Should I Take Vitamins?

I saw a very powerful ad in a magazine the other day:  A gorgeous blonde woman wearing a bathing suit that revealed her enviable abdominal muscles was gazing over her sunny dominion on an idyllic beach.  It was, unarguably, a beautiful-executed photograph of a visually-appealing subject matter.  The caption was a pithy two words:  "LIVE HOT".  The advertisement was for a major retailer that sells vitamins and nutritional supplements.  Wow.

I will be very surprised if this ad campaign does not increase sales for this retailer.  Most women, myself included, would love to be sculpted like the woman in the picture. And, of course, our friendly retailer is insinuating that if you pop a couple of their tablets or down a couple of their power drinks, you'll be on your way to this level of perfect fitness.  Vitamins used to politely sit on the back shelves of pharmacies, but now they are splashed across the pages of glossy magazines.

If you hadn't already wondered before, after seeing an ad like that, you might wonder:  should I take vitamins?

I think the only fair answer is:  "Maybe...maybe not", and that's not much of an answer, now is it?

So, why the wishy-washy answer to a question that might be very important in this day and age of genetically-modifed mass-produced food and increased food-related disease?  Because science has been unable to give us a definitive answer.  Some theories claim that supplements deliver hard-to-obtain micronutrients, while others say that supplements are not bio-available enough for your body to absorb and use them properly--that you are essentially paying for expensive urine.  Even doctors are divided on the subject.  In my personal experience, I have had MDs that roll their eyes at talk of taking supplements, while others have had faith in them and offered specific recommendations to me.

Personally, I have taken supplements most of my life on the (flawed) principle of "it can't hurt and it might help."  As my life experience has increased, I have come to learn that my ideas of "it can't hurt" can be dangerously wrong.  If you are inclined to use supplements, it is of paramount importance that you run it by your MD before you start popping handfuls of capsules with your breakfast.  Some vitamins can have dangerous interactions with medications.  Some supplements can be brutal on your kidney function.  Some may contain hidden allergens.  You get the picture....

While it is appealing to think that there are magic tablets out there at the vitamin shop that will make us invincible beacons of good health, the truth is that the most bio-available, easy-to-assimilate nutrients come from what you eat.  I think that eating well should always be the top priority---lots and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, good clean proteins, hearty grains (I still like them, even though a lot of the trends are down on them at the moment), and even some indulgent, silky fats.  Fat actually helps your body to absorb a lot of vitamins.

The people who think they can half-starve themselves or subsist on a poor diet and still maintain good health through the use of vitamin supplements don't quite get it.  It's plastic "health"...it has no depth.

Going back to my old philosophy that "it can't hurt and it might help,"  I counted this morning no less than 15 vitamin bottles on my kitchen counter.  I probably have another 15 up in the medicine chest.  Why so many?  Like everyone else, I wanted to believe that vitamins were the way to LIVE HOT,  or at the very least, to live healthy.  Was I duped?  Well...yes and no.  I continue to take about 5 of these supplements, with a doctor's approval, on a regular basis.  There are a few more I take under atypical circumstances, when I feel there might be a special need.  The rest of those pretty little bottles probably need to get thrown away.  Most of them didn't do diddly squat...they didn't even deliver a placebo effect.   And a few of the supplements I once purchased  were the aforementioned kinds that could have some undesirable effects over time.

Obviously, if your doc tells you to take a certain supplement, do it.  Or, if you are inclined to supplement on your own, make sure you clear it with the doc.  But if you don't have extra money to spend at the pharmacy or you know you'll never remember to take your vitamins, just skip it.  Because what is really, truly going to enable you to LIVE HOT is eating a well-rounded diet (but not too much of it!), eschewing the things you know are "bad", breaking a sweat while you exercise, and getting plenty of fresh air and sound sleep.

How To Be a Health Nut Without Becoming a Nut Job

I am reading a book on health and nutrition right now (another one!).  The author is a bona fide M.D. (versus a self-styled “expert”), the sources he references are well-respected ones, and, as a sweeping generalization, his basic dietary program strikes me as sound and inspirational.  But the devil is in the details, it seems.  Our doctor-author has additional guidelines, some of which are pretty cumbersome and, um, well, kind of out there.  And along with the more difficult guidelines comes a heavy dose of philosophy, probably designed to inspire his readers, that rather makes me wonder if he foraged the wrong kind of mushrooms.

Before I set down the book last night before bed, I thought that someone really needs to write a book entitled: How To Be a Health Nut Without Becoming a Nut Job.    Because, despite the aforementioned author’s good intentions and promises of flawless health, most of us (even the healthy ones!) will one day wind up in the nursing home.  And if you’ve been a tediously food-rule-obsessed wacko for most of your adult life, ain’t no one gonna visit you there.  I’m not up for writing the book, but I’ll gladly take a stab at a pithy little step-by-step guide.  Here goes my take on the matter:

1. Don’t get all preachy about your dietary regimen.   Why?  Because there are many paths to the top of the mountain, Little Grasshopper.  What’s working for you, might literally cause anaphylactic shock in someone else.  You may certainly share your secrets with anyone who asks why you seem so vibrant, but don’t become an evangelist for your specific diet.
2. Make your breakfast 80% fruit.  Of course you can have a little of grain or protein or dairy to round things out, but there is no finer way to kick-start your body in the morning than with a heavy dose of Vitamin C.  And sorry, but orange juice alone just doesn’t cut it.  You need the whole fruit with all of the cell-supporting collagen and fiber.
3. Eat a couple vegetarian dinners each week.  You don’t have to commit to a lifetime of “rabbit food”, but it really gives your system a break if you keep meals light and fresh from time to time.  It’s like the system-flush they do on your car when you get a tune up.  It just keeps you running clean.
4. Choose food that hasn’t been messed with.  Choose produce that wasn’t hosed down with some DDT-like chemical.  Choose beef that didn’t spend its life propped up by hormones and antibiotics.  Make sure your other supplies don’t have an ingredient list a mile long, too.  You should already know to steer clear of fast food and processed packaged food.  You don’t have to be zany about it…just try to make the better choice most of the time.
5. Get some fresh air and sunshine.  Not everyone is cut out to be a gym rat or yoga guru.   But everyone absolutely is cut out to get outdoors and work out the kinks. Physiologically, almost all of us truly need a little Vitamin D sunshine and some fresh air in our lungs.  If you think I’m making this up, go have your MD check your D levels.  Most of us, especially in cloudier climes, are woefully short on the stuff.
6. Sleep more.  I hear you laughing at me.  I know it’s hard...24 hours doesn’t give most of us nearly enough time for all of our obligations and a good night's rest.  But 24 hours is all that any of us has, so  we’ve got to figure it out.  If you can inch your bedtime backwards by just one half hour or grab a 20 minute catnap after work, it will do great things for your constitution and immune system.
7. Bakery and booze are for special occasions.  Sorry.  Please know that it hurts me to write that as much as it hurts you to read it, but it’s the truth.  Despite the odd antioxidant in wine, most of these trappings of the good life have to be filtered out of your body like a pollutant. If you make your filter organs sluggish from too many num-nums, they will undoubtedly have a harder time beating off real enemies to your health...like disease or environmental hazards.

A mere 7 steps would make a reasonable start to a healthy lifestyle without having to subscribe to any extreme philosophies.  If you followed only these steps to a “T”, I would gander that a lot of things would fall in line.  It's quite possible that this guide could be enough for many people,  but you can always expand on it once you've gotten the basics down pat.

So that's my non-nutso guide to health...just 7 steps... because I know life is already nuts, why should you be, too?

Chicken a la Total Disregard

You can make a career reading about roasting birds. Every food expert has an opinion on how to roast a chicken. And every expert is sure their method is the best. And in the name of getting more people back into the kitchen, I think they scare everyone into the queue at Boston Market. The timid types are absolutely petrified at the thought of having to truss a chicken. They might not be that keen on touching it at all in the first place. And when the timid types read "Season the chicken before putting it into the oven," in your recipe they really don't know that you mean salt, in which case they might not make the chicken at all because their interfering sister-in-law told them to follow the DASH diet. And then there is the whole debate of a hot oven or a "low and slow" one or some magical combination of the two.

Well, friendly readers, I have trussed chickens. I have brined them. I have spatchcocked them. I have de-boned them whole. I have cooked them with seasonings under the skin. I have cooked them with seasonings or stuffing in the cavity. I have roasted them breast side up. I have roasted them breast side down. I have roasted them in pots. I have roasted them on flat sheet pans. I have used racks. I have used a hot oven. I have used a warming oven. And, rest assured, all of those methods produced an above-average chicken dinner.

But just last night, I happened upon the best method yet. And you can do this. Yes, YOU! You, with your Betty Crocker-looking apartment-sized oven that has never been turned on the whole time you've been living here. You, who was raised by vegetarians and have never even watched anyone cook a chicken. You, without kitchen twine or a sharp knife in the drawer. You can do this. But it's best done late at night, the day before you plan on serving it.

Get a whole chicken. Pull it out of the bag and stick your hand in the cavity and discard the baggie of gizzards and assorted nasties. Throw your bird onto something metal. I used a beater of an old baking sheet. You can use a disposable aluminum pan or whatever's clever. Don't season it. Don't truss it. Don't do anything. Throw it into a cold oven because you weren't planning on doing this so you never preheated it. Pick a temperature in the 300's. 325, 350, 375...those are all fine degrees of Fahrenheit and any one will do. Let the bird go for a half hour or forty minutes. Then decide you have something really pressing to do outside of the kitchen, so turn the heat down really low, to 250, and go spend an hour or more on that project. Then come back to the kitchen, remember the chicken and turn it back up to 350 for 20 minutes or so. Then, decide you are sick of this whole chicken-roasting process already, but you'd just like some golden skin, so crank the heat up to 425 or 450 for 10 or 15 minutes. After that amount of time, you won't be able to take the sputtering and spattering and smoke from the chicken fat that has rendered off the bird, so you will be forced to turn the oven off, open a window, and take the bird out of the oven. Promptly get the chicken out of that hot fat and onto a plate or platter (I use big tongs for this). At this point, you will not be impressed with this ugly bird with so-so looking skin. You will think I have misled you. So when the bird is not so steaming hot, curse my name, cover it well, and stick it in the fridge and just don't think about it anymore.

On day two...come home from work with a rotten disposition. Throw the chicken onto a cutting board and take the biggest knife you own and hack it into 4 big parts. Put however many parts you want onto a baking sheet or roasting pan, spritz them with spray oil (i.e. PAM), salt them lightly, and bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes. Serve hot.

This chicken should be perfectly succulent and falling off the bone. You will have a hard time believing it barely has any salt or any other seasonings because it will be so full of flavor. If you like skin, you will be pleased that the skin on this bird is the perfect combination of crisp, yet tender.

How did I come up with this bad attitude recipe?

Due to some unusual circumstances, I unenthusiastically had to roast a chicken in the deep, dark hours of the night last night. I had already cooked all day and was a little grumpy about making it my night's work, too. So, I did the bare minimum just to try to get the bird finished while I juggled some other evening tasks. And what a surprise that it turned out a sublimely cooked specimen.

Timid types, non-cooks, and lazy folks rejoice! For apparently, total disregard is the secret ingredient in a perfect roast chicken.