Making It From Scratch
September 1st, 2009
There is a Making It From Scratch blog carnival going on over at SimplyForties and my post How To Make Ghee is one of the featured articles. Check it out!
Should The Modern State Regulate What We Eat?
August 31st, 2009
This is for all you lovers of raw milk, raw cheese, foie gras and other foods whose producers are constantly harassed by the legal hubris and apparatus of the state. Enjoy!
See also: The War on Good Food and State Science is Bad for Your Health.
A Little Chaff With My Wheat, Please
Let us take a break from the pretend news…to consider a more important topic…In politics, even a little bit of familiarity breeds contempt. Here we see the state in all its loathsomeness: a class of pandering, mealy-mouthed, grasping special interests all fired up about what they will do with your money once they get or retain power.
Think about this. When people say government should do x, y, and z, they are really saying that these people should be given power to appoint other people to permanent positions of power to tell you and yours what they can and cannot do with their lives and property, and to take a rake-off for their trouble. That doesn't sound like a very good system, but to put the best spin on it we call it democracy, or simply: the modern state.
And so for the big issue today: should the modern state regulate what we eat? Must the state do so for our own health and safety? Do we owe our health and safety to government regulations or to the responsiveness of the well-capitalized market economy to our preferences and needs? You know my answers already, but consider that most people are all too willing to credit government for all that is good in the world, and equally prone to overlook market freedom as a source of all that we call civilizational progress. For example, they observe the coincidence of available, safe, and delicious food with federal regulations and conclude that the regulations brought about these good things.
History doesn't support this claim. In every carefully studied case of business and consumer regulation from the late 19th century to the present, we find something very different. Typically a large market player will make some improvement in safety, working conditions, consumer product transparency, or what have you, as a means of gaining competitive advantage (all well and good) and then lobby the government to make this wonderful improvement universal across the industry by force. The pretense is the improvement of all of civilization; the reality is the imposition of high costs on competitors. The improvement was brought about by the market, with government only arriving later to claim credit. This is one reason large market players are the main influences within the agencies that regulate them.
Is Your Cholesterol Level High Enough?
August 31st, 2009
In under two minutes you will learn why high cholesterol levels and the incidence of heart disease are not related. The highest levels of cholesterol in the world are enjoyed by people who are at or near the bottom in terms of the incidence of heart disease.
(hat tip: Cheeseslave)
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How To Make Sushi And Sashimi
August 30th, 2009
Sushi and Sashimi are fun to eat when going out but easy to make at home as well. Here are six brief videos that explain the process step by step.
Enjoy!
Part 1: At the Market
Part 2: How to make Sashimi
How Not To Promote Your Blog Or Website
August 28th, 2009
Richard Nikoley, over at Free the Animal, recently blogged a few days ago about someone who has taken the EatStopEat concept from Brad Pilon (with no acknowledgement) and blatantly ripped off a testimonial he (Richard) wrote for Brad by making it sound as if it was written for her EatStopExercise concept. She actually took the testimonial and used it word for word, inserting her name where Brad's name originally appeared. I won't link to the author of the website but you can find Richard's post on the whole affair here (complete with pictures). 
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Update: The website that carried the testimonial appears to have removed it.
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Winning The War On Good Food – Part 1
August 28th, 2009
This is an article that I started several years ago but never finished. Digging through some old material I came across the first installment. I will post a new installment at least once a week. I hope you enjoy it.
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courtesy of kundaistreet.blogspot.com
To make matters worse many people who are originally a part of the movement succumb to the siren call of practicality and pragmatism, i.e. the well intentioned goal of reaching a broader audience and thus being considered relevant becomes the dominant concern, even to the point of temporarily abandoning principle (which usually is never temporary).
These folks compromise basic principles thinking they are helping to expand the movement when in reality they are undercutting it, although obviously such “turncoats” don’t see it that way.
The battle in the War on Good Food is no different. We struggle socially because so many and in fact most people around us are doing it differently. Our family, friends, neighbors, colleagues all think we are making much ado about nothing. Or even if they acknowledge we have a valid point, think we might be carrying our ideas a wee bit too far.
In the process we get tired and frustrated and wonder whether trekking to three stores 20 minutes away is worth the trip when there is a local Safeway right around the corner. Our neighbors hit one store and they are done. Not to mention we also visit Safeway as well realizing that good food can be found even in havens of bad food decadence.
What follows are five of an undetermined number of points (I envision at least three installments in this series), in no particular order, and certainly not all-inclusive, that are designed to help revive, motivate and sustain you when the battle seems particularly tough or even lost at times. Each point stands on its own, but taken as a whole they should keep you well equipped in the War on Good Food. Here they are in no particular order.
How To Make Beef Carpaccio
August 27th, 2009
Another one of my favorite raw/rare meat recipes. It is a staple at any Italian restaurant worth its salt. Although traditionally made with beef tenderloin, you can make this dish with any of your favorite cuts of beef or even fish like tuna.
The first video is a quick 40 second overview from the Food Network on how it is made. It will definitely rev up the appetite. The second video is a more in-depth demonstration on making carpaccio. Note: The link with the second video will take you to youtube.com since the creator of the video has disabled the embedding feature.
Enjoy!
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Exposed: The Swine Flu Hoax
August 27th, 2009
photo courtesy www.orbitcast.com
Why 2009 Is Not 1918
First, World War I was characterized by millions of troops living in waterlogged trenches along the Western Front. This war zone became fertile ground for an opportunistic virus, as medical literature reveals:
State Science Is Bad For Your Health
August 26th, 2009
Medical studies that contradict conventional wisdom in a number of socially and politically charged areas have been making recent headlines. The messages conveyed by these studies, however, have significance beyond face value: They remind us that medical research, technology in general, indeed any human endeavor, can be a wonderful avenue for human progress provided it exists within the framework of freedom as versus state control.
A few popular topics illustrate the point:
Salt — It has been found, after years of medical-establishment harping to the contrary, that a gustatorially satisfying amount of salt in your diet is not necessarily bad for you or directly related to high blood pressure; in fact, a diet low in sodium may increase chances of a heart attack or stroke. This is being reported as big news, yet long-term studies completed as far back as 1985 show that there has never been found a predictable relationship between normal levels of dietary sodium and health outcomes.
Why The State Hates Cholesterol
August 26th, 2009
Cholesterol is found in every cell of the body. This fascinating molecule, found in rich abundance in the tastiest of foods, is the most critical component of mental function – surely one reason the State has waged its historical role on this vilified yet truly magnificent molecule, independent thought being the primary threat to its existence.
The story of the government’s war on cholesterol follows – and an argument for why cholesterol is your best weapon against the State.
Keys: The Anti-Cholesterol Interventionist
In 1953, Ancel Keys kicked off the anti-cholesterol campaign, under the spell of which American health discourse has persisted ever since. Keys charted a graph of six countries’ death rates from coronary heart disease (CHD) against their respective available amounts of dietary fat, and showed that each country fell neatly on a line demonstrating that the more fat that was available, the more deaths from heart disease that followed.
