Day 4 - I Thought Peanut Butter Was Good For Me?!

Day 4 - Thursday

6:30 am: Coffee with 1 tbs. hazelnut creamer (Hey, if caffeine and 1 tbs. of pasteurized creamer a couple times a week is going to give me cancer, then so be it. You gotta live a little!)

8 am: 2 egg whites, scrambled, with 1 tsp. walnut oil, black pepper and salt-free Mrs. Dash tomato basil seasoning (so good); 1/2 a cantaloupe, blueberries and chopped walnuts

11 am: 1 small apple with 2 tbs. almond butter*

12:45 pm: Leftover chicken vegetable soup

4:15 pm: Another bowl of leftover chicken vegetable soup

6 pm: OPEN MEAL: Team happy hour at the Venue - fried coconut shrimp (with sauce); several pieces of sushi (with white rice); spinach/feta pastry; crab-stuffed mushrooms; 3 glasses red wine (TERRIBLE! - but fun. And only my second "Open Meal" of the week.)

*Notes: (1) So, why almond butter instead of peanut butter? This is a controversial one. But here we go. Let's start by first establishing that peanuts are not nuts at all. They are legumes, along with beans, peas, and soybeans. Legumes are edible seeds enclosed in pods. The peanut "shell" is its pod. The "peanut" is actually the plant's seed. Peanut butter is widely used by bodybuilders as a diet staple because of its healthy dose of protein. It's also widely recommended by doctors and dieticians to vegetarians as a good source of protein in absence of lean meats. Another of the peanut's highly lauded benefits is its low saturated fat content. Nearly 80% of its fat content is cholesterol-lowering monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. All good so far. The problem is two-fold: (a) No omega-3's in those polyunsaturated fats, so it's all omega-6's you're getting. The standard American diet is already extremely weighted toward omega-6's, at the expense of omega-3's (the heart-healthy kind). Frequent consumption of peanuts or peanut butter puts your fat ratio even more out of whack, the consequences of which are any number of inflamation diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, and even heart attack and stroke. (b) Legumes contain nasty little anti-nutrients called lectins. These are large proteins resistant to stomach acid and digestive enzymes. Since they do not break down, they bind to the gut wall, damaging the lining, and degrading permeability, which means they get into your bloodstream. Once they're in the bloodstream, they can get transported anywhere in the body and bind to cell membranes in arteries, organs and glands. This binding is thought to begin antibody reactions that lead to autoimmune disorders and degenerative diseases. In fact, when scientists study atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries that can eventually lead to heart attacks and strokes) in lab animals, they routinely feed them peanut oil to stimulate the formation of the disease.