Pork

Preparing for another break

Posted 2024-03-09 by Gary

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Dear Reader,

Introduction

I hope you’ve had a good week. Mine was busy. Work was mostly back-to-back meetings, and I’ve been cleaning at home a lot.

I’m taking leave from work for the next two weeks. I may not post next weekend. I’ve got a lot happening, so stay tuned if you’re interested.

I’ll be spending time with Kathleen, so it’s going to be wonderful.

How is the foot?

What’s happened this week?

Apart from some paraesthesia and stiffness, the foot and ankle are okay. I’ve been doing some walking, and I feel that my foot, ankle, and knee will improve as I continue to walk.

Over the next two weeks, I’ll be on my feet a lot, so I’m hoping all goes well with the foot (as well as the knee).

What have I been watching?

Masters of the Air

Masters of the Air is an Apple Original show about the crews flying the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress platform in World War II. The miniseries is based on the 2007 book by Donald L. Miller and follows the actions of the 100th Bomb Group, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber unit in the Eighth Air Force in eastern England during World War II.

What have I been listening to?

Change your diet, change your mind.

I’ve started to get into this book by Georgia Ede. I like how she explains psychiatry in the context of neurology. The author can explain the anatomy and physiology of the brain and then speculate on its relationship with psychiatric disease. (Ede, 2024)

The book emphasises how what we eat affects our mental health and wellbeing. This book connects naturally with other books I’ve been reading about human nutrition and metabolic health.

The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, narrated by Ralph Cosham

“The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis is a satirical novel written as letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew Wormwood, a junior tempter. Their goal is to lead a recent Christian convert, the “Patient,” away from faith and toward damnation.

Through Screwtape’s advice, Lewis explores how demons exploit human weaknesses like pride, vanity, and anger. The “letters” offer a perspective on faith and the subtle ways temptations can lead us astray. (Lewis, 2009)

Recipe — or not

In preparation for two weeks away, I’m eating out my refrigerator, so I don’t have a recipe to share today.

My meals have been the routine meals I mentioned last week, namely, eggs, butter, minced beef, and steak.

Photographs

Poached farmed New Zealand Pacific salmon. In my opinion it tastes better and flakes better than Atlantic salmon.

Final thoughts

Do you eat everything in your refrigerator when you prepare to go away?
Do you have a fascination for the tools used for war?
Have you read “The Screwtape Letters”? What did you think?

Disclaimer and comments

This post and other posts on this blog are not medical or health advice. I’m sharing my personal experiences from my lived experience. My opinions remain mine.

For health advice, see your regular medical practitioner. For diet advice, consult with appropriately registered professionals.

References

Ede, G. (2024). Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind: A Food-First Plan to Optimize Your Mental Health. Hodder & Stoughton.

Lewis, C. S. (2009). Screwtape letters. Turtleback Books.

Pork loin roast

Posted 2023-10-28 by Gary

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Yummy Lummy. Yummy Lummy is a blog for people who live alone and are keen to cook meals for one.

I also share my opinions on topics others may (or may not) be interested in. With my recent change in diet (SAD→CSIRO TWD→LCHF), the blog’s emphasis is shifting to my opinion on some food and non-food-related topics.

I cite most journal articles or books I’ve read and mentioned. You can see the citations at the bottom of the post.

You can skip the introduction and jump to the recipe if you don’t care to read my views.

Introduction

I hope you’ve had a good week. I was meant to be in Geneva (Ville de Genève) this week for a meeting. I ended up attending virtually. It worked out that I could complete my normal work and attend the Geneva-based meetings from 1800 to 0200 AEDT for two nights. I was tired by the end of the week. It almost felt like I had jetlag without any jet travel.

The photographs below are from trips to Geneva I’ve made in past years for work.

Téléphérique Salève Cable Car Mont Salève Geneva View

Now that I can walk more with my cane, I’ve been able to visit the supermarket and purchase one or two items that I can carry home with one hand. I’ve also been able to visit the seafood shop so I can purchase wild-caught salmon rather than farmed salmon.

New exercise ball and a rubber band for physiotherapy exercises.

I was hoping to purchase a rugby league ball, however, the only ones on sale were for teams I do not support.

With more movement, my anorexia (loss of appetite) has lessened, and I’ve been eating more and gaining weight.

Weight chart showing the weight associated with muscle atrophy and the recent increase in weight.

What have I been watching?

Senate estimates (Supplementary Budget estimates)

Three times a year, Australian senators ask questions of senior officials in Australian Government departments in formal hearings at Parliament House.

Years past, I’ve sat at “the table” and answered questions posed by senators. These days, my betters appear, and answer questions posed by senators.

It’s an important opportunity in our democracy for questions to be asked in a public forum and for the government of the day to reply via its public servants.

What have I been reading?

Red meat intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in a prospective cohort study of United States females and males (Gu et al., 2023)

I saw some popular news services report on a paper recently published by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The authors of the paper advise that red meat may raise the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Most news services did not cite the publication, so readers had to rely on journalists to interpret the journal article. When I’ve looked at some of the journalists doing the reporting, it’s not clear they have a critical approach to examining data.

Most media accounts do not provide an analysis of the paper in sufficient detail. The general reader will take away a message that eating red meat may cause T2DM. In my opinion, this is an inaccurate interpretation. This journal article raises some questions.

For example:

The journal article is observational and, therefore, cannot claim causation.
The studies assessed by the authors used food recall questionnaires, which ask participants to remember and record what they have eaten over various intervals, ranging from a couple of weeks to a couple of years. It’s difficult to believe that all the participants remembered accurately the food they consumed, including the amount of food.
The studies used by the journal paper authors include sandwiches and lasagne as red meat. I suggest the bread and pasta are the problem and not the meat.
Red meat has negligible carbohydrates and likely zero glucose, so how can it contribute to T2DM?
The absolute risk is minuscule, while the relative risk looks impressive. This style of presentation is a confidence trick of epidemiology.
Body mass index (BMI) isn’t adjusted because the authors claim BMI is higher due to red meat consumption. Yet, the BMI could be higher because associated carbohydrate consumption (the accompanying food with meat like potatoes and sweetened drinks) was higher. For example, someone who consumes too many meat pies will become clinically obese compared with someone who eats scotch fillet (ribeye) steaks without the pie casing and the flour for the gravy. I think it’s the carbohydrates contributing to an increased BMI and the T2DM rather than the red meat per se.
The journal article also suggests that women eat more red meat than men. I don’t know about that.

My concern is that meat eaters who are obese should be compared with 1. low-carbohydrate, healthy-fat meat eaters and 2. those who adhere to a standard American (or Australian) diet. If such a study was done, I’d expect negligible T2DM in the low-carbohydrate healthy-fat meat eaters compared with the other two arms of the study.

If the raw data were examined again, I expect lean red meat eaters would not feature in terms of any possible association with T2DM.

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is known for its plant-based preference. You can find a page titled “Why plant-based diets are good for human and planetary health” on their website. The page shares how one of the school’s professors was a co-author of the EAT-Lancet Commission guidelines, which are mostly plant-based.

The school also advocates for Meatless Mondays (—or more). I might change to Salmon Sundays and Meat-filled Mondays to keep the alliteration.

Do you have days of the week dedicated to a specific meal?

Blood glucose monitoring devices: current considerations

This Australian Prescriber article (Sly & Taylor, 2023), provides an easy-to-read and relatively comprehensive overview of the available blood glucose monitoring devices in Australia.

The authors conclude that continuous monitoring is recommended for persons with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus and those with T2DM who need daily insulin.

Some Yummy Lummy readers are interested in diabetes mellitus and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). I hope this article is of interest.

Do you continuously monitor your blood glucose?

Is snoozing losing? Why intermittent morning alarms are used and how they affect sleep, cognition, cortisol, and mood (Sundelin et al., 2023)

As part of my daily trawl through the “medical news”, this article piqued my interest. It used the term chronotype, which I’d not come across before. It refers to a person’s natural inclination for sleep at certain times. I came across this website, which describes the various chronotypes. I’m a lion 🦁 who tends to be a dolphin 🐬

Apparently, using the snooze button on your alarm clock or smart device is not a bad thing for many people.

What’s your chronotype?

The Importance of Dietary Carbohydrates in Human Evolution (Hardy et al., 2015)

The authors (one of whom is based in Sydney at the University of Sydney) propose that plant foods having high quantities of starch were essential for the evolution of humans. They acknowledge that earlier studies have highlighted a shift from plant-based to primarily meat-based diets as critical in developing the brain and other human traits. The authors argue that digestible carbohydrates were also necessary to accommodate the increased metabolic demands of a growing brain.

Furthermore, they describe the role cooking played in improving the digestibility and palatability of carbohydrates. The authors propose the auxiliary role of salivary amylase in increasing the importance of starch in human evolution following the origins of cooking. They say salivary amylases are ineffective on raw crystalline starch, but cooking substantially increases energy yield and glycæmia.

This paper, argues against a core tenant of people advocating for a low-carbohydrate healthy-fat way of life. (Noakes, 2023)

What have I been listening to?

I haven’t been listening to much because of the meetings in Geneva and watching Senate estimates hearings.

Recipe

I went for a wander through a supermarket and saw this pork loin roast and thought it would make a great meat source for this weekend and for lunch meat this week.

Equipment

Slow cooker
Air fryer

Ingredients

Pork loin
Beef, chicken, lamb, and pork stock — you can use any meat-based stock for this. You could also use a plant-based stock or a meat and plant stock. I’m using this because it’s what I have at hand.

Pork loin roast In the plastic (recycle plastic) packaging.

Instructions

Place the meat and the stock into the cooking vessel.
Slowly cook for six hours.
Remove the meat and place the roast on a tray and into the air fryer for 20 minutes at 160 °C (320 °F).
Set aside a part of the pork for dinner, put the rest into a container, and refrigerate. The pork can be used for lunches during the week.
Filter the cooking liquor and keep it as the perpetual master stock.
Serve the pork with vegetables or eat them alone. If you’re following a carnivore diet, just the pork will be more than sufficient to satisfy your hunger. If you’re low-carbohydrate, healthy-fat eating, the meat and some plant-based real foods like avocado, leafy green leaves, olives, and tomatoes are a good combination. If you’re not concerned with carbohydrates, stewed apples and sauerkraut would go well with the roast pork. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, this pork won’t be suitable.
Always give thanks to the Lord.
Eat with whatever implements you prefer. This includes your fingers.

Thoughts on the meal

If you like pork with a good amount of fat, you’ll like this roast.

The loin isn’t a tender cut of meat, even when it’s slowly cooked. The fat meat was tender, but the loin meat was a little dry. Overall, the slices of pork loin roast were good and coupled nicely with the cabbage and sour cream.

Do you like pork? What’s your favourite cut of pork, and how do you cook it?

Disclaimer and comments

This post and other posts on this blog do not constitute medical or health advice. I’m sharing my personal experiences from my lived experience. My opinions remain mine.

References

Gu, X., Drouin-Chartier, J.-P., Sacks, F. M., Hu, F. B., Rosner, B., & Willett, W. C. (2023). Red meat intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in a prospective cohort study of United States females and males. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, S0002916523661192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2023.08.021

Hardy, K., Brand-Miller, J., Brown, K. D., Thomas, M. G., & Copeland, L. (2015). The Importance of Dietary Carbohydrate in Human Evolution. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 90(3), 251–268. https://doi.org/10.1086/682587

Noakes, T. (2023). Ketogenic: The science of therapeutic carbohydrate restriction in human health. Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier.

Sly, B., & Taylor, J. (2023). Blood glucose monitoring devices: Current considerations. Australian Prescriber, 46(3), 54–59. https://doi.org/10.18773/austprescr.2023.013

Sundelin, T., Landry, S., & Axelsson, J. (2023). Is snoozing losing? Why intermittent morning alarms are used and how they affect sleep, cognition, cortisol, and mood. Journal of Sleep Research, e14054. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.14054

Who to follow.

Zoë Harcombe, PhD

If you’re interested in food and nutrition, I suggest following Zoë at her website and on X (nee Twitter).

Dr Harcombe reviews published nutrition articles and provides a critical analysis of the quality of the data and the recommendations and/or conclusions of the authors.

Zoë describes herself as “…a real foodie first and foremost. I’m passionate about real food. What do I mean by that? Oranges grow on trees; cartons of orange juice don’t. Fish swim in the sea; fish fingers don’t. Cows graze in a field; Peperoni sticks don’t. Hopefully, you’ve got the idea. Food should come from fields, not factories.”

Legend

BMI = Body mass index.

CGM = Continuous glucose monitoring.

CSIRO TWD = Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Total Wellbeing Diet.

LCHF = low-carbohydrate healthy-fat eating.

Red meat = is the meat of mammals, which includes pork.

SAD = Standard Australian diet (rich in carbohydrates, poor in healthy fats, and heaving in processed and ultra-processed products).

T2DM=Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Slowly cooked pork shoulder

Posted 2023-10-07 by Gary

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Yummy Lummy. The blog is for people who live alone and are keen to cook meals for one.

You can skip the introduction and jump to the recipe.

Introduction

I hope you’ve had a good week. Mine was great. My next week is going to be very busy with work. Doing it all from home will be challenging.

National Rugby League Grand Final

Last Sunday evening, the Brisbane Broncos played against the Penrith Panthers in the 2023 NRL grand final.

It was one of the most exciting games of rugby league I’ve watched. The lead changed a few times in dramatic ways. In the end — in a nail-biting finish — the Panthers scored a game-clinching try and are the premiers for 2023.

I’m now excited for the games involving the Australian Kangaroos, who will be playing some Pacific Island Country national teams. If you’re interested in the draw, the fixture dates and times are available at the National Rugby League website.

This has been a tremendous season for rugby league. My father won a tipping competition and remains happy in an afterglow of success. The Dolphins NRL team had a fabulous inaugural year in the NRL. Some of their players have made international sides for the Pacific Championships, including the Kangaroos. Of course, the icing was the mighty XXXX Queensland Maroons defeating the NSW Blues in the State of Origin series.

Next year looks good to be another phenomenal year of rugby league, and I hope to catch Dolphins games in person at Lang Park when visiting family in Brisbane.

Orthopædic surgeon review of my knee

On Thursday afternoon, I visited my consultant surgeon so he could review the patella ORIF he was responsible for six weeks ago.

Before I saw him, I had an x-ray of my knee. I asked to look at the images. The patella repair looked great to my untrained eye.

The surgeon was impressed with the repair’s quality and my wound’s appearance. He was happy with my muscle tone and explained I should have full muscle strength again in about three to six months. He explained his registrar’s procedure in-depth when repairing and fixing the fracture and the ruptured retinaculum. This helped explain better what I was feeling and seeing.

I’m now also able to use a cane instead of crutches. Besides new shoes that won’t slip on tiles, I’m considering dressing like House when I return to work.

What have I been listening to?

The Great Plant-based Con

The Audible app artificial intelligence recommended this book written by Jayne Buxton. Like books I’ve been listening to recently on low-carbohydrate, healthy-fat eating, the author examines plant-based eating. She reviews much of the available literature and reminds readers that observational associative studies and meta-analyses can never prove causation.

The introduction does an excellent job of pointing out the difference between relative and absolute risk and the problem of confounders in observational studies, which rely on participant memory for what they may have eaten.

I have friends who are passionate about their plant-based diets, and I respect their choices. I know they have considered the risks and benefits and the ethical proposition. There is a lot of conflicting advice; everyone must consider the evidence and decide. I think it’s great that more and more catering companies and restaurants are accommodating diversity in dietary desires.

The book is neither anti-plant nor anti-vegan, and it reviews the facts about human diets and their effect on the environment. I like that Australians like Matthew Evans are featured. I met Matthew in 2015 at a Canberra blogging convention. He is a food critic who has become a farmer and restaurateur. (Evans, 2019)

It’s worth mentioning the book examines some distortions in pro-plant-based food science; however, it does not always apply the same rigour to its own biases. There are repeated references to the work of one animal-food researcher funded in part by the US livestock industry.

One fascinating feature is the exposition of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church’s role, the business relationship with Kellogg, and the fixation on masturbation amongst boys and young men. According to the SDA church founder Ellen G. White and Kellogg, meat causes impure thoughts in men and causes them to want to masturbate. I didn’t realise how much SDAs influence dietetic and nutrition societies and government guidance in countries where such involvement is possible. (Buxton, 2022)

What have I been reading?

Low carbohydrate diet and Japanese men

During the week, a reader sent me an e-mail mentioning a study from Nagoya University that reported Japanese men on a “low carbohydrate” diet had poor health outcomes.

I searched for the study and found Dietary Carbohydrate and Fat Intakes and Risk of Mortality in the Japanese Population: the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study by Tamura, Takashi et al. (Tamura et al., 2023)

The study was observational, associative, and focused on relative risk. It contains no cause-and-effect evidence. This study cannot prove causation and strictly can’t confer anything about risk, given risk implies cause and effect. The study generated some questions for me:

These studies often rely on the memory of participants to record their diet.
These studies do not provide absolute “risk” information and rely on relative “risk”, which creates a perception bias. The relative risk often appears large when the absolute risk is tiny.
It’s not clear what is meant by high fat, e.g., what is the relationship between saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, and polyunsaturated fat in the diet eaten by the participants, and what is the source of the fats; it’s also not clear if trans fats and hydrogenated oils were part of the diet, there is a difference between high-fat and healthy-fat, how much of the fat came from processed seed oils vs cold pressed fruit oil or animal saturated fat?
What other confounders exist besides the diet, e.g., smoking, exercise, pollutants, and what constitutes low carbohydrate intake? Note that <40% CHO (up to 40%) is not a low carbohydrate diet. Such a diet might contain confounding associated with insulin resistance in the participants. Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome could explain some of the adverse health effects reported. Given that the advocates of low-carbohydrate healthy-fat (LCHF) eating have CHO ratios <10% of their diet, up to 40% is a problem for this study and doesn’t constitute low carbohydrate.

Inferences from a study like this are problematic and don’t answer the clinical questions.

Body mass index (BMI)

I have been thinking about BMI and how the interpretation differs from country to country. I found an answer to a question I’d had since January.

The healthy weight range BMI for men in Australia of Asian descent is 18.5 to 22.9 kg/m². This range is lower than the healthy weight range BMI for men of European descent, which is 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m².

People of Asian descent tend to have a higher body fat percentage and a lower muscle mass percentage than people of European descent at the same BMI. As a result, they are at increased risk of developing obesity-related chronic diseases, such as Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and heart disease, at a lower BMI.

The lesson for me is obvious. Keep low-carbohydrate, healthy-fat eating and lose more weight. I have much to live for in life. I love life at the moment. I eat to live and enjoy what I do and how I do it.

Cholesterol, blood clotting, and cardiovascular risk

I’ve also spent some of my leisure time reading articles on cholesterol and the role of coagulation in cardiovascular risk. (Diamond et al., 2019, 2022; Diamond & Leaverton, 2023a, 2023b; Diamond & Ravnskov, 2015; Ravnskov, De Lorgeril, Diamond, et al., 2018; Ravnskov, De Lorgeril, Kendrick, et al., 2018; Ravnskov et al., 2016, 2019, 2020a, 2020b, 2022; Targher et al., 2019)

I also discovered a chemical pathologist friend has spoken at low carbohydrate healthy-fat conferences. He’s an expert in metabolic syndrome and the biochemistry of lipids, liver function, and iron balance. He has some very informative YouTube videos.

Recipe

I feel like my weekly recipes here are getting boring and predictable. If you get bored, you’re always welcome to stop reading. I don’t mind.

While I don’t credit my recovery from my injury to my diet, I know my diet is healthful. I’m eating nutrient-dense complete proteins and avoiding highly- and ultra-processed foods. My consumption of sugar and other carbohydrates is low, and I’m avoiding seed oils and trans fats.

Equipment

Slow cooker
Oven

Ingredients

Pork
Iodised salt
Beef, chicken, lamb, and pork broth

Instructions

Place the pork, salt, and broth into the slow cooker and turn it on. Cook the meat for eight hours on low heat.
Remove the pork carefully and allow it to drain.
Dry the surface of the pork and place it in an air fryer for 20 minutes at 190 °C (374 °F).
Pour the cooking liquor through a sieve and refrigerate the broth.
Slice the pork and set some aside for dinner while putting the rest of the meat into refrigerator containers.
Serve with vegetables of choice. For those focussed on low carbohydrate, healthy fat eating, you could enjoy some leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, or an avocado cheek. Some potato or pumpkin mash would work well if you eat starchy plants. If you don’t fatten easily, you might want to eat this pork with stewed apple and some pickled and fermented cabbage.
Give thanks to the Lord.
Enjoy.

BLESS

I’m thinking of starting a trend to eat BLESS. I have been watching some YouTube influencers focusing on BBBE, viz., beef, butter, bacon, and eggs.

I don’t eat much bacon because most supermarket-delivered bacon is water-injected and processed with sugar and other carbohydrates.

BLESS represents beef, lamb, eggs, salmon, and sardines. I’m not sure if I’m the first to use this acronym. While eating pork tonight, my go-to foods are beef, lamb, eggs, salmon, and sardines.

Will I make any effort to propagate BLESS? No, this is just a random thought, and I probably won’t do anything with it. 🤣

I thought about this because I recently completed a bible study series on the beatitudes from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.

Thoughts on the meal

The pork was tender. I have enough left over for a couple of meals later this week.

Slowly cooking a pork shoulder roll works well for my style of cooking and eating.

Photographs

Bibliography

Buxton, J. (2022). The great plant-based con: Why eating a plants-only diet won’t improve your health or save the planet. Piatkus.

Diamond, D. M., Bikman, B. T., & Mason, P. (2022). Statin therapy is not warranted for a person with high LDL-cholesterol on a low-carbohydrate diet. Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes & Obesity, 29(5), 497–511. https://doi.org/10.1097/MED.0000000000000764

Diamond, D. M., De Lorgeril, M., Kendrick, M., Ravnskov, U., & Rosch, P. J. (2019). Formal comment on “Systematic review of the predictors of statin adherence for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.” PLOS ONE, 14(1), e0205138. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205138

Diamond, D. M., & Leaverton, P. E. (2023a). Historical Review of the Use of Relative Risk Statistics in the Portrayal of the Purported Hazards of High LDL Cholesterol and the Benefits of Lipid-Lowering Therapy. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.38391

Diamond, D. M., & Leaverton, P. E. (2023b). Historical Review of the Use of Relative Risk Statistics in the Portrayal of the Purported Hazards of High LDL Cholesterol and the Benefits of Lipid-Lowering Therapy. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.c116

Diamond, D. M., & Ravnskov, U. (2015). How statistical deception created the appearance that statins are safe and effective in primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 8(2), 201–210. https://doi.org/10.1586/17512433.2015.1012494

Evans, M. (2019). On eating meat: The truth about its production and the ethics of eating it. Murdoch Books.

Ravnskov, U., Alabdulgader, A., De Lorgeril, M., Diamond, D. M., Hama, R., Hamazaki, T., Hammarskjöld, B., Harcombe, Z., Kendrick, M., Langsjoen, P., McCully, K. S., Okuyama, H., Sultan, S., & Sundberg, R. (2020a). The new European guidelines for prevention of cardiovascular disease are misleading. Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 13(12), 1289–1294. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512433.2020.1841635

Ravnskov, U., Alabdulgader, A., De Lorgeril, M., Diamond, D. M., Hama, R., Hamazaki, T., Hammarskjöld, B., Harcombe, Z., Kendrick, M., Langsjoen, P., McCully, K. S., Okuyama, H., Sultan, S., & Sundberg, R. (2020b). The new European guidelines for prevention of cardiovascular disease are misleading. Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 13(12), 1289–1294. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512433.2020.1841635

Ravnskov, U., De Lorgeril, M., Diamond, D. M., Hama, R., Hamazaki, T., Hammarskjöld, B., Hynes, N., Kendrick, M., Langsjoen, P. H., Mascitelli, L., McCully, K. S., Okuyama, H., Rosch, P. J., Schersten, T., Sultan, S., & Sundberg, R. (2018). LDL-C does not cause cardiovascular disease: A comprehensive review of the current literature. Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 11(10), 959–970. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512433.2018.1519391

Ravnskov, U., De Lorgeril, M., Diamond, D. M., Hama, R., Hamazaki, T., Hammarskjöld, B., Hynes, N., Kendrick, M., Langsjoen, P. H., Mascitelli, L., McCully, K. S., Okuyama, H., Rosch, P. J., Schersten, T., Sultan, S., & Sundberg, R. (2019). Response letter to ‘does high LDL-cholesterol cause cardiovascular disease?’ Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 12(2), 93–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512433.2019.1561102

Ravnskov, U., De Lorgeril, M., Kendrick, M., & Diamond, D. M. (2018). Inborn coagulation factors are more important cardiovascular risk factors than high LDL-cholesterol in familial hypercholesterolemia. Medical Hypotheses, 121, 60–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2018.09.019

Ravnskov, U., De Lorgeril, M., Kendrick, M., & Diamond, D. M. (2022). Importance of Coagulation Factors as Critical Components of Premature Cardiovascular Disease in Familial Hypercholesterolemia. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(16), 9146. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23169146

Ravnskov, U., Diamond, D. M., Hama, R., Hamazaki, T., Hammarskjöld, B., Hynes, N., Kendrick, M., Langsjoen, P. H., Malhotra, A., Mascitelli, L., McCully, K. S., Ogushi, Y., Okuyama, H., Rosch, P. J., Schersten, T., Sultan, S., & Sundberg, R. (2016). Lack of an association or an inverse association between low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in the elderly: A systematic review. BMJ Open, 6(6), e010401. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010401

Tamura, T., Wakai, K., Kato, Y., Tamada, Y., Kubo, Y., Okada, R., Nagayoshi, M., Hishida, A., Imaeda, N., Goto, C., Ikezaki, H., Otonari, J., Hara, M., Tanaka, K., Nakamura, Y., Kusakabe, M., Ibusuki, R., Koriyama, C., Oze, I., … Matsuo, K. (2023). Dietary Carbohydrate and Fat Intakes and Risk of Mortality in the Japanese Population: The Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study. The Journal of Nutrition, 153(8), 2352–2368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2023.05.027

Targher, G., Bonapace, S., & Byrne, C. D. (2019). Does high LDL-cholesterol cause cardiovascular disease? Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 12(2), 91–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512433.2019.1561100

Pork and egg burger

Posted 2023-02-11 by Gary

Dear Reader,

I hope you are well and eating well.

I feel well myself and am enjoying the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet. When I weighed myself this morning, I noted that I had lost 5.2 kilograms since commencing the program.

My jeans and some of my T-shirts now feel loose.

While TWD is more than a low carbohydrate approach to eating and living, reducing unnecessary carbohydrate consumption and replacing it with lean protein is crucial.

I’ve been eating a small portion of granola with unflavoured and unsweetened yoghurt most nights and still losing weight.

This is a photograph of Gary after he weighed in on Saturday morning for the CSIRO TWD. — Saturday’s TWD weigh-in photograph

I thought this week, I would explore some low-carbohydrate bread options.

Recipe

Special equipment

Water bath
Water heater and circulator

Ingredients

Pork scotch fillet steak – I found some steak that was about 150 grams.
Salt – Iodised salt because I support the ongoing need for it. Iodine supplementation prevents cretinism. Anyone who tells you that products like Himalayan rock salt are good for you may not have had enough iodine in utero and during their early childhood.
Pepper – I like using whole peppercorns, and with some of the salt, pound it with a pestle in a mortar. Freshly pounded pepper is superior to pepper which has been cracked or ground and then packaged and sold.
Coles 85% lower carb rolls – One roll has 751 kJ, 19.5 g of protein, 8.4 g of fat, and 2.8 g of carbohydrate.
Egg
Tomato
Lettuce
Praise whole egg light mayonnaise

Instructions

Pork

Season a piece of pork with salt and pepper.
Place the pork into a bag, apply a vacuum, and seal it.
Cook the pork at 54 °C for 2 hours.
Remove the pork from the bag and pat dry the surface with absorbent paper.
Sear the steak in a hot cast-iron skillet.

Burger

Cut the bread roll transversely.
Spread some mayonnaise on the bottom piece of bread. Make it a thin smear; too much is too much.
Toast the bread in a hot skillet until it takes on some colour.
Layer some lettuce leaves on the heel of the bun.
Add some slices of tomato.
Add the pork scotch steak to the tomato.
Lay a poached egg on the steak.
Complete the burger with the top of the bread roll and gently compress the top to break the egg yolk’s membrane so that the egg yolk oozes over the pork to form a rich, luxurious sauce.
If I were still doing YouTube videos, I’d cut the burger in a coronial plane and then pull apart the halves to reveal the cross-section. I did it so you have a still shot in the photographs.
Give thanks to the Lord.
Eat with your hands.

Final thoughts

This pork burger is a basic sandwich. It has minimised the carbohydrate component by using specialty bread. It is high in protein, and therefore it is filling. What it is not is lean. I did not remove the fat from the pork, and while I did use “light” mayonnaise, it is still mayonnaise.

The Coles 85% lower-carb bread is pretty good. It toasted nicely, and it tasted good.

Photographs

Coles 85% lower carb bread in its packaging — Coles 85% lower carb bread

Pork Scotch steak in its packaging — Coles 85% lower carb bread

Congee

Posted 2022-11-05 by Gary

Hello there,

I’ve cooked congee (jook) many times. Tonight, I’m sharing a couple of versions for readers to consider. The recipes are identical apart from the meat used.

I went with chicken for one version, and for the other, I went with pork.

Regular readers may notice that I’m doing something different with these recipes. I’m using more liquid to approach the texture and consistency of Mum’s jook. I usually cook my congee to a thicker consistency. Still, I know many people who like something a little less dense. I’m also using porcini mushrooms for a flavour burst to give greater umami. If I had easy access, I would substitute dried scallops for the mushrooms. The other ingredient I’d like to add is wood ear mushroom for the mouthfeel.

Recipe

Equipment

Pressure cooker

Ingredients

White long-grain rice (1 cup)
Chicken stock (8 cups [2 L]) (you could also use a vegan broth)
Porcini mushrooms
Mushroom water (1 cup [250 mL])
Chicken (3 maryland^[i] pieces) (you could omit this for a vegan version or exchange it with a slab of pork belly for a porcine version)
Salt
Spring onions
Chilli flakes

Instructions

Reconstitute the dried mushrooms with hot water and wait for 30 minutes
Wash the rice until the water runs clear
Add the rice, stock, and mushroom water to the pressure cooker
Cut the mushrooms into small pieces
Add mushroom pieces, chicken maryland pieces, or pork belly into the pressure cooker.
Cook under pressure for 30 minutes and allow 15 minutes for a natural release of pressure
Carefully remove the meat and transfer it to a bowl
Pull the flesh (from the bones of the chicken) using forks
Discard the bones if using chicken
Stir the rice gruel and keep heating to the desired thickness
Stir through the pulled meat
Salt to taste
Add and stir through chilli flakes to taste
Transfer everything to a large serving bowl
Transfer congee to individual bowls
Give thanks to the Lord
Serve with spring onions, shredded lettuce, and soy sauce

Thoughts on the recipe and meal

If I were cooking for more than just me, I’d use a whole chicken or more thigh pieces and perhaps add a carcass. Sometimes I see necks and giblets on sale, which would also be suitable for flavour.
If you like a nice bit of pork, I recommend butt, which is shoulder and not gluteal muscle.
This dish is vegan if you remove the meat and use a vegan stock.
When I was a child, we had shredded lettuce, ham, and soy sauce to add to our bowls.
Each recipe makes five large bowls of congee.

^[i] For non-Australian readers, the chicken maryland is a thigh and drumstick piece in Australia. I know chicken maryland is a dish in the USA, and Maryland is a state of the union.