welcome and thank you for joining us you're listening to the beyond 50 radio program I'm Daniel Davis as you remember our program previously we were talking about something simply known as the Paleo diet taco an Oregon get us of her book primal body primal mind and having the discussion about what the light diet really is for humankind after all our ancestry stretches back thousands even ten thousands of years and we seem to be able to be confused about what it is we're supposed to do to have optimal health well since we've presented you with a way that we can take a look at living when it comes to diet we decided to take it one step further and bring you primal cuisine and why not bring you the obvious to fit the Paleo diet into one lifestyle and actually become creative with it as well I'd like to join you with the beyond 50 radio program today with our special guest Polly Halstead is going to be talking about how we can cook for the Paleo diet with her book primal cuisine Paulie thank you for joining us here on the beyond 50 radio program thank you glad to be here now it's exciting stuff we had a lot of fun with this uh this segment here when we did it earlier last year and you know and it was so true what we were bringing up about why does this have to diet be in the same realm as religion and politics it just makes no sense I don't know that's how we feel about everything we're very religious about the food we eat but you know the funny thing is to like what you point out in your book primal cuisine is this is that we will find let's say a particular way that we believe is the way that we're supposed to be eating or dieting whatever the cases and then we'll get all this evidence behind us to prove that we're right isn't that interesting how that works yeah I mentioned that it sort of been my in my book is it our beliefs about that what we're eating it make it good for us or is it something else you know and I do believe that your mind or your decision-making process have something to do it with the way you are feeling but I also think or know that we evolved eating certain foods that's why you and I are having this conversation right now we wouldn't have the ability to speak with our large brains if it wasn't for a consumption of omega-3 fatty acids that and that separates us from other primates who primarily a plant-based diet and their brains are composed of omega-6 fatty acids so we need the omega-3 now what are the Omega threes usually come from since we're just on that subject here for a minute okay we all know that salmon has a lot of omega-3 fatty acids and in the in the sea fish eat plant plant material and the plant and both grasses and sea plants convert through photosynthesis they convert their material into omega-3 fatty acids ruminants such as cows and sheep they eat the grass and their meat and fat absorbed the omega-3 fatty acids from the grass so that happens in the sea with the fifth you know the big fish eat the little fish and so on and the biggest biomass in in on earth is krill and it's very high in omega-3 fatty acids so whales eat krill and if we need to supplement with Omega threes i recommend krill oil because it's really low on the sea food chain and doesn't have mercury in it mm-hmm I know that seems to be one of those big problems that we face today especially when it comes to trying to go after the Omega threes the essential fish oils and so forth well geez now we're running in mercure bill but as you're saying here while the lower on the food chain especially when it comes to seafood or fish yeah you're probably going to avoid some of these things unfortunately mercury is raining down on us because we still are burning coal yeah but you know we do not live in a pristine environment that our ancestors did this is one of our problems but getting back to the omega-3 fatty acids and and meat when when we begin to feed our farm animals grains just that alone changes their meat and fat to omega-6 fatty acids so we are eating more omega-6 fatty acids these days than ever before and and and we're very depleted in omega-3s that's why I think we're having a lot of brain problems mm-hmm you know and everybody wonders well why are we having some many brain problems now autism is on the rides and all these other things well one of the things is were deficient in omega-3 i know i just recently Paulie had watched a documentary on corn itself and you know it's obvious now corn is not only a genetically modified food but that it's produced and mask to such a degree that it's more than just a food I mean it goes into seemingly thousands of different things including toys Wow yeah corn corn oil all that stuff genetically modified and the other biggie then is sweet I don't know whether you've read wheat Billy yet but genetically modified wheat it's probably causing a lot of diabetes and obesity issues and brain problems so we know that with processed foods genetically modified wheat and high fructose corn syrup go into these products so I wouldn't highly recommend you not buy prepackaged which is not a real hard thing to avoid because for me you know Polly when I have supermarket I hit the outside I just don't even go down the middle you know that's just how it is and I think I picked up my habit you know my mother was the same way where she shopped pretty much for food every night yeah that's just how she was and you know there were some things that were frozen but very rarely did we have packaged food and pre processed food in the house even growing up yeah and a lot of times people go that direction uh for two reasons a because it's cheaper or so it seems but that it's easier and that to me is one of the saddest things and that's what I love about your book primal cuisine because it puts the love in the heart backward belongs in the kitchen being created and it just astounds me that people don't participate and you know you can make a great meal anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes tops I mean a lot of things I mean of the things yeah dinner doesn't take me longer than a half an hour all right and I enjoy it it was a part of the day it's almost like a meditation I love but you said that Polly because of exactly how I feel people have to approach it like it's something they enjoy and not something that you have to do you know and and well at any rate I believe that attitude to it's beneficial for your home a whole body you know I've just reminded and I love bringing this one up Alan Watts late philosopher the 20th century somewhat responsible for bringing Zen Buddhism to the west I was reading a lot of his kind of works and he had written an essay called murder in the kitchen and his contention was is that we tend to raise process cook and eat our food as though we hated it and you take a look at the condition especially of Western society boy he wasn't too far off the mark on that one yeah a lot of people you know seafood is the enemy right so I feted I gotta cook let's just run through a fast food joint yeah well for one thing I would i was living in Hood River when I wrote my first cookbook and I met Nora good gowda's right after she published her book primal body primal mind and I became a client of her she she was the one that got me started on that cured me of hypoglycemia lifelong addiction to sugar all kinds of other you know like depression problems and because as I mentioned it in a book my mother was schizophrenic so you know the brain problem is very much connected to what you're eating and I make a big point of that in the book that was a really good connection there with her mm-hmm yeah because you're looking at a career that you've had as a chef you know it's almost 40 years and so you took a hold of this material and one of the things that you talked about too is that when people take a look at particular diets that are allegedly supposed to be good for them they start grimacing grunting and rimming and then the whole bit thinking my goodness this is going to be painful for me and believe it or not Polly there was a point where a long time ago when the low carb no carb diet was out that I was actually serving in a restaurant and there was this guy that comes in for lunch and he sits down and he's looking at the menu as though it's just painful for him and this was a seafood restaurant and I'm looking and the first thing I thought is I'll bet you this guy is on one of those no carb diets I could just tell and I said let me guess you're on a no-carb diet it goes how could he does because you're looking at the menu like it's painful to choose and so let me go ahead and make some suggestions for you because I understood you know pretty much what it was and he says okay and so I did and he goes I could really have that Mike well you're the one that's on this diet you should know what you can't get out but yeah pretty much you can have what I'm telling you to have here and he just flipped out and went through the week he was like my goodness I didn't realize it could be this enjoyable that's just it is it's funny how we lock it in stone and we caused misery to ourselves exactly and once you're doing this I you know you can you can order in restaurants I have them take the carb off the plate and add extra salad or vegetables here happy to do that mm-hmm you can still go out to eat now let's talk about the Paleo diet or those primal cuisine cookbook and how you can to create what I love first of all is that you get people back into the basics you know first the basic tools that you should have for the kitchen I am a total agreement of that because most of the time people don't cook well just because you don't have the right tools you really need to have those well it makes it easier and a mix it up Pleasure I have a good set of stainless steel pots and pans I only use one or two knives normally you don't need a host at in either get that nine hundred dollar set up for sioners when you're using one or two tops yeah and ceramic and I'm felt lately are pretty sharp there and good they're a little expensive but honestly you need a good pairing knife in a good little chef not nice minus about seven inches long and I use it all the time mm-hmm and that that's pretty much about it unless I use a slicer or something what else I have a food processor in a blender that I use consistently but I don't have a whole lot of equipment and actually this way of cooking is a little more simplified so you don't need a ton of equipment yeah because what I did notice in a fair amount of your recipes is they kind of approach and Bora wine on the law side yeah I'm not a total raw food person but I try to mix both raw and cooked vegetables during the day I think Oh people have to pay attention to their digestion right other people can't hand so lots and lots of raw food so you have to kind of go with what that feels like but I would say the way I did my book and the way I eat is a lot more non-starchy vegetables and very small amounts of protein you don't need that much protein to keep going but in our age group I'm now 66 one of the things our age group does have to work out pay attention to is getting enough protein and you only need about 50 to 70 grams of pure protein a day depending on how active you are and it all doesn't have to come from meat and fish it can be some nuts some cheese if you eat cheese or whatever so you can mix it up a little now there was something there that you talk about in the book too so let's go ahead and approach and just sort of recap a little bit of what the Paleo diet contends as far as how we were mentee what we should really be leaning towards because this kind of makes an interesting way for instance vegetarians what you need to remove all animal products but you know take a look at the caves people you know they were dancing around with bows and arrows and Spears and there were animals you know you're not going to say that they just made this stuff up well I don't know whether you've seen that new documentary out in fact it's almost number one on the documentary list these days it's called in search of the perfect human diet by CJ hunt I don't think I have well it's fantastic and he actually shows archaeological evidence and also new forensic evidence that the scientists have really done a you know extensive testing and they know that we primarily eight just meat and the accompanying fats there was very little plant material in the analysis and and also in the archaeological digs mostly they're just finding pure animal bones so I would say it's irrefutable what we were were eating and if we came across maybe some wild grasses or nuts or seeds or berries of course we would eat those but primarily we went after the meat because it's sustaining mm-hmm and it repairs the body and you know the fat they needed to eat for energy and endurance and keeping anyone you know Paulie a funny story a couple of years ago I had someone on the program who was talking about he was a marathon runner and his book was about his first 100 marathons and so this guy traveled around the world running marathons and it was a little bit that you put in here about the Masai people in Africa and this is what reminded me of this story and here's what was buddies was in Africa he says we were at those particular village aneesa's I'll tell you what these people eat their meat I mean these people are hands down meet ears this is what they considered a vegetable chicken well I knew this that I used to cook some time for this Tibetan lama when I lived in the Napa Valley and I'm doing it he only ate meat is all right no vegetable now here's the other thing too we talk or you talk about dairy now you know just like meat how it's been processed in a different direction from its natural state you know the same thing has actually happened with dairy as well and you talked about a particular enzyme or something that was cold like sort of the devil's enzyme that came in it kind of upset the balance of this but one of the things you did talk about is there's a difference let's say in America between how we view cheese and how they do in Europe and here's what's really interesting about that there's a guy who's considered an advertising guru who essentially uh was the one who got grated cheese into a plastic bag and he says the reason is and this is how he came up with this is that in America they tend to look at their food is dead and separate so why not put grated cheese which takes no time to use and a plastic body bag basically you know and it goes into a fridge we're dead things go whereas in Europe as you say in your book she sits on the counter you don't lap it you know but it's that it's there it is so there's a real difference so talk about that a little bit about dairy with that guy catera pie that's the one yeah my boyfriend knows him he's work with him and he mentioned this key thing well it there you know there's a big controversy whether paleo includes cheese's I included it because some people still eat cheese they're not going to stop but I I did point out that you know I talked about raw cheeses raw milk because a lot of people can digest that more easily and I talked about I think the devil in this milk in the devil in the milk which is we have a different genetic strain of cows over here in the United States and people are having problems digesting this particular type of case seen kissing as a protein whereas in some countries in Europe and of course Africa the cows are still a one so those people aren't having the issues with casein so some of the cows in Europe you know they're still making cheeses from those a day one cows so we can digest those more easily you know I don't know a lot of people don't want to delve into all of this and pay that much attention but I did bring it up because some people are lactose intolerant more case being intolerant and so I have made recipe substitutions you know using almond milk or coconut milk for those people who want to stay away from dairy all together and you know Polly I've also decided to to do the very same thing where I actually replaced a regular dairy milk insert and recipes I guess with coconut milk and in most cases if not all of them it seemed to improve it actually I like a really good coconut milk exactly I think you can mix coconut milk and almond milk together if you want or whatever but i do want to point out i use exclusively organic whipping cream and that's all fat it has no casing left in it so if you still like that richness you know in your coffee or tea you can use whipping cream mm-hmm now it's funny because it seemed like you bordered on a little bit of the dangers here what we'll do is we'll go through each of what would be considered the food times had you come out with sort of a special recipe that you like in each of these but the first one I wanted to address her before we do that is this is something for kids of all ages and i didn't realize people go around doing this but Komodo dragons milk to somebody actually melt these creatures yeah you know no I did mostly by the last James Bond movie I wasn't too sure they did something like yeah I think in order to get get kids kind of enthused about any more healthy you have to think of creative names to call it there you go I'll tell you with the younger ones you know Oh mrs. Jenkins mount can I have some a nap for breakfast there you go hey and if you don't make it fun for the kids chances are you're going to have a hard time yeah it gets harder and harder if the kids get older if they're used to eating a certain way try to change it what a teenager is eating there you go I gotta got get dragged him bring him dragging and kicking into the kitchen but Brittany broccoli spears or something you know something like that now let's go ahead and talk about first breakfast go ahead and shoot out a recipe r to give people an idea how you get creative well those frittatas are really really good and everyone who has made I find it oh the baked eggs are real easy real good they're just eggs baked in a ramekin topped with a little cream salt and pepper that's delicious the Japanese scrambled eggs are really fun if you like that kind of oriental flavor because they have some let's see pickled ginger in which makes them kind of an unusual I try to pick recipes that are some unusual and then some standards like huevos rancheros and stuff like that but let's see one of our favorite recipe is the wild mushroom and roasted garlic frittata oh hey like exit you could even serve it for dinner probably but the roasted garlic in there is just fantastic there's a photograph of it in a book by the way I did all the photos photography in the book too may can it tasty for you folks you know and the neat thing too about your recipes is one of the things you talk about that you're seeing sprout up around the country which is very encouraging to note that we're actually taking more responsibility for where food comes from and how its processed is the fact that you're seeing farmers market sprouting up more regularly everywhere a and they're becoming more than just seasonal but you're around but with fresh ingredients boy in Portland sure has a Fed fabulous farmers market oh yeah rollin argument used like I took a lot of photographs there mmhmm yeah a lot of their restaurants especially in Portland Oregon are just that way in fact even the big ones that could be considered chain certain of them actually go and they buy local and organic ingredients which is pretty amazing I think it's fantastic it has to become more of a norm right we head in this direction mm-hmm now how about lunch oh well if you like sausages which we do there's a wonderful warm sausage salad that's tossed with your favorite greens and everything you just kind of saute it all up and put it on a plate and so that makes a great lunch I have tons of solid recipes I love valid the best Caesar salad dressings and many other great salad dressing recipes too and soup recipes and that's what I like is people can come to know how to make these things so you can get away from avoiding two things a of course the processed salad dressings that are in bottles or soup in cans for instance and the fact that since you're making it to order you don't tend to have these things being stored because you've made too much yeah if you have extra put it in a glass door stick it in the freezer for another day I mean that's the nice thing about cooking you can do something and some things in large bat batches so you don't have to keep doing it over and over and use it later mmm yeah because I'll tell you I'm I on that Cobb salad there which looks like it has steak and boy I'll tell you what I'm thinking that would be a good way to go for lunch excellent way to go when I was doing a photography for the book last summer I was making all this stuff and my boyfriend and I then we had to eat it oh geez yep boy the things work can really put you through huh now the other thing too that you include here in the book is a party plates and you know one of the things that stood out there was the grilled prawns rep and pursue the whole my goodness that those are fantastic well you know I used to be a caterer so I did a lot of party food in a lot of hors d'oeuvres and so I wanted to have recipes in in there where people could have a party and keep it low carb you know because a lot of a lot of parties everything comes on a piece of bread or tortilla chips and all this stuff so I tried to show people how they can have a different kind of a party without a card mm-hmm you know what I find to encouraging Polly's that you're starting to see a lot more of these uh sushi places popping up and myself I didn't even really try sushi until probably 2003 for the first time I you know heard about it but just never went into a placement wow this is pretty good but what's encouraging about that is that you're seeing so many young kids and teenage kids showing up at these places more regularly and you know pretty much to me what's encouraging about that of course they steer away from the faster the burger joints and getting more of an idea of having more fresh food and the fact is you'll probably hear an argument sometimes about this well I have to buy processed food this stuff in a box because this is all my kids will eat and I say no that's because it's the choices you're giving and believe me if they get hungry enough they'll eat anything and why not lean them in this direction where they can come to go yuck when it comes to that other stuff it's pre-processed you know and pre-made yeah i mean i think that the real responsibility is the parents to have the good food in the house to encourage healthy eating and just don't bring the bad stuff home they may kick and scream for a while but yeah they get hungry enough they're going to eat that Apple I know my parent my mom proves that right there was always plenty of carrots oranges and apples you know and once in a while that other stuff may make it in but you know it would sit too it wasn't like we would just be ravenous Peggy oh my goodness donuts so we have a ball of raw almonds and walnuts and pecans sitting on the kitchen counter and you know we'll walk by and take a little handful you know or we'll have an apple or a slice of cheddar cheese yeah you know I'm thinking here that for dinner those grass-fed meat loaf with cauliflower mashed potatoes which I kind of like that cauliflower mashed potatoes tell us about that well I'll tell you everybody that I have made the cauliflower mash potatoes for it like them better than regular mashed potatoes and and even if they didn't like cauliflower before you know so we we love it we have we have at least one once a week and then there's also a couple recipes in there you put the raw cauliflower in the food processor and you pulse it several times so it it gets granny kind of like ripe and then you can use it in in your rice dishes so I I think it adds a more interesting flavor and you don't have the carbs mm-hmm there's another one too and I don't know if it fits in with those but it just came to mind was something my mother made was mashed rutabaga or you know rutabaga mashed potatoes if you will yes that sounds really good a veritable even together too yeah exactly the book is primal cuisine our guest today Polly Halstead oh do you have a website people can find out more about this book here absolutely it www primal cruzine.com i also have a primal cuisine facebook page and you can go on the Amazon or Barnes & Noble website they both have the book and use the look inside feature so you can look at the table of contents and some of the text as well very good exciting book glad to have it on my shelf here definitely gonna do some experimenting here and have some more fun I think that's what makes cookbooks enjoyable is that a lot of times what they'll do is take you out of a comfort zone or a pattern you know what that you can kind of get into when you cook and just kind of inspire you to whole new ideas which is exactly what the kitchen is for thank you for being on the program today Polly it was a lot of fun thank you better take you and again for you folks out there if you want to find out more about primal cuisine and you didn't quite get the website be sure to visit us at beyond 50 radio com that is the number 50 we also do have a free weekly update newsletter for you to check out sign up for it it's free as well thank you again for joining us here on the program I've Daniel Davidson remember live your day passed halfway you .
Video Description:
For Beyond 50's "Natural Healing" talks, listen to an interview with Pauli Halstead. She is back to educate about Primal Cuisine. You'll learn about the dietary theory behind the primal lifestyle. It's step-by-step advice to eliminate unhealthy carbohydrates and optimize protein and healthy fat intake. The food of our ancestors included wild-caught fish, grassfed meats, and organic vegetables, nuts, seeds and berries. They are still the best choice when it comes to improving your physical and mental health. Tune in to Beyond 50 Radio: America's Variety Talk Show that promote the natural, holistic, green and sustainable lifestyle. Visit www.Beyond50Radio.com and sign up for our free E-newsletter.
*Produced and syndicated by Joy and Daniel Davis of Beyond 50 Productions.
**JD412:010413
