#29 Picking, curing and brining olives

Born to forage, with flashback to mussel-picking; curing and brining olives from our own tree; benefits of olives; how to choose the best olive oil; the great olive oil scam

I’m back! Forgive my absence – where have the past six months gone? Actually, I know full well where they’ve gone. I’ve been writing numerous health and beauty articles for my long-time employer Expat Living Publications in Singapore: leaving me no time for this blog, which is one of my favourite things to do.

A-foraging we will go

Something else I enjoy doing is foraging, whenever the opportunity arises. The thrill of picking wild fruit and veggies is just one thing I share with my late dad, Mike Maree. Having grown up on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, he taught me to revel in finding wild berries, and obscure fruit like the one we called “martin-gulus” (a corruption of the Zulu word, whatever it is); they grow on a thorny coastal bush with fat leaves that exude a sticky white sap and tastes like nothing else in the world.

He also taught me to harvest mussels from the rocks on Clansthal beach, south of Durban, where we spent a lot of our childhood … so much so that Dale and I scattered Dad’s ashes in the waves there. He loved fishing, too, though there was seldom anything for the pot.

Harvesting mussels near eMdloti with Jeff – that’s Umhlanga in the background

#28 Eat right while travelling: Low Carb, No Crap™ goes on holiday

Can you eat right on holiday? Sticking to my Low Carb, No Crap™ plan, or any other healthy lifestyle, may seem impossible. But I believe it can be done. Here’s how Roy and I have been trying to do it… and sometimes even succeeding.

Covid-related lockdowns and other restrictions have had different effects on different people – and brought about varying results. Some turned to so-called comfort food, obeyed the anti-science instructions to hunker down indoors, and naturally put on weight and became unhealthier.

Others – like Roy and me – did the opposite. We’d started on my Low Carb, No Crapeating and lifestyle plan just before the axe fell in March 2020.  Over the next 18 months, unexpectedly locked down in Western Australia, we got steadily slimmer (Roy) and healthier (both of us) than we’d been for decades.

#27 Uric Acid Part 2: Drop Acid!

Uric acid (UA) is the new bad boy on the block… so move over, salt, sugar and cholesterol! High UA threatens the heart, the liver, the kidneys and the brain – not to mention my most favourite organ of all. So, what drives high uric acid, and what can we do to Drop Acid? 

As mentioned in my blogpost #26 Uric Acid Part 1: Gouty Tales (see here), my recent uric acid (UA) blood test came back an optimal 4.7 mg/dL. That bodes well for me living long and strong, but what about my darling husband?

Fortunately, I found out that  coffee lowers UA, and I told him so. It was the best news he’d had all year. Imagine, though, how miserably gouty he’d be if he wasn’t such a coffee-head.

Uric Acid is lowered by coffee
All sweetness and light, as long as he can have his coffee

My new UA Sure II uric acid monitor was delivered a couple of weeks ago, but at the time I started writing this blog I had not yet used it to test Roy. I was wondering how I would manage to pin him down and extract the necessary drop of blood from his craven finger.

Then came an unexpected stroke of luck! – he woke up a few mornings ago with a twinge of gout in one ankle, and immediately demanded that I test his uric acid levels. Right now! I hastened to comply: you don’t argue with a gouty husband.

#25 Diet Wars

No, I don’t mean the fights that break out when one of you is hangry. (In our case, that would be me.) Nor – at the risk of sounding sexist – is it the argument over when he’s going to finally pull himself towards himself and lose that paunch.

I’m referring to the sometimes farcical war between proponents of various approaches to nutrition in general and weight-loss in particular.

With the world getting fatter by the day, there’s no lack of interest in the subject. There’s also no lack of cocksure experts clamouring to sell their uniquely correct message – and, coincidentally, their silver-bullet supplement – to the overweight and desperate.

Personally, I don’t believe there’s just one right way to lose fat and maintain a healthy weight. What worked for Roy when he embarked on my Low Carb, No Crap™ eating plan back in February 2020 and lost 35kg over 18 months may not work for the next man. In fact, what works for me is not exactly what works for Roy. (He can’t tolerate as many carbs as I can, for example.)

I tolerate more carbs than him: not that a custard tart is the ideal source of carbs for anyone

The Honey-guzzling Carnivore

Dr Paul Saladino, previously a vegan and now famous as the Carnivore MD, cured his own variously debilitating diseases by switching to eating only meat – nose-to-tail, importantly; not just ribeye steak. Oddly likeable and credible despite his extreme views and strong penchant for taking off his shirt, Paul is the author of The Carnivore Code, the host of the Fundamental Health Podcast and the founder of supplement company Heart & Soil.

Paul Saladino: famously carnivorous, with a penchant for removing his shirt

Avoiding plant-eating at all costs – remember, plants want to kill us! – worked so well for Paul that he went on a mission to share his discovery, and in doing so spearheaded a whole new eating craze: Carnivorism.

Discovering after some time that he needed some carbs, he added in a bit of fruit, but mostly honey, reasoning quite credibly that honey is in fact an animal product. (Vegans would agree: the staunchest of them won’t touch honey for that very reason.)

Importantly, Paul found that he felt a lot better on honey… and began eating quite a lot of it. While I respect him for publicly changing his mind, some of his followers did not. Instead, they were highly irate that he’d let the Carnivore side down.

The silliness of the diet wars smacks of the nonsense of certain religious differences, especially when people get all worked up about fine nuances. Just for fun, I thought I’d draw a few parallels:

Level One: Vegans vs Carnivores

Diet War extremists brook no middle ground

To me, veganism vs carnivorism is comparable to Christianity vs Hinduism – sure, they’re poles apart! No argument. The same goes for Christianity vs Islam. Despite worshipping just one god instead of a colourful pantheon of multi-limbed divinities, there are clear differences between Christianity and Islam, like there are with the paleolithic diet (paleo) vs vegetarianism. (Though arguably not worth Crusading about the Middle East for a couple of centuries with the loss of an estimated 1.7 million lives.)

Photo credit: jooinn.com – Crusading around the Middle East

Vegans and Vegetarians

Veganism vs vegetarianism, now, is loosely comparable to Catholicism vs Protestantism. Both Catholics and Protestants are Bible-loving Christians, after all. Yet in France alone – never mind the rest of the so-called civilised world – the Eight Religious Wars (1562-98) saw off an estimated two to four million lives. And that’s just for starters.

It would have been satisfying to complete this analogy by saying that both vegans and vegetarians are plant-loving veg-eaters, but that would be untrue. All they have in common is that they don’t eat meat. In fact, plenty of animal-food shunners live on highly processed, food-like substances such as Rice Krispies, Coca Cola and Twinkies that are worlds removed from their “plant-based” origins.

And quite a few of them have misguidedly started to eat the abominable Beyond Burgers: fake meat that’s not merely junk food, but a true culinary perversion – made from chemicals in laboratories from hyper-processed, resource-gobbling, planet-unfriendly Frankengredients.* This calls for a blogpost or three on its own, but I needed an excuse to use this salutary illustration filched from the internet:

(*Go on, Verne, tell us how you really feel.)

HFLC vs Paleo vs Keto vs Mediterranean

Now, though – how about high-fat and low-carb (HFLC) vs paleo, or keto? (I like The Primal Blueprint by paleo enthusiast Mark Sisson, by the way, having just listened to the updated version on Audible. And here’s a useful blog from him on carnivorism for beginners.

Mark Sisson (69) doing a balancing act on melissaambrossini.com

Or the Mediterranean diet vs the pegan diet espoused by Dr Mark Hyman, or Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof diet? There are no doubt “important” differences – but how much do they really matter?

Getting increasingly granular, what about strict keto vs dirty keto, or even cycling in and out of keto? Or strict carnivore vs carnivore plus fruit and honey, á la Paul Saladino?

From what I see online and in the podcast space, people can get amazingly worked up about their chosen brand of dietary fanaticism – and incredibly aggressive against any heresy they perceive. To me, it’s a lot like the arguably minor differences between the many dozens of Protestant denominations.

An Olive Branch

Be it diet or religion, no doubt we’re all doing our best in the circumstances we find ourselves, subject to whatever influences we’ve received and in terms of the very different options open to us.

Fortunately, most of the best diet gurus out there support one principal commandment: eating whole, minimally processed food, in as close to its natural form as possible. (A lot like my own Low Carb, No Crap™ lifestyle, coincidentally.)

And there, at the risk of having offended absolutely everyone, I rest my admittedly meandering case.

Amen.

Low-carb champagne, of course!

 

#20 Orthorexia, a new eating disorder?

Orthorexia – or orthorexia nervosa – is a newish and very first-world condition. And no orthorexic is likely to admit to being one, says VERNE MAREE.

I know a bit about body dysmorphia and disordered eating, so when Roy says things like: “I’ll have just one bite of cake,” or “Let’s share that banana”, my spidey sense is alerted.

You’ll remember that Roy lost 35kg on my Low Carb, No Crap® eating plan; and it’s great that he’s determined to keep it off. But when he asks for three chips with his fish, is he going too far?

He has lost the weight, and he’s keeping it off

#19 When to Eat

When to eat might be as important a question as what to eat. VERNE MAREE spills the beans on how Roy and she are faring with Intermittent Fasting (IF) and Time-Restricted Feeding (TRF).

It’s not just what you eat that matters. When you eat is important, too. I’m a firm believer in both intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding. If you’re not already on track, why not give it a try?

#18 Collagen for great skin and strong bones

Get more collagen, says VERNE MAREE! Working to keep your skin taut and healthy and your musculoskeletal system strong, collagen is the body’s most abundant protein. 

When my dear friend Christa suggested I do a blog on collagen – maybe marine vs bovine – I thought, why not? Call me strange, but collagen is in fact something I think about most days: whether I’m adding collagen powder to a smoothie, making bone broth, or, sadly less frequently, booking a collagen-boosting facial treatment.

For me, collagen is about both looking young and staying strong.

A daily cup of collagen-rich broth is one of the best things you can do for your skin

#16 Are you gluten intolerant?

Are you gluten intolerant? Gluten intolerance is more widespread than previously thought, and gluten may be harming people in ways they never dreamt of. VERNE MAREE spills the beans on what going gluten-free did for her.

A few days ago, I did a gazillion squats and lunges in a Les Mills Bodypump class at Craigie Leisure Centre, followed by a yoga session. The next day, I jogged 8km along our hilly coastal path. The morning after that, I walked for miles along Burns Beach, basking in the perfection of the day.

So what? Well, just a couple of years ago, that little lot would have seen me limping around, moaning about sore hips and possibly swallowing a bunch of anti-inflammatories.

What’s changed since then? Read on to find out!

Coastal path to Burns Beach – a nice, hilly run
Craigie Leisure Centre gym

#14 Getting Back on Track after the Festive Season

Getting back on track ASAP after the festive season is a jolly good idea for health and longevity. Fortunately, while you’re still feeling utterly stuffed, it may not be so hard to do. 

Have you recently been derailed by mince pies? – or Prosecco, or pavlova, or whatever your seasonal poison may be? I know I have. It doesn’t take long to go off the rails. Fortunately, there’s nothing to stop us getting right back on track – and in the case of Roy and me, that means back on to the Low Carb, No Crap TM eating plan that helped him lose 35kg… and keep it off.

The pics below, taken a year apart, are presented as evidence. (It’s a shame I couldn’t afford a new dress.)

#11 How Much Fat Do We Need to Eat?

How much fat we need depends on other things – how many carbs we can tolerate, for example, and what sort of fat we choose. Saturated fats from sustainably pastured animals is a pretty good start.

Note: The droolworthy featured image (above) is from the cover of The Big Fat Surprise, by Nina Teicholz

How much fat

I’ve always liked this old 16th-century English rhyme, mainly because it sounded just like my parents – my tall, skinny, carrot-crunching father and my plump, butter-loving mother. Luckily, though I inherited her penchant for pork crackling, fatty lamb chops and anything sautéed in butter, I also inherited a tendency to Dad’s lanky frame – as long as I curb my cursed sweet tooth!