Cuisine

We used to spend a lot of money on specialty olive oils and vinegars.  America's Test Kitchen writes: Should You Buy Extra-Virgin Olive Oil at Costco? We wanted to know whether extra-virgin olive oil at Costco stacks up to favorite supermarket and premium brands. By Lisa McManus Published Dec. 25, 2023. Everybody loves a bargain, and the extra-virgin olive oil at Costco is enticingly priced. Costco is the largest buyer of olive oil in the United States and has evidently negotiated some sweet volume discounts. In a recent trip to a Boston-area Costco, we found an aisle teeming with huge 2- and 3-liter plastic bottles of EVOO, selling at about $0.24 to $0.27 per ounce. That’s roughly half the typical price of our favorite supermarket extra virgin olive oil. We also spotted 1-liter dark green glass bottles of premium extra-virgin olive oil from Terra di Bari, a P.D.O, or protected designated production region of Italy. We liked that each bottle prominently displayed a recent harvest date, an excellent sign of fresher, better-tasting oil. (Learn more about shopping for olive oil here.) Surprisingly, it cost just $0.44 per ounce. By contrast, a typical price for one of our favorite premium extra-virgin olive oils was more than $2.00 per ounce. The price is right, but how do they taste? How We Tasted We held a tasting with no identifying information, pitting three of the store-brand extra-virgin olive oils—Kirkland Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Kirkland 100% Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Kirkland 100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil—against our tasters’ favorite supermarket olive oil, Carapelli Original Extra Virgin Olive Oil. We also compared the Kirkland Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil Terra di Bari Bitonto P.D.O. to one of our tasters’ favorite premium olive oils, Castillo di Canena Reserva

Your diet is not only what you eat. It's what you watch, what you listen to, what you read, the people you hang around... be mindful of the things you put into your body emotionally, spiritually, and physically.  This is the Rasta way of thinking and a big part of their spiritual way of life which is very much connected to the earth, as much or more so than Native Americans, as they also largely live off the land. The ital diet, also spelled I-tal, is a diet celebrated by members of the Rastafari movement that emphasizes eating fresh, organic, and preferably homegrown produce. The goal of the diet is to increase "life energy" or livity by eating foods that enhance it. Livity is the belief that an energy or life-force flows through all people and living things. The diet has some universal rules, including: Avoid chemically modified foods Avoid foods with artificial additives Avoid added fats and salts No salt No meat No dairy No metal or plastic cookware No alcohol Moderate white foods Natural sugar Most expressions of the Ital diet include adherence to a strict vegetarian diet. Some adherents to Ital diets are strict vegans, as they do not consider dairy to be natural for human consumption either. Many also avoid pork, shellfish, caffeine, and artificial additives. Some Rastafarian dishes include: Yams, plantain bananas, festival, callaloo, chocho, bean curry, garden vegetable stew, and medicinal plants. Source Family salad dressing:

We have been following the Whole30 diet recently and have lost a lot of weight, gained back energy and are having less issues in general.  It is mostly what I try to follow anyway, eating non-processed foods and limiting sugar.  But this goes further.  The Whole30 diet is a month-long elimination diet designed to promote health and well-being. Here’s how it works: Change the food you put on your plate. Purpose: The premise of the Whole30 program is that certain common foods in Western diets—such as sugar, alcohol, grains, dairy, legumes, and specific food additives—can be harmful to overall health, energy levels, and well-being. The goal is to eliminate these potentially problematic foods for a month to allow the body to heal and repair itself. What You Can Eat: Allowed Foods: During the Whole30 plan, you focus on eating whole, unprocessed foods, including: Animal protein Vegetables Fruits Nuts Healthy fats Herbs, spices, and seasonings Avoided Foods: You must avoid the following: Grains Legumes Dairy Added sugar Artificial sugar Alcohol Certain additives Rules: Strict Guidelines: The rules are simple but strict: Eat moderate portions of meat, seafood, and eggs. Consume lots of vegetables and fruits. Include plenty of natural fats. Choose foods with few, pronounceable ingredients or no ingredients because they’re whole and unprocessed. Avoid the restricted foods completely for 30 days. Reintroduction Phase: After the initial 30 days, the off-limits foods are slowly reintroduced one at a time to observe if any trigger adverse reactions. Good Food Standards: Foods allowed on the Whole30 plan must meet the diet’s four “Good Food” standards: Promote a healthy psychological response Promote a healthy hormonal response Support a healthy gut Support immune functions and minimize inflammation Remember that the Whole30 diet is not just about weight loss; it’s