Nothing is ever as simple as black or white!

Nothing is ever as clear cut as they first appear. Take for example a Low-Carb diet. I thought this was the answer to all my fat loss problems; but then as I started to research it more and more, I slowly start to realise that that’s only a small fraction of the overall picture.

So let’s take a look at some of the obvious myths about health that are out there at the moment.

·         Cholesterol is bad for you. Not quite, it really depends on your numbers.

·         Fat makes you fat. Well, not quite, it depends on the kind of fat you’re talking about.

·         Eat five servings of fruit everyday. Not really, everything in moderation.

·         Everything in moderation. Define moderation?

·         Drink 8 glasses of water everyday. Well, that depends on a number of factors.

·         Rice & Pasta should be staples in your diet. Depends on what your blood sugar numbers are.

·         Limit your intake of red meat. Limit it from what to what?

·         A calorie is a calorie. Well not quite, it depends on where that calorie is from and what it doesn’t to your body.

·         To lose weight just exercise more and eat less. Has that worked for you so far?

I’m sure there are a ton of other such statements out there that we readily accept as fact. My advise to you is question everything! Don’t forget there was a time what we thought the world was flat and some tribes used to worship the Sun. sounds ridiculous now but at the time to suggest otherwise was heresy.  

Let me try to illustrate to you what I mean about nothing is ever black or white.

A few years ago we wanted to get a new fitted kitchen. My wife and I visited a number of showrooms and eventually chose the design of the kitchen we both liked. The next part was to get the kitchen work tops and again after much deliberation we chose a style and material we both like. The last part was a bit tricky and that was the style, design and material of the doors. We were on a limited budget and the doors we’d seen varied in cost depending on the material used. We had three options; Medium-density fibreboard or MDF for short which was the cheapest. Vinyl wrap which was a cheap wood with a thin layer of a more expensive wood veneer wrapped around it, this was mid priced. Real wood was the most expensive. However, when we started to look at the various products, it soon became abundantly clear that some MDF doors were far more expensive than real wood! It wasn’t as clear cut as we had first assumed.

We finally opted for a mid range Vinyl wrap and are very happy with it. However, I hope that just illustrates my point that you cannot simply take things on face value.

What I’m discovering is only the very basics of the overall picture. And the more I learnt the less I seem to know, but that’s not a bad thing because as far as I’m concerned is how we learn and grow.

So over the next few days I’ll give you my thoughts on all the above health statements I’ve mentioned. I’m off for a pie and a pint!

Ammo

Health and Nutrition

Fourteen years ago I gained a few pounds and ever since I’ve been on a quest to lose that weight, very unsuccessfully I might add. So unsuccessful was this quest that I actually gained an extra few stones instead of losing the few pounds that I initially gained. (For my American friends 14 pounds equals 1 stone) I’ve been on every diet known to man/woman, you name it, and I’ve tried it. Every fad going under the sun at some point has had a friend called Ammo.  

My problem has been that initially success of these diets has not resulted in sustained long term weight loss. (When I say long term, I mean past the initial first few months).

Then last September I thought I’d cracked it when I stumbled upon Gary Taubes’ book “Why we get Fat”. In the book he totally debunks the myth that to lose weight all you need to do is diet and exercise. Although the book did more to further my knowledge on the reasons why I wasn’t losing any weight, there were still unanswered questions.

Losing weight is one thing, but does it mean you’re healthier?

Are thin people any healthier than their overweight counterparts?

My overall goal over the past few years has been to lose weight, but of late I’m not sure that really matters, what I really want is perfect health, if there is such a thing. (This latter quest has led me to some very interesting research and over the next few blogs I’d like to share that with you.)

Trawling the net for answers is quite a difficult task, especially when you only have a very vague idea of what it is you’re actually looking for. However the upside is that you do get to find out interesting information that somehow is all connected but at the time you just don’t know how.

One of the most important discoveries I’ve made is that overall health has more to do with nutrition and less to do chance.

In their book “Naked Calories” by Jayson & Mira Carlton; go to great lengths to explain the relationship between micronutrients and real health. The book goes on to pose an interesting question; could obesity be the result of malnutrition? (I’d never thought of anyone in the developed world as been affected by malnutrition.) Also could this malnutrition be the cause of some of the most debilitating diseases that are so common in today’s society. Diseases like Alzheimer’s, Cancer, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Heart Disease, and Arthritis to name but a few. Mira herself suffered from Osteoporosis and had the bone density of an 80 year old woman. Thankfully she was able to reverse this with good nutrition as well as additional vitamins and minerals.

Could this be true?

Is overall health as simple as eating the right micronutrients?  

What are the right micronutrients?

These are some of the questions that I’ll try to answer over the next few blogs. But I must warn you, I am no Doctor, I am no nutritionist, and I am no health guru. I’m just a simple shopkeeper who is looking to improve his own health and in so doing has come across information that is sadly lacking in the general domain. To be honest I was totally ignorant of all this until I started to seek answers for myself, and I’ve only just barely started to scratch the surface.

So if you’re interested then please look out for my next few blogs and I’ll try my best to write in words the information that is swirling around in my head.

Ammo

30th Dish Yangnyeom Tongdak from South Korea

We called it KFC, Korean Fried Chicken!

This was a great way to finish my challenge, an easy recipe that all the family loved. The hardest thing I found was getting all the ingredients together but once I had all that the rest was easy. 

Ingredients (for 3-4 servings):

3 pounds (about 1.5 kg) of chicken chunks,

salt,

ground black pepper,

potato starch powder,

flour,

sweet rice flour,

egg,

baking soda,

canola oil (or vegetable oil),

garlic,

ketchup, 

hot pepper paste,

rice syrup,

apple vinegar.

Directions:

Rinse chunks of chicken in cold water. Drain.
Add 1 ts ground black pepper and 1 ts kosher salt.

Add ½ cup potato starch powder, ¼ cup all-purpose flour, ¼ cup sweet rice flour, 1 ts baking soda, and 1 egg.

Mix well by hand and completely coat the chicken.

Put 6-7 cups of canola oil in a wok or frying pan and heat it up.

After it’s heated for about 7-8 minutes, test if the oil is ready by dipping a sample chunk of chicken into the oil. If the oil bubbles, it’s the right temperature to start frying.

Fry the chicken chunks for 10 minutes over high heat.

Take them out of the oil and shake them off in a strainer. Let them sit for a few minutes.

Fry them again for another 10 minutes until all pieces look golden brown and are crunchy outside.
*tip: If your skillet is not large enough to fry all the chicken at once, divide it into batches like I do in the video.

While you are frying, you can make the sauce:

Put 1 tbs canola oil and 4 cloves of minced garlic into a heated pan,

Add 1/3 cup tomato ketchup, 1/3 cup rice syrup, ¼ cup hot pepper paste, 1 tbs apple vinegar and simmer the mixture for about about 7 minutes. Keep your heat low and be sure not to burn the sauce.

Turn off the heat and wait until the chicken is done.

Chicken is done? Then coat your chicken with the sauce:

Reheat the sauce.

Put the freshly fried chicken into the sauce and gently mix it up with a wooden spoon.

Sprinkle some roasted sesame seeds over top and serve hot or warm.

The only negative I have about this is that the hot oil splashes everywhere and there’s a lot of mess to clean up afterwards. But that’s a very small price to pay for such a delicious dish. 

We gave it 10 out of 10. (I know I was there’s no such thing as perfect but trust me this comes pretty close.)

Ammo

29th Dish Ayam Masak Habang from Indonesia.

Don’t try this at home, unless you like you’re food extra spicy hot! I had trouble with one bit of the ingredients and that was the red chillies; the recipe asked for 150gr but I wasn’t sure what “gr” meant so I added about 15 red chillies. Trust me that was more than enough, obviously you can use less if you don’t like too much heat. 

Ingredients:

2.4 lbs Chicken
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Tamarind Water
500 ml Water
2 tbsp Sweet soy sauce ( "Kecap Manis" )
3 Tomatoes chopped
2 tsp Javanese palm sugar ( "Gula Merah" )
Cooking oil

Spices:

l50 gr Red chillies
12 Shallots
6 cloves Garlic
2 tsp Shrimp paste
2 cm Ginger
2 cm Lesser galangal
2 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Cut the chicken into 8 - 10 pieces, then smear it with salt and Javanese Tamarind Water.
2. Knead the chicken and leave it for 10 minutes to let it absorbs the seasonings.
3. Heat the cooking oil in a wok or skillet, fry the chicken until yellowish.
4. Remove and drain.

5. Heat 5 tbsp of cooking oil, saute (stir-fry) spices until fragrant.
6. Add the fried chicken, stir, and pour water.
7. Add sweet soy sauce, sugar, tomatoes and palm sugar.
8. Continue to cook over low heat until the chicken is cooked well and the sauce thickens.






 
I gave this a 8.5 out of 10, and I’m sure this will become a family favourite once I use less chillies.

Ammo
 

28th Dish Polynesian Chicken from French Polynesia.

I wasn’t too sure about this dish. I’ve never cooked with pineapple before and I really don’t like Celery. So I was very apprehensive about this, and to be honest I tried to change to another recipe at the very last minute. However my wife said I should stick to my original plans (maybe cause the other recipe was crap stew), I’m so glad she persuaded me to stick with this as it was delicious. 

Ingredients

6 Chicken Breast (skin and bones)

½ cup vegetable oil

1 large onion, cut in half and sliced very thin

4 stalks celery, sliced thin on an angle

1 tablespoon mild curry powder

1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple

Salt to taste

Freshly cracked pepper to taste

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 (14 ½ ounce) can chicken broth

Instructions

Fry chicken breasts in a large pan with oil until cooked, about 30 minutes.

Remove from pan and remove all but 2 tablespoons of the oil.

Add the curry powder to the oil and cook for 1 minute on medium heat.

Add onions and celery, cooking until the celery is soft.

Add pineapple, broth and a small amount of salt and pepper, if desired.

Simmer for 2 minutes and add chicken back into the pan.

Cook, simmering for 35-45 minutes with pan covered.

Remove chicken.

Make a loose paste with cornstarch and a small amount of water.

Add to ingredients in pan, simmering on high heat for a few minutes until sauce is a bit thicker.

Pour over chicken.

 

A couple of things, firstly I was expecting the pineapple to be very sweet, but it wasn’t, it added more of a tang (not sour) taste to the entire dish. And secondly we couldn’t taste the celery this is always a plus in my eyes.

Will be cooking this again and as a family we gave it a 8.5 out of 10

Ammo