The Dietitian In The Kitchen

My wife (Whitney) is a personal chef with a unique ability to create tasty dishes while maintaining the integrity of nutrition within her creations.  As a dietitian, she understands that food has many functions - taste, social, nutritional, performance, visual appeal, etc.  Balancing these aspects, she crafts dishes and meals that are both pleasing in taste and to the eye.  She cooks for a number of families in the area currently and we are planning to expand operations very soon.  The plan is to move into a Licensed Kitchen and deliver the food to our clients.  As for now, the biggest hurdle is not having enough days in the week to cook for more than just a handful of clients.  By moving into a central kitchen, she will be allowed to serve more clients.          

Eventually we plan to open our own kitchen.  From this location client meals will be prepared and sent out fresh or available in a store front.  The store front will be available to anyone.

The goal of is to deliver a culinary product that:
     1. Tastes Great
     2. Uses Locally Grown Produce
     3. Locally Sourced Meat, Chicken, Eggs, Fish, Buffalo, etc.
     4. Whole Food-Based & Nutritionally Centered
     5. Minimal or No Use of Preservatives
     6. Visually Appealing

You can find out a little about what she has been up to at: www.thedietitianinthekitchen.com

If you are interested in experiencing a culinary balance of excellence and flavor while keeping your health in the forefront, then reach out us.

Stay tuned to find out the latest developments!

Sleep: Performance and Obesity

Sleep is a biological necessity; it is restorative and helps alight our circadian rhythms.  Sleep deprivation erodes well-being and has detrimental effects on our health.  80% of teens report getting fewer than the recommended 9 hours of sleep, and nearly 30% of adults report getting fewer than 6 hours of sleep per day.
Sleep deprivation and obesity are concurrent problems; sleep is an independent risk factor for obesity.  When people are tired, grehlin - a hormone that makes us feel hungry - becomes more active; we become hungrier and can easily overeat.  Sleep deprivation may contribute to mid-life weight gain.
Sleep deprivation is also associated with Type II Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease, and High Blood Pressure.  When circadian rhythms are disrupted, athletic performance can suffer, causing reduced motivation and undue fatigue.
Extending sleep can enhance performance.  This is true for athletes and for those of us who spend most of our time in the office.

Taken from SCAN's Pulse Summer 2012, Vol. 31, No. 3

Fat Burning

The sports supplement industry has keyed into athletes' desire to burn fat by creating products with fat-burning claims.  Unfortunately, non of the products are effective enough to create a meaningful loss of body fat.
Can we train our bodies to burn more fat?  Yes - particularly by exercising at low to moderate intensity.  Lawrence Spriet, PhD, of the University of Guelph in Onterio, noted that high-intensity intermittent exercise can also increase our capacity for fat use.  Training increases mitochondrial volume and the ability to transport and store fat in muscle cells.  Eating a high-fat diet to enhance the opportunity for burning fat does not enhance athletic performance.


Info taken from SCAN's Pulse Summer 2012 Vol. 31 # 3

The Sports Dietitian Advantage

The Sports Dietitian Advantage on Prezi

Life

If life all began with a single cell, then the first cell would have to have been fully functional. If a string of amino acids did happen to come together, was the function to replicate intrinsic? The idea of replication is a feed forward process. The first cell/protein would also have to have the ability to acquire external raw material, sugar for energy and protein as building blocks, to replicate. Replication requires DNA, so DNA, RNA, and all the supporting proteins to carry out replication and bring raw materials into the cell would have been a part of the first cell. This seems to be getting a bit complicated for random molecules coming together by chance.

How about the idea of chromosome formation? So, let's say the first cell did somehow have DNA and could replicate itself. Chromosomes are bunched up DNA. How then does a new chromosome form? Humans have 46 of chromosomes, pigs 38, and monkeys have 48. So if we came from monkeys, where did the other two chromosomes go to? Assuming the first cell had one chromosome, how many base pairs did it have? In humans the chromosome with the fewest base pairs is just over 46,000 base pairs. I know simple cells without a nucleus can have around 10,000 base pairs. How many did the first cell have? Even though errors in each chromosome occurs, how does the formation of a new chromosome occur? Cell 1 has it's one chromosome, where does chromosome two arise, and how does that happen?

The Dog Delusion

I was probably watching a football game the other day, when a commercial for the local news shows a bus with an advertisement on the side of it which reads, "50 Million Americans are good without God". Of course that is something that is likely to cause a stir in the buckle of the Bible belt. I never actually saw what the news spot was about, but it was easy to surmise it's general content. Well, there have been more commercials about this same topic. I guess it was popular.
I never watched any of the local news pieces on atheism marketing efforts, but it did peak my interest to look into the world wide web to examine this. So I went to Google and put in the search term: "atheist billboards". In typical Google fashion, 90,600 links were found containing some form of this topic. Here is one links that I found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YHbSx7NE2U

Now, I don't have any issues with any individual group marketing their beliefs (I truly believe that most all marketing is devious in it's own way - but that is an opinion for another time), but it seems to me that their marketing angle is a bit harsh. Most of the times I here something from atheists about religion, I get this sense that they believe they are intellectually superior to the religious populous. Anyway, who made this the paragon of humanity. To make such a generalization is much like making other generalizations, worthless - because they cannot apply to everyone. Many of the greatest scientists believed in some form of a God. Perhaps their marketing efforts should focus on the benefits of atheism rather than bullying others. If they are marketing to the religious group, then they are simply creating a gap. For those in the gray area between, their marketing may be effective. When you see a good commercial, it is not generally because one company belittles another that you decide to buy a product. Effective marketing taps into a person's basic needs and shows how 'this product' can help meet those needs.
While some religions can help provide a sense of purpose, I don't know how atheism will market that. "Have you been feeling empty...searching for that sense of purpose? The answer is atheism. Take an anti-depressant, there is no purpose." But really, why not tell of what atheism has to offer me as an individual. "Being free from oppressive control" is not something I think too many people really care about. That angle places the 'religious' in the position of being the ineffective dolt who follows others blindly, and is unable to make rational decisions. And it has already been mentioned that this generalization is hollow. While many may follow what their parents taught them, many have come from various walks of life and labored long and hard on making purposeful decisions about choosing to follow a 'religion'. That is what I think many atheists have done as well. The world does not make sense with a God for some. To others it doesn't make sense without one.

The Mayshower

Drip Drop like a clock when it hits the ground
Crash bash in a flash and you hear the sound
Pitter Patter is the splatter as it trickles down
A hole is opened in the sky and the ground is soon a flood
Leaves are met and earth gets wet as dirt turns into mud
Showers wash and puddles slosh and form a terrestrial sud