I weighed myself at the gym yesterday, which was the morning of my 14th day on the 6-Week Cure.  I started at 205; yesterday I weighed 201. This morning, I measured my girth at the biggest part, around the love handles and belly button.  That’s gone from 41 inches to 39, which pleases me more than the weight loss.  I’ve also had to start cinching my belt a notch tighter, which means I’ve lost some fat below the belly as well. (Since I’m not over 65 yet, I’m still allowed to wear my belt below my belly button.)

As I’ve said many times, I don’t give a hoot about weight and BMI.  When I’m diligent about working out, I add muscle and get heavier.  My current BMI is 28.  Tim Tebow of the Florida Gators has a BMI of 30.6  — he’s 6′3″ and weighs 245, which makes him technically obese.  Guess which one of us is fatter?

I’d say the most pleasant surprise so far has been the effect of drinking whey protein shakes, which seem to be helping my strength.  I was stuck for awhile on a couple of weight machines — couldn’t squeeze out that one more rep, despite huffing and puffing and blowing the house down — but during the two weeks of drinking the shakes, I went up on every machine except the leg press and leg curl.  I can’t go up on those, because I’ve reached the bottom of the weight stack.

Today I begin week #3 - bring on the meat!

This is another in a series of recipes by Jason Sandeman, the Well Done Chef. Enjoy.

There is a KFC in my neighborhood that always has a line up to the block. I have even frequented the joint a few times myself. Nothing tastes better than the secret 11 herbs and spices, and let me tell you, that’s the way they like it.

Let’s put that aside for now.  To feed your family, it costs a hefty $35-45$, and you also get all the “extras” that come with your “meal.” You know, the pureed cabbage and onion coleslaw is a real treat too!

The above picture is what I bought with a small trek to a grocery store and a farmer’s kiosk. The total cost was $18.00 CDN. The largest cost came from the chicken, which is free range. (That means it will actually taste like chicken when you eat it.)

All PETA protests aside, you need to ask yourself what is going into your chicken. There are rumors about four-winged chickens at the Colonel’s hut. You have no control over what they serve you, except to opt out. 

There has been a lot of speculation on what goes into that famous recipe. If you ask an employee, they will tell you everything comes in a mix and a powder. I had a friend who worked at the Colonel’s who can vouch for that.

The following recipe will take a bit of time. It is not something you can just whip up when you get home. You might want to save it for a day when you are all relaxed. (If that even happens now.) I find Sunday is great.

In my neighborhood, the wait at KFC can sometimes be an hour. This dish will take slightly longer, and save your hard earned dollars. Who wants to work extra so you can fill the Colonel’s pockets?

You might miss the interaction with the pimply faced teenager who takes your order with a bored look on his face. If that is the case, invite him over for dinner. You might even make a revolution for his taste buds, and that is always a good thing.

Make sure you have your family near the kitchen when this comes out, so you look like a hero. Their mouths will be watering when the chicken comes out of the oven.  They will probably not even want to wait for the chicken to rest. Slap their hands away and make them wait!

So, let’s start on a picture adventure, and the recipe will follow.

Here we combine the juice and zest of 2 lemons, 2 sprigs of rosemary, 2 cloves of garlic minced, and a 1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil. This is the base of the juicy goodness for the outside of the chicken.

Stuff the chicken with the leftover lemon halves, and a couple of carrots. Tie the chicken up nicely. We put the lemon and carrots inside for two reasons: 1) The inside of the chicken will baste in their goodness, and 2) the liquid that escapes will flavor the broth. This will be important later on.

Place the chicken in your roasting pan with the breasts facing up. Don’t worry about the empty space around the bird; we will be filling that later.

This is a lovely acorn squash. It is in season right now, and it looks like it will be nice to eat with this chicken. Don’t let this vegetable intimidate you, though. Cut it in half, and scoop out the seeds.

Cut the squash into wedges. I do this so that we keep the nice shape that nature intended for us. Leave the peel on; all the goodness is there.

Here is an action shot! Place your cut new potatoes, acorn squash, chopped onions, carrots and a cup of water into the pan with the chicken. Place it into a 400°F oven in the middle rack. You will have to cook it for an hour to and hour and a half. Make sure you maintain the water level in the roasting pan by adding water as necessary.

People always ask me, “How long to cook the bird?” My answer is always until it is done. You want the bird to reach 180°F before you take it out of the oven. Here we still have a way to go.

Once your masterpiece has reached the right temperature, pull it out of the roasting pan, place it on your cutting board and cover it with foil. You want to leave it about 15 minutes so the chicken can relax, and the juices can redistribute throughout the chicken. That way it won’t taste like your Aunt’s chicken. (You know, where you all have to pretend the chicken is really nice, although it tastes like sawdust.)

Here is the final plate. I cut up the chicken, and served it with the roasted vegetables from the pan. The little cup holds the broth for dipping with the chicken. If you want, you could slightly thicken the broth, but I feel it is better to leave it in its natural state. Sure beats the Colonel’s pasty gravy!

That’s the recipe in pictures; here is the recipe for you left-brained folk:

Lemon Rosemary Chicken
Servings: 4

• 1 chicken, whole (about 1.5 kg, or 3 lbs)
• 2 lemons, zest and juice
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 60 mL (1/4 cup) extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• to taste kosher salt
• to taste black pepper freshly ground
• 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thickly
• 1 acorn squash, seeded and cut into wedges
• 10 baby new potatoes, scrubbed 

1. Combine lemon zest, juice, rosemary, salt, pepper, and olive oil together in a large bowl.
2. Stuff chicken with lemon halves,  carrots, onions, rosemary sprigs.
   Truss chicken and coat with lemon rosemary mixture.
3. Place chicken in a roasting pan, with the breasts facing upward.
   Toss vegetables in remaining mixture; place around chicken in roasting pan.
4. Add 250 mL (1 cup) water to the roasting pan, place into 375°F oven.
   Roast for at least 1 hour, replacing water as necessary to maintain a constant level of broth.
5. When chicken is done (a thermometer would read 180°F) pull the chicken out of the oven and place on cutting board.
6. Cover with aluminum foil and allow the chicken to rest for 15 minutes. (This will relax the chicken, allowing the juices to redistribute, and make sure the chicken is tender when you serve it.)
7. Carve up the chicken and serve.
8. The broth can be thickened slightly if you like, or it can be served as is.
9. The carcass can be used for chicken stock — recipe here.

I just got back from the gym.  Last Tuesday I weighed 205, 41 inches around the belly-button/love handles area.  Today (Monday) I was at 202, 40.5 inches. 

Those love handles are stubborn.  I once starved myself down to 165 and still had them, but I was losing muscle.  Not a good combination.

I can pretty much guarantee I’m not losing any muscle mass now and may have increased it a bit, because I was able to lift more weight or do more reps on every machine today compared to my workout on Friday.  Maybe there’s a reason body-builders consume whey protein powders.  I might continue having a protein shake on workout days when I’m done with The Cure.

Tomorrow, I’m going to post another recipe by Jason Sandeman, the Well Done Chef.

A couple of weeks ago, I received my copy of the latest book by Drs. Mike and Mary Dan Eades, The 6-Week Cure for the Middle Aged Middle.  I finally got around to finishing it this week and started following the program a couple of days ago. 

Well, to be honest, I’m almost following the program.  More on that later.

In a nutshell, the book explains, in biochemical terms, why we tend to develop a big belly as we reach middle age and then spells out a program for shrinking it:  For two weeks, you consume three specially-formulated protein shakes per day, plus one low-carb meal.  No alcohol, no caffeine.  For the next two weeks, you live almost exclusively on fatty meats, eggs and fish, plus small servings of non-starchy vegetables.  Dairy is out.  In the final two weeks, you can lighten up a bit on the restrictions, but it’s still a low-carb diet.

I saw a review of the book online that gives a nice summary, but then of course the writer had to run out and get comments from a few priests from The Holy Church of Accepted Advice For Living a Long and Healthy Life.  Here are a few quotes:

Judith Stern, Sc. D., a nutrition professor at UC Davis and founder of the American Obesity Association …strongly discourages any plan that restricts fruits and vegetables. “Limiting any one food group is a bad idea. You can’t get all you need from a diet like this.”

So limiting any one food group is a bad idea, eh?  I guess that explains why all the nutritionists are forever beating up on Dean Ornish for restricting fat intake to nearly zero - not to mention all the goofs who tell us we can get fit and healthy by eliminating all animal foods.  And where does Judith Stern think my paleolithic Irish ancestors found fruits and vegetables in the winter?  I’m pretty sure they managed to get by for months at a time without them, or I wouldn’t be here. 

Most experts agree that a diet high in saturated fat and protein can be harmful for individuals at risk for heart disease.

Yup, most experts agree on that.  Only trouble is, they’ve failed over and over to prove it, despite spending many years and million of dollars trying.

Dr. Neeraj advises patients with fatty liver disease to lose weight by decreasing their fat intake and increasing exercise. He encourages patients to consume a diet rich in complex carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables.

Oh, for cryin’ out loud … Drs. Eades and Eades cite evidence in their book that saturated fat actually protects your liver.  If you want to give an animal a fatty liver, you feed it corn or fructose, not bacon and eggs.  Was fatty liver disease common a hundred years ago, when Americans ate a lot more butter and lard?  No, it wasn’t.  But it’s very common now that we live on starch, vegetable oils and high fructose corn syrup.

In some comments I read on blog reviews, a few long-time fans of the Protein Power books complained that much of the material was familiar.  Well, that’s true to an extent, but what did they expect?  If you’re interested in nutrition and have read the previous books by Eades & Eades, as well as Taubes, Sears, Fallon, Carlson, etc., then of course you already know that natural fats are good for you and that carbohydrates spike your blood sugar, raise your insulin and promote fat storage. 

Those concepts are covered in this book as well — and good thing, too. Most people still believe saturated fat clogs your arteries and don’t know diddly about what actually promotes fat storage.  It’s been eight years since The Protein Power Lifeplan was published, so perhaps this book will find a whole new audience.  Let’s hope.

And there is some new information in the book as well, including a detailed explanation of the differences between subcutaneous fat — the kind you can pinch up around your waist — and visceral fat — the stuff that accumulates in and around the organs inside your abdominal wall.  Visceral fat is more metabolically active, and not in a good way.  It promotes inflammation and heart disease, for starters.

It’s the visceral fat that the 6-Week Cure program is designed to flush out.  I’m middle-aged and certainly have a bit of middle-aged middle in spite of being healthy overall, so after reading the book, I decided I may as well give the program a try.  But like I said, I’m not following the book’s instructions religiously. 

For one, I didn’t measure my girth in various standing and lying-down positions to determine how much of my fat is subcutaneous and how much is visceral.  There’s a simple reason for this:  I don’t care.  I’ll probably lose some visceral fat, and I’ll probably lose some subcutaneous fat, too.  Measuring the proportions isn’t going to change the results.

I did weigh myself at the gym so I’d have a reference point, but even that measurement is relative.  I lift weights twice per week now, and as a result, I’ve been slowly getting heavier without getting any fatter.  I finished my Fat Head diet at 194.  After the saturated-fat pig-out I described at the end of the film, I was at 192. 

Then I started lifting weights once per week using Fred Hahn’s slow-burn method and crept up to 208 over the next several months – a lot of the increase was in my legs, which got noticeably thicker.  Then I tightened up on the carbs and went down to 200.  Then I decided to lift weights twice per week and went up to 205, which is where I was on Tuesday.  It’s not about weight for me; it’s about health and body composition.

For that reason, I also measured my belly around the fattest part, including the belly button and love handles.  If I reduce that from the 41 inches it was on Tuesday, I’ll be happy … no matter what the scale says.

In addition to skipping some of the pre-diet measurements, I’ve also had to skip a couple of ingredients in my protein shakes.  I couldn’t find DAG oil anywhere, and I don’t want to order it online.   I also couldn’t find leucine tablets or powder, although leucine is listed as an ingredient for the whey protein mix I use in my shakes.  It just doesn’t say how much.  So I’m almost but not exactly drinking the protein shakes specified for weeks one and two.

And now for my biggest almost:  the book instructs you to give up alcohol and caffeine for the first two weeks to help flush out your liver.  I have no problem putting away the bottle of wine for a couple of weeks.  But I will not, under any circumstances (short of a court order enforced by an armed guard), give up my morning coffee.  I’ve tried before.  It isn’t pretty.

Yes, I know it’s an addiction.  I openly admit to being a caffeine freak. And trust me, it’s embarrassing to have the Red Cross call and say, “Mr. Naughton, we appreciate your generosity in giving blood, but the thing is, surgeons don’t appreciate it when their patients snap awake during a triple bypass.”

I’ll cut down on the coffee, but I won’t give it up, which means my weight-loss may be inhibited a bit.  So be it.  I just moved to a peaceful little town in Tennessee, and I don’t want to end up on the local news in a scene like this:

“Captain, captain!  A moment, please … what can you tell us about the gunman?”

“We know he’s inside the building, somewhere there behind the counter, and he’s taken two employees and an espresso machine hostage.”

“Can you give us a description?”

“White male, around 50, balding, but with an attractively lean middle.”

“So we’re talking about someone with a non-toxic liver.”

“That’s right, because when your liver accumulates fat inside, it — hang on, looks like we got the perp on the phone.  Yes, this is Captain Farley, is everyone okay in there?  Does anyone need any food, or … huh?  What the heck is a Power-Up Shake?”

So I’ll follow my almost version of the program and report back later.  I hope the results are almost good.

The alleged person Jimmy Moore

I’ve never actually met Jimmy Moore, so I can’t say for sure he’s real.  Sure, I read his Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb blog every day, we exchange emails regularly, we’ve spoken on the phone, and he’s threatened to drop by for a visit in October, when he’ll be in Nashville for a wedding.  Still, he may be a pod person, created by the meat and dairy industries to fool us into thinking their products won’t kill us. (His shows, after all, are called “podcasts” … coincidence?)

I’m suspicious because Jimmy’s total cholesterol is well over 300, which puts him in the category I sang about in the closing song for Fat Head:  “I’m shopping for my coffin, but don’t shed me any tears … ‘cuz according to the experts, I’ve been dead for several years.”

Score that high on a cholesterol test, and your doctor will break into an impression of the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, arms flying in opposite directions as he lurches for a bottle of Lipitor and a defibrillator at the same time.

To make matters worse, Jimmy has a family history of heart disease.  His father had a quintuple bypass a year ago.  His brother Kevin died of heart failure at age 41.  And Jimmy was morbidly obese for much of his life.

Worst of all, Jimmy lives on a diet that’s around 70% fat (much of it saturated), and he has committed the cardinal sin of refusing to accept the sacrament of statin drugs, despite many warnings from his doctor.  In other words, according to the Holy Church of Accepted Advice For Living a Long and Healthy Life, Jimmy is a condemned man, a heart attack waiting to happen.

And yet when he had a heart scan recently, the amount of plaque build-up in his arteries was measured at …(drum roll, please) … Zero.  None.  Nada.  No plaque.  Despite being a walking bundle of supposed risk factors, he has no signs of heart disease whatsoever.

This goes against everything we’ve been told about heart disease for the past 40-plus years. (Or, as his doctor put it when reading the test results, “That’s not possible.”)  If Jimmy does visit in October, I may have to serve him a drink in a cracked glass so I can send a blood sample to a lab.  There’s a good chance it will come back labeled “Not human, unable to identify.”

But let’s assume Jimmy is human, and is also alive and well.  Perhaps he’s just an outlier.  Surely, if we compare cholesterol levels and heart disease across large populations, we’ll see a pattern, right?

Hardly.

Check out this video by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, author of the very enlightening and very funny book The Great Cholesterol Con, speaking about the world-wide MONICA study:

Dr. Kendrick arranged his data to demonstrate a crazy up-and-down pattern in the heart-disease death rate as you go up the cholesterol scale.  I was curious what the data would look like on a scatter chart.  (Yes, I’m that big of a dweeb.) 

So I went prospecting for MONICA data on the internet and ended up finding two useful nuggets:  1) average cholesterol levels for men in various countries, and 2) heart-disease death rates for men aged 35 to 75 in those same countries - in other words, men who died prematurely due to heart disease.  (If I die of a heart attack at age 95, I’ll consider it a victory.)

I plotted the results for 40 of the most populous countries.  But before we get to those, take a look at these charts, courtesy of Tony at Emotions for Engineers, demonstrating what different degrees of correlation look like:

A perfect correlation equals 1.0, which produces a trendline starting in the lower left and rising to the upper right.  If x (horizontal axis) causes y (vertical axis), the data from studies comparing them should be strongly correlated.  Researchers rarely get excited about a correlation of less than 0.8, unless their grants are running out.

With that in mind, take a look at the average cholesterol levels for men in 40 countries plotted against the annual heart-attack death rates per 100,000 men in those same countries:

Do you see a meaningful pattern there?  If so, you probably also see secret messages from the CIA in crossword puzzles and college baseball scores - published solely for your benefit, of course. 

Or perhaps you just work for one of the organizations that’s been promoting the Lipid Hypothesis for the past 50 years.  I found and downloaded the MONICA data from the official website of the British Heart Foundation, the U.K. equivalent of the American Heart Association.  The same site includes (of course) recommendations for reducing your risk of a heart attack:

It is now universally recognised that a diet which is high in fat, particularly saturated fat, sodium and sugar and which is low in complex carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables increases the risk of chronic diseases - particularly cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer … The dietary changes which would help to reduce rates of coronary heart disease (CHD) in the UK population were detailed in the 1994 report of the Government’s Committee on the Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA). This recommended a reduction in fat intake, particularly saturated fat intake, a reduction in sodium intake and an increase in fruit and vegetable and complex carbohydrate intake.

I ran the CORREL function on the data in Excel, and the result was -0.25 … a negative correlation.  In other words, there is no meaningful correlation at all, but the tiny correlation that does exist would point towards heart disease rates going down as cholesterol levels go up. 

I can only imagine the conversations that go on in organizations like this when they look at the results of large studies like MONICA:

“Did you finish analyzing the cholesterol data?”

“Yes, Doctor Higginbotham, all done.”

“And?”

“A careful analysis of the data from 40 of the largest countries shows no relationship between cholesterol levels and heart disease whatsoever.”

“Hmm … that’s it, then.  We’d better keep telling people to cut back on saturated fat.”

“Why, Doctor?”

“Because it raises cholesterol.”

“But … uh … I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Well, it’s complicated, so let me explain it this way:  Shut up.”

Fortunately, a lot of doctors like Malcolm Kendrick and Uffe Ravnskov and Mike Eades refuse to shut up.  Same goes for a lot of bloggers like Jimmy Moore.

Yes, Jimmy has high cholesterol - very high, by most standards.  But he also has very low triglycerides and high HDL, and only 2 percent of his “too high” LDL is the small, dense type that can penetrate the walls of an artery and lead to heart disease.  He achieved those numbers by ignoring the experts and cutting the sugars and starches from his diet, not the fats.  He’s not an outlier, any more than the hundreds of thousands of people who die from heart disease every year despite having low cholesterol. 

As for whether or not Jimmy Moore really exists …I’ll let you know in October.

Jason Sandeman, a chef and writer who produces the Well Done Chef blog, offered to write an occasional guest column, including step-by-step recipes for preparing real food.  Below is Jason’s latest guest post.  (You can read his previous guest column here.) 

Fall is around the corner, and your tomato vine is bursting with ruby red colored tomatoes. In fact, if you are like me, you have so many that you cannot possibly use them all. Your friends and family shy away from you around this time of year, afraid if they shake your hand, they’ll arrive home and find tomatoes in their pockets. You have a real problem on your hands, and you need to act before the fruit flies take up residence.

Below is a simple recipe that you can follow to take those tomatoes to the next level. You can also store them for a long while, up to 6 months in the freezer. See after the recipe for some tips on using this creation.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: up to 2 hours
Difficulty: easy

Makes 60 half tomatoes, about 1 plastic container full

Ingredients:

• 30 Roma tomatoes (I prefer these, but you can substitute whatever you are growing on your vine.)
• Extra-Virgin olive oil to coat
• 10 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 bunch of thyme
• to taste salt
• to taste pepper

1 cookie pan with sides at least 1/2 inch deep

Preparation:

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C (400°F).

Cut tomatoes in half lengthwise, keeping the core intact.

Toss in a large bowl with the extra-virgin olive oil, garlic cloves, salt and pepper.

Line the tomatoes cut-side down on the cookie sheet; nestle the garlic cloves and thyme sprigs in between rows of tomatoes. Drizzle remaining olive oil over the tomatoes.

Roast in the oven for 15 minutes, until the skins blister.

Remove from the oven, peel off skins. (I save them for veal stock, but you can throw them away if you like.) Pour off the juice into a container; reserve.*

Lower the temperature of the oven to 135°C (275°F).

Place the tomatoes back into the oven and roast for 20 minutes.

Remove tray from the oven; pour off juices into container, place the tomatoes back into the oven.

Repeat as necessary, until the tomatoes are not giving off any juices, and are almost dry.

Remove from oven; cool. Pick out the garlic cloves and thyme. Reserve the roasted garlic for another use.

Pack tomatoes into a container with a little extra-virgin olive oil and refrigerate. The tomatoes will keep up to 2 weeks refrigerated, or up to 6 months frozen.

*Note: The juices you save would make a great base for a tomato vinaigrette. Perhaps that is another post?

Now, for the bonus part. Take an onion, fry until soft, add 10 or so oven roasted tomatoes. Add 500 mL (2 cups) of the chicken stock in my previous guest post. Chop some fresh oregano or basil,and toss it in the pot. Blend the mixture until smooth with a hand blender. Voila! Near-instant soup. Let’s see franken foods create that!