Mr. Wizard on wholegrain

2old4this asks...

It's generally known that refined carbs, such as flour, are big no-no's for people on a high protien diet. Heck, it's generally known that they're just bad period!

But just how much processing results in a "refined" product? For example, oatmeal is just sliced oats as far as I can tell, so would that be OK since it's whole grain? Or is just the slicing enough processing to make it "refined?"

What about stuff like Ezekiel bread? It's even more "processed" but still called "whole grain."

Where's the line that separates just enough processing and too much processing?

If y'all have seen Mr. Wizard, you know he *knows* food. Intimately and often. So he truly appreciates these food questions. Keep 'em coming, and if you'd like, send along some cupcakes too.

When it comes to grain products, the key is the bran. The more refined the grain, the less remains of the coarse outer shell of the grain. Take a look at this cross section of a wheat kernel (click to embiggen:)

Refining takes away the outer layers of the kernel. That big white section that just *looks* like it's going to make you fat? The endosperm? If you refine your wheat all the way down to white flour, that's what you'll get. The rest will remain behind in the grist mill. The starch and protein - gluten, primarily - make great breads, cakes, and pastries - but they provide little in the way of fiber.

Leaving some of the bran coat leads to a coarser flour that leads to a larger and drier crumb in breads, but it is certainly healthier.

Your gut is right when it comes to oatmeal (if you can take the time to cook steelcut oats instead of rolled ones you'll appreciate the texture and taste quite a bit more.) Oatmeal is basically the whole grain. Oat flour can be processed from it, but it has limited use as it doesn't form as complex a crystalline structure when worked because it lacks gluten.

The biggest problem with having too many refined grains in your diet is that you get your calories too cheaply. The second big problem is that without enough soluble fiber you run the risk of GI problems.

And here comes the boilerplate advice: The Wizard recommends a balanced diet where the larger proportion of your complex carbohydrates come from whole grains; however, he also says it's a-ok to have that canoli once in awhile.

Mr. Wizard on Ribeye Steak

Piping in from Twitter, TJonsek asks

Do you prefer ribeye or fish and how would you prepare/cook it?

Exactly the kind of solid, penetrating question I was looking for when I started Mr. Wizard Wednesday. ;)

About 70% of the time I'd go with the ribeye. You picked one of the finest cuts there, tender flesh marbled with luscious fat. You could slide down to the short loin if you wanted slightly more tender beef - a Porterhouse would be lovely as well - though I prefer the slightly higher fat content of the ribs higher up the thorax.

Click to embiggen. 

As for preparation, I'm pretty boring with my beef. Some coarse sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, either a hot grill or cast iron pan, and a few minutes a side to get a nice caramelized exterior still leaving the center just off purple. Rest the meat for a few minutes and maybe toss some red wine into the pan to deglaze, maybe sauteing some mushrooms in that sweet goodness.

But even that's a lot. Usually a little dab of butter or a few crumbles of bleu cheese would be enough to finish off a good piece of meat. Unless I was feeling especially energetic, of course; then I'd make bearnaise.

The Cake is a Lie

I just saw an Instructable for the Greatest Cake Ever! The cake is a double-geek joke, with delicious frosting. It's a win-win-win.

Woven Heartattack

Because I am a man, I must do this. Because y'all bother coming here, I figure some of you must, too.

Bacon cups.

Tips hat (and hopes bacon grease doesn't fall out) to Mightygodking.

Tastebook.com

I've got very little to say about this other than:

• great business idea, wish I'd thought of it first
• great gift idea for your foodie friends and family
• and damn, that's some really high quality printing for that price point
  

Alzheimer's = Type 3 Diabetes?

An interesting study out of Northwestern raises the possibility that Alzheimer's is a third type of diabetes. PhysOrg has a summary:

Now scientists at Northwestern University have discovered why brain insulin signaling -- crucial for memory formation -- would stop working in Alzheimer’s disease. They have shown that a toxic protein found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, rendering those neurons insulin resistant. (The protein, known to attack memory-forming synapses, is called an ADDL for “amyloid ß-derived diffusible ligand.”)

With other research showing that levels of brain insulin and its related receptors are lower in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, the Northwestern study sheds light on the emerging idea of Alzheimer’s being a “type 3” diabetes.

This leads me to suggest that the same dietary changes that seem to fend off insulin resistance - decrease in overall carbohydrate intake, slight reduction in snacking, total caloric reduction - would have a prophylactic benefit for Alzheimer's as well.

This is quite possibly why calorie restriction seems to reduce the prevalence of Alzheimer's. This study published back in '06 "found that 30% CR resulted in reduced contents of Abeta1-40 and Abeta1-42 peptides in the temporal cortex of Squirrel monkeys, relative to control (CON) fed monkeys." To de-geek that just a little bit, there was less amyloid-beta (Abeta), which means less of the neuropathology it causes in Alzheimer's patients.

This is all relatively fresh research and as such should be taken with several grains of salt (unless you have high blood pressure;) however, since my few readers are at the age where they can still positively impact their lives with dietary changes I thought I'd pass it along. Not that I'm likely to improve my diet, good benefits near-term and far- notwithstanding.

via MindHacks

Hoe down, aroma's up

If I cared enough to grow my own herbs (read: if I didn't live in a damn desert and could grow my own herbs) I would definitely be heading to the health food store for some chitosan.

They [Dr. Hyun-Jin Kim and Professor Feng Chen] soaked basil seeds for 30 minutes in a chitosan solution, then soaked the roots again when they transferred the seedlings to larger pots. After 45 days, they compared the chemical composition of leaves from treated and untreated plants. They found that at the optimum chitosan concentration, the antioxidant activity in treated plants was greater by more than three times. The overall production of aroma compounds was up by nearly 50 percent, and the levels of clove-like and flowery components doubled.

All aiolis are defective?

Here's an interesting summary of some recent research from Harold McGee's food blog

...citrus aromatics break apart the molecules of the olive oil, and release free oleic acid. Free oleic acid is a defect in olive oils. It can have an irritating effect in the mouth, and it destabilizes emulsions like mayonnaise. So an oil flavored with lemon may have a lovely aroma, but it can be less pleasant in the mouth or in a sauce.

Now I'm inspired to try out a semi-blind taste test of citrus emulsions. I've never noticed an odd mouth-feel from lemon aiolis, but maybe that's just because I'm so used to it. So this weekend I'll put together a standard aioli, one with canola oil subbing for the olive, and a hollandaise.

The hollandaise is cheating, obviously, but any excuse to make it is a good one!

Palm oil is shit, anyway

And I certainly don't want to see orangutans hurt because of it. It's not a decent food crop, it's not a good oil, and we shouldn't have to see our cousins' lives endangered or ended for its production.

So choose healthy and sane oils for your frying needs - olive, peanut, and canola. All high-flashpoint oils from actual food crops.