Simply Paleo: Steamed Hake with Spinach, Onions, and Tomato

It may not come out looking pretty, but the taste of this dish will make you want to redefine your conception of beauty, so that you can say, “Yes, it is gorgeous just as it is.”Each Simply Paleo features a Paleo meal that requires minimal effort and delivers maximal tastiness. With these meals, preparation time, from washing the veggies, to preparing the plate, should be no longer than twenty-five minutes.

Steamed Hake with Spinach, Onions, and Tomato

Ingredients:

• 1 Tomato
• ½ Onion
• 1 Big Handful of Spinach
• 1 Boneless Hake Filet

These Simply Paleo meals are all easy to prepare, but this one is probably the easiest. First, chop your tomato, onion, and spinach, so that the tomato and the onion are in bite-sized pieces, and the spinach in short ribbons. Because the tomato’s juice will provide enough lubrication for the pan, cooking oil’s not necessary in this dish, but if you’d prefer, you can add a tablespoon to the pan before dropping in the veggies, and then setting the flame at medium-high. Once the tomato’s juice has filled the pan, which shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes, add your hake filet, and then cover the pan. After seven minutes, flip the filet, but do so gently, because with this dish, hake tends to fall apart rather easily. After about fifteen minutes, the food should be ready, with the hake cooked throughout, and the vegetables having melded their flavors. With five minutes prep time, and fifteen minutes cook time, this dish is ready in twenty minutes.

So easy to prepare, and yet so tasty. The hot pan causes some kind of alchemy of tastiness to occur among the veggies, with the onion and the tomato releasing their flavors into the tomato juice, and then the spinach soaking it up; just the veggies alone in this dish are absolutely delicious. But the hake offers a succulent counterpoint to the flavor amalgam of the vegetables, with the fish’s smooth taste contrasting perfectly with the vegetables savory goodness.

Brain Health: Omega-3 fatty acids reduce anxiety

Salmon is an excellent source of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. Select wild-caught Alaska salmon to reduce environmental impact.By Dr. John

The typical American diet, based largely on grains, added sugars and fats, and dairy, is pro-inflammatory. Recent studies suggest low-grade chronic inflammation affects neurological function, including the frontal pathways of the brain.

On July 19, a research study published in Brain, Behavior and Immunity revealed dietary omega-3 fatty acids decrease anxiety by reducing inflammation.

The randomized controlled 12-week trial included 68 volunteer medical students. Half received omega-3 supplementation and the other half, placebo. Psychological surveys measuring anxiety, stress, and depression, and blood samples measuring inflammatory cytokines were obtained "during lower-stress periods as well as on days before an exam." As reported by EurekAlert, even though the school had changed its curriculum by eliminating the stressful clustering of medical exams over a 3 day period, students "receiving the omega-3 showed a 20 percent reduction in anxiety compared to the placebo group." There was no change in depressive symptoms.

The reduction in anxiety appears to be modulated by a decrease in cytokines. Students taking the omega-3 supplements had a 14% reduction in the cytokine interleukin-6. The study concluded:

These data suggest that n-3 supplementation can reduce inflammation and anxiety even among healthy young adults. The reduction in anxiety symptoms associated with n-3 supplementation provides the first evidence that n-3 may have potential anxiolytic benefits for individuals without an anxiety disorder diagnosis.

So, are you stressed or anxious? Stick to the Paleo diet to reduce brain inflammation. Eat plenty of fish. Still anxious? Supplement with omega-3. 

Links

• Omega-3 supplementation lowers inflammation and anxiety in medical students: A randomized controlled trial. - PubMed
• Omega-3 reduces anxiety and inflammation in healthy students - EurekAlert
• The Standard or Average American Diet - PaleoTerran 
• Inflammation impairs frontal lobe brain function - PaleoTerran
• An "Insight of the Decade": Chronic inflammation kills - PaleoTerran

Sunday Paleo 8.7.11

Monthly Finds is morphing into a weekly post called Sunday Paleo. If you have a great find, send it to paleoterran@me.com

"Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is a 6,000 square-foot organic vegetable farm overlooking the East River from a warehouse rooftop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn." - NRDC SwithcboardHEALTH 

• Tanning Can Cause Cancer, but Not Tanning Could Cause a Lot Worse - Gizmodo
• 10 things you can do today to start your primal journey - Courageous Mind

NUTRITION

• Are Traditionally Prepared Grains Healthy? - Mark's Daily Appple
• Not your grandma’s strawberries - Grist
• Train your brain to crave healthy foods - CNN Health
• Answer for Invasive Species: Put It on a Plate and Eat It - The New York Times

URBAN FARMING

• Photos: NRDC New York Visits Urban Farms - NRDC Swithboard
• Emanuel widens city's gate to urban gardening - Chicago Tribune
• Across the Bay Area, urban farming is in season - Los Angeles Times

Simply Paleo: Pan-Fried Salmon Steak with Brussels Sprouts

By John Michael

Each Simply Paleo features a Paleo meal that requires minimal effort and delivers maximal tastiness. With these meals, preparation time, from washing the veggies, to preparing the plate, should be no longer than twenty-five minutes. 

Pan-Fried Salmon Steak with Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients:

• 12 – 14 Brussels Sprouts
• 1 Salmon Steak
• 2-3 Tbsp. Sunflower Seed Oil

Take a few minutes to cut your Brussels sprouts in half; this will reduce your preparation time, and ensure that the sprouts are cooked evenly. Then add a few drops of sunflower seed oil to your pan, set the flame to medium-high, and then toss your sliced Brussels sprouts in. Allow them to soak up the oil as the pan gets hot, and then, once the oil has more or less vanished, drop a swig of water into the pan, and then cover it with a lid. This quick steaming will speed the cook time of the sprouts without making them mushy. After four or five minutes, and once the water has completely evaporated, add 2 tablespoons of sunflower seed oil to the pan, and then, after reducing your flame to low-medium heat, drop your salmon steak in with the Brussels sprouts. Keeping the flame low is important; if too high, the salmon will stick to the pan, and begin to break apart in flakes as it cooks. Every five minutes for the next fifteen, flip your salmon steak so that a different side touches the pan; I find I get the best results if I cook every side except for the one with skin. After twenty minutes, turn off the heat, and then transfer your salmon and Brussels sprouts to a plate. With five minutes to cut your veggies, and twenty minutes for cooking them with the salmon, the total time for this dish comes to twenty-five minutes.

Salmon is one of my favorite fish, and cooking it in this simple manner allows the meal to be dominated by its rich and succulent flavor, which is then contrasted pleasingly by the leafy heartiness and faint vegetal bitterness of the Brussels sprouts. Don’t be surprised if, with this meal, you find yourself eating every morsel on your plate.

Book Review: Before the Dawn

By John Michael

The premise of the Paleo diet, that we should eat the foods we were designed to eat, is founded upon the ideas of evolutionary biology. But for many of us, the science of evolutionary biology is, if not a complete mystery, then only a vaguely understood concept.

In Before the Dawn, (2006) Nicholas Wade, a science writer for the New York Times, guides the reader through the history of human development, starting with the first hominids, and then continuing until the present day, with an interesting glance at evolutionary changes that have occurred in the human genome since the Neolithic, when humankind began to leave behind their hunter-gatherer life and took up a settled agricultural existence.

Why does this book matter to Paleo dieters? For one thing, the better informed we are of our evolutionary heritage, the easier it is for us to make the right decisions concerning our bodies, and this book covers the spectrum of human evolutionary history, from the development of the nose, to the appearance of the pair bond among couples.

Most importantly, Wade talks about what distinguished behaviorally modern humans, who appeared around 50,000 years ago by his count, from those hominids who came before them.

"The bringers of the new culture made personal ornaments, of materials such as punctured teeth, shells and ivory beads. They played bird-bone flutes. Their missile technology was much improved. They were avid hunters who could take down large and dangerous game. They buried their dead with rituals. They could support denser populations. They developed trade networks through which they obtained distant materials." 

The distinction that Wade makes shows us how these ancient peoples might be models for modern life, and how they might not. The importance they attached to music, dancing, spirituality, and art, for example, could inform our own modern Paleo lifestyles, while their near universal practice of constant warfare would perhaps best be left in the past. Finally, in keeping with Paleoterran's mission, Before the Dawn offers knowledge of how the Earth formed us, which can foster a deeper sense within us of our connection to this planet, and so reveal yet again what should already be a common truth: that the health of this planet and our own are intimately connected, at such a depth that the welfare of one is indistinguishable from the welfare of the other.

Quote: Surreal CrossFit Games

I've never seen so many healthy people in one place.  Almost no one was overweight.  It was surreal.

John Durant
Hunter-Gatherer

Monthly Finds - July 2011

ENVIRONMENT

• Caltech Study Says Vertical Axis Wind Turbines 10X More Efficient Than Horizontal Axis Turbines- EcoGeek
• Revenge of the Electric Car - OnEarth 
• Electric Car Charging Meets GPS Devices - EcoGeek

FITNESS 

• The Broken Fitness Industry - Everyday Paleo
• CrossFit: They both look fit to kill - Arizona Daily Star
• What is the Best Time of Day to Exercise? – Mark’s Daily Apple

MODERN DISEASES

• Gluten Intolerance, Celiac Disease, and The "Whole" Grain Story... – FUEL AS RX

NUTRITION

• Some vegetarians beat a ‘humane’ retreat back to meat - Today
• USDA finds in favor of grass-fed cows - Rodale Institute
• Whether it's food or drugs, addiction is the same, new study finds – MSNBC BodyOdd
• Waiting for Garlic - OnEarth
• Paleolithic Diet – Enhancing One’s Wellness - Community Sport Network
• Is a Paleolithic Diet Right For You? Author and Expert Sarah Fragoso Explains - Best of You Today
• More People May Benefit From Going Gluten-Free – Medline Plus
• Why Grass Fed Beef Isn't Just Healthier – Environmental News Network

RECIPES

• shaved summer squash salad – Modern Paleo
• Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Grain-Free Sugar-Free Primal Paleo Pancakes – Primal Kitchen
• Garlic Marinated Broccoli with Olives and Red Pepper – Mark’s Daily Apple

PRIMAL LIVING

• Rooftop Urban Farm: Brooklyn Grange – Marcus Samuelsson
• Five Painless Ways To Be A Social (Paleo) Butterfly – The Clothes Make The Girl
• Cedar Rapids panel backs urban farm village - Chicago Tribune
• Emanuel widens city's gate to urban gardening - Chicago Tribune

FROM THE ARCHIVE

• Are mainstream nutritionists beginning to recognize the value of Paleolithic nutrition?
• An "Insight of the Decade": Chronic inflammation kills

Simply Paleo: Sautéed Chicken with Broccoli and Carrots

By John Michael

Each Simply Paleo features a Paleo meal that requires minimal effort and delivers maximal tastiness. With these meals, preparation time, from washing the veggies, to preparing the plate, should be no longer than twenty-five minutes.

Sautéed Chicken with Broccoli and Carrots:

 Ingredients:

• Half a crown of broccoli
• Half a carrot
• 1 Skinless, boneless chicken breast
• 1 Clove of garlic
• Herbs/spices of your choice
• 1-2 Tbsp. Olive oil

Start with a skillet, and add about a tablespoon of olive oil to it. Then chop your clove of garlic, and add it to the pan. After washing your veggies, chop both the carrot and the broccoli, and then add those as well. At this point, turn on the heat, setting the flame at medium. (You may also want to cover the pan to decrease cooking time.) While the vegetables cook, cut the chicken breast into knuckle-sized cubes. Then toss these cubes into the pan, alongside the vegetables. I find that at this point it’s best to season, as whatever herbs and spices I drop in the pan will stick to the raw chicken as it cooks. Alternate between leaving the pan covered, and then removing its cover and shuffling the veggies and chicken around so they don’t burn. If necessary, add a bit more olive oil, but be sparing. Cook time should take no more than fifteen minutes. Adding in five minutes for washing and chopping the veggies brings the total time for this dish to twenty minutes.

Overall, this is a savory meal, although one finds a bit of sweetness in the carrots, and the hearty flavor of the chicken is offset by the broccoli's faint bitterness.

Loren Cordain - Origins and Evolution of the Western Diet

Dr. Loren Cordain lectures on the anthropological and biochemical basis of the Paleolithic diet. This excellent presentation is lengthy. Break it up into two or three sessions. (IHMC Evening Lecture Series - uploaded April 5, 2011)

Quote: More work for the primal / Paleo community

It is bad news. Twenty years ago, no state had an obesity rate above 15%. Now, 38 states have rates above 25%. It's a huge shift, and it's relentless.

James Marks, MD, MPH
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Becoming Paleo, Part 7: Switching to the Paleo Diet

Meals like this simple mix of stir-fried broccoli, carrots, and beef became a regular feature of my life once I went Paleo. By John Michael

With the projections of anxiety deactivated, and with my connection to my health instinct firmly established, I could finally begin my switch to the Paleo diet. I’m not going to pretend that it was an overnight switch; all in all, it took me about a month and a half to become 100% Paleo. A large part of the reason for this delay was that I was still bothered by the ghosts of my anxious cravings. Even though they were nowhere nearly as strong as they had been before, I still didn’t struggle to resist them, because I feared their repression. Instead, I would indulge them, and carefully observe myself as I did so, hunting for clues as to the reason why I felt these minor cravings, and then I would alter my behavior according to whatever knowledge I gained from these observations.

Sporadic cravings aside, there were other challenges that going Paleo presented me with. Now that a large portion of the food that I used to eat was out of the picture, I had to learn how to cook new meals. Fortunately, though, my Paleo meals are generally very simple, often consisting of no more than a portion of meat, a mix of vegetables, and a piece of fruit. I also had to learn where the best places to buy my Paleo foods were, and whether there were dangers associated with the consumption of these new foods, like pesticide contamination in my fruits and vegetables, or mercury contamination in my fish. Yet these challenges were relatively simple and limited in scope when compared to the great challenge that I faced each time that I finished a Paleo meal.

Even though I would only eat as much as I needed, and would never overeat, after each Paleo meal I would feel an enormous surge of energy that prevented me from being sedentary; I was often so full of energy that I would find it necessary to use my body for at least a half an hour. Obviously this interfered with my work schedule, but it became a necessary component of my new Paleo lifestyle, because to ignore this energy would actually cause me physical discomfort.

I soon found that my switching to the Paleo diet was radically changing my life. I was transforming from an unhealthy and sedentary young man who spent a good part of his free time seeking out the industrial foods that calmed his anxious cravings, to a relatively healthy and fit young man who had begun to spend his free time exercising and engaged in other active endeavors. The change that I had made to my diet was echoing throughout my entire life, and leading to great and positive alterations in my personal culture.

Suddenly, upon becoming 100% Paleo, I was faced with a question. “What should I do with all of this energy?” I asked myself, and, surprisingly, my answer was, “I think I’ll take up dancing.”

Thanks for reading about the transformative journey that I undertook in order to switch to the Paleo Diet. If you have a similar story, or if you’d just like to talk about the challenges that you’ve faced in leaving behind industrial foods and switching to this diet, then please feel free to post them in the comments section below.

Quote: "Ocean bulldozers" - enormous nets weighed down with rollers - scrape the ocean floor

I mentioned earlier that those rollers have the power to push aside twenty-five-ton boulders. They pulverize everything in their path, crushing deep coral, grinding boulders to rubble, wiping out populations of old fish and other creatures, which will take generations to recover, and leave behind a flat, lifeless moonscape of gravel and sand.

Ted Danson with Michael D'Orso
Oceana