My Soap Box.... Miscellaneous Stuff

I just feel VERY VERY strongly that eating at home with your family is one of the most important things we can do for them.  It doesn't matter how sophisticated your culinary skills are.  You are teaching them skills, spending precious time together, getting in more whole grains and vegetables with less salt, sugar and fat... or processed stuff.  



My "day job" (This was a sheep brain dissection.)

Y'all are just going to have to give me a pass, artistic license if you will, on this page.  I am a scientist, so my brain is stimulated by finding evidence for these types of things! 

Scientific evidence that cooking may have given us (humans) our big brain:

Here is a link to an article that cites scientific evidence that cooking our food has helped the brain size of humans evolve into what they are today.  It's a pretty interesting read if you are a science minded geek like me. Report - Cooking may have given us a big brain

Scientific evidence shows that cooking at home is inversely related to obesity:

A 2003 study by a group of Harvard economists led by David Cutler found that the rise of food preparation outside the home could explain most of the increase in obesity in America. Cutler and his colleagues surveyed cooking patterns across several cultures and found that obesity rates are inversely correlated with the amount of time spent on food preparation. The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity. In fact, the amount of time spent cooking predicts obesity rates more reliably than female participation in the labor force or income. Other research supports the idea that cooking is a better predictor of a healthful diet than social class: a 1992 study in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that poor women who routinely cooked were more likely to eat a more healthful diet than well-to-do women who did not.

• Michael Pollan's NY Times article Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch
• From studies conducted b the American Heart Association: Exercise and Home Cooked Meals Decreases Risk of Obesity
• Here's a link to the Cutler paper mentioned above.  You can download the pdf.  Why have Americans Become More Obese?

Study about eating out being linked to obesity.

• Eating at Restaurants Boosts Risk of Obesity, Experts Warn

A study on how corn syrup (a popular sweetener in soft drinks, etc) may  be making us hungry and fat.

•  Study on corn syrup linked to obesity

Gluten-Free?

It seems a ton of folks have jumped on the Gluten-Free bandwagon lately.  For individuals with Celiac disease, this is a must... but a lot of people seem to think that this is a fast track to weight loss. 

Here are two articles on the subject:

• The first article is a bit science heavy but shows gives many research study citations:
• Gluten-free diet: imprudent dietary advice for the general population?
• This study, published in the Journal of  the Academic of Nutrition and Dietetics  
  (Volume 112, Issue 9, September 2012, Pages 1330–1333) by professor G. A. Gaesser - in the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, Arizona State University, Phoenix.

• The second article is more reader friendly for the casual reader.
• Is Gluten Bad for You?
•  This article was written by Karen Ansel, R.D, and published in Women's Health Magazine, last updated June 2012

Fun Stuff
Okay, let me get down off of the box for a minute and share these photos I found in some of my old stuff.  These are a couple of cakes I made for birthday's past...

My son had gotten his first guitar for this birthday.

And this one was after a recent scuba diving certification for one of the kids.

Here is a video presentation on:  The Health Benefits of Ginger.

10 Foods that Lower Blood Sugar Levels