Tips For The Health-Conscious Carnivore

1. Buy Grass-fed

Here’s something the beef industry doesn’t want you to know: Conventionally raised beef has more bad fat and less of the good kind than grass-fed beef. But all cattle eat grass, don’t they? Yes and no. In the mass-production beef industry, cattle graze on grass for part of their lives, then they’re sent to giant feedlots to pig out on corn until fat enough for slaughter. Only a small number are fed on grass for their whole lives. Irish researchers reported in 2000 that cattle fed on grass had less of the artery-clogging saturated fat in their tissues after slaughter than those fed grain, and they also had a higher proportion of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids (both are essential for humans).

2. "Other White Meat" is Hogwash

Whoever penned the advertising slogan touting pork as “the other white meat” is clearly a marketing genius. Light coloring aside, the truth is that lean chicken is much less fatty than lean pork. An 85-gram serving of broiled, skinless chicken breast provides 140 calories, 27 from fat, and only one-third of that fat is saturated. The same serving of roasted lean pork loin provides 275 calories, 189 of them from fat, half of it saturated. To top it off, the chicken serving has 6 more grams of protein than the same amount of pork.

3. Get Smoked Meat Online

“Smoked meat”, similar to pastrami but with different spices, is available in many places in Canada, but the people who really know it say the best comes from Montreal, where it originated. And the best of Montreal’s smoked meat, many say, comes from Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen. Frank Silva, the restaurant's general manager, says Schwartz’s didn’t invent smoked meat but it has kept the same process since the deli opened in 1928. The process begins with marinating the meat, a brisket, in a special blend of spices for 7 to 10 days, followed by 7 or 8 hours of smoking and 3 hours of steaming. No chemical preservatives or shortcuts are used, and that’s what separates Schwartz’s from the competition, Silva says. The company sells its smoked meat sliced by the pound or by the whole brisket, at Schwartz's Deli.

4. Have Coffee with Your Steak 

Ever had coffee on your steak? Probably not, unless you’ve eaten at Rippe’s steak and seafood restaurant in Seattle. In 2003 a chef and waiter came up with the idea of smearing Starbucks on their sirloin. It soon became a big hit, and Rippe’s dubbed its creation Seattle’s Signature Steak. Laure Dixon, a fine cook and wine connoisseur who lives in Nashua, New Hampshire, developed this version of coffee-dusted steak. She says to start with a good cut of meat and good coffee beans. (Some like espresso best.) Grind the beans to a fine powder. Then use that as a dry rub on the meat, rubbing it in with your hands. Shake off any excess. Then grill, broil, or pan-fry the steak to your preferred level of doneness. After she takes it off the heat, Laure swipes the steak across a plate containing a fine olive oil, then sprinkles sea salt all over it. Other cooks have also attempted to re-create Rippe’s steak, and you can find another version atSupermarket Guru.

5. Just Add Veggies

The cattle industry would like you to saw your way through a large slab of steak for dinner. But do your arteries a favor and save the whole-steak approach for special occasions. For day-in-and-day-out dining, find ways to cook your steak with other ingredients. Examples: Slice raw beef and sauté it with peppers and onions, fajita style. Cook cut-up steak in a wok with lots of vegetables. Top a salad with steak slices. Or make shish kebab with steak cubes and veggies. You almost always eat less meat when you prepare it as part of a broader dish.

6. Cook Burgers Any Way You Like

Here’s more proof that there’s more than one way to do lots of things, despite what the experts say. Brothers Bob and David Kinkead, who are partners in the restaurant Sibling Rivalry in Boston, divide their loyalties when it comes to cooking burgers. Bob prefers his cooked in a pan because he says grilling gives you the taste of char, not meat. David says cooking over charcoal or wood brings out the most flavour. One thing they do agree on: Don’t press on the burgers while they’re cooking. That just extracts juices and dries them out.

7. Find Your Beef

Whenever you find yourself reaching for a package of ground meat, switch over to the poultry section instead and pick up some ground chicken, ground turkey, or even some soy crumbles. All of them work just as well as ground beef for meatballs, meat loaf, or chili. However, this simple substitution can cut more than 30 per cent of the calories and at least half of the fat and saturated fat in a three-ounce serving.

8. Roast Breast Down

Cooked in the traditional way with breast side up, the white meat of a chicken is dry and worn out by the time the dark meat is done. To produce meat that is tender and moist, try flipping the bird over, with its backside up and breast down, as Dixon does. One small piece of special but inexpensive equipment, a V-rack, is helpful for the inverted roasting. But without that rack, you can prop up the chicken on a long cylinder of rolled-up aluminum foil. Roast in a preheated 200°C oven until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 80°C.

GOOD RELATIONS: A winning smile can take you places

THE value of a smile, which shows recognition, acknowledgement, appreciation or just understanding for someone trying to cope with challenging circumstances, can raise one's spirits and build good relations.

It is an expression denoting greeting, pleasure, sociability, happiness or amusement.

Smiling is perceived as a positive emotion most of the time, and it has favourable influence upon others and makes one affable and more approachable.

At times and in some cultures, however, it can also denote shallowness, confusion, coping with emotional pain, a sign of embarrassment, dishonesty or even being cheeky, disrespectful or concealing one's anger.

These differences are evident when we can figure out whether a smile is spontaneous or genuine. It may merely be a polite smile.

There is also the mischievous smile.

A team of British academics at a university in Wales claims to have developed a computer software to test people's responses when someone's face cracks into a smile.

The researchers say smiles act as a form of "social currency -- a valuable reward that people will pay to receive".

Smiling has the capacity, for instance, to lure shoppers to buy something, help close a deal, create or strengthen relationships, and mostly, encourage collaboration and productivity in work.

A smile is comforting and encouraging to the troubled, harried, broken-hearted and afflicted.

However, all this doesn't imply we should start flashing fake smiles at everyone, hoping we will get whatever we want and that others will be impressed with us.

A smile -- no matter how cleverly we may try to make out its sincerity -- can remain a mystery or simply keep haunting us. Based on Leonardo da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa painting, a popular 1950 Oscar Award winning song crooned by Nat King Cole says in a line from its lyrics: "You're so like the lady with the mystic smile".

Another Academy Award-winning song in 1958, by Johnny Mathis, A Certain Smile, the theme song of the film with the same title, says in the last stanza: "But in the hush of night, exactly like a bittersweet refrain, comes that certain smile to haunt your heart again."

Generally, if people perceive that others are friendly, they will build stronger relationships.

We know that people's social networks can be an important determinant of longevity and health -- a kind of social networking that isn't possible to carry out on Facebook or Twitter!

7 tips for a healthy lifestyle

Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean hours of training at the gym and eating only salad leaves. It’s about making easy-to-manage healthy choices in your day-to-day living.

Says Dr Craig Nossel, head of Wellness at Discovery Vitality: "The trick to making your lifestyle healthier is to make small healthy changes every day, such as taking the stairs instead of the lifts, increasing your fruit by one, drinking one extra glass of water or quitting smoking."

So let’s start with the fundamental basics of healthy living: regular exercise, healthy eatingand healthy lifestyle choices:

I like to move it, move it!

Do as King Julian does and move your body. Not just once now-and-then – but every day whenever you can. Although a set exercise session is great to work into your daily routine, you can burn kilojoules in other small ways, such as:

• Walking to someone else’s desk rather than sending an e-mail,
• Parking furthest from the building and walking in, or
• Taking the stairs more often.
• Doing house cleaning or gardening
• Taking the dog for a walk or cycling with the kids instead of watching TV

We all stand together

We spend our lives sitting – at our desks, in front of the TV, in a meeting or on the phone. New research is emerging highlighting the potential risk to health from all our sitting behaviour. So break your sitting time by standing for five minutes and reap the health benefits.

Every little bit counts and it all adds up to burning more calories.

If you’re overweight, making small changes in your daily exercise routine can benefit your health. In fact one study has found that just a 10% drop in weight helped overweight people to reduce their blood pressure, cholesterol and improve their wellbeing.

Eating healthily

When it comes to healthy eating, there is an overwhelming array of theories, diet books and online information about what to eat – which is often conflicting. Although the research is still ongoing and developing, what the experts all agree on is that our diets are too high in sugar, our portions are too big and we should eat a variety of whole natural foods.

Sweet enough

From sugary drinks to breakfast cereal, it’s hard to get away from sugary foods. Often the sugar is hidden in canned goods or pre-packaged foods, or even in foods we think are healthy for us, such as fruit juice. The average person takes in about 22 teaspoons of added sugar each day. According to the American Heart Association the daily target should be no more than six level teaspoons for women, and nine for men—that’s for both food and beverages combined.

The easiest way to limit your sugar intake with one small change is to cut out sugary fizzy drinks. This alone can help you to lose or maintain a healthy weight, which in turn will reduce your risk of heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

Portion distortion

Our food and drinks portion sizes have dramatically increased over the past 30 years. In the 1950’s a chip packet was 28g from a take-away restaurant - today it’s 154g – and that’s not even the supersize, which is a whopping 196g!

Portion size increases doesn’t only include the take-away portions, but packaging of goods in the supermarket, dinner plates and glasses in restaurants and even fridge sizes! Simple ways to cut your portions include:

• Eat your main meals off a smaller plate – visually the plate looks full so you will be satisfied, but technically you’ll be eating less.
• Dish up in the kitchen, rather than have the serving dishes at the dining table – it’s much easier to have seconds when it’s right in front of you.
• Eat small regular meals (at least every four hours) so that you’re never starving – if you get to this point of hunger, it’s very difficult to stop before you overeat.

Colour me beautiful

Choosing whole foods and cooking from scratch is a much healthier way to eat than buying pre-packaged or ready-meals which are high in fat and salt but very low in nutrients. To make sure you’re getting a variety of nutrients, vitamins and minerals into your body every day – a quick rule of thumb is to pick a variety of colours for your meals. Be the artist of your meals and paint a colour picture with a variety of yellow, red and green fruits and vegetables throughout the day.

Your body will wear a frown if your meal is all brown.

Choose life

There is nothing more damaging to a long, healthy life than smoking, which is estimated as the reason for death or disability in half the people who smoke. The dangers of smoking tobacco are so significant that it is the most important public health problem in the world, which ironically, is largely avoidable.

Smoking not only cuts your lifespan by affecting your internal organs, but it also ages you on the outside by causing skin damage. Tobacco smoking can give you wrinkles, create pucker lines around your mouth, stain your teeth and fingers, rob your skin of nutrients, break down youth-enhancing collagen and make your skin look grey. It makes you wonder how smoking is often marketed as glamorous and attractive.

It takes courage to quit smoking, as it’s not an easy journey – but it’s a brave and sensible choice. Some of the positive changes will happen quickly, while others will be more gradual, but all the changes will benefit your health and well-being.