Why the right diet matters now more than ever

FROM THE NEWSLETTER: The coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc. It's the most impactful event of our lives, for most of us. Yet there's so much we don't know about the coronavirus and the disease it causes: COVID-19.

For example, it can be especially fatal to older people, yet it can kill people of any age.

Many who get COVID-19 don't even notice the symptoms. Others report horrible, painful symptoms. And, of course, many even die.

How can a disease kill thousands of people, when most people who get it experience the mildest symptoms?

Despite the mysteries and unknowns, there's a common thread that links most of the different kinds of people who have an extreme or fatal reaction: immune response.

What appears to happen is that the body reacts to COVID-19 with flu-like symptoms: headache, body ache, sniffles, fever. That's partly how the human immune system fights colds and flu.

But some patients experience an "inflammation storm" -- a wild over-reaction on the part of the immune system. In fact, in the case of most COVID-19 fatalities, people are killed by their own immune response.

In other words, strong immune systems defeat COVID-19; compromised immune systems are defeated by it.

The young and middle-aged people most vulnerable to succumbing to the coronavirus have inflammatory conditions likely to result from diet and lifestyle choices: diabetes, hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular disease, asthma, alcoholism, kidney disease or chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder caused by smoking or they live in smoggy cities.

In all these groups, their immune symptoms are less efficient at clearing viral infections or they have compromised lung tissue.

It's also likely that drugs prescribed for some of these conditions, such as drugs to treat high blood pressure or diabetes, may increase the damage from COVID-19. Another risk factor is when people are taking immune-suppressing drugs (for example, after an organ transplant).

Everyone is sheltering in place and observing social distancing in order to "flatten the curve" and prevent our hospitals from being overwhelmed.

But we should also understand that in order to reach some level of so-called "herd immunity," lots of people (more than half the population) need to get, and recover from, the coronavirus.

We should all be doing everything we can to boost and strengthen our immune systems and get as healthy as possible as the best defense against the worst effects of COVID-19.

The Spartan Diet is the ultimate diet and lifestyle for strengthening your immune system no matter how old you are or what your health history is.

We’re never too young or too old to become healthier and stronger -- and start making better lifestyle choices, which have a direct impact on our health. The most effective way to boost our quality of life is through diet and lifestyle.

The daily practice of making healthy lifestyle choices rewards us in every way. From maintaining optimum body weight to having a strong immune system, from sleeping well to managing stress better, from enjoying high stamina to physical strength and mental clarity as well as good mood, eating the right foods is central to health.

In upcoming Spartan Diet newsletter issues, I’ll be sharing valuable information on how to improve your immune system through diet and lifestyle. Let's get healthy!

Subscribe to The Spartan Diet newsletter now, to get the free recipe for my Super Punch Power Tonic!

Amira Elgan

The difference between wild and farmed salmon

This picture, taken at a California Costco, shows the vast difference in color between wild-caught salmon on the left and farmed salmon on the right.

The Spartan Diet calls for only wild animal protein, which includes venison, elk, moose, bison, alligator, ostrich, antelope, dove, pheasant, quail, duck, rabbit, boar, wild turkey, goose and others. Nowadays it's easy, though not inexpensive, to find such meats online and have them delivered with ice packs to your door.

But the other major and easier-to-find type of wild animal meat is fish. The only canned food on the Spartan Diet, for example, are sardines, which are such a low-cost and high quality protein source that we encourage people to eat canned sardines for convenience, cost or for other reasons.

When buying fish at the market, or ordering fish at a restaurant, always insist on wild-caught fish over farmed fish. Farmed fish are fed an unhealthy, unnatural diet and are confined in filthy conditions.

One of the healthiest options is wild-caught salmon, which is more expensive than farmed salmon. However, the Spartan Diet calls for always buying wild fish. You can see in this picture the vast different in color between the healthy, natural wild salmon and the factory-farmed salmon, which is pale and indicates sick animals.

On the Spartan Diet, portions of meat and fish are smaller and its eaten less frequently. So the total amount spent on animal protein is about the same.

A Mexican recipe for health and happiness

A friend of ours in Mexico city, named Fernando, is an expert in chilis, which of course originated in Mexico and permeates the food of that delicious country.

His theory is that the reason Mexican people are usually so happy and friendly is that they eat chilis every day, usually several times a day.

Wait, what?

This theory is based on two claims:

1. Chilis make you happy

2. Mexicans eat huge quantities of chilis

Are these claims true?

Chilis are spicy. This chemical burning sensation in the mouth is caused by capsaicin, found in tiny glands in the chilli's "placenta" -- that white spongy stuff surrounding the chili's seeds. There's no actual burning. Capsaicin tricks the burn-detection hardware in the mouth into believing that burning is going on.

Capsaicin receptors in the mouth (quantity and sensitivity of which is partly genetic) determines how "hot" chilis feel.

The pain of this capsaicin "heat" causes the the production of a neurotransmitter called substance P, which tells the brain that the mouth is experiencing pain from burning. The brain responds with neurotransmitters designed to reduce the pain, including endorphins and specifically dopamine, which makes you feel good and gives you an overall sense of wellbeing.

So, yes, chilis make you happy.

As a bonus, chilis are high in vitamin C (double what you find in citrus fruits), vitamin A, and b-carotene. They have antibacterial qualities, and contain bioflavonoids and antioxidants.

There's literally no downside to eating chilis, and everything about them contributes to real health and happiness.

But do Mexicans really eat more chilis than others? After all -- although chilis originated in Mexico thousands of years ago -- there's a global chili craze right now.

Again, the answer is: yes. Mexicans eat way more chilis than anybody else.

The average Mexican eats up to nine kilograms of chiles a year -- far more than the average citizen of any other country.

So it looks like our friend Fernando is really onto something. Mexicans eat chilis for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mexico is a nation drunk on dopamine.

So pack your diet with chilis. And make yourself happy the Mexican way.

Finding Your Ikigai

Ikigai is a wonderful Japanese concept, one that deeply resonates with me because it helps me be centered, feel joyful and stay mindful of what’s important in life. It helps me keep things in perspective and make decisions based on reason, rather than emotion.

Ikigai combines two Japanese words. The first word is ikiru, which means "to live," and the second is kai, which means "the realization of what one hopes for." Ikigai can loosely be defined as "a reason to live" -- having a life's purpose.

The Japanese believe that every person has an ikigai. I believe everyone can benefit from finding their own.

Knowing your purpose for living helps you continuously work on having the best life possible and becoming the best version of yourself.

A state of mind is crucial in moving on and having an open mind and a warm heart that makes you feel free and liberated. To find your ikigai, letting go of emotional blocks that hold you back and suppress your creativity and joy within is key for exploring your full potential.

It also clarifies any decision-making process, because if you know why you do things, you'll have a better idea about what to do.

Finding my ikigai has been a long journey. My upbringing taught me some unhelpful habits of mind — resentment, oversensitivity, anger.

I found these impulses hard to overcome — until I understood my life's purpose. Once you know why you're on this planet, you realize that negative emotions just get in the way.

It’s something that I’ve intentionally tried to cultivate in my life, even before knew about the Japanese word, based on my own personal belief system and values.

I learned to be intentional about following my own rules and aspirations to live by as part of my training when I studied to become a holistic health counselor in New York City. It’s the same approach I take with my holistic health counseling clients.

As part of my health counseling program, I try to inculcate physical and spiritual development, so to speak, to create harmony. I believe that for total health, finding or discovering your own ikigai -- your reason for being -- is an important part of what makes you look forward to getting up in the morning, helps you sleep well at night, and drives you to achieve everything in between.

Find your ikigai by looking for your answers to what makes your life purposeful and a joy to live.

What do I love? What am I good at? What does the world need from me? What can I get paid for?

Find the point of intersection where all four of these questions meet.

Sometimes it's easy. For my husband, the answer to all four questions is the same: writing. And so he writes.

Sometimes it's more complicated. In my own life, I know I love to eat and travel. I have a gift for making delicious, healthy food. The world clearly needs help getting healthy. And it wasn't clear what I could get paid for.

It took awhile, but the answer to the question of my ikigai is: My ikigai is to help others be healthy and happy. And all that is reflected in my company, Elgan Media, Inc., (which I run and co-own with my husband and which is a food, travel & tech media company.) Our workshops, books, blog posts, podcasts, articles and The Gastronomad Experiences collectively serve as the expression of my ikigai.

We all want a life of purpose, meaning and fulfillment. Ikigai is a simple concept but a truly powerful one that embodies the secret a long and joyful life. It can help, not as a lifestyle but as a process to apply to life -- an idea, a keyword or even a vision that can remind you to look into the horizon to have a good perspective on the “big picture” that is your life.

Life is too short to live without ikigai. You don't have time not to find it.

Tomato, basil and mozzarella

I made this caprese salad using fresh heirloom tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil, extra-virgin olive oil, freshly ground wild red peppercorns from Madagascar. 

How to find wine you can trust

When you drink wine, what exactly are you pouring into your glass -- and your body? 

Usually, it's impossible to know. Unlike food producers, wine makers aren't required to disclose ingredients on the label. 

In the United States, it's legal for winemakers to add up to 200 ingredients without telling anyone, including the consumer. 

A Berkeley winemaker called Donkey & Goat is among an extreme minority of winemakers that is voluntarily adding ingredients lists to their wines. (Full disclosure: We are major fans of, and minor investors in, Donkey & Goat.)

Donkey & Goat wines contain either one ingredient ("Hand-Harvested Grapes") or two ingredients ("Hand-Harvested Grapes and Sulphur"). As such, they're proud to list ingredients, and should be. (The ingredients list barely scratches the surface of the winery's methods, which include sustainably grown grapes, the avoidance of contact with reactive materials like plastic during wine-making, extremely low quantities of sulphur.)

What about that other wine you're drinking? Are they proud of the ingredients? Or do they want to make sure you don't find out what you're putting into your body? 

In other words, can we trust winemakers who conceal what's in the wine? Far too often, the answer is: no. 

Winemakers routinely add more than just the ingredients you probably know about, such as yeast, nutrients for the yeast, sugar and acid.

They can and do also add clay, enzymes, gelatin, charcoal, egg whites, casein (a milk protein), isinglass (made from fish bladder), tartaric acid, ascorbic acid, malic acid, tannins, diammonium phosphate, acacia, velcorin, trypsin, pepsin, chalk, acetaldehyde, dimethyl bicarbonate and many other additives. 

Many cheap wines add a product called "Mega Purple," which is concentrated low-quality teinturer grapes (grapes with pigment in both skin and pulp). "Mega Purple" is added to give cheap wine color, body and texture designed to simulate good wine. 

And, of course, wine grapes can be grown using pesticides and herbicides, and trace amounts of these can make it into the wine -- pesticides like dimethoate, myclobutanil, tetraconazole, azoxystrobin and pyrimethanil.

Most of these ingredients are assumed to be "safe" to consume. And it's up to each of us to decide whether "safe" is a high enough standard. 

It's also unnecessary to throw up your hands in confusion and give up. It's important to do your own research. Talk to the winemakers by visiting wineries for a tasting. Ask them directly about their methods for growing grapes and making wine and about any additives they include. 

The easiest way to bring astonishingly great natural wine into your life is to join the Donkey & Goat wine club. They'll ship directly to your home on a subscription basis. 

And seek out other wineries that share the Donkey & Goat philosophy of maximizing the true quality of the wine and adding the ingredients to the label. 

And as with all food producers, it's a good idea to withhold trust from any producer who tries to conceal what's in the product or how it was produced. 

If a winemaker is concealing what's in the wine or how it was made, you probably don't want to drink it. 

Congratulations to Donkey & Goat!

Congratulations to Donkey and Goat for being featured by the Wine Enthusiast podcast for their mind-blowingly spectaculicious natural wines! (Full disclosure: We are minor investors in Donkey and Goat and friends of its owners, Jared Brandt and Tracey Brandt.)

Jared is interviewed for the podcast's Earth Day episode, and shares some insights about how natural wine is made. Jared’s brilliantly illuminates the distinction between natural and mass-produced, conventional wine. 

You’ll be surprised to learn some of the wine industry's little dirty secrets! For example: Did you know that there are 360 additives that are legal for wineries to use in the winemaking process,  many of which in fact commonly used and which never appear on labels?

Wine Enthusiast did an amazing job doing extensive research and I’m now a new subscriber, of course! Happy Earth Day, indeed! 
 

Get more protein from nuts, not meat, for a healthy heart

A new study found that excessive meat consumption dramatically increases the risk of heart disease, while excessive protein from nuts and seeds dramatically decreases that risk. 

The study, which included 81,000 participants, was a joint project between Loma Linda University School of Public Health in California and AgroParisTech and the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in Paris, France. It was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Researchers found that people who eat "large amounts" of "meat protein" experienced a 60 percent increase in cardiovascular disease. People who got "large amounts" of protein from plant-based sources saw a 40 percent decrease in cardiovascular disease.

What's ground-breaking about the study, according to researchers, is that while previous research has focused on the "bad fats" found in meats and "good fats" found in nuts and seeds, little attention has focused in previous research on "bad proteins" and "good proteins."   

They also point out that much more study is needed, and that they still don't know whether particular sources for meat protein vary (which seems likely). 

The Spartan Diet calls for very small amounts of meat primarily from wild-animal sources, including wild caught fish. 

How to choose the healthiest wine

The color of most red wines in Georgia is intense. It's dark and deep. 

When you first pour a glass of any wine, some temporary bubbles form at the surface. With some Georgian wines, even the bubbles are dark.

One day last year, while we were living in that country, we took a day to go wine tasting outside the capital and into the countryside. As we sat at an outdoor picnic table on a bright, clear day, a thought occurred to me: Is this dark Georgian wine healthier than "regular" wine? (See the picture? That's the wine we were tasting.) 

Georgians will tell you that wine is the ultimate health food. About a third of the people we met there make wine at home. 

Over the past few decades, something of a scientific consensus has formed over the health attributes of wine.

Moderate drinking, especially moderate drinking of red wine, has been found to extend life and lower rates of lifestyle diseases like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. 

This is somewhat counterintuitive, because wine and other drinks can contain sugar and of course all contain alcohol — excessive sugar and alcohol consumption are linked to higher rates of the very diseases moderate drinking helps with. 

In other words, wine improves health, while simultaneously containing attributes that degrade health. 

What's going on? 

One reason isolated by research is that wines, especially red wines, contain polyphenols. These are plant compounds that exist in wine because, of course, wine is made out of grapes. 

While all wines are made with grape juice, some wines are also made with extensive exposure to grape skins, seeds and stems. 

Polyphenols are found mainly in the skins and seeds of grapes. It's from this exposure to skins, seeds and stems that gives red wines far greater polyphenol content than white wines. Orange wines and rosés also contain polyphenols from exposure to skins during the winemaking process.

Even red wines vary wildly in their concentrations of polyphenols. For example, wines made from Tannat or Sagrantino grapes may have up to six times more polyphenols than a typical cab or merlot. 

In general, there's a direct connection between the darkness of a wine and its concentration of health-giving polyphenols. 

Which brings us back to Georgian wines. Some early research has found, unsurprisingly, that Georgian wines made from the Saperavi grape variety contain far higher concentrations of the polyphenol resveratrol than both major European grape varieties and even other Georgian varieties. 

(Georgian winemakers use hundreds of Georgian grape varieties, but Saperavi dominates production.) 

Saperavi is a rare kind of grape variety, too. It's called a teinturier variety, which means that the flesh of the grape is red, rather than clear. Almost all grape varieties have clear flesh. So Saparavi skins are very dark, and the flesh is colored, too. That's why Saparavi is so intensely dark. (A grape grown in Spain and Portugal, called the Alicante Bouschet variety, and one grown mainly in the United States, called Chambourcin, are also teinturier grapes with colored flesh.) 

Also: The Georgian method for wine-making involves a natural process with heavy contact with skins, seeds and stems, natural fermentation (no added yeast) and fermentation in terracotta pots buried in the ground. 

The Georgians are right: Georgian wine is super healthy. 

One way to look at high-polyphenol wines is that it enables you to maximize the benefits of polyphenols while minimizing your intake of alcohol and sugar. You might get the same polyphenol benefit from two glasses of dry, high-polyphenol as you'd might get from two bottles of a lower-polyphenol wine. It's obviously healthier. 

In any event, you don't need to be a wine expert or scientist to choose the healthiest wines. 

Here's what to look for: 

1. Natural and traditional winemaking methods. The only ingredient should be grapes, not yeast or additives. Added sulfites are OK in very small quantities.  

2. Look for wines made with grapes grown using organic or biodynamic methods. 

3. To maximize polyphenol content, go for very dark, bold, heavy fruit, bitter and tannic wines, and drink them young. 

4. To minimize sugar intake, favor dry wines. 

5. Favor lower alcohol wines. 

So there you have it: Five things to look for to maximize the health-giving quality of the wine you drink.

Remember: It's still OK to drink white wines, aged wines, sweet wines and higher alcohol wines if you do it in moderation. Moderation is a virtue, and so is variety. 

Also remember that wine isn't a cure-all. It can be part of an overall Spartan Diet that includes a very healthy and varied diet, daily exercise, stress management and clean water, air and environment. 

But if you want to maximize health in the wine you drink, go for my five criteria when choosing wine.

It's-Cold-Outside Provencal Lentilles du Puy Soup

I'm currently in heaven on Earth (also known as Provence, France) while organizing my upcoming Gastronomad Provence Experience. 

I bought some French lentil beans a few days ago in the village of Orange. And I also picked up all the seasonal local produce I could find this time of the year at the local organic farmer's stand during the Thursday's farmer’s market in L'Isle Sur La Sorgue, our temporary home here. The market sets up by the church just steps away from where we're living.

It's the end of February on a very chilly 22-degrees F weather and our first time visiting Provence in the winter. Naturally, I've I just made a big batch of lentil soup using what I had on hand, plus some dried thyme and also dried rosemary from our hostess' garden.

The whole time I cooked it with the soothing sounds of the beautiful music she plays often -- mostly classical and opera. The kitchen smells divine from the lentil soup and the sweet aromas of rosemary and thyme. The cute kitchen is small but functional and well equipped for its size.

(I wonder what would the walls say if they could talk? What would they say about all the cooks that have inhabited its space during its lifetime in the past 320 years?)

The home feels like it has a life of its own and I'm so in love with its coziness and simplicity, but quirkiness that's inevitable as residents customize and accommodate over the centuries. I especially love the all exposed large beams in the ceiling.

The owner of the house is a wonderful French woman, who's now our friend. She lives in the upstairs of the house and we're renting the downstairs. We share the kitchen and we've been sharing some meals.

She has just invited us to dinner tomorrow night. Apparently, French Onion Soup is on the menu. The house reflects her charming personality, friendly disposition and the warmth of her character. She's lovely and so is her home. 

French Green Lentil Provencal Soup

Ingredients on hand:
1½ pounds French green lentil beans (soak for 2 to 4 hours in a large bowl with water)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion peeled and diced (yellow, white or red)
2 large stalks of celery, finely diced
4 medium to large carrots, diced (any color)
2 medium leeks thinly sliced then roughly chopped (white and light green part only)
4 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
12 cups of filtered water (3 liters)
2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar
1 small bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped (large stems removed) (substitute with cilantro)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, ground with mortar & pestle (or chopped/crushed with knife)
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds, ground with mortar & pestle (or use ground cumin)
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon sea salt (or to your own taste)
Optional serving garnishes/flavors: cultured goat butter, extra virgin olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, sheep or goat yogurt & more fresh herbs

Instructions:

1. Play some classical music and pour yourself a nice glass of wine to slowly sip as you cook with ♥!

2. In a large heavy bottom pot, slowly heat olive oil over low to medium heat. Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Stir in celery and carrots sautéing for 10 more minutes (add more olive oil if too dry). Stir in leeks and garlic and sauté for 15 more minutes over low heat with lid closed (stirring occasionally).

3. Drain soaking lentils and discard soaking water. Rinse lentils under cold running water until water comes out clean. Add lentils to sautéed veggie mixture followed by vinegar and 10 cups of water. Close with lid and simmer over medium to high heat for 20 minutes (set timer). If thick foam builds up on top, remove it with a spoon.

4. Stir in the rest of the ingredients: parsley, thyme, rosemary, cumin, black pepper and salt. Continue to simmer for 20 minutes over low heat or until the lentils are soft to the touch (stir occasionally and keep lid closed). Adjust seasoning and salt as desired.

5. Serve with drizzled fresh lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil or cultured butter and or yogurt. Add more fresh herbs and or ground cumin then eat and share with ♥!

Bon appetit!

(Note: All lentils take different amount of time to fully cook. Keep cooking them even if it takes more than an hour to cook. You can’t hurry bean cooking just like you can’t hurry love.)