We're on a "roll"

So this blog post practically writes itself! Saroja sent me a link to an article on the Kitchn website about paper towels. Robin has always been pretty anti-paper towel, preferring to go with re-usable or washable cloths or rags or that sort of thing. I, however, do still like to use paper towels from time to time - so typically I end up buying the small package of paper towels that were made from recycled materials and stashing them out of sight somewhere in the house. So when I saw this article from Saroja, I expected more of the same.

Imagine my surprise then, when I found that the article is actually pro-paper towel, even though it is written by other eco-friendly health-nuts like Saroja. Sure, they're not like "we love paper towels and use them replace dish cloths like they show in all the TV commercials!" but they do recognize that paper towels have their place for some uses in the house - which is pretty much exactly how I feel. Case in point, the very day Saroja sent me this article I had snuck out the paper towels and was using them to clean out the grease trap in the BBQ. That's exactly the kind of thing that paper towels are great at - and after finding other like-minded souls among the eco-friendly health nut community, the paper towels in our house may finally be able to come out of hiding....

The article is linked here so you can all read it!

A little jar of nutrition

Today's topic - nutritional yeast! But before we begin, I do have a brief rant about chia seeds. The other day Saroja and I were at the gym and on one of their monitors they were listing the top 5 best foods for you...or something along those lines. I don't remember the category exactly because the number 1 food was listed as chia seeds and I therefore lost all respect for the list. WHY MUST I BE CONSTANTLY HAUNTED BY THE SLIMY-TEXTURED CHIA SEED?!?!?

Ok, anyway.....

Say you're out at a restaurant enjoying a nice pasta dish for dinner one night. It's not uncommon for a server to come along after your meal has been served and ask if you'd like ground pepper or parmesan on your dish. Personally, I quite enjoy the parmesan. Now, imagine that same server instead asked if you would like ground pepper or yeast on your pasta. Yeast, you might ask? Or maybe you would just stare at them blankly until they walked away? I wasn't at a restaurant the first time I heard about nutritional yeast but I'm pretty sure I did the blank staring thing all the same.

I'm still not entirely clear on what the "nutritional part" of the nutritional yeast is or how exactly it's different from regular yeast. All I know is that it's supposedly a substitute for dairy, usually for things like parmesan cheese. It's certainly not a cheese-like flavor or consistency but to be fair it does have a taste that says, "I know I'm not really replacing cheese for you in this dish but I still have a recognizable taste that's not too bad, so I hope you will at the very least put up with me, if not find a way to actually enjoy me." (It helps if you say that in a voice that sounds like an animated cartoon of a small, cute yeast flake).

We do have a medium-sized jar of nutritional yeast in our fridge right now, and aside form using it on a pasta dish Saroja has included it in a few other dishes as well, and even on popcorn. It's really not too bad. Although I still don't really understand it, I can see how it can have a place in our fridge or pantry or wherever the best place is to store it (I'm still not sure about that either).

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To answer some of Penguin's questions...


Nutritional yeast is made from a single strain of S. cerevisiae, which is then killed through heating and dried to produce a flaked product that is both a complete protein (contains all 9 essential amino acids that the human body can't produce on its own) and contains high levels of Vitamin B12 (the one vitamin most vegetarians need to consider supplementing since it's mostly only found in animal products), iron, and folic acid. Because the yeast is deactivated through heating, it doesn't foam/froth/or make beer. Instead, it's basically a spice that imparts a 'cheesy / nutty' (aka umami) flavour to food.


If its fish-food appearance and name turn you off, you're not the only one. Most vegetarians refer to their beloved spice as "nooch" rather than nutritional yeast. The fact that Penguin enjoys it on popcorn should be a ringing endorsement all by itself... but if you'd like to try some of this super food and aren't sure how, check out these great recipes from The Kitchn and OhSheGlows. When added to sauces, it dissolves to form a creamy, cheesy consistency. But it can also be used dry as a parmesan cheese replacement or sprinkled on anything from popcorn (like Penguin said) to eggs.

Irrigation is for crops, not noses

Springtime is upon us, and for me that means that allergy season has arrived. They don't typically bother me too much, but I do sniffle now and then. And when that happens, Saroja will inevitably bring up the nasal rinse.

This is one of those things that I just can't get behind. I have to admit that I've never tried it before, but the mere thought of taking a bottle of salty water and spraying it up my nose and into my sinuses just makes me cringe. It's bad enough when I do a flip turn in the pool and occasionally I get a noseful of water - that tingly, burning sensation is very unpleasant. No matter how many times Saroja pushes the idea, or points out that we have like a hundred of those little packets under the sink in the bathroom just waiting for me to try, I can't imagine ever being so congested that I'd try it.

Plus, someone told me a story about an nasal rinses and an amoeba...and the story ended with the amoeba living in someone's brain....enough said....

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Don't knock something until you try it, Penguin! I personally think that the saline rinse is a life-saver. Not just for allergies but also for your common cold. In my mind, not only does it loosen up and rinse away all the snot that collects in my sinuses, it also washes away the allergens and viruses/bacteria that are colonizing my airways. Ergo, less snot/viruses/bacteria = more breathing.

Despite what Penguin thinks, it's not as bad as pool water up your nose. Partially because the saline water is warm and pool water is cold. Also, there's significantly less chlorine in tap water than pool water. Also, the saline rinse doesn't actually get into your pharynx and drip into your trachea making you sputter like pool water... it goes up one nare and comes down the other, like some magical therapeutic U-turn.

Seriously, don't listen to Penguin on this one. If you've got allergies or have a cold, give this a try! I swear you'll be a convert for life.

- Saroja

Soy - it's not just another adjective to add when ordering a Starbucks drink

For my first post, I thought I'd start out with something positive: soy milk. Saroja started making the slow transition from regular milk to soy milk a few months ago and is now pretty firmly on board with it - to the point where she gets mildly irritated if Starbucks has run out of soy milk for her latte. Much like the whole vegetarian thing, although I still like my regular milk, I have begun to accept the permanent role soy milk has begun to play in my life.

There's no real scientific evidence or study to quote here (sorry Smokescreen!). Saroja's desire to use soy milk is based on the fact that dairy cows have to be kept pregnant all the time to produce milk. This is not really ideal for the vegetarian - especially when you consider that the byproducts of the pregnancy - i.e. the calfs - are sold for veal. While I was skeptical of soy milk in the beginning, it's really not that bad. Definitely a different flavour and texture, but not bad. I still use regular milk whenever I would normally - mostly on my breakfast cereal - but if I've run out of milk before the next grocery run, I have no problem reaching for the soy milk instead.

Interestingly enough, while we were out west skiing, I had the chance to try some almond milk for the week - and I actually liked that way better than the soy milk. Saroja's nut allergies sort of make that a hard sell though. While I'm not worried about keeping breakfast cereals with nuts around the house since I know the only breakfast cereal Saroja will eat will have chia seeds or hemp or some other hippie grains, the odds are much higher that she'll accidentally kill herself with some almond milk in the morning when she's post-call and lacking the mental faculties to read labels.

If you'd like to see an awesome video on regular people trying non-diary milk for the first time, click here. I feel like a lot of quotes from this video are pretty bang on.

- Penguin

Penguin is right, I originally made the switch from cow's milk to soy milk as part of my transition to becoming vegetarian. Honestly, I'm a wannabe vegan but with my nut allergy and hectic schedule, the chances that I could hack it as a healthy vegan are pretty low right now. So I try to choose vegan options when I can and soy milk was a pretty easy switch.

I was never a big milk drinker to begin with - I always hated having to drink a whole glass of milk with dinner when I was a kid. I like milk in stuff - mostly to make cream sauce, sweeten tea, or cook. I'm sure if you like to drink milk as a beverage, you'll be able to tell the difference if you compared soy and cow milk head-to-head. But, when you only use it in other stuff, I'm willing to bet you won't be able to tell them apart.

Aside from refusing to support a consumer culture that sees animals as commodities, 

soy milk has a few other advantages. It's lower calorie and lower fat than cow's milk while maintaining most of the protein (6g/cup). And, since most soy milk it fortified, it's equally nutrient rich in calcium, vit D, and B12.

Once I caught Penguin using soy milk on his morning cereal, I knew we had a winner.

Incidentally, almond milk has the lowest protein content of all the non-dairy milks at just 1g/cup. That, and I choose life. haha.

- Saroja

I'm more than just a chia pet.

The chia seeds were the last straw. We had gone on vacation to visit our family out west. When we arrived, our gracious hosts were eager to make us comfortable and asked what we usually ate for breakfast. Before I could say "just rice krispies and toast," my wife declared "chia seeds and soy milk pudding". To her delight and my horror, our host produced the largest bag of chia seeds I'd ever seen from their recent trip to Bulk Barn and began to extol their virtues. All I could think was, 'oh god. I'm going to have to eat those things every single day now.'

This episode is but one of the daily debates my wife and I have on what are practical and reasonable measures to be healthy, environmentally conscious, global citizens in the modern era. She is a vegetarian, organic granola-crunching, tree-hugging surgeon. I am a steak-loving, video-game adoring physicist who just wants to lead a normal life.

Why blog? Two reasons: (1) I can't be the only man on the internet who has pledged to spend his life with someone who is a health nut and I hope that by recording my suffering story here, others will find a shared community; (2) even though it occasionally drives me crazy when I find my regular plastic toothbrush replaced with one made out of compostable bamboo, my wife's drive and commitment to her ideals and our give-and-take in how we go about achieving them serve only to highlight just why I fell in love with her in the first place and reminds me to cherish how our marriage continues to grow.

The goal will be to post a minimum of twice a month. I will pick something my wife has done recently to 'improve' our diet or lifestyle and she'll write about why and how she's gone about affecting that change. I'll then weigh in on whether or not the change is reasonable, practical, or tasty. If you've endured similar changes in your life, please add to the comments section and share! It would be great to hear how your experiences compare to ours.

In the meantime, I'm going to put these chia seeds to good use and grow myself a chia pet. That way, they can improve the oxygen content of my office rather than the nutritional content of my diet.