[Seth]

Do you have any healthy cookbooks you can recommend? Ones that make vegetarian food not taste like shit?

Since I'm living on my own as a poor student, all my family's cookbooks aren't with me. The online resources are endless however, so I would start with that.
One thing to remember, beans and legumes are your friend, especially if you're a strength trainee. When cooking beans, bring them to a boil and simmer for an hour. Then drain and rinse the beens. Add the appropriate proportion of water and cook until done. This gets rid of any gassy effects. Also, I think it plays a role in neutralizing phytic acid. I know that by soaking grains for sprouting(sprouted grain bread is the best!) phytates can unbind the zinc and magnesium that otherwise are held as less absorbable due to the natural phytic acid in foods. Another example is the traditional Scottish way of soaking oatmeal over night(steel cut) which removes phytic acid. This can be done to normal baking flours as well by making sour dough or soaking with an acidic solution like lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.

(A quick note on apple cider vinegar: if you want to experience an overall balance of your body's pH, take apple cider vinegar in a glass of water: 1 tbsp cider/cup of water, and digestion is enhanced. Another amazing improvement to digestion, and this is important to an athlete, is taking a healthy dose of cayenne powder in water, about 15 minutes before meals).

Also...do you take supplements or vitamins in place of things like Vitamin D or Protein?

Most 'grocery store' supplement brands are full of filler ingredients that aren't healthy in the least. Taking Vitamin D3 in tablet form is hardly absorbable by the body. Over the years I have had the blessing of a parental income which was put towards bulk purchases of vitamin supplements through companies that are established as reputable. Hope for Health supplements are great, especially their multi vitamin which is a whole food tablet(no isolated ingredients) and it doesn't include iron which is important, since dietary iron should be the only source + cast iron pans which help iron intake if you're on the anemic side. Organic blackstrap molasses(unsulphured) is full of potassium and iron and B vitamins. I use it as a sweetener with coconut oil and ground/whole seeds. If I'm working out, this fat source is medium chain and saturated which is the type of fat you want for heart health as well as easy utilization. It does not require emulsification by bile, so if your gallbladder is full of stones(most north american diets pretty much dictate that you will have a substantial amount of gallstones and bile stone deposits in the liver), then coconut oil is the answer to fat replacement.
As far as Vitamin D3 goes, I have to wait until Christmas break so I can go to a health food store in BC (Albertan's only believe in the hearty affects of beef), but from what Mike Adams has said regarding supplement superiority, the oil capsules are by far a better choice than tablets, as tablets may be useless.

I want to address specifically the inadequate supply of D3 through any food source. Fortified milk is negligable in helping D3 levels, and the quality of D3 is generally low. The current 'mainstream' recommendation for daily D3 is somewhere around 400 iu for a middle aged adult. This was recently bumped up from 200 iu. These levels are laughably low in the face of piling research which shows that 5000 iu is more close to the D3 requirements of those living above Atlanta, Georgia. Especially if you have darker skin. Many supplement at 10,000 iu a day, and this is nowhere near upper limit toxicity levels. If you feel you may have need of HGH, and as most males living in a BPA and phytoestrogen rich society, this is important. I would start at 5000 iu of a quality D3 oil capsule or liquid form. I noticed that upaya.ca sells a liquid dropper bottle, but that's through an eastern cdn health distributor. I get free shipping with bulk orders but for americans, naturalnews.com has a lot of higher quality products, which if you want to find elsewhere is at least a good place to identify product brands.

And...do you have any recommendations for supplementing oils?

Coconut oil. Expeller pressed and organic. Make sure it's not a processed form that has been powderized and reconstituted as it is harmful. This oil lasts extremely long as MCFA's don't go rancid the way olive oil will. Olive oil is good, but use sparingly and only high quality, expensive bottles that are UV protective(dark). There are many other oils, such as grapeseed oil, which is better for cooking as its smouldering point is higher, but in general, from my own experience I would stick to eating whole food sources of healthy fats. Avocados, nuts/seeds. Udo's Oil is a blend of DHA and EPA omega 3 fats. It's expensive but quite anti-inflammatory. Flax seed!!!! All men should be taking flax seed on a daily basis. It heals abused prostates and counteracts the high intake of omega 6 fats which predominate the american diet. Chronic illness has a direct correlation with the switch to vegetable oils such as corn, canola, and soy. These food should be eaten in whole forms and not denatured into cooking oils which promote disease. like I said, coconut oil all the way.
One food I've fallen in love with is chia seeds. Highest omega 3 content in the vegetable kingdom, highly absorbable and a complete protein. Between chia and hemp seeds, it is easy to get more than your protein requirements. Hemp seeds could single handedly reverse the health issues of America. It's a complete protein source, has the iron, magnesium and B vitamins that are deficient in modern agriculture. Organic is best for lots of foods, but as big corporations tap into the fastest growing food market, the 'certification' of organic foods becomes obfuscated.

I would recommend reading the China Study. Legumes, beans, seeds and nuts supply so much protein that it's hard not to have enough. As a male, pumpkin seeds are high in zinc and selenium, which is proven to be first line nutrient defences against cancer. Brazil nuts should be consumed regularely, but no more than 10 a day as selenium toxicity could result. Don't need much of the stuff, but most people don't get any.
I eat bee pollen with my workout meal. It's used in famine stricken areas to resupply nutrients in children. It has every single nutrient/phytonutrient that a human needs to be healthy. Its expensive. And due to the farming practices, there are issues with contamination of pesticides, but getting to worked up about this, coming from a meat diet is unproductive and I hesitate to talk about a lot of things which could seem overwhelming at first.
Corn is only a bumper crop, claimed to counteract world food shortages, but it is in fact subsidized by tax payers dollars, which supports monsanto and pesticide/nitrogen saturation of the soil, which drains into the mississippi river and creates a deadzone in the gulf that wastes over 200,000 metric tons of seafood each year. The effects are staggering when one considers that their are 400 of these deadzones around the globe, as modern agriculture destroys vital food sources for millions.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...7726-5,00.html
this is a great article from 2009 about the issues. I'm not completely anti-meat, but the practice of stuffing animals into small areas, pumping them full of antibiotics to "prevent" disease, is creating superbug issues for human populations. The combination of rBGH hormones to increase profit, and the feeding of highly unhealthy corn feed and other pesticide laden, gmo crops is enough to dissuade anyone who actually reads into this. There are organic, grassfed freerange alternatives that cost more, but also reflect the amount of meat that one should have in their diet if they so choose to eat it. Same goes for dairy. imo it is best to cut out all of these animal protein sources as they do not in anyway increase health in a person who is trying to regenerate tissue in the aims of meeting personal health and strength goals.

Things I would have a hard time living without:

-Cheese....
-BBQ Sauce
-Mustard
-Oil

Nutritional yeast!!!!!!!!!!! Dr. Oz mentioned this in that clip. I have recently come back to this wonderful food. I mix it in with lentil soups, rice, anything that I think cheezifying would be good. It has so many different B vitamins you'll probably make it a staple. You'll piss bright yellow as if you took a B-complex. Underscore the need for B vitamins.

BBQ sauce has recipe replacements that probably aren't too difficult once you adjust to buying the dry ingredients that combine for that wonderful flavour.

Mustard is actually a superfood, full of nutrition. Ideally you'll get organic instead of Frenchies, but even the commericial stuff isn't too bad. White vinegar isn't great. Their are recipes that use applecider vinegar and I have a bunch of mustard seeds so gonna try home made soon. It's a great anti-inflammatory.

Oil - honestly I would avoid spending big bucks on krill or cod liver oils. The D3 content of cod oil is still negligable. for instance, 20-30 minutes in the high sun produces about 20,000 iu of vit D3. Think about that when you make food purchases based on D3 fortification. Also, the ocean is being over fished, and the mercury/PCB levels should deter you. Especially if you have a child, seafood is no longer a viable protein and fatty acid source. Sardines are less toxic than say, salmon, but it's still there. Plus, the northwest coast of NA is experiencing fairly high levels of cesium 131/137 in rainfall, and the ocean currents aren't changing, so there is real contamination issues in regard to seafood.

I prefer to cook with coconut oil, it makes so many foods taste good, just different. Garlic bread (garlic is high in selenium-making it a potent anti-cancer addition), popcorn, rice, all taste great with this oil. I'm a curry lover. I use turmeric and blackpepper combos(freshly ground pepper) and it's great for inflammation. Tumeric is also the best item to help prevent alzheimers.

Berries!!! blueberries and goji berries are my crux. They have shown high benefits for preventing brain degeneration and the antioxidant levels are great. I have a freezer full of blueberries from the lower mainland, which isn't ideal as metro traffic polution gets carried to abbotsford in the form of rainfall and whatnot, but meh, better than not.

Also, I fucking NEED beer and wine in my life. But Beer is just barley malt, hops, and yeast...so that shit should be good to go.

My rule with liquor is organic. Springwater is great to see on a bottle as well, but hey, there are alternatives. European brews tend to better, but its impossible to determine if GMO grains have been used since it's directed at a NA market. In our consumer idiocy we have failed to take note from europeans and demand GMO labeling. It's a pathetic example of media power and lobbyist influence.

Further comments,
popcorn is okay. It's great for fiber and I love nutritional yeast with coconut oil and seasalt. mmm Just make sure it's non-gmo since mexico banned monsanto crops after studies concluded infertitility in rats after the 3rd-4th generation.
There is severe sperm inoculation effects from eating gmo foods. Whether is is primarily a result of the gene make-up or from glyphosates in RoundUp pesticides is unclear.

For protein, it is best not to eat too much nuts and seeds at a time, since these are hard to digest. No more than a handful. Walnuts are great and show signs of cognitive support directly after it has entered the bloodstream. It's shaped like a brain so makes sense. You'll notice how freshly cracked walnuts don't have that bitter, rancid flavour that most preshelled walnuts have. Almonds are great for potassium and are probably one of the best nuts for shelf-life. Make sure you get raw almonds and soak them to make almond milk if you have the high-quality blender needed. Bit of salt, bit of raw cane sugar, and almond milk is deliciously available at a low price. This is my preferred smoothie base for protein shakes. Better than shelf almond milk as it sits, and sits, and sits, with chemical support.

Calcium. Need D3 to absorb calcium. Must have magnesium/calcium/potassium ratio that is healthy. Most people's sodium/potassium ratio is completely skewed. It's been found that you can still ingest a lot of salt as long as potassium levels are kept high.
Organic bananas. Don't buy non-organic. People with allergic reactions to bananas sometimes find that organic bananas produce no adverse effects.

I recommend everyone do a liver flush at some point, and continue to flush their liver until there are no more lodged stones. John Hopkins University acknowledges the role that congested bile ducts have in the formation of most disease.
It's an ayurvedic medicine trick that saved my grandma's gallbladder back in the 80's. Don't ever get a gallbladder removal because you'll be stuck eating medium chain fats for the rest of your lilfe since bile is kind of necessary.

I did the flush once last year, and keep telling myself I'm gonna get it done. Lilfe's hectic though. Its non obtrusive for the most part. No harsh fasting required. 6 says of malic acid intake (apples) and a last day that requires ingestible epsom salts and an olive oil/grapefruit juice mix that triggers the release of hundreds of stones in the liver. The epsom salts dialate and relax the gall-duct and liver bile ducts. Seriously, do this cleanse, appropriately with a cleansed colon and you'll experience cognitive changes.

A couple years ago I did the lemon master cleanse and adhered to a very healthy diet for the months following. I no longer considered 'cheese' aromas or unhealthy food to be appetizing. It takes about 21 days for synaptic connections to rewire behaviour habits. Fasting one day a week is probably the healthiest thing that most of us could do to start living better. By living better I mean less chronic pain, more energy, and much better nutrient absorption.

habits are a bitch. That's what the standard american diet amounts to. Outside market influencing the dietary choices which are implanted by parents trying to give their kids enough dairy calcium and protein.

Also, a lot of people have gluten intolerances which make nutrient absorption difficult. Something like 70% of the population has this without knowing they do.

L-glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the body, and it helps restore intestinal vili. Probiotic supplementation is a good idea as well, although high quality probiotics are expensive. l-glutamine is probably one of the best 'processed' supplements you could buy to help in your workout regime.

My roommates and I love kefir grains. We use water kefir to produce tons of probiotic cultures, while making a rather tasty, low alcohol drink.
It's a 24-72 hour brewing turnover that makes a 1%-3% alcohol full of nutrients. It's kind of like kombucha tea. I'm about to make another order from a lady in Alberta since my last batch died after I went on vacation.

Kefir grains need sugar and water. They convert the sugar into less insulin spiking forms of probiotics and b vitamins. Definately give it a go if you're into simple, quick brewing. It makes a killer apple ginger ale.

http://www.yourkefirsource.com/water-kefir/water-kefir


also, cinnamon, ginger root(tea mmm), and lemons are great for inflammation. Starting the morning off with a warmed lemon/water drink is habit for me. Lemons are 79 cents a pop now which sucks but cost effectiveness in the long term is worth it.