Copper in Food

Sources of Copper

It isn't hard to get enough copper-- unless you eat an industrial diet. I've compiled a chart showing the copper content of various refined and unrefined foods to illustrate the point. The left side shows industrial staple foods, while the right side shows whole foods. I've incorporated a few that would have been typical of Polynesian and Melanesian cultures apparently free of cardiovascular disease. The serving sizes are what one might reasonably eat at a meal: roughly 200 calories for grains, tubers and whole coconut; 1/4 pound for animal products; 1/2 teaspoon for salt; 1 cup for raw kale; 1 oz for sugar.

Note that beef liver is off the chart at 488 percent of the USDA recommended daily allowance. I don't know if you'd want to sit down and eat a quarter pound of beef liver, but you get the picture. Beef liver is nature's multivitamin: hands down the Most Nutritious Food in the World. That's because it acts as a storage depot for a number of important micronutrients, as well as being a biochemical factory that requires a large amount of B vitamins to function. You can see that muscle tissue isn't a great source of copper compared to other organs.

Beef liver is so full of micronutrients, it shouldn't be eaten every day. Think of it in terms of the composition of a cow's body. The edible carcass is mostly muscle, but a significant portion is liver. I think it makes sense to eat some form of liver about once per week.

Modern Agriculture Produces Micronutrient-poor Foods

The numbers in the graph above come from NutritionData, my main source of food nutrient composition. The problem with relying on this kind of information is it ignores the variability in micronutrient content due to plant strain, soil quality, et cetera.

The unfortunate fact is that micronutrient levels have declined substantially over the course of the 20th century, even in whole foods. Dr. Donald R. Davis has documented the substantial decline in copper and other micronutrients in American foods over the second half of the last century (1). An even more marked decrease has occurred in the UK (2), with similar trends worldwide. On average, the copper content of vegetables in the UK has declined 76 percent since 1940. Most of the decrease has taken place since 1978. Fruits are down 20 percent and meats are down 24 percent.

I find this extremely disturbing, as it will affect even people eating whole food diets. This is yet another reason to buy from artisanal producers, who are likely to use more traditional plant varieties and grow in richer soil. Grass-fed beef should be just as nutritious as it has always been. Some people may also wish to grow, hunt or fish their own food.

Setting Goals For The Road

I think I do pretty well with setting goals and making them happen as much as I can.  Most of the work comes in actually writing the goals down and figuring out what I really want to do.

I've always hated the typical "where do you want to be in 5 years" interview question.  I mean, really.  How many people answer that truthfully?  I usually answered the question with what would benefit the company.  The tendency is to answer along the lines of: "I want to grow this company x amount and perhaps work my way up and fill the x position."  When you are really thinking, "I don't know if I will be happy here in five years and if you don't pay me enough, I am sure I will look elsewhere." Then 5 years comes along and you are doing the same thing and wondering why you are still there hating your job.

Good news is...you can do something about it!  I know this economy is pretty shaky and the future is uncertain but what future is certain?  I know that it took a long time for me to quit my job and let go of all of the security that surrounded it.  Even at the beginning I mourned not being needed anymore. Yes, I know...so sad.   I woke up and thought, "now what?"  I wasn't the type of sales person that did it just for the money, but I have to admit that getting a paycheck was nice.

I've lined up some people to live in my house and that means it's time for me to get out!  Time to get back out into the uncertainty...the unknown of the everyday.  For me, it's a welcome experience.  I love waking up each day, looking at a map and deciding where to go.  Although it hasn't always been the best way to plan a trip, it takes you to places you would have never had the chance to see, especially when you get lost.  My GPS navagator, "Cindy" tends to lead me to dead ends and takes me the wrong way sometimes.

Uprooting your home to live in a car for an extended period of time takes some planning.  There are so many things I want to see this time around.  I am completely hooked on the website, Roadside America and I am planning to visit the odd and weird.  It makes sense because I am typically drawn towards things that are different and freaky. There is so much to see and do. I've already seen the palace made of corn...very exciting.  I hope to become my own Hewell Howser and learn about different people and places along the way.  Of course I can't wait to share them with you here.  So, it's back to planning at least the first few weeks.  I can't wait to see the worlds largest, smallest, and greatest (insert something really facinating here).

A Stroll Around The Long Beach East Village Arts District

Once in a while, it's nice to tour around a neighborhood in your city that you don't see very often.  I took a walk around the streets in the East Village Arts District in Long Beach to see what I could find.  Perhaps someday I will live in this neighborhood.  I like it.  It has charm and character and each street is a different experience.

There are art galleries, coffee shops, restaurants, retail shops...the usual for a downtown.  As you may know from my "where I don't belong" post, I enjoy stepping into barber shops and taking pictures of men being groomed.  This gentleman was kind enough to let me take his picture.  I think I can sneek in there without people noticing me, but I think they did.

Dogs and people alike walk the streets during the day to soak up the energy of the city.  This pup was waiting for another bite of a hot dog as I snapped the picture.

Later in the evening, I walked over to the house of hayden to see who was playing that night.  They were having their anniversary party so the bar was lively and packed with people watching.  I was attracted to the shiny bikes parked outside and took a few pictures as their owners came outside.  I kept snapping away as they hopped on their bike to go home for the night.

As I mentioned in my 11 Free things to do blog, taking pictures is one of them.  It's FREE and it's fun to see what you have once you are done.  More importantly, it will take you to new places and you will see things differently when you take a camera with you.  I usually carry mine wherever I go...as you might be able to tell.  Go to a new restaurant, try something new, take a walk on a different street...you never know what you will find.

For more snapshots of people in their habitat, click HERE

Long Beach 2nd Saturday Art Walk

In my quest for saying yes to new opportunities and doing things I've never done before, I can check off participating in an art walk from that list.  Lastnight, I showed up with 30+ other artists to display work along the downtown streets of the Long Beach Arts District.  I've been to the art walk as a watcher and stroller but never as an artist.  As you can imagine, it is a completely different experience.

I love going to fairs and art walks and at times, you can get lost in the strolling and browsing through art and sometimes, you might not see or engage with the artist.  It's interesting to be on the other side.  It can be a little vulnerable putting your work out there in the open for everyone to see and make comments on.  It's always nice when you have people who come and say nice things, which I was lucky enough to have.  I am grateful to have people come and see my art in person and hear comments like, "your photographs look much better in person than they do on the web."  Whew, that's a relief!  I would hate for it to be the other way around.

Since it was my first art walk, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I had a 10x10 space, so to see how much space that really is, I got out some sidewalk chalk and measured the space and marked it in my backyard and mocked up an art show at home before the art show on the street.  I suppose I like to be prepared.  I didn't have a tent or anything fancy...just a few easels, tables and lots of photographs.

Participating in an art fair gives you an idea of what people like to look at and what they don't.  I love to people watch but it's an interesting feeling of watching people watching you and your work.  All art is vulnerable and showing it to strangers is even more so.  I am grateful to everyone that took the time to come out to say hello and for the new people I met that didn't know I was going to be there. Thank you to everyone who said hello to me.

I can now check this off of my life experience list.  Now... on to the next exciting adventure!

Full-fat Dairy for Cardiovascular Health??

[2013 update: a few colleagues and I have published a comprehensive review paper on the association between full-fat dairy consumption and obesity, metabolic health, and cardiovascular disease.  You can find it here.]

I just saw a paper in the AJCN titled "Dairy consumption and patterns of mortality of
Australian adults". It's a prospective study with a 15-year follow-up period. Here's a quote from the abstract:

There was no consistent and significant association between total dairy intake and total or cause-specific mortality. However, compared with those with the lowest intake of full-fat dairy, participants with the highest intake (median intake 339 g/day) had reduced death due to CVD (HR: 0.31; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.12–0.79; P for trend = 0.04) after adjustment for calcium intake and other confounders. Intakes of low-fat dairy, specific dairy foods, calcium and vitamin D showed no consistent associations.

People who ate the most full-fat dairy had a 69% lower risk of cardiovascular death than those who ate the least. Otherwise stated, people who mostly avoided dairy or consumed low-fat dairy had more than three times the risk of dying of coronary heart disease or stroke than people who ate the most full-fat diary.  This result is an outlier, and also observational so difficult to interpret, but it certainly is difficult to reconcile with the idea that dairy fat is a significant contributor to cardiovascular disease.

Contrary to popular belief, full-fat dairy, including milk, butter and cheese, has never been convincingly linked to cardiovascular disease. What has been linked to cardiovascular disease is milk fat's replacement, margarine. In the Rotterdam study, high vitamin K2 intake was linked to a lower risk of fatal heart attack, aortic calcification and all-cause mortality. Most of the K2 came from full-fat cheese.

From a 2005 literature review on milk and cardiovascular disease in the EJCN:

In total, 10 studies were identified. Their results show a high degree of consistency in the reported risk for heart disease and stroke, all but one study suggesting a relative risk of less than one in subjects with the highest intakes of milk.

...the studies, taken together, suggest that milk drinking may be associated with a small but worthwhile reduction in heart disease and stroke risk.

...All the cohort studies in the present review had, however, been set up at times when reduced-fat milks were unavailable, or scarce.

Clothes The Deal and Dress For Success

The journey of living with less continues.  Yesterday I cleaned out my business suit and business wear attire on my handy little clothes rack and gave them to the organization, "Clothes the Deal" yesterday.

The mission at Clothes The Deal is to "assist men, women, and at-risk youth, empowering them to gain and sustain employment, and achieve economic self-sufficiency through employment success."  They also offer workshops to "educate and enhance the participant's self-esteem and professional image for employment. The workshop focuses on five main areas of developing a professional image" self-esteem/confidence, business etiquette, wardrobe, accessories, and hair/make-up."

It was a good feeling knowing that by giving my work clothes to this organization, they could help an individual become successful in their own life.

It was a trip through memory lane looking through all of my business suits and clothes, remembering the times I wore them and all of the meetings I went to and how I couldn't wait to come home, rip the "uniform" off and put jeans on. They are beautiful pieces of clothing but for me, I was/am happier in casual wear.  We all have to play a roll at some point in our lives.  One quote that has always stuck out with me is that, "you never have to apologize for looking sharp."

I worked hard in those clothes.  As I read the workshop areas, I think I could have used some lessons in the hair and make-up department.  I remember one year when I had my yearly performance review from my boss (who is a woman).  I received excellent marks in my performance but she wrote me up by saying that I needed a manicure and one day my hair wasn't completely dry in an office meeting (no clients attended), and that my linen shirt needed ironing.  Ok ladies... tell me how not to wrinkle a linen shirt when you commute an hour each way to work and sit in the car.  I don't think it's possible.  Ok, maybe I can use a manicure and a blow dryer!  Geez, such work (as I bite my nails).

It's time to clean out your closets and give what you think you will wear one day...but deep down you know you won't...to a good cause.  Make your life a little more clutter free and help someone change their life for the better, at the same time.  Here are two organizations that I would recommend:

Clothes The Deal
(locations in the Southern California Area)

Dress For Success
(Nationwide)

Ocean Breeze Airstream Dreams

It's been on my mind.  A lot.

I am getting ready to leave again to wander the country and ever since I stepped into an airstream for the first time a few weeks ago, I can't seem to get it off of my mind.  They are so beautiful and shiny!  I love my little teardrop trailer, "trailie" but standing up in my favorite Ocean Breeze International Airstream 16 foot trailer is something I won't soon forget.  I love it.

I think it would be great to own a beautiful piece of land where I can set up vintage trailers and Airstreams so people can come and live the trailer life for the weekend, a week or a month.  No need to own one, just have a similar dream of living in one and to give it a try.  Each trailer would have a different theme to it.  I've seen a few parks around that are like this but I think there is always room for more!  Ahhh, that would be a wonderful life.

Some people dream of living in large homes with nice cars and clothes but for me, living in a trailer somewhere beautiful would do it for me.  Better yet, a trailer can take you to many places that are beautiful.  Wherever you can park!

I am going to roam around in my tent this year and will continue thinking about my dream.  I know that similar people have the airstream dream and I know of one who made her dream a reality.  When I wrote about my experience traveling with the ladies and their airstreams, I received a letter from Jennifer that read:

"I love your photography, and wanted to let you know what happened after you posted those amazing photos of Airstreams a few weeks ago. They've had quite an effect on my husband's and my life!

I first saw that set of photos on a Saturday morning, while my hubby was out on a long bike ride. I was not only blown away by your amazing photography, but was reminded of how much I LOVE Airstreams.

My main thought was, "Someday…." And then I thought, "Why someday? Why not now?!" I couldn't think of a good reason why not. And I could think of a long list of reasons why an Airstream is actually the perfect thing for us, right now. When my husband got home, I suggested we drive to the closest Airstream dealer (an hour away). Fortunately he was totally game, and we went that afternoon.

                                                   

Flash forward three weeks: We are now the proud owners of a 19' Airstream, as well as a new truck to tow it with! I am SO psyched and cannot wait to hit the road with it. We're going to start out with weekend trips first, but hope to do a long trip this summer as well.

And it all began because of your photos! I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for the inspiration. And I think maybe the Airstream dealer owes you a commission. :-)"

Good for you Jennifer!  Way to go!  Let's all get out there and realize our dreams, no matter what they are.  Time is the only thing we are losing.  Anyone have a campground for sale?