Showing posts with label snark. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snark. Show all posts

Thursday, July 28, 2011

The Paleo Diet: Caveman Cure-All or Unhealthy Fad?

It is hard to see why the Atlantic, a supposedly reputable magazine, would publish this uninformed article. Apparently the author has little interest in the nutritional content of diets, simply in their labels and images, and is content to regurgitate popular misconceptions.


The Paleo Diet: Caveman Cure-All or Unhealthy Fad? - Alesh Houdek - Life - The Atlantic: "There is no question that we should eat more fresh and unprocessed foods. But if there's a charge to be levied against carbohydrate-heavy foods like bread and pasta, it's that they make it easy for us to eat way too much, not that they're bad in and of themselves. (Sugar, however, may be another story altogether.) So the Paleo diet's dictum to eat as fresh as possible is shared universally with all modern sane eating guidelines. Its rationale for avoiding traditional carb-heavy foods falls apart under scrutiny. And it's success at producing weight loss and health may have more to do with portion control than anything else. But perhaps the deepest cut was a 'US News comparison' of 20 diets (including Atkins, veganism, the Mediterranean diet, and Jenny Craig) that ranked Paleo dead last on criteria like nutrition, ease of following, weight loss, and safety."

Deconstructed Club Sandwich Salad  | Serious Eats

This looks edible enough, especially without the bread. That said, a certain discounting of the adjective 'ingenious' is evident. The word implies intellectual achievement or at least amazing cleverness, e.g. Maxwell's unification of electricity and magnetism, sequencing the human genome...



Cook the Book: Deconstructed Club Sandwich Salad | Serious Eats : Recipes: "Patricia Wells, author of Salad as a Meal, is the ingenious innovator of this Deconstructed Club Sandwich Salad, equal parts sandwich and salad. Basically an open-faced club sandwich topped with a chopped salad, it's a meal that incorporates the best of both worlds.
Wells' recipe calls for chicken breasts poached and cooled in an aromatic stock, crisp slices of bacon, crusty sourdough, heirloom tomatoes and romaine, and a creamy-tangy lemon-chive dressing that you'll want to spread on pretty much everything. When it's time to plate, a slice of toasted sourdough is spread with the lemon-chive dressing, layered with chicken and bacon, and topped with a pile of chopped and dressed lettuce and tomatoes."
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Just to make up for being made a second-order, but still undeserving target of scorn, here is the link to the associated recipe book (undoubtedly chock full of breakthrough insights - sorry, sorry).