Food -- Connections

Persea americana

Today, I decided to write about food but really much more than that. Today is about connections and what might inspire a post and how it is all connected together.

A chemical engineer and technology rat can offer very little insight into traditional liberal arts education. At this later stage of my life, I sometimes find my mind thinking back to other things. When I clipped this photo I was somehow transported back to a poem of my younger days before my technical education began in earnest. The tree, by the way, is a Persea Americana (see the subtitle).

The Inspiration

We all have a daily newsfeed of some sort. The emails you willingly allow into your inbox are examples. Presumably, they are always on the cusp of being blocked as we all like to keep our inboxes clean and tidy (or maybe I’m projecting). Something I allow into my daily life is a blog from Dr. Michael Greger, my inspiration for how I eat these days. On the day I wrote this, the clickbait title included the word avocado which is something I love. The rollercoaster of this post begins there.

The Setup

Avocados were a food foreign to me in my youth. While Mom had fruits in the house, it was mostly bananas, apples, and oranges. Maybe an occasional grapefruit, strawberries in season, and a smattering of pears. I would imagine before the modern supply chain, we were doing pretty well for living in Western New York in the 60s and 70s.

Now I suppose if you are an avowed nostalgist you might say “Yeah there was nothing like those strawberries when we were kids”. I am not so nostalgic. Frequent readers know that I stick to the premise this is the very best time to be alive. In the same way that we ate Planter’s Peanuts as kids and occasionally cracked our nuts, mostly crumbling the walnuts no matter how we tried, our golden age today means pistachios (without the red dye) and even creamy macadamias if we want them. There has never been a better time than this. I can only imagine the exotic South American nuts peddled at Whole Foods these days.

The diversity of choices we have available is mind-numbing. Lest I digress further, today on the treadmill I caught up with the world and listened to this blog/video about the avocado. Is this time well spent? Well, I am captive while accumulating my steps so why not learn something or enjoy a video or some music? This passes the time and before I know it my dose of aerobic exercise is in the rearview mirror and often an inspiration for a topic.

My health and its maintenance is a larger challenge for me than in the past. Part of that is awareness in trying to deal with my Type-2 diabetes. I love food but good when nothing is good for you can be a drag. Another aspect is my Dad died at 58 nominally from a heart attack but undoubtedly from complications of his genetics, his diet, his habits, and his advancing diabetes. When I joined the 23AndMe service to feed my interest in genealogy I learned that I was gifted two genetic markers for diabetes. Genetics is not destiny but I wish I had known this earlier as I hope I would have changed some behaviors earlier.

The Details

In numerous previous posts, I have written about my diet and my journey toward better health. Why bother reading this stuff? I know what is good for me these days but I still can learn a little more as I go along. Today was a case in point. I love avocados and they have become that frequent add to my salads, my wraps, and even as a snack. They are filling, taste so creamy, and fill a protein gap that I am conscious to be aware of when I’m not as likely to eat a pork chop.

So where does this take me today starting from a few factoids about avocados? For those of you who enjoy them, have you figured out how to cut them without cutting you? I have read that the two most likely items to slice your hand requiring a trip to the emergency room are avocados and bagels. If there is an ER expert out there, please correct me if this is inaccurate. My Mom had a bagel slicer while I just cut them myself. I think Mom managed to avoid stitches for her 90 years, me not so much. The blog (see Inspiration paragraph) answers the question of how much avocados should I be eating, whether are they healthy for me, and if I love them (as I do) how can I make sure my body absorbs them for their healthful benefit. It also explains HOW TO CUT THEM for maximum benefit and minimum blood! For calorie counters, avocados have a ton of calories.

I hope there will never be a health craze to eat lots of avocados ala pulverized powdered beets. There is enough obesity in our society already. I think the next time I see someone very red in the face working out I will assume they are not overexerted but rather hooked on beet juice.

I recently added another blog to my queue and there was a hilarious post about “the potato diet”. All potatoes, all the time. I love the diets that prescribe eat all you want of one thing. I can see how they will work simply due to exhaustion. I know I would lose weight on the potato diet because for my diabetic self, I would probably go into a shock coma and lose a ton of weight during the stabilization afterward. Maybe I should ask my GP if I can do a physician-supervised spud diet.

I have a second cousin, “C”, who raises avocados and shared a humorous tale of the obesity journey of her dog who likes to sample the avocados that fall to the ground from her Persea Americana trees. The story made me laugh as my dog is largely a vegetarian because he knows I’m a soft touch. Now here is something COOL about avocados that “C” taught me. It turns out that if the stem remains on the avocado, it slows the ripening significantly. She kindly sent me a box a while back and I was AMAZED how long the ones that I left the stem in lasted before that race to finish the darkening avocado.

The video today inspired my snack. My dog, Denny LOVES carrots. My frequent readers already know his story. I followed the guidelines in the video sectioned out 1/4 of an avocado and added some carrots as a snack. One of Denny’s favorite pastimes is to start barking with increasing frequency when I slice up five+ carrots and store them in the refrigerator as handy snacks. Even with a dishwasher, it is nice not to get a spoon for scooping out the avocado dirty anymore! Whenever that tub of carrots comes out of the fridge, he is likely to do a tight spin or two, his dauber tail begins to pound and he moves to full begging mode.

It turns out that two hacks are in play here and I was already doing one of them. The fat in avocados makes your body absorb the healthful stuff in carrots. Since my salad always includes both I have been doing this all along. The other tip was subtle. The darker portion of the avocado nearest the peel is the healthiest part of the avocado so cutting it to retain that is the way to go rather than scooping them. Besides I found it to be pretty easy. The appeal of a little dark chocolate doesn’t require an explanation for most of us.

Today my snack was part of an avocado, a nice handful of carrots, and 1/2 a bar of dark chocolate. One of my favorite “must-do” items on my daily dozen is to have a little dark chocolate every day. If you look closely at the photo, the blog/video will make sense regarding how to cut and eat an avocado (hint, the outside of the avocado is WAY darker and way healthier).

My goal, especially when posting about food and habits is to not be too preachy. None of us like that feeling, especially when it includes “you are what you eat”. As a kid, I enjoyed the show “The Odd Couple”. There was an interchange punchline in the show where Felix says “You are what you eat”. Oscar then asks what are we having? Felix replies “Rump roast”. Here is a bit of the humor from that show about a sloppy sportswriter and a neat freak for a roommate.

The moral of the story is you never know where 5000 steps on the treadmill may lead. Here’s a jingle for the people who remember The Odd Couple. Here’s my favorite song about chocolate mostly because the movie is pure gold. Gene Wilder was just great. Finally, the author’s prerogative takes over. One of my favorite bands includes one of the leads who spent part of his focus raising avocados in Maui when he wasn’t making great music. Therefore, that is the excuse to play one of their best songs.