It was brought to my attention that I have not updated since early in May. I’m still working out at SMF, where we are close to opening a brand new terminal. The last few months have been a serious crunch for us as the construction reached the point where we could start installing equipment and systems.

Before we got going on the new Terminal B, Terminal A needed a little love. There were some long days and some late nights while

ticket counters were gutted and removed to be replaced by brand new counters, kiosks and computers. Of course, because this was still an active terminal, this work had to be done after hours, for the most part.

Wednesday, September 21 was the first real test of the new terminal, with members of the public using the terminal for the first time as a sort of dry run. People were assigned a flight and told to check in with their respective airline. Some were checking bags, some were not. Bags were provided for those who were checking them. While in the check in/ticketing area on level 2, they were met by our newest friend, the red rabbit .

From there, they got on the new Automated People Mover to be taken to the gate area, where they saw some of the new restaurants being built. Because it was only a simulation, they didn’t spend too long on air side and had to return back to the baggage claim where they picked up the bags that they had previously checked.

We open on October 6, but there are a couple of events before the big day where you can see the terminal – the Experience B Party on October 1 ($75) and the Community Preview Day the next day (free).

The hottest trend of the past while has been food trucks. Unfortunately, this area’s not exactly friendly to them. A couple of weeks ago, there was an event to try to highlight the issue at hand. To say it was well attended would be an understatement. Luckily, I went with some friends and we were able to split into pairs for the line waiting duties and get food from two different trucks. Mini Burger Truck was one of the more popular vendors and was the one we chose. It took around an hour and a half of waiting to get to the truck and another half hour to get the food once we’d ordered. While I would have preferred not to have waited so long, it was quite delicious. I’ll definitely be tracking them down again soon.

The others waited at Curry Up Now and brought back some delicious samosas and a chicken tikka masala burrito. That was definitely one instance where fusion worked. Unfortunately, they’re not as local as Mini Burger Truck, but San Francisco’s not all that far away. I think a visit to one of  the many Off the Grid SF events is in order before too long.

It should come as no surprise to those few of you who actually read what I write here that I changed my way of eating a while back. I’ve cut out pretty much all processed food from my diet. As much as possible, I eat locally raised pastured meat. I’ve also started eating eggs from a small local farm, which has surprised quite a few people. Also surprising to many who know me is that I’ve started eating salads. I drink coffee with cream, tea with milk and water, lots and lots of water. I try to buy raw milk whenever possible. Whenever I can’t get it raw, I at least try to get it from grass-fed cows who roam free on pasture. At the moment, my carbohydrate intake is extremely low and what I do get is usually in the form of nuts or the aforementioned salad. I plan on increasing my carbohydrate intake soon, but I’m going to do so slowly and I’m going to be very careful about how I do it. The net result of this is that I’ve lost 60 lb and 6 inches off my waistline since sometime late last year – probably around October or November. I feel better and stronger than I ever have before, which is a stark contrast to the last time I lost this much weight. I haven’t been sick in a long time, even when those in closest proximity to me for extended periods of time were suffering from pretty severe bouts of flu. I haven’t had any blood work done in recent times, but I never had any done before now. I plan on getting it checked relatively soon, but I’m not worried.

All this came about when I learned a few things. These things blew my mind, because they went against conventional wisdom. Mind you, I’ve never really been one to follow conventional wisdom blindly. I’ll try to list them all, but I may miss one or two. I’m only going to mention these on a high level. Things are much more complex, but for the most part, this is the important bit. Here we go:

• Eating fat does not make you fat. The human body can’t actually store dietary fat.
• Whole grains are no better for us than refined grains. Sprouting the grains makes some difference, but it’s not common practice.
• Eating cholesterol does not increase your cholesterol.
• Cholesterol is not bad for you. It’s basically the body’s fire department. Blaming it for heart disease is like blaming the fire department for setting a fire, just because they’re at the scene putting it out.
• There is absolutely no proof that saturated fat causes heart disease.
• The human brain is made of saturated fat. It needs saturated fat from food to operate properly and repair itself.
• Vegetarianism is damaging to our health and the environment.
• The statistics about how many people we could feed vs. how many cows on the same food assume grain feeding.
• The human body will try its damnedest to maintain a state called homeostasis, or staying the same. This is the main reason eat less/exercise more doesn’t work in the long-term. Of course, there are exceptions. Give the body less fuel, it will slow your metabolism and burn less fuel.

It’s led to some interesting times, especially living with someone who has been eating vegetarian or halal in varying degrees. Fortunately, she agrees with the simple natural food aspect. I even have a few friends who have decided to forgo as much processed food as possible for a month. Unfortunately, though I applaud their efforts, I believe they’re throwing out the baby with the bath water by also going vegan for this month. I have also run across many many fat phobic folks, which is not surprising, since I was once one of them. Of course, it’s not without its downsides. My levels of agitation are rising as I continue to hear the trite old phrases “artery clogging saturated fat” and “heart healthy whole grains” constantly being trotted out. Unfortunately, those using these supposed truisms have no idea how wrong they are. Two of these fat phobic individuals come to mind immediately – Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

These two British chefs have a lot in common. They’re both incredibly passionate about what they do and the food they create. I know Ramsay’s no fan of Oliver, but I’m unsure of how Oliver feels about Ramsay. They’re both trying to get us back to eating good quality simple food and they’re trying to improve our health by doing so. Unfortunately, they’re working on the premise that the government food guidelines and the lipid/diet heart hypotheses are true. Now, I’ve seen Gordon Ramsay cook some amazing stuff (the most amazing as he likes to say – a lot) and it’s certainly not all low-fat. Take his scrambled eggs for example – plenty of butter and a spoon of crème fraîche to boot. Unfortunately, it seems that everything he teaches amateur cooks on his quest to “get Britain cooking again” revolves around these false mantras.

Jamie Oliver is also on a quest, and that quest is to completely overhaul the food we feed our kids at school. There’s no doubt that this is absolutely necessary. I have an 8-year-old and he goes to school. I get to see the kind of prepackaged processed junk they’re doling out to the kids in the name of health. Part of this laudable quest is a TV show about his progress at a school in West Virginia. The city this school is in was rated unhealthiest in America, so it’s a logical place to start. I watched the first couple of episodes, and I’ll probably keep watching it, just to see how it all pans out. I had high hopes up until he tried to shock the parents with what their kids were eating. Unfortunately, the chosen scapegoat was saturated fat – a necessary nutrient for growth and development.

I’ll do a follow-up on my thoughts of Jamie Oliver’s show, but at a later date. For now, I’ll just say that a change is definitely needed. We need to go back to eating real, wholesome food – the kind we used to eat before all the packaged junk and industrial vegetable oils. We also need to lose our fear of real food and natural fats. Our grandparents and great grandparents ate these foods and they were nowhere near as fat or unhealthy as we are today. Let’s go back to the way we were, back to reality, back to simplicity. Throw out the boxed mixes and frozen ready meals. Put some love into your food.

I’ll leave you with a quote (possibly) from Albert Einstein: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. The current dietary guidelines are not working. The time for change is now. Let’s make sure we change enough.

On Monday afternoon, since I had the day off work, I headed over to Blue Goose Produce in Loomis, CA. My reason for doing this was not to get fresh, locally grown produce as you may expect from a store with such a name, but rather to pick up some of their grass-fed beef. While there, I had the opportunity to pick up some pork from another local producer – Coffee Pot Ranch. I had the good fortune to run into Bob from Coffee Pot selling his wares at the Foothills Farmers Market yesterday afternoon. I asked him if it was a regular occurrence and he confirmed that it was. Pickings were a little slim due to the late hour, but I did score some pork fajita meat for a nice price. There was a little over a pound in the package and about half of it became my breakfast this morning.

This particular farmers market is held in the same parking lot as Whole Foods, who have started to promote a new supposedly healthy eating initiative. Unfortunately, it’s the same old low-fat nonsense that has made Americans fatter and sicker over the last 20 years. This is a shame, because Whole Foods is one of the few places I can find grass-fed beef and other high quality meats. In fact, it’s where I got the bacon I ate for breakfast with the pork. Hopefully their new found enthusiasm for the way of eating they’re promoting doesn’t stop them stocking the good quality meats they carry. If they do, Bob and I will get much better acquainted, which is probably a good thing.

I’ve been eating a lot of grass fed, pasture raised beef recently (more on that soon). The flavor is by far more intense than “regular” grain feed, feed lot raised beef. I often see so called “natural” beef being sold in stores, touting “all vegetarian diets” and proclaiming that the beef is “corn fed”, as if that’s a good thing. The “all vegetarian” point is a no-brainer. What else do herbivores eat? On the other hand, corn, wheat and soy aren’t good for cows. Eating these types of grains makes them fat and unhealthy. Combine this with a life kept in close proximity to hundreds of other similarly fed cattle and it’s a recipe for disaster.

I grew up eating grass fed beef. I grew up in the west of Ireland and we didn’t call it “grass fed, pasture raised” – it was just “beef”. We weren’t exactly short on fields of grass for the cows to munch on. The dairy and beef marketing folks also know that this is how cows are supposed to live. Look at any advertising for beef or dairy – the Real California Cheese or similar milk campaign is a prime example (pun not entirely intended). The cows depicted live on rolling hills, chewing on grass. Ask any child where cows live and what they eat. Unless they have been indoctrinated, either by modern agri-business or hippy dippy parents like me, they’ll tell you that cows live in fields and eat grass.

If all you know is grain fed beef, do yourself a huge favor and track down a grass fed steak. If at all possible, look for something as local as you can. It won’t be as fatty (but the fat will be of much higher quality), so it can dry out more quickly. Sear it in a rocket hot cast iron pan and cook it to medium, medium well if you absolutely must, but no more. If you can do medium rare or rare, so much the better. This is a joy I only came to know once I moved to the US. As I look back now, I find it somewhat ironic that I grew up eating some of the best beef in the world, but had it cooked to oblivion. I guess we live and learn and some times we need to go back to some of the first things we learned, like where cows live and what they eat.

I read an article a while back about how major corporations are trying to get in on the recent “buy local” trend. Even though these corporations may have stores in your area, shopping at them is not shopping locally, unless of course you happen to live near their corporate headquarters. Shopping at one of these stores instead of online does indeed mean that your tax dollars stay locally, but it also means that the profit goes elsewhere. Shopping at locally owned companies means that the profits also stay in the area.

Take, for example, retail grocery. I split my time, for the moment, between Fresno, in California’s Central Valley and Roseville, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. I will be moving to Roseville full time shortly, but that is another story. In these areas, the major players in the grocery arena are Safeway (Roseville)/Vons (Fresno), Save Mart (Both), Raley’s/Bel Air (Roseville). There are other stores, such as Whole Foods, Nugget Markets and Trader Joe’s, but I would class those in a separate category. The big box stores, Target and Walmart are also making their way into the grocery market.

If we examine, for a moment, where these companies are headquartered, we can see where the profits are going. From a Roseville perspective, the most local company is Raley’s/Bel Air (they also operate Nob Hill Markets in the San Francisco Bay Area), which is based in West Sacramento. Next to that would be Save Mart, based in Modesto, but with a major distibution point in Roseville, and Safeway, based in Pleasanton. From a Fresno perspective, the winner is SaveMart, with Vons, owned by Safeway, coming in second. With all of these stores, the profits stay in Northern California. Contrast this to the big box stores, headquartered in Minnesota and Arkansas.

Once we start talking about speciality stores, it gets a little more complicated because of local purchasing. For Roseville, going by my earlier position, Nugget wins, being based in Woodland, Trader Joe’s comes in second, being based in Southern California, followed by Whole Foods in Texas. As far as locally sourced products, Whole Foods seems to come off a little better than the others. Nugget Markets don’t have a presence in Fresno, but the other two do. Of course, none of these stores are quite as good as shopping at local farm stands or farmers’ markets. This is something I have been trying to do more of recently and will likely feature more heavily in the future.