Dana's blog

“I joke that a big juicy steak is my beauty secret. But seriously, I love red meat. I was a vegan for a long time, and it nearly killed me. I found I was not getting enough nutrition."

-- Angelina Jolie

I confess to being a little surprised that a woman who used to wear a vial of her lover's blood around her neck had ever been a vegan. Still, great quote.

Here's a stray recipe I had kicking around. I figured it was a fast way to get a blog post up during my race to the deadline, and it's classically delicious. I originally made this with a grass-fed porterhouse I was lucky enough to be given, but it should be good with conventionally raised meat, as well. My steak was a good 1 1/2" thick.

Porterhouse Au Poive with Balsamic Reduction

1 3/4 pounds porterhouse steak
salt
1 tablespoon peppercorns
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter -- divided
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 clove garlic -- minced

I'm curious: How do you tell people you're low carb? Under what circumstances? Or do you? Do you wait for someone to ask why you're not eating the potatoes? Do you just order the bunless burger and salad at the fast food joint, and let the counter clerk figure it out? Do you bring it up if someone asks if you want a birthday cake at the office? If someone asks you to a dinner party?

TunaTexas asked:

I noticed that even though you gave the link to the company you're buying your growth hormone stimulating supplements from, you didn't actually name the products. I understand that you may not want to do that for fear of seeming to endorse them. But...if you could share the product names with me, I would like to try them also, and I could share my results with you as well.

Unsurprisingly, my post about my gelatin supplementation and my excitement about it has generated a lot of interest, and raised a lot of questions. Let me address this.

* Although I did wake up four pounds lighter the next morning, as I said I do not believe gelatin made me magically lose four pounds of fat overnight. I have not been dropping weight like crazy, though I've remained a couple of pounds lighter. I do feel like my body is a bit firmer, like the gelatin is doing good things for my muscles. Keep in mind that I'm doing Slow Burn on my Total Gym every 4-6 days or so.

Campbell's is currently advertising that their soup is made with "farm-raised vegetables." Where else, pray, would their vegetables be raised? Are we supposed to assume that the competition uses manufactured vegetables? Or perhaps mistake "farm-raised" for "locally grown" or "organic?" If so, it's not working with me.

Yet more about why Ornish's statements about how the recent study demonstrates -- well, anything about either the Atkins diet or the very low fat vegetarian diet he espouses -- shows he's wrong-wrong-wrongity-McWrong-Wrong.

As you know, we resolutely avoid politics around here, except for food politics. I'm sure my readers run the gamut from liberal to conservative, and that's as it should be; we all have a human physiology. But my liberal readers should know that popular liberal blog, The Huffington Post, has appointed Dr. Dean Ornish as their Senior Medical Editor. Here is the email I sent the HuffPo today:

I started writing this a week ago. Indeed, I wrote quite a lot, and in a white heat. I knew it was coming out jumbled and all-over-the-place, but I was so excited the information was just pouring out. So I'm starting over, and with luck the new version will come out less disjointed, but no less passionate.

I have, for a week, been taking gelatin as a supplement. Just plain gelatin, the stuff you'd find in a box labeled "Knox" at your grocery store.

Since I'm taking the lazy way out and posting links to other people's articles today, I thought I'd include this one, from Tom Naughton's Fat Head Blog. Great stuff about the "low carb" "study". (Sorry about all the quotation marks, but it didn't qualify as much of a study, and it sure didn't involve low carb diets.)

Oh, man, do I have a girl-crush, and I mean that in a totally non-creepy, non-sexual, geez-I-admire-this-woman kinda way. The brilliant Denise Minger, who wrote the classic deconstruction of the China Study, has trained her laser gaze upon the new study "demonstrating" that "low carb" (hah!) diets high in animal foods will kill you, but "low carb" (hah!) diets based on plant foods are good for you. You gotta read this!

Happy Eid al Fitr to our Islamic readers! And remember, just 'cause you've been fasting for a month doesn't give you license to eat a bunch of carbs.

Low fat shill Dean Ornish in the Huffington Post regarding the study quoted as demonstrating a low carb diet based on animal foods is bad, while one based on plant foods is good. I have zippo respect for Ornish, but the comments are very interesting.

You've heard the news, no doubt, that a new "study" demonstrates that a low carb diet high in meat is bad for you, but one high in vegetable protein is beneficial. You knew at first glance that this was a ridiculous piece of crap, right? Here's what the articles are all saying about how this study was done:

Two studies are reported here, one that followed more than 85,000 women from 1980 through 2006 and one that followed over 44,500 men from 1986 through 2006.

Hey, all you Jewish low carbers, Happy New Year! Have a great holiday. And hey, if you have any festive traditional recipes you've decarbed, how about you post 'em for everyone?