How dark chocolate helps us

Yum. We are lucky for this benefit and dark chocolate works with the Primal food plan - along with red wine....

The secret to dark chocolate’s health benefits may be in our guts. New research has found that bacteria in our stomachs feast on an indigestible part of cocoa, fermenting it into anti-inflammatory compounds that are good for the heart, the Los Angeles Times reports. The key lies in anti-oxidants called polyphenols, which are found in dark chocolate and cocoa powder as well as dark berries and black tea. The molecules in many polyphenols are too large to be absorbed through the stomach wall into the blood to be used as nutrients—which is where intestinal microbes lend a hand. In an experimental setting in the lab, researchers found that Bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria broke the polyphenols down into smaller molecules capable of making it into the blood. “When these compounds are absorbed by the body, they lessen the inflammation of cardiovascular tissue, reducing the long-term risk of stroke,” Louisiana State University food science professor John Finley says. The amount of cocoa powder needed to produce benefits is about two tablespoons per day.

I got this from The Week Magazine, the April 4th issue.

Burger King Baby

Holy Christmas. I mean, this is obviously a blessing, but what a world. As reported in my favorite magazine, The Week:

A 27-year-old Pennsylvania woman known as the “Burger King baby” has found her birth mother, calling their reunion “pure joy.” Katheryn Deprill was just a newborn in 1986 when her mother left her in a Burger King bathroom in Allentown, Pa. Deprill’s tale went viral after she posted her story on Facebook, pleading for help in finding the woman who had left her behind. The post found its way to her mother, who contacted Deprill’s attorney to arrange a meeting. “She left me somewhere she knew I’d be found,” Deprill said. “She did not want to throw me away.”

I am thankful Katheryn found her birth mother. I hope they can have a relationship. I wish the mother had taken the child to the fire station, but perhaps that program for babies was not yet in place. But, the wonders of social media in this world.

Europe's Most Fertile Man

What in the world? Again, from The Week Magazine, an article of modest, amusing interest to those of us doing family research. Now, there are other elements to this story other than the questions/problems this would raise for a person building a family tree. On a side note, I remember hearing that something like 15% of people discover during DNA testing that there was a "non-paternal" event in their tree. In other words, someone they thought was a father turns out not to be. That's a larger number than I would have suspected. In this case, it is out in the open, so long as the parents are forthright with their children about their paternity.

Ed Houben is sought after by women all over Europe, said John Laurenson in BBC.com. The Dutch “charitable sperm donor” is prized for his legendary powers of insemination, having fathered a staggering 98 children in the last decade. More unusually, he donates his sperm in the “traditional way”: by forgoing the syringe and having sex with the women—many of whom are married. “Much better chance of conception,” Houben explains. The 44-year-old started donating to sperm banks in 2002, but when the Netherlands banned anonymous sperm donation, he offered his stud services for free online. As requests poured in, Houben began keeping an up-to-date list of his children on his computer. One British couple now awaiting a delivery came to him after several unsuccessful trips to fertility clinics. “They stayed for eight days and—how should I put it correctly?—she and I slept together four times, and after almost 10 years of trying they had their first pregnancy.” The husbands, he says, rarely present a problem. They’re so eager to have a baby that they’re “beyond these feelings of, ‘Ooh, there’s a stranger sleeping with my wife.’” And that’s what it’s all about, Houben insists: the “beautiful hope of creating a new life that will be loved and looked after.”

One would think that these children must be told their parentage, as what would happen should they find each other.... we have seen from previous posts that there are plenty of long lost siblings out there who find one another later in life....

Madison Bistro, NYC - A Review

I enjoyed my meal very much. Now, I was visiting a college friend, so that obviously impacted my perception, but I would happily return to the restaurant.

Oumarou was very attentive and made us feel well cared for, even as the restaurant filled up. We never felt neglected or forgotten. I had my back to the dining room so hadn't realized that the restaurant became quite full as I enjoyed the conversation with my friend.

The two gentlemen at the table next to us were regulars at the restaurant who live near by and we got included in their conviviality and the jokes with Oumarou.

The bartender prepared my French 75 perfectly, and I was delighted to see a tarte flambee on the menu. I will always order the "Alsatian pizza" if I see it. And, my French 75 was a nice accompaniment in lieu of a gewurz. The soup of the day was a fresh broth-based asparagus, which hit the spot. I couldn't pass on the chocolate cake and an espresso in a French bistro. My friend did the Prix fixe dinner at $45, but upgraded to the sea scallops and the dessert special, adding $6, so dinner for the two of us with 2 drinks and dessert worked out to $136 before tip.

Madison Bistro
238 Madision Ave (Btwn 37 & 38 Streets)
New York, NY 10016
212-447-1919

The Real Paleo Diet

As you have figured out, readers, I get my news from the Week Magazine. (I don't watch TV news, but I do listen to NPR. Now you know everything about me and my outlook on the world, I'm afraid.)

At the end of each edition they do a longer story called "The last word" and at the beginning of March they printed an excerpt from an article by Daniella Martin at Amazon Publishing/New Harvest. The author indicates that "if you really want to copy our early ancestors' diet, you should be eating lots of bugs." She asserts that insects are a much higher quality food than leaves and even nuts.

A favorite restaurant of mine does have grasshopper/cricket tacos on the menu. When in Mexico, I did try some salt blended with grasshoppers. But I can't quite do it. The last time we got overrun with cicadas, plenty of people talked about preparing them for dinner. Just a couple of weeks ago a caller asked Lynn Rosssett Kasper how to prepare the grasshoppers which were overrunning his Texas ranch. I don't recall her response, though all I could think of was how he was going to capture enough for a meal. They discussed if any part of the insect needed to be removed - the answer was no - and also if they should be washed. Now, how does one go about washing a bunch of insects? Seriously? WAIT, now I remember visiting the bird market in Hong Kong. There I think they removed all the wings, though the insects survived the amputation. But those insects were for the birds, not people. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if in China the grasshoppers were also enjoyed by humans.

I guess I am not yet ready for this ingredient in my diet.

Oliver Tree Lee's Story

Oliver was born the second son after the end of the Civil War on December 9, 1866 in New York City in an apartment at 137 East 22nd Street to parents Martha Tree and James Lee and older brother Charles. Both parents had also been born in New York City. James was working as a piano maker at the time of Oliver’s birth.

By 1870, his family had moved slightly uptown to East 28th Street in to a building with the Trees as their neighbors. These might have been his grandparents, Robert and Eliza Tree. His neighbors were of both German or English descent and worked as coachmen, photographers, painters, machinists, moulders or along with his father in the piano making business.

In June 1872 there was a fire in the building where Oliver’s father worked, destroying his piano string business. James was only insured for two thirds of the $1,500 value he claimed was destroyed in the fire.

Something drastic must have happened to the family, because in 1880 Oliver and his father James have sought work in Milo, New York, a community of farmers, laborers or servants. Fourteen year old Oliver and his father are lodging near one another, but in separate houses along the banks of Seneca Lake in Milo, NY. Oliver is listed as a hired man in the industry of laborer. His father is listed as a servant. Oliver is living with Ruben Thayer’s family while James is living in a house worthy of depiction in the 1876 Atlas of New York Counties, the Isaac Hewitt house.

In the 1889 New York City Directory we find Oliver and Horace living with their father at 2256 Second Avenue. Oliver is already listed as a letter carrier at this time. We can’t know when Oliver got the job with the Post Office, nor can we know how he came to be in Troy, New York.

Oliver’s marriage to Nellie Jane Kirkpatrick is announced in the Lansingburgh Times on September 8th, 1894 . There is no way to know how they met, but we can perhaps imagine that Oliver delivered mail to their home or perhaps they attended the same church. Nellie Jane is seven years younger than Oliver. They were married at her parent’s home by Reverend George Fairlee from the Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Oliver and Nellie Janes’ first child, Charles Herbert Lee, is born in July 1896 in New York City, not Troy, NY. Perhaps the young couple went to New York City to have the baby and introduce Nellie Jane to Oliver’s family.

By 1900, Oliver has two sons, Charles and Horace. He is working as a letter carrier for the post office and renting an apartment in his father-in-law’s home at 246 2nd Avenue in Troy.

Perhaps because his family is growing, Oliver moves his family out of his father-in-law’s home in 1901, moving to 125 6th Avenue. Three years later in 1904 his third child, Olive, is born. With the family still growing, by 1910, he has moved again, down the street to 93 6th Avenue where Margaret is born in 1911.
Nellie Jane’s parents die within a day of one another in January 1912.

By 1915, Oliver is still living at 93 6th Avenue, but his oldest son has started college at Syracuse University. Herbert attending college is a source of pride for the Lee family, as he is the first in the Lee family to ‘attend’ college. Herb’s period as a college student ends, however, as he serves in World War I in France as an ambulance driver. Not being a veteran himself, Oliver was probably very proud of his eldest son.

In 1920, Oliver continues to reside at 93 6th Avenue with his wife and three younger children. Horace, or Harry, is working as a salesman for a drug company.
In 1925, Oliver and Nellie have moved back with their three younger children to Nellie’s parent’s former house at 246 2nd Avenue.

At age 62 in 1930, Oliver continues to work with the post office coming home to his stenographer daughters and wife who keeps house. The family owns the house at this point, valued at $4,000. One can imagine Oliver returning home at the end of a day delivering mail and listening to the radio as his wife and older daughter fuss over him and his younger daughter commutes home from her job in Albany. This same scene may recur in 1935 as the four Lees remain in the same house and everyone working in the same professions.

According to the 1940 census, Oliver is retired, presumably with a pension from the Federal Government after his service in the Post Office, as he indicates that he received money from a source other than wages. Olive continues to live with her parents, working as a secretary in a collar factory for $1,500/year.

In 1947, Olive is living with her parents at the same address.

At some point between 1947 and 1953, the three Lees move from Troy, New York to Yonkers, New York. The three of them live together at 1428 Midland Avenue, Bronxville, New York.

In Bronxville, New York, at the Lawrence Hospital, Oliver dies of Uremia and complications from hypertensive cardio vascular renal disease. Olive, his older daughter, reports Oliver’s death on January 13, 1953. This must have been a very difficult time for the Lee family for just a few months before Herb’s wife and Oliver’s daughter in law, Florence Maher had passed. Oliver was 86 when he died.

Oliver is taken back to downtown Troy, New York to be buried in the Kirkpatrick family plot in Oakwood Cemetery. He joined his wife’s family in Plot 242 in Section D-3.

Another source reports on Procrastination

At least this teeny blurb more fully reports the research done on twins about procrastination and the reason it may have developed. I took this from the April 25th edition of The Week Magazine.

The science of putting it off
Chronic procrastination can feel like a character flaw, but a new study indicates that rather than lamenting your lack of will power, you can just blame your parents. Researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, surveyed pairs of identical and fraternal twins about their tendency to procrastinate and to set and meet goals, and their level of impulsiveness. Identical twins were much more likely to match answers than fraternals, showing that genetics plays a significant role in forming these habits. “Learning more about the underpinnings of procrastination may help develop interventions to prevent it,” study author Daniel Gustavson tells NatureWorldNews​.com. Researchers also believe impulsiveness, which overlaps with procrastination tendencies, may have given our ancestors an evolutionary advantage by helping them focus on day-to-day survival rather than long-term goals. Procrastination could be a by-product of that thinking, showing how behavioral traits that evolved millennia ago can clash with the demands of modern life.

Blog with a similar name

As I named my blog I obviously had to find something unique. I did, at least I did with blogspot.... Today I read an entry with a similar name and of course, with the similar name, it had a similar theme. Nancy Humphrey Case wrote about the sale of her family's farm built in 1810 where 10 generations of her family lived. Such good stuff. But it makes me sad. She concludes it's the stories that make it worthwhile, not the things. I have noticed, though, that it's just often the things that make one remember the stories... We don't write these stories down, or think to tell them on a normal Sunday afternoon. I don't have an answer as how to change that.

But please find here Ms. Case's entry about her farm called Cherry Brook. I hope you enjoy it as I did.

Beef Prices

USA Today reports that the price of beef has hit a 27-year high.

The average U.S. price for fresh beef rose in February to its highest level since 1987 — $5.28 a pound — as cattle ranchers reduced their herds amid dry conditions and demand for beef increased in China and Japan, among other export destinations, The Associated Press reports. Prices are expected to stay high for a few years, at least.

Some shoppers are sucking up the price hike — 25 cents a pound in a month — or switching to cheaper cuts, while others are simply looking elsewhere for their protein. Some ranchers are nervous that people will permanently change their eating habits if prices stay high, even as all cattle ranchers are thrilled about getting more money for their wares.

As for restaurants, they're either passing on the higher costs to customers or, as some higher-end restaurants are, serving smaller steaks. So, bad time to go on the paleo diet, and good time to own a hamburger stand. - - Peter Weber

Reading this makes me think about the process of raising cattle. I have always wondered how much of what we/I eat comes from feed lots versus how much comes from the rancher/farmer whose animals I see as a drive along the smaller roads in the US. This blurb talks about droughts which doesn't effect the feed lots, does it? I mean it's not as though the animals are grazing and enjoying a pristine stream as it passes through the meadow. Or do I just not understand the process? Do the animals start in that field I see from the road only to be shipped to a feed lot just before slaughter? I guess I have addressed this issue for myself by purchasing my meat from a rancher at the farmer's market. Now, have I visited his farm to confirm my assumptions? Not yet.... Perhaps I need to add that to my ever-growing to-do list.

Gut Bacteria

I confess to any readers, I believe in the Primal perspective on eating. I am not necessarily very good at following the tenets, but the theory resonates with me. I particularly like the Friday posts when folks write in about their success stories. I believe them. I mean, not everyone can make up such wonderful stories, can they? It amazes me about people who get to get off their medicines after eating Primaly. (A friend just confessed last night that she has been diagnosed as diabetic and now she is taking medicine for that. It breaks my heart.)

The reason I mention Primal Eating is because Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple recently published a blog post about Gut Bacteria. Gut bacteria fascinates me. I heard a podcast several years ago (on RadioLab, maybe) about the effects of gut bacteria on our health. It’s amazing. I suppose everyone has heard about it now, it’s been in the press so much. (I also heard about an experiment with sinus infections in children where they did a transfusion of healthy sinus bacteria into those children who suffered multiple sinus infections and how it worked relative wonders for the children.) I am ensnared by the idea of ‘TransPOOsions’ – a Freudian slip made by a patient of the interviewed doctor who was going to give her a fecal transfusion. Can you imagine? Insert the gut bacteria from a healthy individual into that of an ailing individual and have their lives turn around? At the time of the podcast they were speculating that it might help MS, Parkinsons, and other diseases. I will be keeping my focus on the subject.

Anyway, I wanted to share Mark Sisson’s blog post 7 Things You Had No Idea Gut Bacteria Could Do. In summary, they are:
They learn from each other.
They improve our bone mineral density.
They nullify anti-nutrients.
They manufacture vitamins.
They form a large physical barrier against pathogens.
They represent a “second brain.”
They can make us depressed, anxious, obsessive-compulsive, and even autistic.

Obviously, dear reader, you need to read his very detailed post so that you may learn. But, do take a look. It’s good stuff.