Grandma's Gruel

Dan said I should videotape myself making breakfast and put it on YouTube. I wrote the script I would use, and here it is. All  you have to do is imagine a wild-haired grandma stumbling around the kitchen in a grungy white bathrobe while you read this and you’ve got the video.

If there were three things I could get my kids and grandkids to do for their long-term health and well-being, they would be (1) floss their teeth, (2) take a walk every day (or do other exercise), and  (3) eat a good breakfast.

Flossing can save you a world of hurt later in life, believe me. The bacteria that grow in your gums if you don’t floss creates inflammation that contributes to both tooth loss and the damage that inflammation does to the body in general. The health benefits of exercise are so well known and well established that I don’t need to say anything about it. If I had four wishes, not smoking would be on the list, but again, that is so well known that I even forgot to mention it. And if I had 5, it would be for everyone to avoid caffeine and sodas. Caffeine contributes to anxiety attacks, and the phosphorus in colas leaches the calcium from your bones.

Eating a good breakfast, though apparently unappealing to many teenagers and even adults, helps maintain proper body weight, good metabolism, and a positive mood. If you skip breakfast, your blood sugar will drop severely by mid-morning and you will be starving and crabby. You will most likely be somewhere or doing something that makes it hard to get a good meal, so you grab an unhealthy processed food and a cup of coffee maybe with sugar and cream, which are just terrible for you. They may energize you for a couple hours, but then your blood sugar will crash again. This constant up and down of blood sugar is very hard on the body and eventually leads to weight gain and Type II diabetes. A good breakfast will last you for a few hours and lead to a gradual drop in blood sugar, which you can help along with a small healthy snack at midmorning. Then a moderate lunch, healthy mid-afternoon snack, and a moderate dinner will prevent huge swings in blood sugar and lead to many long term health benefits.

In order to help you with breakfast at least, I am going to tell you how to make a great one. Grandma’s gruel is nutritious AND good for the eater, society, and the environment. Or at least the good mostly outweighs the bad.

I start with blueberries. You should get most of your calories from vegetables and fruits anyway, and dark-colored fruits are full of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and other stuff that’s good for you. Antioxidants, by the way, slow the aging process in the body. I prefer fresh blueberries, preferably organic, preferably locally grown. Our environment is awash in toxic chemicals, many of them from the pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers used in corporate food production, which can be reduced by buying organic products. In order to reduce energy use and its toxic by-products, I try to eat food that has not had to travel too far to get to me. I especially avoid products from Chile, ever since under President Nixon the CIA helped over-throw the democratically elected leftist President of Chile, Salvador Allende, and replaced him with the evil despot Augusto Pinochet, who allowed the torture and disappearances of thousands of people, all in order for the giant corporation United Fruit  (later United Brands and then Chiquita) to take over huge tracts of land that might have been distributed to peasants, so they (United Fruit) can grow produce for the U.S. market, thus reducing the ability of Chilean peasants to grow their own food. United Fruit and Standard Fruit (now Dole) exploited land and people throughout Central America and parts of South America for decades, and still do. Anyway, since it’s not always possible to get fresh local blueberries, I compromise and buy frozen blueberries from the U.S. or Canada. After all, we ARE entitled to use some of the earth’s resources. If you have frozen blueberries, put them in your bowl first; if fresh, put them in last.

Next comes oatmeal, which helps lower cholesterol. Oatmeal is also a whole grain, and you should avoid highly processed grains, especially white flour, corn, and white rice. Since I’m lazy, I use instant organic oatmeal (also from Canada), though cooking whole oats would probably be better for you. Sprinkle about a quarter cup over the frozen blueberries in your bowl and add boiling water to cover.

I then add a sprinkle of potassium chloride. The American diet is WAY TOO HIGH in sodium chloride, salt. Everyone knows that salt is a “silent killer” and that too much salt contributes to high blood pressure and strains the kidneys. The proper balance of potassium and sodium is also essential to the functioning of our nervous system, and you should take in more potassium than sodium, although too much potassium is dangerous, so it’s better just to avoid sodium. Avoiding sodium is nearly impossible if you eat out or eat any processed or canned foods. Adding a little potassium chloride may help, and then you don’t have to eat bananas, which are high in sugar and politically undesirable (review rant on United Fruit above).

Next I add a spoonful of xylitol, an alcohol sugar. Not everyone knows that sugar is also a “silent killer.” It contributes to obesity, inflammation, diabetes, tooth decay, and mood swings. Most artificial sweeteners also lead to weight gain, according to the evidence, though why is not clear, and they may also have long term negative side effects we don’t yet know about. It appears that Splenda may be the least bad artificial sweetener. “Natural” sugar substitutes are better: stevia leaves, the alcohol sugars, and agave nectar. They are metabolized more slowly than sugar (i.e., they have a lower glycemic index), and so they do not contribute to big swings in blood sugar levels. Xylitol also changes the environment in the mouth in such a way that it has been proven to reduce tooth decay, so I use it for that added little benefit. It is made from birch trees, and the world’s biggest supplier is China, so it travels far, though it is light. However, we know China is sometimes weak on quality control (recall the pets that died from melamine in Chinese-produced pet food), so you may not know what you’re getting. I may switch to agave nectar, which mostly comes from Mexico, a lot closer.

You want to increase the proportion of omega-3 fats in your diet by avoiding butter, margarine, hydrogenated oils, saturated fat, trans-fatty acids, cheese, etc. Olive oil, nuts and seeds, fish oil, and flaxseed oil are high in omega-3. So I add a heaping tablespoon of ground flaxseed to my oatmeal-blueberry mix, and that has the added benefit of helping with (ahem) “regularity.” I also add some raw unsalted sunflower seeds, for flavor and crunch, as well as the omega-3s. Nuts and seeds should be fresh, raw, and unsalted for maximum benefit, and they should be stored in the refrigerator to keep their oils fresh. You need SOME fat for energy storage and SOME cholesterol for the myelin sheaths of your nerves. And apparently it was the shift to grain fed cattle that led to the decrease in healthy omega-3 fats in our food supply and that contributed to the increase in obesity, diabetes, etc., in the American population.

The typical American diet is far too high in protein, and too much protein has many negative side effects, including inflammation in the body, which leads to chronic diseases such as arthritis and asthma. A SMALL amount of animal protein (3 ounces a day of non-beef protein at most) is OK, but plant protein from beans and legumes is much better for you. The next thing to go in Grandma’s gruel is a soy based cereal (organic Nutlettes, available online). Soy beans have isoflavones, which are really good for you for some reason that escapes me at the moment. You want to try to get organic soy products, and it would be nice to be able to avoid genetically modified soy beans. However, the big food corporations have blocked proposed legislation requiring genetically modified products to be so labelled, which is why Europe won’t buy soy and some grains from us anymore. Since modified genes, once in the environment, tend to spread, you probably can’t avoid genetically modified soy anymore, although buying organic may reduce the possibility.

In addition to the bad effects of too much protein, animal protein has other negative side effects. The cholesterol in animal products has become weighted towards the bad type in the past few decades, since it less profitable for cows to roam pastures eating grass and chickens to range freely eating seeds and bugs, but now they must be gathered together and fed grain to fatten them up quickly for market. The shift from mostly omega-3 fats in grass fed beef to mostly omega-6 and -9 fats in grain fed beef has created even more inflammation and high bad cholesterol levels in the American population. So the final addition to Grandma’s gruel is a quarter cup of preferably organic Greek style, nonfat yogurt. You want nonfat and organic for obvious reasons. But why Greek style? Because milk products have a surprisingly large amount of sugar in them, and sugar is a silent killer. Greek style yogurt is concentrated, and so the proportion of protein to sugar is better than in regular yogurt. Read the labels if you don’t believe me. So much sugar in milk -- who knew? In addition, yogurt has good bacteria in it that is healthy for your digestive system. Eventually, there may be yogurt with the type of bacteria that is found in the stomachs of thin people, which is different from the type in overweight people. Amazing, huh?

Stir this all up into a purple gruel and enjoy! Add a glass of low sodium vegetable juice for an extra serving of veggies and a cup of organic green tea for antioxidants, if you like.