“nuts (pre-soaked to remove phytates)”
what are phytates, and why should I be scared of eating them? (given I’ve been eating un-soaked nuts since I was a kid without (apparent) ill effect)
The biltong looks good. I’m surprised about the grass-fed beef thing… is is just that Byron Bay is the only company that claims to use grass-fed beef? AFAIK grass-fed is much more common in Australia than, say, the States—due to our huge outback ranches—almost all sheep are grass-fed, and a much higher percentage of beef is free range too.. though I’ll admit I haven’t done serious research on that front.
I agree re: the spiritual baggage in meditation, but I guess I was hoping to just ignore that part… there seem to be a few classes where I live, so I’ll give them a go and see where they lead. I’ve also sat through a lot of spiritual guff in my past (non-rational) life… so I might have a higher patience for sitting through the BS
Cycling is indeed a great idea, but I work too far away for me to go directly from beginner to cycling-to-work :( I tried various ways of getting there and have come to the unfortunate conclusion that it’s actually quickest to drive (30min vs 1hr20min public transport) Luckily I’ve discovered that I can listen to audio-books while driving, so I’ve started doing that.
wiki has a small blurb on phytic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytic_acid) that highlights its propensity to bind to minerals and render them useless. there’s some rumblings in paleo circles about the role phytic acid plays in tooth decay—they got their info from the weston a price foundation—but i don’t think anything concrete has been discovered. it’s not going to kill you by any stretch but soaking and slowly roasting your nuts is pretty easy to do and makes them better nutritionally.
agree there is a taste trade-off with some cuts of beef, but to be honest i haven’t had grain-fed beef in quite a long time so i couldn’t really get specific with you. depends on where you sit on the health/enjoyment spectrum when it comes to food. not clear that my position is better than yours
i might just be quicker to get annoyed by meditation woo-woo, who knows. the centre i went to made us chant that we were the lowest of the low. not a fan of that
fair enough about the bike, my bike commute takes about 50 minutes which is probably approaching the limit of what you’d want to do as a beginner (which i am as well, literally every other cyclist overtakes me)
sorry about the late reply, new to LW so i haven’t yet done a good job of integrating it into my browsing habits
Soaking and slowly roasting nuts takes more than the time to just open the packet and eat.. so it probably won’t happen. I could force myself to do it—but I don’t see enough value in doing it to do it… (only something that was likely to kill me would make that change) because I have other fish to fry. Thanks for the explanation though—it is interesting to know :)
From my perspective—convenience is a big factor in the food I eat. I like good-tasting food… I really like easy food. That includes easy-to-find (it’s much easier to just go to the local butcher than to hunt down grass-fed beef). and the inertia that comes from this is a hurdle big enough that there has to be a really good reason to get over it. I have other things I’d like to spend my “could I be bothered” points on first ;)
re: woo-woo
urk that does sound awful—yeah I don’t think I’d put up with that for long either.
re: timing
me too… ;)
plus—too many channels, too many things to do...
Answering my own question (re: grass-fed beef in Aus)
“It’s important to know that most big-supermarket beef around the country will be grass-fed meat finished on grain, but if the meat comes from southern Victoria or Tasmania, where grass is more likely to be in abundance, there’s a good chance it was reared entirely on grass or silage”
Also there seems to be a taste/health tradeoff for grass vs grain-fed beef.
wagyu, after all, is the epitomy of grain-fed beef...
“nuts (pre-soaked to remove phytates)” what are phytates, and why should I be scared of eating them? (given I’ve been eating un-soaked nuts since I was a kid without (apparent) ill effect)
The biltong looks good. I’m surprised about the grass-fed beef thing… is is just that Byron Bay is the only company that claims to use grass-fed beef? AFAIK grass-fed is much more common in Australia than, say, the States—due to our huge outback ranches—almost all sheep are grass-fed, and a much higher percentage of beef is free range too.. though I’ll admit I haven’t done serious research on that front.
I agree re: the spiritual baggage in meditation, but I guess I was hoping to just ignore that part… there seem to be a few classes where I live, so I’ll give them a go and see where they lead. I’ve also sat through a lot of spiritual guff in my past (non-rational) life… so I might have a higher patience for sitting through the BS
Cycling is indeed a great idea, but I work too far away for me to go directly from beginner to cycling-to-work :( I tried various ways of getting there and have come to the unfortunate conclusion that it’s actually quickest to drive (30min vs 1hr20min public transport) Luckily I’ve discovered that I can listen to audio-books while driving, so I’ve started doing that.
wiki has a small blurb on phytic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytic_acid) that highlights its propensity to bind to minerals and render them useless. there’s some rumblings in paleo circles about the role phytic acid plays in tooth decay—they got their info from the weston a price foundation—but i don’t think anything concrete has been discovered. it’s not going to kill you by any stretch but soaking and slowly roasting your nuts is pretty easy to do and makes them better nutritionally.
agree there is a taste trade-off with some cuts of beef, but to be honest i haven’t had grain-fed beef in quite a long time so i couldn’t really get specific with you. depends on where you sit on the health/enjoyment spectrum when it comes to food. not clear that my position is better than yours
i might just be quicker to get annoyed by meditation woo-woo, who knows. the centre i went to made us chant that we were the lowest of the low. not a fan of that
fair enough about the bike, my bike commute takes about 50 minutes which is probably approaching the limit of what you’d want to do as a beginner (which i am as well, literally every other cyclist overtakes me)
sorry about the late reply, new to LW so i haven’t yet done a good job of integrating it into my browsing habits
Soaking and slowly roasting nuts takes more than the time to just open the packet and eat.. so it probably won’t happen. I could force myself to do it—but I don’t see enough value in doing it to do it… (only something that was likely to kill me would make that change) because I have other fish to fry. Thanks for the explanation though—it is interesting to know :)
From my perspective—convenience is a big factor in the food I eat. I like good-tasting food… I really like easy food. That includes easy-to-find (it’s much easier to just go to the local butcher than to hunt down grass-fed beef). and the inertia that comes from this is a hurdle big enough that there has to be a really good reason to get over it. I have other things I’d like to spend my “could I be bothered” points on first ;)
re: woo-woo urk that does sound awful—yeah I don’t think I’d put up with that for long either.
re: timing me too… ;) plus—too many channels, too many things to do...
Answering my own question (re: grass-fed beef in Aus)
“It’s important to know that most big-supermarket beef around the country will be grass-fed meat finished on grain, but if the meat comes from southern Victoria or Tasmania, where grass is more likely to be in abundance, there’s a good chance it was reared entirely on grass or silage”
Also there seems to be a taste/health tradeoff for grass vs grain-fed beef. wagyu, after all, is the epitomy of grain-fed beef...