, three cucumber slices, four cherry tomatoes, diced onion, about a half-a-cup of sliced beets, and some canned, sliced black olives – you know the kind – the kind you get on a pizza at a cheap pizza place. My “large” soup was a 10-ounce cup that was also filled for me and left with a three-quarter-inch gap from where it was, filled, and the top of the container — total calories with two saltine crackers – 278.

$12.31.

Here is why I’m harping on this point. The “daily special” was a shishito pepper cheeseburger (errrr mer Gerd! Shishito peppers!!!) with waffle fries for $8.69. Yes there would be a meal tax on top of that and yes I bought an unsweetened ice tea, but both of those still don’t get the cost to $12.31. I would conservatively estimate the burger and fries at 750 to 800 calories, and that assumes I don’t lather the fries in sugar loaded ketchup or ask for some mayo on that burger.

I’m at a hospital. I’m at a hospital for cardiac reasons. Even at a hospital in the United States, it is cheaper for me to eat unhealthily, then it is to make a healthy choice. I paid 46 cents an ounce for what was 80% romaine and spinach, and a small one-ounce container of red wine vinegar. The worst part is the meager portion of soup was unsatisfying, and I found myself hungry less than two hours later. Of course, I was! At 278 calories intake, my basal metabolic rate would burn 170 to 190 calories if I was sound asleep, let alone under the stress of 5 PM U-District traffic and processing the news.

I have been fortunate to travel to other countries in the world, and the United States is one of the only places I have ever been where it is cheaper to eat highly caloric foods then it is to make healthy choices. The obesity epidemic we are in is a huge burden on the United States economy. Medical costs, lost productivity, lives shortened, growing disability claims, and from a strategic standpoint, a lack of military readiness.

During World War II, one-third of recruits showed up suffering from malnutrition. The term “getting into fighting weight” was born out of enabling inductees to eat what they wanted to bulk up. The national school lunch program was created after World War II to help prop up food prices due to surplus production and as a strategic government initiative to assure that there was a ready supply of young men who had grown up with proper nutrition for the draft. Now more than one-third of recruits show up so overweight, and out of shape, they can’t get through BASIC training and require weight loss and strength condition.

It is paradoxical that a hospital would essentially charge me more for making the right choices, and incentivize me to make unhealthy choices. Well, I guess it’s good for keeping patients in the system.

Health and Lifestyle

Malcontent French Toast

The official survival food of America. The idea of French toast “supplies” as being required to weather a storm was born out of New England in 1978. For whatever reason during and after the Great New England Blizzard of ’78 stores could not keep bread, egg, or milk in stock. Those are the 3 core ingredients for French toast! The idea of this as survival food has become a bit of a legend now and is a running joke in the city of Kirkland in Washington state.

This recipe is a lower calorie version that negates using sugar.

Malcontent French Toast:

4 slices extra thick white bread – preferably left out to get slightly stale
1 egg
1/2 cup 1% milk
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (or apple pie spice, or cinnamon) 
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of butter or, to reduce calories, cooking spray

In a bowl beat the egg, milk, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, and a small pinch of salt together. Beat just until the egg yoke and whites have combined.

Pour the mixture into a flat bottomed dish or bowl. An 8X8 baking pan would be ideal.

Preheat a griddle or large nonstick frying pan on medium to medium-high heat.

Dredge the bread in the egg mixture, flip, and dredge the other side. Be careful not to let the bread soak.

Melt the butter in the pan, do not burn. You can substitute cooking spray for butter to reduce calories further.

Place the dredge bread onto the pan. Allow to brown, about two minutes, and then flip over. Cook on the other side for about two minutes and flip again. Cook for another 60 to 90 seconds to desired brownness, don’t burn.

Serve immediately with fresh fruit, or syrup, or powdered sugar and whipped cream.

For this recipe, we used Trader Joe’s Organic White Bread, which is 90 calories a slice.

One serving is 1-1/2 slices is 222 calories

With two eggs over easy to over hard-cooked with cooking spray, two Johnsville Chicken Breakfast sausage links, and 1/3 cup of mixed berries, a full french toast breakfast is yours for 492 calories.

The meal as pictured in the video with two slices of French toast, sunnyside up egg, two strips of thick cut bacon, 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, 1/3 of a cup of blackberries, black coffee, and coconut creamer is 555 calories.

Enjoy!

Health and Lifestyle, Local, Safety, Terra Firma, Weather

Get prepared for summer smoke now

TL;DR

  1. Growing evidence that our climate is changing
  2. Puget Sound now has some of the worst air in the country
  3. Summer is coming and with it likely more wildfires
  4. You should prepare now
  5. Particulate matter is horrible for your lungs, and you don’t realize you damaged your lungs until it is too late
  6. N-95 masks help and don’t make you look like a dork, but don’t help everyone
  7. Consider creating a clean air space in your home
  8. This sucks

Climate is not the weather.

The weather is not climate.

Weather patterns are changing globally. When looked at as a whole, there is a growing body of evidence that these changes, which started hand-in-hand with the Industrial Revolution, are resulting in climate change.

The Arctic regions have seen one of the biggest shifts with extreme warm spells, shrinking glaciers, ice sheets, and seaside communities washing into the ocean. Permafrost frozen for more than 40,000 years is become less – permanent. In other regions, like the lower 48 of the United States, the changes are more subtle. Earlier springs, longer falls, increased rainfall when it rains, longer dry spells when there is drought. Here in Puget Sound, a growing addition to this change is smoke.

It is with a hardy and sarcastic, “congratulations,” Puget Sound now has some of the worst air in the United States. Those bluest skies I’ve ever seen as in the song have turned increasingly hazy, and over the past two summers, toxic. Most of this change is due to wildfires that have surrounded our region. Prevailing winds blow the smoke into the Puget Sound region where it gets trapped. The only thing that pushes it out is marine air off the coast, which then turns our skies gray with clouds and drops the temperature into the 60s and low 70s. Our spectacular Augusts replaced by days of 90 plus degrees with orange skies and the smell of burning forests or 65 degree days with drizzle and low gray clouds – but on those days we can breathe.

The reasons for the fires are more complex than weather events or a shift in climate. Poor forest management, increased human activity in forested areas, communities expanding into forests and grasslands, and an increase in “dry thunderstorms,” has conspired to generate more fires. The longer growing seasons, which are weather related, generate more fuel, while hotter summers dry out that fuel faster.

The ironic part is the smoke moves more people to motorized transit, which increases traffic, which creates more pollution, which makes it worse – but the pollution created by vehicles is not the particulate matter created by wildfires. The engineered congestion in Puget Sound creates lung congestion on our worst days.

Our declining air quality due to climate change and forest management isn’t just a Terra Firma Thursday issue; this is also a Weighty Matters issue. In other parts of the world, it isn’t just common, but it is socially acceptable to wear masks when sick or when pollution is severe. In the United States, this is met mostly with snickers.

The fine particulates that turn our skies orange in the summer are terrible for your lungs. The particulates accumulate, that is get trapped inside your lungs, and over time permanently damage your lung capacity. This decrease in capacity is insidious as it happens gradually and over the years. Of all the functions in our bodies, lungs go the longest before revealing to us there is a real issue – and then it is too late to reverse the damage.

As we start to approach summer, with another long-range forecast model of, “hotter and dryer than the norm,” now is the time to get prepared.

  • Get some N-95 masks. When the smoke starts, they’ll become more difficult to find. You can buy them online from many websites including Amazon, Home Depot, and Lowes. Remember, N-95 masks only work when tightly fitted to the face. Small children and those with facial hair can’t use them. Additionally, N-95 masks are not designed to be worn for days on end. Which means you need to limit your overall exposure when the smoke is bad.
  • Surgical masks don’t block fine particulates, they don’t work.
  • Our smoky days typically go hand-in-hand with our hottest days. In 2018 we had several days that would have been record-shattering, 100 degrees plus, but the smoke kept our temperatures down 3 to 6 degrees in the high 90s. Ideally, on the worst days, you should keep your windows closed. Now is the time to consider a portable air conditioner for at least one room, to create a clean air space in your home.
  • Along with a room with AC, having a box fan with a furnace filter taped to the “intake” side (the side that pulls the air) has been shown to dramatically reduce particulate matter in the air. If you can’t afford an AC, a $20 box fan and a $10 filter can significantly improve air quality in a single room. Ideally, if possible, you should do both.
A furnace filter duct taped to a box fan is a low cost way to clean the air in a single room.

  • When you drive your car run your AC and run it in the “max” or “recirculation” mode. This recycles the air within your cabin. If your car doesn’t have working AC, you’ll need to wear an N-95 mask when driving.
  • On the worst smoky days don’t do outdoor activity if you can. If you work outdoors, your employer should provide N-95 masks. This is vital on days where there is ash fall.
  • Exercise should be done indoors in a climate controlled setting. If you have medical issues, to begin with, avoid exercise or better yet, talk to your doctor.
  • Contact wearers should make sure now that their glasses prescription is up to snuff. On the worst days, you’ll want to rip your eyeballs out when you’re wearing contacts.
  • Ash is very alkaline and damaging to car paint. Additionally, ash can create spiderweb scratches in auto finishes. On days with bad ashfall consider rinsing your car off with a hose. Smoke is generally not as bad during the morning hours as we get some marine air trying to push in. If it is down to your lungs or your car paint, you should choose the lungs.
  • Welcome to the new normal.

Health and Lifestyle

Shishito Peppers

You haven’t tried shishito peppers? Why not! A wonderful flavor with citrus notes, about one in twenty will make you go, “whoa that’s got some heat!” At just 2 to 3 calories per pepper, this is the popcorn of green vegetables.

What you’ll need:

30 shishito peppers (not an endorsement, but Trader Joe’s sells them)
1-1/2 Tablespoons avocado oil (you can use high quality olive oil as a substitute)
Kosher salt to taste

1) Heat avocado oil in a stainless steel or well seasoned cast iron pan on medium high heat. Be careful not to smoke the oil

2) Carefully place the peppers in the heated oil, blister the peppers until they have large brown patches on all sides

3) Remove from heat and sprinkle Kosher salt to taste and serve immediately. 

Serve as-is, or with any Asian inspired dipping sauce.

Makes 3 servings
80 calories per serving