Extrapolated Facts » diet

Lunch with Improvised Croutons

Jim — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:48:53 +0000

I was out of croutons for lunch today, but there was Chex Mix and Corn Nuts in the break room, so I threw those on. Came out very tasty! I think the Chex Mix was better then the Corn Nuts, but I am partial to Chex Mix anyway. I didn’t include any of the rye chips though. While I like rye chips, I don’t think they would go well on a salad. The salad was spinach and a spring mix, with light Paul Newman’s Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing and a few Bacos bacon bits (soy).

Birthday Cake and Skim Milk

Jim — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:06:25 +0000

Not much better then pop-tarts, but it is my new managers birthday. I believe you should always eat some birthday cake. Your diet in general should be good enough to carry you through birthday cake or any other time you are offered modest food from others.

Pop-Tarts and Skim Milk

Jim — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:02:37 +0000

Pop-Tarts and Skim Milk is like a Big Mac and a Diet Coke.

The skim milk doesn’t ease my mind that I am having Pop-Tarts since I don’t usually drink milk at all. They are both treats, and the fact that the break room stocks them both makes them really easy access.

Milk is actually one of the poorest sources of calcium (that actually contains calcium). Your body has a hard time using it. Same for the protein in it. I like my calcium from broccoli.

Drink Your Barley

Jim — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 06:02:23 +0000

When my wife suggested we were going to drink some barley drinks I was a little unsure what that might mean. When I think of barley drinks the first thing that comes to mind is beer – which is made with malted or fermented barley – and I don’t drink beer, nor do I have any desire to do so.

Well it turns out there are two healthy barley drinks. The first is barley water. Barley water is made by taking barley and soaking it or simmering it in water. You drink the water and leave the barley. I was little hesitant at first. It looked kind of odd to see the barley sitting the bottom of the jar, but I figured it was worth a shot, and she said it was really good for me. Wow, it was delicious! I really, really liked it.

The second health barley drink is barley grass juice. This is sometimes grouped as a wheat grass juice. It is made by taking young barley grass (sprouted barley if I understand correctly) then drying it and grinding it to powder. Then the powder is combined with juice, or in this case water. Since the grass is green, the liquid is green. It literally looks like grass juice. I was even more turned off by how this looked. Dawn assured me it was even better for me then the water. I decided to give it a shot. It was actually pretty good, and was very different then anything I had tasted before.

Besides chlorophyll and a myriad of vitamins, minerals and enzymes, barley grass is said to have¹:

16 vitamins
23 minerals
18 amino acids
hundreds of active enzymes
Compared to milk:

30 times more vitamin B-1

15 times the protean (per oz)

11 times the calcium

Compared to spinach:

6.5 times as much carotene

5 times the iron content

7 times the vitamin C in oranges
4 times the vitamin B1 in whole wheat flour
Unlike most plant sources it also contains 80 micrograms of vitamin B12 per 100 grams of dried barley plant juice.

It is interesting how green or raw foods at the bottom of the food chain have so many vitamins, minerals and nutrients. I am sure I will have a lot more barley (in various forms) in my diet.

¹Analysis conducted by the Resource Research Association, Office of Science and Technology and Japan Food Analysis Centre.