My friend the Coconut Oil...but wait, there's fat?

Why is coconut oil my friend? Because it is fantastic in raw desserts! It's used as a setting agent. It's melting temperature is 76 degrees F so once it's in the fridge, it will harden up pretty nice. I don't recommend eating Coconut Oil every day in large amounts, but if you're going to eat a fat, this one is a better alternative than butter.

I'm sure many of you have heard how Coconut Oil contains "medium chain" fatty acids as opposed to short or long chained. People say it will more likely to be used as energy than the longer chain fatty acids. That I have yet to look into, but let me share with you the difference of Medium Chain vs. Long Chain fatty acids and how they're processed in your body.

This is taken from wikipedia and it explains how fatty acids are absorbed in our system:

"Short- and medium-chain fatty acids are absorbed directly into the blood via intestine capillaries and travel through the portal vein just as other absorbed nutrients do. However, long-chain fatty acids are too large to be directly released into the tiny intestine capillaries. Instead they are absorbed into the fatty walls of the intestine villi and reassembled again into triglycerides. The triglycerides are coated with cholesterol and protein (protein coat) into a compound called a chylomicron.

Within the villi, the chylomicron enters a lymphatic capillary called a lacteal, which merges into larger lymphatic vessels. It is transported via the lymphatic system and the thoracic duct up to a location near the heart (where the arteries and veins are larger). The thoracic duct empties the chylomicrons into the bloodstream via the left subclavian vein. At this point the chylomicrons can transport the triglycerides to where they are needed."

Ok ok...it may seem like a lot of mumbo jumbo. Let me break it down and try to make some sense of it.

Short and Medium chain fatty acids are absorbed directly into the blood as other nutrients are.

Long chain fatty acids cannot go directly into the blood as do the others because they are too large. They reassembly themselves in triglycerides (not cool) and then they have one heck of a ride through your arteries and eventually to the blood.

Now that we've covered how it's absorbed, let's look at the Coconut Oil fatty acid profile:

Fatty Acid	Saturation	Carbons	Percent
Caproic	Saturated	6	0.5
Caprylic	Saturated	8	7.8
Capric	Saturated	10	6.7
Lauric	Saturated	12	47.5
Myristic	Saturated	14	18.1
Palmitic	Saturated	16	8.8
Stearic	Saturated	18	2.6
Arachidic	Saturated	20	0.1
Oleic	Monounsaturated	18	6.2
Linoleic	Polyunsaturated	18	1.6

Coconut oil contains approximately 92.1% saturated fatty acids, 6.2% monounsaturated fatty acids, 1.6% polyunsaturated fatty acids. The above numbers are averages based on samples taken. Numbers can vary slightly depending on age of the coconut, growing conditions, and variety.

What you want to look at is the number of carbon atoms present.
Short Chain = <6
Medium = 6-12
Long = 14 or more


So what you're looking for is the number of carbon atoms. As you can see, most of the carbons present are 6-12. Coconut oil, on average, as about 62.5% medium chain fatty acids.

Now if you're going to have fat in your diet, wouldn't you want a fat that travels essentially directly to your bloodstream? I sure would!

Hope this helps clear up a few things about Medium vs. Long Chain fatty acids!

It's A Love/Hate Thing

Guess what I made?! Sauerkraut aka Cabbage Kraut! Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage. Fermentation is just converting carbohydrates into alcohol or better defined, converting sugars into ethanol.

I did this by shredding a head of cabbage, 1t salt per 10C of shreds, massaged it for a loooong time until I created a lot of juice, added unknown amounts of cracked black peppercorn, bay leaves and dill, then finally put it into a bowl to ferment. I used the outer leaves of the cabbage to create an air tight fit over the kraut. I pressed a small flat bowl over the center to really get the kraut deep into its juices. To keep it all in place, I filled up a quart Mason jar with water and placed it in the bowl, again assuring the kraut was in its juices. I laid a tea towel over the whole batch and set it on the lower portion of our bookshelf. I let it sit for 5 days....

Depending on temperature, it can take 3-14 days. I was just too excited so I to test it out. Good thing I did! This sucker was going dry!!!! Another day or two I'd be eating cabbage leather. We did have a couple warm days this week (75F) so I'm sure that didn't help. Next time I think I will juice some cabbage in my Green Star then add it to the massaged bunch. That will ensure it won't dry out. I also don't think I had the cabbage leaves tight enough around the kraut. This was a given when I noticed the edges curling up :-P.

Sauerkraut has a ton of Vitamin C (when it's not pasteurized or heated) as well as our friend the lactobacilli bacteria (if fermented correctly). There's actually 3 phases of the fermentation. A different bacteria takes over in each phase, lactobacilli being the last. For those concerned about pH level, it is on the acidic side. I wish I knew where abouts but maybe you can comment with the answer :). If you are sensitive to acidic foods, just eat a little at a time.

You're supposed to keep the kraut in an "anaerobic" environment. This is where I begin to compare cabbage kraut with running. What???...Cabbage and running???

I'm a runner and athletes hear a lot about "anaerobic" and "aerobic" exercise. You might find this at the gym on cardio machines. Well, to put it simple, anaerobic means "without air". When you're sprinting to the finish line and you can barely breathe, you're running in the anaerobic zone which is almost to your VO2 Max (Volume of Oxygen). You're essentially out of air. Then again, when it's the finish line, all adrenaline takes over and it's an out of body experience. Before you know it, you're 8" off the ground in a full sprint, one that even 100m World Record Holder Usain Bolt would be proud of.

With me, running is a love/hate thing. You can train all you want, but yet, come race day it's a hit or miss. Kind of like making kraut...sometimes it turns out great, sometimes, not so much. Though, it's a definite miss if you don't train at all lol. I've learned that the hard way. I have a race coming up on Super Bowl Sunday. It's my 3rd Surf City 1/2 Marathon in a row and 4th out of 5. It was my first ever race 5 years ago. Pretty crazy to think that I've been sort of running that long. Thanks Dave! The goal for the race?...unknown. Ideally a sub 1:40...but I'm not sure if I want to exert that kind of energy when the real race is March 21st, the L.A. Marathon :).

Running is just one of those things that I hate when I'm doing it but I love it when I'm done. I hate the thought of running but I love the way it makes me feel when I'm done. Race day numbers seems to always be better than expected, when you train properly. I guess that's the point of it. Work hard for 2-3 months and it pays off. That's a good philosophy with anything in life.

Enjoy life! Eat well. Work hard. Exercise. Love life!

Green Smoothies Make Us Happy

Yesterday afternoon Kelli and I were a little sluggish and cranky. We attributed it to not having our daily "Green Smoothie". We were running late for work and didn't have time to make it. Oops!

Since coming back from Living Light, we've made smoothies that consisted of 2 navel oranges, handful of greens (whatever we have - typically Romaine or Kale) and a banana. Topped off with a little water and ice....voila!

Why would this simple drink make us happy? Well I plugged in the ingredients on www.nutritiondata.com and got the nutritional facts. I was a little surprised by the numbers, but why should I have been? We blended lots of whole goodness and making it easily digestible!

Here are the numbers for each glass:

145 Calories
1g Fat
36g Carbs
8g Fiber
21g Sugar
4g Protein
252% Vitamin A
202% Vitamin C
11% Calcium
9% Iron
180% Vitamin K
62% Folate

In addition to that, we have at least 1 heaping Tablespoon of HealthForce Nutritional Vitamineral Green which has:

150% Daily Vitamin B12
50% Daily Calcium
50% Daily Iron
1.6 billion Probiotic Cells
0.8 grams of fat
4g Protien
6g Carbs

So yea....that's why Green Smoothies make us happy and that's why you too should incorporate a tasty green smoothie to your diet! Even if you don't eat any raw veggies or fruits throughout the week, at least do this one thing every day and you'll notice a difference! :)

We had this smoothie today and we're happy and energetic!

So Exciting!

My first blog ever. I consider myself a "techie", yet I've resisted specific social network-ish movements throughout the past few years, blogging being one of them. Why now?...I feel I have information to share. I feel inspired by life. I hear the voices, I read the signs, the time is now.

So what's this blog site about? Raw food. Health. Those are statements. Yes, plain and simple statements but in depth, they're complicated. I'm inspired to spread the message in a way that people will "get it". I can't change people's minds, only they can do that on their own. I can only lead them to the water per se.

A little about me
I have the most beautiful soon to be wife anyone could ever have, Kelli :). She pushes me because she believes in me. She inspires me. Every day I wake up, I want to be a better man than I was the day before, all for her. If it weren't for her and God, I wouldn't be where I am today.

I grew up in a city called Waterbury located in the beautiful state of Connecticut. I graduated college in 2003 from the University of New Haven with a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Mathematics. In 2005 I followed a dream. The dream that began in 1998 eventually led me to Los Angeles, California. When something is in your head and you can't get it out of your mind....when you just know its right...you'd do anything for it.....well that's how I felt about moving to California. I searched and searched and searched for a job here. Years went by before I got my chance. The day of my interview was also the first day I had ever visited California. I felt at home. Three weeks later my car was packed and I was driving cross country with my college buddy Jeff.

I grew up as an athletic child and was fairly health conscious before moving to California. It was only fitting that I continued my exercising in sunny SoCal! That's where I began running with a colleague, now my best friend, Dave. We've ran over a dozen 1/2 Marathon races together. He's done a few marathons in which I've chickened out on.

I was always looking for ways to improve my health and that lead to my raw food journey. Being aware of my body's needs, a couple of months into dating Kelli, she wanted to do a cleanse. I was all for it! If it were a Draft, I'd be the first in line! During our 10-Day Master Cleanse, she mentioned that if we were cleansing our bodies, it only makes sense to replace it with raw organic foods. You know that look on your face when you bite into a lemon?...yea well...that was me. I thought this cleansing thing had taken a chunk out of her cerebral cortex, buuuuuut, since I'd do anything for her, I had to support her. We were/are a team. Plus it made sense. I'm wired like an engineer. It was sound and logical. A week later after attempting recipes, I knew this was it! This was what I wanted to do. I loved the creativity of converting a cooked recipe to a raw version while capturing all of the health benefits! The dream began. It's not easy leaving an engineering job to pursuit a career in raw food culinary arts but it was all I could think of. Sixteen months went by before I got my chance.

I graduated from the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute (www.rawfoodchef.com) as an Associate Chef and Instructor.

So the journey begins, one blog, one recipe, one life at a time.