Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

*shrug* And here I thought that a website about food, food writing, and a freaking food book review might actually care about proper spelling and grammar. Clearly I was mistaken.

Meat.

I buy grass-fed beef and lamb from the local farmer's market and uncured D'Artagnan bacon from the slightly fancypants grocery store by the laundromat. It's more for health reasons than culinary elitism, though; hormones, antibiotics, nitrates and nitrites are not tasty.

gargupie - ....As is Rosh Hashana. The Asian calendar is not the only lunar calendar in the world.

CandiRisk - Heh heh.

Obligatory nitpick: It's not "the" lunar new year, it's the Chinese New Year. Rosh Hashana is lunar as well, and it's in the fall.

Bitchin - Like I said, a lot of insurance won't cover certain treatments, especially when it comes to mental health issues. As I understand it, with the NIH (I think that's the correct acronym) in the UK, you might wait weeks or months for regular care, let alone something esoteric like this. The show might have represented the only or best chance for any sort of treatment for those people.

Also, if it bothers you so much, why on earth are you still watching it? Change the channel, woman!

onepercent - ...Then I really don't understand why you don't understand. There are a lot of people who couldn't tolerate being tattooed, you know. Why is it so hard to believe that something you find perfectly bearable might amount to true torture for someone else?

Yes, such things exist, and are more than just stubbornness or dislike of a food. It's a little like a phobia - irrational, baseless, but still possibly crippling. I'm horrifically phobic of needles, to the point where even seeing a picture of a needle makes me start to shake. It's difficult enough for me to get vaccinations and my allergy shots, I can't imagine going through that sort of thing at every meal.

As for the people on the show, some of it might be desire for their fifteen minutes, but a lot of people can't afford mental health care (insurance won't cover certain kinds of treatments) and may be turning to the show as a last resort for help.

I said everything I had to say in the Talk thread, but to everyone gagging over egg white omelets - man, you can all get stuffed. Some of us are allergic to yolks.

smoore - That 30-years figure is a statistical average, dude. It takes into account infant mortality rates, accidents, diseases that modern medicine has eradicated, and being eaten by saber-toothed cats and dire wolves.

Yes, grains are bad for you. They contain substances called phytates and lectins - essentially natural pesticides - which interfere with mineral absorption. They also don't contain any nutrients that humans can't get elsewhere - that's why cereals and pasta are "fortified." Our bodies are meant to run on fat; that's why we store it so effectively, while we only have a couple hours' worth of glycogen.

But don't take my word for it:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-grains/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fats/
http://thepaleodiet.com/published-research

And see my link-fests on Kenji's vegan post here:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/01/the-vegan-experience-day-0.html

What people put into their bodies is their own choice, and if someone wants to be a cook known for cakes and fried chicken, more power to them. However, I find it in poor taste that she's now the spokeswoman for a medication aimed at a disease brought on by the lifestyle she embodies. It's a bit like the Marlboro Man hawking chemo therapy.

shermanhelms - Yeast is a fungus.

There is absolutely no earthly reason to go vegan. It's not more ethical for animals, it's certainly not any healthier than any other diet, and can be much, much, unhealthier. Animal fats are essential for human health, when they're from properly raised, grass fed, antibiotic- and hormone-free animals (which, coincidentally, solves most of the problems that vegans - and anyone with any sense of compassion and respect for life - raise about eating meat, i.e. the deplorable conditions in CAFOs).

CTMike, don't feel bad, I thought it was Patrick Stewart. Both are awesome dudes, however. Could you imagine if we managed to somehow combine them on a quantum level? What kind of world Paton Stebert could create?

Also, dumplings.