speaking of food-ishness...

[boogieshoes]

so, i'm all excited because i ordered 40lbs of assorted elk, buffalo, and goat meat cuts a couple of weeks ago, and it came in last night (mild delay in filling my order, so i opted to wait a week instead of substituting a cut).  and filled up my freezer completely. :-)  i ordered from this place:

http://www.elkusa.com/ and i am just saying... go, give them some business, cause they're great guys.  anyway, i order these 'exotic meats' when i can afford it because they're healthier - lower fat content, and no Bovine Growth Hormone.  my body is pretty sensitive to the chemicals i put in it, so i'd rather *not* put in 'extras' like BGH, because knowing me, it's part of my issue-set.  and it's not enough just to buy 'organically grown beef'at the store, because unfortunately no matter how well the farmer treats his cattle, the slaughter houses often inject BGH and other chemicals at the last minute to fatten the cows.  so if you're trying to avoid this particular 'extra', the best bets are to buy direct from the farm (and i do mean 'direct' - as in, buy and slaughter your own cow or go in on one), or find an supplier that specializes in the more 'common exotics'. 

'hidden chemical crap' is why i'm so big on gardening.  i'm trying to learn to grow my own produce, and to do so consistently and well enough from season to season to supply me with most, if not all, of my fruit and vegetable needs.  eventually, i'd even like to learn how to can and preserve my fruits, veggies, and herbs.  i've been slowly implementing different phases of this project for a while:  i've known since college that the processed stuff you buy isn't always good for you, and i've also known that modern medicines sometimes have more side effects than they're worth*.  so i began researching herbal remedies and moved on into the idea that it'd be nice to also know how to can and preserve my own foods, so i could better control my intake of chemicals. 

i've been feeling pretty good about my garden, even if it's not as successful as i'd want in some areas, both because i've discovered how much fun it is to grow things and because even if i produce just 1 strawberry a year, it's the *best*-tasting strawberry i have all year.  however, i know i still have a lot to learn, and i'm still dependent on store-bought items while i do so, so i've always got half-an-eye out for articles about the chemicals we ingest via food and drink.

yesterday, dracephalen posted some links about aspartame essentially being toxic.  this totally makes me grumble, and not because he's wrong.  the truth is, i'm addicted to diet coke, and i'm not sure i can wean myself from it.  and big chunk of that is, i'm not sure i *want* to wean myself from it, and actually wanting to change is a big part of that battle.  but, if the articles he linked to me are correct, then i seriously need to start lowering my intake as much as possible.  if i understand the articles correctly, and looking at my own behavior, i don't believe i have 'acute', or immediate-reaction allergies/ problems to aspartame.  on the other hand, as much diet coke as i drink, i'm *certainly* at risk for long-term aspartame poisoning.

and evidently, one of the symptoms of aspartame poisoning is difficulty losing weight/ obesity.  the articles weren't clear on why this might be so, but afaik, there are two probable mechanisms:  one is that aspartame sparks 'hungry' feelings, and not realizing the connection, people over-eat.  i can handle that, and i'm constantly working on my diet, in terms of improving *what* i eat, and not eating big servings.  the other probably mechanism is an interference with insulin production/ food absorption.  that's a much more serious problem for the overweight thing, and most definitly requires an absolute reduction in total amount of aspartame ingested.  and that would be much more difficult for me, psychologically, to deal with. 

right now, i don't have enough information to go forward with this, but there is one thing i can do: switch which bottled water i drink to one that doesn't contain aspartame. (i checked the brand i usually buy last night, and it does, unfortunately, contain aspartame.)  i'm not sure i'm going to fing one that satisfies my preferences, because i prefer carbonated flavored water, since flat water ends up tasting too much like the plastic bottle.  eesh.  but i really need to try to find something to switch too, because if i can lower the amount of aspartame i ingest, even if i can't bring myself to do away with it completely, it'll be better for my body.  and that's what it's all about.

-bs

*almost forgot my note on medicines:  i'm not advocating a rejection of western medicine and western medical techniques, here, and i'm certainly not a medical doctor, so, you know - take this advice for what it's worth.  what i'm saying is that i prefer a blend of eastern, traditional folk, and western medical traditions, because if the overall goal is 'better quality of life', each has their own strengths to contribute.  however, no one tradition is the end-all be-all of any system, and each individual should taylor their personal 'blend' to themselves.  remember, we're all unique, just like everybody else.

Comments

[seawasp]

My problem with many "other" meats is that they tend to have hideous backflavors. I can handle lamb, beef, pork, chicken, duck, turkey, and many/most products of the sea, but all of the venison I've ever tried has been just plain nasty, goat is... unspeakable.

[boogieshoes.livejournal.com]

this is probably a 'mileage may vary' thing.

i liked the deer meat i've had, although i can't actually speak to goat - this is the first time i've ever had any. lamb and duck are very rich. buffalo tastes a lot like beef, but is a little sweeter. pork, chicken, turkey, i can handle that stuff if it's cooked in a certain manner, but cured ham type meats are just nasty - i also tend to dislike 'lunch-meat' cures/ cuts/ etc.

i usually hate products of the sea. it's a personal thing, but i really just don't like most of 'em.

so, yeah, you do what works for you. the big take-away here is to be careful of store-bought meats - any of them - because the industrial slaughterhouses are in it to make money, just like anybody else. they're going to do what makes sense to their bottom line and increases their profit margin. if that's something you need to worry about for some reason, the best thing to do is find a supplier you can be sure of.

-bs

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

there's a store here that buys elk directly from people who go out and shoot them. and we can get bison. not sure who does the processing. didn't know about the pre-slaughterhouse contaminationissue though. that's disturbing. i'll have to check up on it.

my uncle went temporarily blind from aspartame that had undergone some sort of chemical change after being stuck in the sun in 'nam for awhile. apparently it can turn into some methyl alcohol combo?

[boogieshoes.livejournal.com]

re slaughterhouses, oddly enough, i picked up that tidbit in a fanficrants discussion - i can't remember how it started, but one of the people involved worked on an organic beef farm and mentioned it. i don't know enough of the industry to say every slaughterhouse will do it, but it's worth checking out your meat sources to be sure, you know?

re aspartame, one of the links dracephalen gave me mentioned that it basically turned into woodgrain alcohol in the body. which, yeah, not good. i'd like to find more research on that, but if that turns out to be verifiable fact, i'm def. gonna have to figure out a diet coke replacement!

-bs

[xmurphyjacobsx.livejournal.com]

Like a lot of folks, I can't really handle the flavors of game meat. I'm not a huge meat eater -- some days I eat none at all, and other times I crave it like nobody's business, but more often than not, I will cook something (beef or chicken, usually) and the smell will make me feel ill, so I skip the meat. I've tried goat, since we have a local farmer who sells goat meat, but it's not quite there yet for me (have to try it in a meatloaf). I don't eat a lot of fish for similar taste/smell issues, and also because much ocean fish disagrees with me, as does pork.

As for the aspartame thing, I'm with you. I like caffeine, but I can't handle the tannins in in tea or most coffee. I also no longer drink sugared soda (occasionally one with actual sugar as opposed to hfcs). So, I worked to condition myself to one kind of diet soda that contains caffeine. I go through cycles with it -- sometimes I drink to much, then I will fast on it, then be moderate for a while. I haven't seen any good studies about the affects of aspartame (I've seen some for hfcs, plus I experimented for myself and found I could tell the difference) so I'm just playing the "moderation" game and waiting to see. I gotta have one or two vices!!

[boogieshoes.livejournal.com]

yeah. caffeine is a vice i'm not sure i want to give up!

-bs

[alienfish.livejournal.com]

My sister won't eat fish. She just won't. I never heard of aspartame before this, so there lies yet another reason for me to read your blogs. *smile*

I had heard of a connection between allergies and difficulty losing weight, though. As far as we know, I'm mildly allergic to shrimp and to dust (and dust mites).

[boogieshoes.livejournal.com]

aspartame is the stuff in nutrasweet and equal and all that - the 'fake sugar' stuff that doesn't have any calories. it's used as flavoring in a lot of diet food type stuff, so if you *have* to watch for it, you end up reading every single label out there. it's ubiquitous, like msg. :-p

dracephalen mentioned that aspartame is banned in several countries, at least in food products marketed to children - you may not have as much of a problem avoiding it in japan as we would here in america.

-bs

[spartanwerewolf.livejournal.com]

Om nom nom nom! I should send you antelope.

[boogieshoes.livejournal.com]

yes, yes you should. :-D

-bs