Iron Chef America Rant!

First and foremost, it’s important to understand that I LOVE Iron Chef America. While the program is laregely recipe-free, it does showcase some incredible food creativity and never fails to generate ideas for me to try in my own kitchen. Overall it far superior to its predecessor, the original Iron Chef from Japan.

A friend of mine was recently a judge on ICA which I wrote about on Vegas Wineaux. This was a party, and we had a great time.

With that being said, I have to say that this year, the Food Network has added a couple of elements that I find incredibly annoying. Irritating, even.

Whose idea was it to have the 70s-bad-kung fu-movie sound effects attached to the “Chairman” every time he moves a body part? It wasn’t like that before, and the addition of the noise this year adds nothing but ickiness. Did someone actually think that this was a good idea?!?

The other addition this year is the extended hangtime between “in the words of my uncle,” and “Allez Cuisine!” Once again, that extra time adds nothing to the show. It appears to have been added so that when the Chairman looks at the contestants, it’s a way to showcase the whooshing sounds his head makes as he looks back and forth.

I just don’t get it. They finally got it right - great chefs, incredible competition, amazing production values and attention to detail. Then someone with a Bruce Lee fetish added the sound effects. Maybe somebody in the know can tell me why it was oh so important to add this element of tackiness this year.

But don’t take my word for it; mosey on over to YouTube, do a search on Iron Chef America, and look at last year’s episodes and compare them to the current crop.

My opinion - for what it’s worth - is a single world. Ew.

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Raw Milk Nation

I realized during my trip to California that just because I live in a different state, that in no way absolves me from getting involved with important issues that affect me directly.

One of those issues is the continuing availability of Raw Milk.

Why Raw Milk? Because it’s extremely natural, the only dairy many otherwise lactose-intolerant people can drink without problems, and it’s healthy. Very healthy.

Just to save you a little time … if you’re anti-dairy, don’t waste your time writing me. I’ve heard all of the arguments. And those arguments have nothing to do with this issue. And most are specious and not based on a Raw Milk model. So spare me. And take a look at the Weston A. Price Foundation website. You’ll learn a lot of information about dairy and of the dairy industry. Read Dr. Price’s book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration and learn a lot more.

There is a continuing battle - and I use the word in the same way as describing full out war - to keep clean, certified Raw Milk available to customers who want it in the state of California. Unfortunately, it has been banned in here in Nevada. You can get a gallon of vodka, a carton of cigarettes, a box of bullets and get an abortion on the way home, but if you want Raw Milk, you gotta travel to California, you gotta know somebody (wink wink), or you have to mail order it. Stupid. It’s unfortunate that such laws are made by those who are influenced by those in an industry - where mass, factory production of antibiotic tainted and hormone enhanced milk from cows who don’t have to be certified - whose financial self-preservation comes before consumer choice. Make no mistake about it, the powers that be are influenced by those who have the most to lose - the very powerful dairy industry.

I mean, if they suddenly saw people getting healthy because of drinking fresh, raw, clean milk, then they would lose customers. They would - at the very least - start using better sanitation practices. They may even have to stop the routine antibiotics (which have been accused of causing the alarmingly high rate of antibiotic resistance in humans) or the bovine growth hormones (which have been accused of causing the alarmingly high rates of hormone-sensitive cancers and early puberty in American children) and actually have to start using real husbandry to care for their herds. Just like the Raw Milk farmers do.

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They Don’t Care if You Die as Long as You Eat Their “Food”

Don’t for a moment believe that the brightly colored packages and boxes lining the supermarket shelves are filled with healthy, nutritious food that is good for you and your family.  They’re not.  This shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The advertising gymnastics that the big factory food giants perform daily are amazing to me.  It begins in the morning with ads about “fiber.”  This fiber you can stir in water and it will disappear, and, therefore, you don’t have to worry about actually eating or chewing something that will be good for you.  This way, you don’t have to be bothered with using your teeth to eat, say, an *apple* that will take care of what ails you.  They apparently want you to believe that their concoctions are better than Nature. And it gets worse.

A quick perusal of just about any label on just about any package will present you with a laundry list of ingredients that you would never put into your own recipes if you were preparing the food at home.

For instance, let’s take a simple protein bar.  You can make them at home with whey, nut butter, egg (yolks and/or whites), nuts and seeds, natural sweeteners, and oats. Natural, delicious ingredients that won’t hurt your body.  It may take a little time, but a quick trip to the natural foods store will supply the ingredients.

On the other hand, Slim-Fast Protein Bars contain the following:

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Margarine - Plastic on our Bread?

Margarine is undeniably unnatural. Its popularity soared years ago when people started worrying about eating saturated fat from animal sources. Since butter contains saturated fat, it became a nutritional bad guy, and margarine - made from “healthier” vegetable oils - took its place.

The problem is, however, margarine is hydrogenated, which converts it to an unnaturally saturated fat, which is a definite no-no. Unnatural saturated fats are full of trans fatty acids, and those are dangerous to your health. Margarine dramatically increases the risk of coronary heart disease as compared to butter. In fact, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53 percent over eating the same amount of butter.

Let’s take a look at the chemical makeup of margarine. Is it made of good, healthy, natural ingredients? Are the ingredients blended in a form that will be beneficial to your health?

Of course not.

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Parents

Yes, I’m ranting about parents. I can do that because I am one.

Every time I see a commercial promoting neon-colored, multi-flavored, artificial plastic treats that are targeted for kids, I know that there are those parents who will give in to their kids’ begging and waste their money buying this junk.

And then they’ll complain that their kids won’t eat good foods. Won’t eat vegetables. Sneer at salads. Prefers to go to McDonald’s or some other fast food place.

Get a grip parents. Who’s supposed to be in charge? You or the kids?

If you ask any of my three grown children if they ever had a tantrum at the table because they “didn’t like” the food, you’ll get a blank stare. Such idiocy wasn’t allowed. If they said they didn’t like a particular food, there were no extreme emotions. There was no bribing to get them to eat. There were no other meals prepared. In other words, if they didn’t eat what was in front of them, they didn’t eat. Period. You know what? They were plenty hungry for the next meal, and that type of behavior was eliminated early on.

They received good, fresh, home-cooked meals. Yes, I was a working mom. I was even a working *single* Mom! McDonald’s was an occasional special treat, not “dinner.” Big salads were a part of nearly every evening meal from the time they had teeth. (Admittedly, it is pretty gross watching a one-year-old mangle a tomato). As a result of this, they are all good cooks, know how to prepare just about everything, and are only fussy about the quality of their ingredients.

I done good.

And while I’m ranting, what’s up with “baby food”??? “Strained” bananas? Ew. Grab a good organic banana, mash it up, and you have instant baby food.

Sheesh.

That’s the rant this time. What’s yours?

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